Bangkok: Whores & Monks

I arrived in Bangkok around 9pm, which is quite lucky because I was supposed to arrive 3 hours later at midnight. While in Seoul, I checked the transfers counter to see about seat availability, and they were able to give me a seat on an earlier flight. I met a Brit on the flight who lives somewhere in south Thailand. He agreed to split a cab downtown, so we hung out while in customs and waited for our luggage. My bag was almost the last one off the phone; I was getting worried that my backpack was lost somewhere in Incheon airport. Since the Brit was on a work trip, he covered my half of the fare, which saved me about $13US.

My taxi driver found the hostel quite easily. I was worried because Take a Nap is quite new and isn't a really busy place where the cabbies would be familiar with it. I checked into a 6 bed dorm, which is one of the cleanest dorms that I've stayed in for $10US/night. I had some trouble sleeping though, as my bed was directly under the air con (which kept blowing on me) and there was a very think pane of glass between my head and the traffic chaos outside. At 3:30a I was getting upset because I couldn't sleep, so I dug into my bag to find some Ambien. Twenty minutes later, I was sleeping like a baby.

In the morning, I spent 30 minutes to the hotel owner about Bangkok & my life in the US. Afterwards, I took the skytrain to the river and hopped on a water taxi to the Grand Palace. I sat next to a woman on the boat and I ended up talking to her for a bit, as we had a long ride to the Grand Palace. She mentioned that she was getting off at Pier 13, so when she stepped off at Pier 9 with me I was a bit perplexed. When I asked about her rational, she said something about Pier 9 being OK. We proceeded to walk around the Grand Palace for sometime; I was taking some photos when Pen went to go pray. As we continued to wander around, our conversation turned to our jobs. When I asked her what she did, her reply was 'you don't want to know'. Alarms suddenly went off in my head. I was being so naive - I was hanging out with a prostitute!! I didn't reply, and as we continued to walk while I was thinking about how I managed to get myself into this situation. The next time I turned around, Pen had disappeared. One whore avoided.

After my run-in with the hooker, I wandered around the palace grounds for a few hours. Most of the buildings have been restored in a very aristocratic style. As I walked through the museum, I felt more of the history than I did out on the manicured grounds. I remember the palace being ornate, but I don't have any other distinguishing memories.

When I finished at the palace, I moved to the street adjacent to the river. There were hundreds of people selling their wares on blankets along the sidewalk. Food vendors were also in the mix, selling fruit, friend vegetables & meats, and other stir-fried bits. As I would walk by, my nose found the food prior to my eyes. The smells of chilies and oil wafted along the sidewalk. I managed to find Wat Pho, even though I hadn't intended on it. It's the home of the reclining Buddha, and the Buddha is enormous. I would guess that it was at least 30 meters in length & 7 meters high. Someone offered to take a photo of me, in exchange for me taking a photo of him & his wife. I traipsed through the remainder of the complex, finding several quite shaded areas where I could get out of the sun. I think that I liked this temple better than the Grand Palace - it felt more real & less glamorous. While I was relaxing in the shade, a monk sat next to me and struck up a conversation. His English was excellent and we chatted for a while. He was in Bangkok for 6 months studying, having traveled from Luang Prabang, Laos. I walked around with his fellow monks for awhile, gave him my email address, and went to find a bite to eat.

I returned to Take a Nap to drop off my bag & head to dinner. While I was there, I tried to book our upcoming flights to Laos, only to find that Capital One was blocking my transactions. 'Damn!' I thought - I forgot to call them to let them know that I'd be traveling. I immediately bought a phone card, and looked up their phone number online. When I tried to call them, each attempt was futile. There wasn't a phone near the hostel, so every time I needed to go back to the hostel to get another phone number from the Internet terminal. I was also asking the staff for advice, and they gave me a few items to try. None of them worked. As my frustration started to build, I decided to call home to ensure that I wasn't doing something wrong. My mom picked up the phone - I proved that I could dial something correctly. After a total of 6 attempts and several trips back & forth to the hostel, I had an unlocked credit card!

I met up with a couple from San Francisco in my dorm room - Brandon & Allison. We went out to dinner, where we discussed our travels. Tonight there was a festival happening - the Loi Krataung - in celebration of the King's birthday. We went to the park in Silom to see what was happening. People were buying floating floral pieces that had incense and candles. Couple and/or families would light the incense & candle, pray, and then float their flower into the lake. From what I gathered, the activity symbolized wishing for a good future.