Herp

The 16 hour flight to Hong Kong wasn't bad at all.  The Ativan I was given to knock me out did nothing so I was left to watch movies, listen to music, read a bit, and asking for alcohol as frequently as I could without testing the patience of the stewartesses and the woman next to me, what with the frequent bathroom breaks.  When I realized all movies, shows, music, games, food, and alcohol were included I looked to a stewardess and was like,

Pretty much everyone on the plane was Chinese and did not speak any English.  I had a window seat, a great amount of leg room, there was no one directly next to me, and the woman in the aisle seat had a bladder eerily in sync with my own. 

The flight to Bangkok from Hong Kong was a different story.  Same airline, plane was an hour late, packed to the gills, no foot space, and I was exhausted.  Fortunately I was so tired I could pass out.  At one point a stewardess woke me up to give me some paperwork to fill out and she scared the hell out of me.  That was semi-awkward.

Going through customs wasn't bad and the bag pickup was just behind the counters.  I mini-raged when an atm wouldn't take my card but another one worked.  I took the train from the airport to the Phaya Thai station, walked a few blocks and found the place I'm staying at.

I doled out cookies, took a shower, and slept for 13 hours.

The next morning while eyeballing a map, I let another guest in, Sophie, who was having trouble with the front door lock and we became pals for the day.

We wondered around the city for a bit, popped into some random temples, climbed up The Golden Mountain, took a boat ride up the river to save some time to get back to where she's staying now at Kao San road, ate dinner (I had two), and parted ways pretty early.  I had to call it quits around 9ish since I felt like crap without Dayquil coursing through my veins and my feet were being brutally chewed up by my overpriced Chocos.

My haggling skills are being put to the test.  I find it's best to be a jerk and drop their offered price a third to a third of the original value and then meet them halfway.  Hey, if they wanna rip me off I may as well try and return the favor.

Tuk Tuks

Ahh tuk tuks.

This is what hailing one down feels like....



...and is about just as fun.

They vibrate like a lawnmower and make my nose itch.  While riding in one everything around you smells like a go-cart track (because you're swimming in yummy fumes).

Here's a video in one, it's lame and doesn't capture any craziness.  I'll try to get one that does them justice.

Lanes are for cars and tuk tuk drivers don't really abide by any rules whatsoever other than direction, most of the time.  Everyone on the road is quite comfortable squeezing together as close as possible.  Mopeds sometime drive on the sidewalks in any direction, close to the curb coming in the opposite direction, and make insane turns across oncoming traffic.

It's a joke that Asians can't drive, but really they must be some of the best drivers in the world after seeing the shit that goes on here; seriously.  It must be that when they come to a country like the US where we, by comparison, all strictly follow the rules of the road Asian immigrants still drive like their in someplace like Bangkok, I'm assuming.

Yield to pedestrians, ahahaha.  When you want to cross you do this:

Look left, right, street's busy....see an opening...wait for it....waaait fooorrr iiiittt....start run-walking, look left, right, left, right, left, right, left, keep walk-running, shitshitshitshitshitshit, left, right, left, right,left, right ahhhh sidewalk.

Everyone and their mother wanted to 'help' Sophie and I with directions, 'tips', and to bring us to their tuk tuk driver friend who would give us a discount.  The adage, if it's too good to be true it isn't, is pretty much my rule of thumb.

Navigating is a piece of cake.  I use offline maps on my iPod and a compass or the sun.  Yes, a compass. Pretty clutch.

In conclusion thus far, this place is nuts.

On Saturday I went to MBK mall and bought an overpriced POS phone that I still can't figure out, but the voice quality is great.  I then walked to Hua Lamphong train station to buy my ticket to Chiang Mai but they're all sold out for a long while b/c of the upcoming new year celebrations.  Long story short I jackassed across town by tuk tuk (when I could have taken the subway for 1/4 the cost (found out later)) and bought a bus ticket.

Then I wandered around Chatuchak Park and Market, Or Tor Kor Market, random malls, and took a train back.  It was hot as hell all day and very sunny.  The thing about Bangkok though, is that the sky is so polluted it seems to diminish the sun's ability to burn you.  Didn't where sun screen all day so...yay?

Everything in Or Tor Kor was in Thai so I wandered around like an idiot for awhile and ordered food awkwardly...


Almost everyone is friendly, if not, just a little awkward.  If they aren't friendly, I cut them some slack.  I'm white as paper and don't speak any Thai.  Based on everyone that looks like me, they probably make a lot of judgements based on my appereance and I can't blame them too much.  Many of those assumptions I'm sure are right.  I do my best to be considerate and to leave a good impression of Westerners.

For instance, today I had on shorts that stopped just above my knee, a sleeveless teal t-shirt, flip-up sunglasses, and boots.  Boots.  I looked like an idiot by any standard.

I don't like taking out my nice camera so I've taken about 95% of pictures with my iPod.  When I whip that thing out I always get someone in my face trying to help me out in some way.  I'll upload pictures and videos sometime, someway.