Monday, October 21, 2013

10-17-13 Bangkok Mini-Adventures

10/17/13
     After a crazy 12-hour double decker bus ride, which felt like it was very unsafe because we were, as Jess puts it, “swinging back and forth like a pendulum,” we arrived in Bangkok! Yay!!!!!! Also, after plenty of rest, even though the bus was driving dangerously, I felt a lot better. 
     Back to Bangkok. Of course, there were taxi drivers everywhere outside of the bus station who wouldn’t turn on their meters and wanted to charge us about 260 baht (a little under $9) to reach our hostels. Jess was very angry with the prices because she knew they were trying to overcharge us--she was still angry about the boat drivers at Railay and the grouchy bus driver the day before--so we kept walking away. Luckily, she had Google Maps on her phone and we found a bus for 7 baht ($0.23 ONLY). 
      During our bus ride, the rain was pouring down outside. When we reached my hostel, I hopped off with all my luggage and crossed the street. Khaosan Immjai, you better be ready for me! Anyway, I sat in the lobby using their internet for hours. I arrived around 7:30 AM and the check-in time is 2:00 PM... yeah, it’s really not that great to sit somewhere all wet from the rain for like 6.5 hours. But I actually didn’t mind too much because it was a really sweet and quaint-looking place.
     Compared to Pak-Up (the one in Krabi with the school theme), I think I like Khaosan Immjai better, but there may be outside factors affecting that opinion. For example, one was that I wasn’t around my friends in there, so I was finally able to have my alone time (even though I loved spending time with them). However, in general, Khaosan Immjai was just very sweet, had pictures of squirrels and rabbits painted all over, and it just felt like a cozy little cottage type of place. Plus, the female dorm I stayed in gave us plenty of space for ourselves and storage, which I enjoyed spreading out in. I was also finally on a bottom bunk so I didn’t have to deal with climbing up and down, waking everybody up. (See, I meant to give an objective party’s point of view and then completely made it biased. Hehe)

View of the room from one side (Khaosan Immjai)


My bed was the bottom one


After sitting around for a little bit more, I tried to walk to find the famous and popular tourist attraction of Khaosan Road. After about 15 minutes of walking on my own, I became totally intimidated (I need a lot of time to grow accustomed to a new place, so this was actually something good on my end). But immediately after trying to explore for those 15 minutes, I walked back to the hostel and ended up hiding. lol :( It was very sad, but I found out where Jess was staying on my little journey and we made plans to go to Khaosan Road together later at night.
Jess and I explored Khaosan Road, which is pretty modern, advertising massages, good food, clubs and bars, and the notorious ping pong show (just to let you know, it is not appropriate for children). It’s nice for people who like to be out and love a loud and flashy atmosphere. My opinion of it is that it’s a great place to visit once just to say you’ve been there, but definitely not a place I enjoy at all. 



Meat on a stick! I had a chicken one, but it wasn't the best :(

First "kabob" in Thailand. They
literally sell these everywhere
though, so it is just sad that I've
been here for a month and this is
my first one lol.

Our pad thai with egg!

Khaosan Road

We also made our own fruit smoothies--well, we 
ordered the fruits and the guy blended it up for us.
SO FRESH AND SO GOOD! :)

     We ate a banana pancake and pad thai that was only 30 baht ($1!). After walking around to burn off all that food, we wound up by a temple which was closed and surrounded by a wall. I vowed that I would come back to visit during its operating hours. We walked through what looked like a very small night market; in actuality, we speed-walked through it for about 15 minutes trying to reach the other side. It was actually hilarious, in retrospect, but at the time highly frustrating because we were already exhausted and our feet felt like they were falling off. My legs buckled a few times too because they just didn’t want to go anymore. When we broke through to a street, I stopped and cried out, “FREEDOM!”      Yes, the market was THAT gigantic. Needless to say, we made it back to our hostel maybe after about 15 more minutes. Oh! Almost forgot--we climbed past a sculpture in the middle of a big road because barriers were set up everywhere. (Think Lake Shore Drive.) No police came and arrested us though, so I’m really glad.
        Okay, good night! More exploration tomorrow!



More Khaosan Road

Ooh, I give haircuts now! :)

THE MARKET WE MANAGED TO ESCAPE.

The thing we climbed over
and didn't get arrested for :D


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