| Picture of a Wat (Wat Po I think) One night in bangkok (or actually two) After a pretty quick flight, a direct finding of ATM's to get money and a (hopefully correct) ticket for the Airport bus taking me into town, I was on my way to Bangkok. The airport bus was going to Koa San road, the main tourist area, but where the exact stop was, nobody knew. So I got off the bus where everybody else did. And there I was. Right in front of the New Merry V guesthouse (that people on the internet had been very enthousiastic about). I got a room there. It reminded me a bit of the movie 'the beach'. Paper thin walls, only enough space to park your backpack next to your bed and a big fan on the ceiling. But hey, it looked clean and I had no way to compare it to anything. Spent the rest of my day checking out the neighborhood and deciding on the guesthouse where I wanted to stay the day after. Koa San road is what they call a real tourist ghetto. But very convenient to get a bit used to Bangkok when you're new to it. You can buy anything you can imagine there and more. Very cheap as well. So I did some shopping, but mostly useful stuff. And then the first night came! Everything I imagined. It was HOT!!! My room was next to one of the typical bangkok roads (loud traffic!!!!!) and even my earplugs couldn't help me out. So sweating and unable to sleep, at around two a.m, I felt something in my hair. In a quick reflex, I brushed it out with my hands and turned on the light. Of course, being almost blind without contacts, I couldn't see it quite clearly, but It definetly was brownish and crawled away quickly. I guess that was my first encounter with a friendly thai cockroach who wanted to welcome me to the country. I turned the tiny room upside down, but couldn't find it anymore. I actually slept better after the incident, but maybe that was because I had decided to get a really expensive room for the next day. I wasn't some poor budget traveller, I was here to have fun!!!! So the next day I moved to a much nicer looking guesthouse and got a room with airconditioning and a private bathroom. Much better and still not very expensive (of course over here 13 Euro's is in the upper class range). I spent my morning arranging a ticket to Krabi (my next destination) and chatting with an english girl who was on her way home. Then I visited some wats (temples). A nice one, across the river (Wat Arun). However when I got there, it started pooring with rain. A nice thai man who smelled money sold me a way too expensive umbrella, but it worked well. After this I visited Wat Po. More touristy, probably because of the huge buddha that lies there. At night I met Anna a german girl with whom I talked a bit and made the appointment to go visit the national museum on the next day. So today is Sunday the 17th of August. I slept great in my room (with the mosquito net protecting me from other friendly cockroaches. This morning we visited the museum (not too interesting) and did some hanging out on koa san road. Tonight at 6 my bus is leaving for Krabi. We'll see how that is. They promise you a super nice VIP bus with airconditioning, but I heard, that it doesn't always turn out that way. We'll see. So far, I'm enjoying it here (despite the few small setbacks). I haven't seen bangkok too much yet, but enough for now. I've actually walked through some very nice area's with markets etc. But mostly it's very loud (all the traffic) and incredibly hot. Koa San road was a good way to meet Bangkok without being totally lost. But I'll be back here at least once and maybe see some more. Most people are passing through here. Either leaving or just arriving. I'm looking forward to the beaches and a little bit more of a relaxing time (not having to go anywhere). More some other time....... |
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