Bangkok
In the chaos that ensued during my final month in L.A., getting ready to shut down my life in the US, I neglected to realize that getting to Bangkok required a 14 hour flight, a 2 hour layover in Taipei, and another 4 hour flight. Thank God for Fantasy Sky, which sounds better than it is. But it does have a great selection of on-demand everything.
When I arrived in Bangkok that first step out of the airport hit me in the gut. Trying to breath here is like sucking a thick milkshake through a straw. It's so hot and humid I started sweating instantly, even at 2 in the morning. And as it turns out, showing up at 2 am without a hotel reservation wasn't the best idea. Thankfully, I had the best taxi driver in the Bangkok. Certainly, he drove the only vehicle that stopped at red lights. After shuttling around quite a bit, he found me a hotel for 2850B ($80) which is 10 times more than I should be paying if I want to travel for more than one month, but hey, it had two bathrooms.
Fortunately the next night I found a $9/night room (no A/C, no hot water) on a street the equivalent of Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade. I showed up to a Thai street performance that highlighted "bungee jumping" a 4 year old girl from the top of a 30' bamboo pole. The Bechtel safety violations were way to numerous to count.
On my walk over to the new "guesthouse" it took about 20 minutes of carrying my pack to realize I needed to eliminate half of the shit in there. So naturally when I woke up the next morning I went shopping. The Chatuchak Market in Bangkok is a colorful, chaotic, 15,000 stall shopping labyrinth. It was completely overwhelming! First, you just aren't going to hit every stall and there's no systematic way of tackling it. The scarce maps don't even have a "you are here" star. Second, bargaining is completely new to me. In the States, you simply don't walk into Nordstrom, look at a $90 pair of shoes and say, "I'll pay you $45, that's a fair price." In seeking out the friendliest, English-speaking people I could find to get the scoop I met Trish and Toni, a mother-daughter duo from Chicago/Detroit. They explained you offer half the price quoted to you, negotiate from there, and expect to pay 40% less than the quote. I thanked them profusely and wandered off to see what bargains I could find. The only time I felt I got a decent deal is when I asked "how much" for a sparkly tank top and the women said 420 bhat ($10.50). Two seconds later another Thai-looking women asked about the same shirt and was quoted 240 bhat. I probably should have bargained more, but I paid the 240 bhat and decided I like the western method better: you look at the product, look at the price, decide if you want it and either pay or leave. Simple.
On my way out I ran into Trish and Toni again in the exact same place I met them 4 hours earlier. The chances of this happening were really not good, so they invited me to dinner at their hotel. Good thing I bought a new shirt because their hotel was the 5 star Peninsula. They treated me for my b-day (I'm now 30 #@&!?) to a great buffet dinner overlooking the river and after we went across for drinks atop the Statesmen building. There was this huge domed terrace overlooking the whole city - it felt like having drinks at the top of the Empire State Building. After a great night I had to remind myself not to get used to these luxuries!
On my way back across the city to my guesthouse there was a massive traffic jam and we slowly passed what looked to me like a Lallapalooza concert. I found out later that it was a huge political demonstration with 150,000 people. I never would have thought there would be political upheaval in Thailand! But it turns out the PM Thaksin Shinawatra who owns half the country sold a big portion to a holding company of the Singapore government. Before doing so, he passed a bill so he wouldn't have to pay taxes on the gabillion dollar transaction. So last week he dissolved the House and called a snap election. Apparently he pays off the poor with low-income housing and cash so he will just win again, despite all the demonstrations and calls for his resignation. So now you are all caught up on the Thai political situation.
Sorry I've been slow to post. I've been working on figuring out the photo situation. I heard Apple told me to "git er dun" so I'm spending the day at the internet cafe in Luang Phabang getting caught up.
For photos of Bangkok, click here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39463330@N00/sets/72057594085170403/
When I arrived in Bangkok that first step out of the airport hit me in the gut. Trying to breath here is like sucking a thick milkshake through a straw. It's so hot and humid I started sweating instantly, even at 2 in the morning. And as it turns out, showing up at 2 am without a hotel reservation wasn't the best idea. Thankfully, I had the best taxi driver in the Bangkok. Certainly, he drove the only vehicle that stopped at red lights. After shuttling around quite a bit, he found me a hotel for 2850B ($80) which is 10 times more than I should be paying if I want to travel for more than one month, but hey, it had two bathrooms.
Fortunately the next night I found a $9/night room (no A/C, no hot water) on a street the equivalent of Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade. I showed up to a Thai street performance that highlighted "bungee jumping" a 4 year old girl from the top of a 30' bamboo pole. The Bechtel safety violations were way to numerous to count.
On my walk over to the new "guesthouse" it took about 20 minutes of carrying my pack to realize I needed to eliminate half of the shit in there. So naturally when I woke up the next morning I went shopping. The Chatuchak Market in Bangkok is a colorful, chaotic, 15,000 stall shopping labyrinth. It was completely overwhelming! First, you just aren't going to hit every stall and there's no systematic way of tackling it. The scarce maps don't even have a "you are here" star. Second, bargaining is completely new to me. In the States, you simply don't walk into Nordstrom, look at a $90 pair of shoes and say, "I'll pay you $45, that's a fair price." In seeking out the friendliest, English-speaking people I could find to get the scoop I met Trish and Toni, a mother-daughter duo from Chicago/Detroit. They explained you offer half the price quoted to you, negotiate from there, and expect to pay 40% less than the quote. I thanked them profusely and wandered off to see what bargains I could find. The only time I felt I got a decent deal is when I asked "how much" for a sparkly tank top and the women said 420 bhat ($10.50). Two seconds later another Thai-looking women asked about the same shirt and was quoted 240 bhat. I probably should have bargained more, but I paid the 240 bhat and decided I like the western method better: you look at the product, look at the price, decide if you want it and either pay or leave. Simple.
On my way out I ran into Trish and Toni again in the exact same place I met them 4 hours earlier. The chances of this happening were really not good, so they invited me to dinner at their hotel. Good thing I bought a new shirt because their hotel was the 5 star Peninsula. They treated me for my b-day (I'm now 30 #@&!?) to a great buffet dinner overlooking the river and after we went across for drinks atop the Statesmen building. There was this huge domed terrace overlooking the whole city - it felt like having drinks at the top of the Empire State Building. After a great night I had to remind myself not to get used to these luxuries!
On my way back across the city to my guesthouse there was a massive traffic jam and we slowly passed what looked to me like a Lallapalooza concert. I found out later that it was a huge political demonstration with 150,000 people. I never would have thought there would be political upheaval in Thailand! But it turns out the PM Thaksin Shinawatra who owns half the country sold a big portion to a holding company of the Singapore government. Before doing so, he passed a bill so he wouldn't have to pay taxes on the gabillion dollar transaction. So last week he dissolved the House and called a snap election. Apparently he pays off the poor with low-income housing and cash so he will just win again, despite all the demonstrations and calls for his resignation. So now you are all caught up on the Thai political situation.
Sorry I've been slow to post. I've been working on figuring out the photo situation. I heard Apple told me to "git er dun" so I'm spending the day at the internet cafe in Luang Phabang getting caught up.
For photos of Bangkok, click here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39463330@N00/sets/72057594085170403/
posted by Deb Shea | 7:51 PM
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