Thailand - One night in Bangkok ......

Being back in Bangkok (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok for more info) is quite challenging after the quite, peaceful and relaxing time in Luang Prabang. Bangkok seems to be full of energy, pulsating at all times, hot, noisy, dirty .... but also beautiful, exciting and very interesting.

My first day I spent most of my time exploring the neighbourhood. Just a few blocks down the street is an area called "Little Arabia" with lots of shops and restaurants run by Arabs. It was like stepping into a different world. Suddenly there were hardly any Thai on the streets, restaurants had lots of Hukka pipes ready for their guests, people were dressed completely different, different smells, sounds and looks everywhere. Especially nice was the fact that there were no sex tourists or prostitutes walking about, no massage parlours or such things. Well, sex tourism is the one thing that really annoys me about Bangkok. It is really shocking to me to see these old guys walking about with their young Thai girls (or boys). Anyways, it was like a little Oasis, but just a few feet across the street there were plenty such establishments.

At breakfast I met a girl (Sabine) that somehow looked familiar. I could not figure out where we had met before, so I joined her and after a while we figured that we met in Koh Tao at the dive school ..... funny. The world is a small place at times .....

After breakfast I spent my time going from one travel agent to the next to buy the "Japan Railway Pass" for my upcoming trip through Japan. Although I had the addresses of the certified travel agents from the Japan Railway Company website I was not lucky on the first several tries, however everybody was very helpful and so I finally found one agent that was not sold out. In the process I got lost pretty badly (simply because I did not know that Soi 23 (one of the side streets of one of the major arteries Sukhumvit Road) where the travel was supposed to be, actually split in two branches. I guess I picked the "dead" branch that ended at the gate to the University. I asked my way around and after a "chain" of helpful people trying to find somebody who knew something or spoke English delivered me to a group of students. One of them called the agent and then offered to drive me there on his scooter. I felt bad that I had already taken up so much of his time and declined politely. I was not walking for 5 minutes when somebody honked next to me and it was the guy on his scooter insisting to drive me there. Well, so I hopped on and was thankful for his persistence. Unfortunately the agent was out of the passes and so I kept traveling by Sky Train and subway to other agents.

Dinner was an experience .... I went with Sabine (the girl from the dive shop) to "Little Arabia" and after checking out several places we ended up in an Iraqi restaurant of all options .... We communicated with the waitress as good as possible, but had no idea what to expect and actually what we had ordered .... Well, the food was excellent. We "had ordered" hummus, a chicken curry, BBQed shrimp and BBQed Kebabs .... yummy .... a welcome change to the Thai spices. We went for drinks to a place close to our hostel and when we got back to the hostel after a nightcap we had to call security because the lock to the dorm was broken and the door could not be opened either from the inside nor the outside. It was absolutely hilarious. Well, finally they figured that there was another door behind the closet and the problem was at least temporarily solved.

The next day was my big sight seeing day. I took the Sky Train to the river and then from the main pier a boat upstream to the National Museum. From there I went to the Grand Palace and temples Wat Phra Kaew (where you find the "Emerald Buddha") and Wat Po (where you can find the "Reclining Buddha"). It was really hot and muggy and by 5:30 pm I was completely exhausted and went back to the hostel by ship and train. After a quick shower I had my final Thai Massage ...... no, no, no .... not what some of you may think ... a traditional "bone breaking" massage and then had my "last Thai dinner". Delicious, but soooooo spicey that I worked through a stack of napkins because it made me sweat ..... Around 11:30 pm I was able to get together with my friend Markus (who lives in Bangkok and was just flying in from Beijing) and we went to the Banyan Tree Hotel for drinks. They have a roof top bar on the 60th floor called Vertigo, with absolutely mind boggling views of Bangkok. It was wonderful and great to catch up, although we had very little time. I was in bed around 2:00 am and then got up 4 hours later to pack and head to the airport to catch my flight to Hongkong.