First Day in Bangkok! (aka Crazytown)

I arrived in Bangkok on Thursday, July 24th without much of a plan. However I was given a tip in the form of a facebook comment from my friend Kerri, who had lived in Thailand for a while and recommended I stay in the famous Khao San Road area, where I was assured there would be lots of places to stay, yummy things to eat, and plenty to do. Perfect. As I stepped out of the cab, and into the bustling street, I smiled. I was definitely in the right place :)

But first things first - It was lunchtime and I was hungry. And this guy had exactly what I needed.

Very important first order of business :)
Second order of business was to find a place to stay. Since my bag is kinda heavy, I decided to just walk into the first place I saw, which happened to be this place:

 

Not exactly a five star resort, but for 200 baht/night (about $6), I figured I'd give it a shot. Plus the old lady running it was nice and it seemed like a nice quiet little place with a great location right on Khao San Road. More on that later...
I set my stuff down in the room and it was time to go explore. I got about 50 feet down Khoa San Road when a little sharp dressed Thai guy approached me about having a suit made. Since that was one of the things I wanted to do while I was there, I figured I'd check it out so that I could get a feel for prices and what to expect. Why not. I entered the little shop, took a seat, and was greeted by the actual tailor, Sam. After some breif chit chat we got down to business. And it was clear that I was getting the hard sell. However as someone that does a lot of research before buying anything like this, I had no intention of buying there on the spot. That was until I started to leave the shop, and the real negotiations got underway. Next thing I knew I was getting sized up for not one, but two suits lol. One black, one grey. At the end of the day I made out with two suits (with vest), three shirts, and two ties for about $480. Not bad?
Back on the streets I walked about another 20 feet when an Indian dude approached me and started reading my fortune, telling me a little bit about myself based on the lines in my face. Amused and slightly intrigued, I decided to follow him to his little spot for a full fortune reading. Stupid idea. Dude was trying to pull money out of my harder than the suit guy. And what he was telling me seemed like mostly BS, although if I do in fact move to Australia and meet the love of my life, it'll be worth a chuckle.
From that point forward I decided to throw on sunglasses and completely ignore the steady barrage of people trying to sell me shit, as I had gone from amused to annoyed with it pretty quickly. I wandered around checking out the little vendor shops lining the road but decided I should prob venture out to get a better feel for the city. A tuk tuk (little 3 wheeled motorbike taxi) driver offered to take me on a tour, shoving a map in my face and pointing at a few different spots. I couldn't make out most of what he said except for the fact that it would cost 40 baht (roughly $1.50). Seemed like a good deal, and I was kinda tired from walking around getting hassled so I hopped in.

We stopped at a few different temples, which is cool if you're into that sort of thing, after which he dropped me off at a Thai Travel agency so that I could map out the week ahead. That turned out to be a good idea. I spent a good hour at the travel agency going through all my options and decided on a trip to the floating markets and tiger temple the following day, and then a trip up to Chiang Mai in the northern part of the country for a two day trek up to a remote mountain village followed by a two day "slow boat" trip along the Mekong River to Laos. The price seemed fair and I was happy to have a nice little itinerary for the week ahead.
On the way back, while chatting with my tuk tuk driver I learned that he was training as a Muay Thai fighter. I thought that was pretty cool and expressed interest in seeing a fight while I was in town. He told me his actual fighting days were over, as he had recently gotten married and had a baby, but that there happened to be a big fight at the local arena that night. He could tell I was really excited and offered to take me there for free later that night. Sweet! I ended up sitting ringside, and what a cool experience it turned out to be, which I'll write about in a separate post.

After the fight I made it back to Khoa San road and it was rockin! The streets were packed and all the bars along the road (there were many) were pumping dance music into the streets. Vendors walked around selling the weirdest stuff, including fried scorpion on a stick, laughing gas balloons, and trips to the "ping pong show" which you'll have to look up on your own since this blog carries a strict PG-13 rating.

I quickly realized that the area I was in was all about shock value. I think that when westerners come to Thailand, that's what they expect, and Khao San road dishes it out in abundance. And trust me, I was very tempted to join in on the madness, but it was already pretty late, I was a bit jet lagged, and was getting picked up the next day at 7am to go pet some tigers. Plus I would have ample time to party in the weeks ahead, especially when my buddy Huy arrived the following week. So I decided to call it a night and retire back to my quiet little guest house...
Boy was I in for a rude awakening. That quiet little guest house was literally right next door to one of the biggest loudest clubs on the strip, pumping out high energy electronic dance music. About the worst possible thing to try and relax to, let alone fall asleep. But, when travelling like this, sometimes you just gotta suck it up and deal with it. So I jammed my earplugs in, and laid there annoyed as the beats pulsed through my body, until somehow someway I finally dozed off.
Solid first day :)

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