Bangkok - part 1

Bangkok

We arrived in bangkok in the middle of the afternoon. After going through the passport control we went checking the flights to Angkar Wat in Cambodia. We were trying to organize the first week in Thailand and realised that it took forever to go from one place to another... Unfortunately the tickets were way out of our budget so we decided to move on to the city center and stay there for the evening and make the plans while there.

Koh Shan road
We went down to catch the bus to the city. We ask for directions to an airport worker who convinced us into taking a taxi instead because it would cost about the same and take only 30 min instead of 2h. We paid 600 bats for it. Later we found out this should have been cheaper (minibus from the airport should cost around 120 Bats)!

When we arrive in our destination we get kind of a shock... The street is closed to the traffic and there's people everywhere. The noise is coming from all directions, as there are bars and clubs everywhere each trying to be the loudest so that people choose their place to sit down and spend some money.

There are tourists everywhere. The only Thais we see are the ones who are trying to make up their living there. We are kind of confused with what we face but soon we refocus on our first objective - finding a place to stay. We enter the first guest house we see. As we go up the stairs we read signs like "no Thais allowed" which we will later understand. The place is clean, it has fan but sounds like there will be noise all night long. We decide to stay as it's quite cheap, it's only for an evening and it's conveniently located.

We leave our things there and start exploring the touristic ghetto of Bangkok. There's all types of things exposed, but what calls most of our attention are the funny t-shirts and the famous sports brands immitations. Suddenly we see people taking a lot of pictures to one of the street sailor's. We approach and understand what is the reason for so much interest. He's selling grasshoppers, worms and scorpions... Deep fried to be eaten as snacks. Tiago buys a bag of grasshoppers and tries them. I try one as well. It's crunchy. Almost like chips.

The temperature and humidity are extremely high. It's quite exhausting to walk around so we decide to stop and make some plans while having a beer. It's quite frustrating trying to organize our stay in Thailand... It takes forever to go from one place to another.In the end we are forced to abandon the original plan and have to skip Cambodia from our route and focus in the north, in Chiang Mai. We want to get there as fast as possible so we decide to check the flights prices with an agency. The prices for that evening are too much for us, but the guy gives a price of 2500 bats for the next morning. It's a bit expensive but we are kind of desperate so we take it. A few minutes after leaving the agency we see an add in another agency announcing the same trip 500 bats cheaper... We need to be more careful in the future.

We walk around a bit more. It's funny to see so many westerns with a thai "friend". Cheap and easy sex is really one of the reasons why many man come to Thailand... We still think about going to a club and party a bit but we're still tired from the previous night so we end up in the noisy hotel room. Back to wearing ear plugs if I want to get some sleep...