My internal clock was off and so I awoke at six in the morning in my little room in Bangkok. All my physical clocks were messed up too. My phone, my laptop, and my travel alarm clock all disagreed about the current time. And they were all wrong, and had been wrong since I'd gotten onto the plane in Bhutan.
Of course, time passes differently in Thailand so it's okay.
Out the window, a scantily clad still-wobblingly-drunk couple narrowly missed bumping into a monk holding out a pot of rice for his morning alms. I sat up and thought about what I needed to do in Thailand over the next few days before continuing on, first to Singapore and then to Borneo.
Let's see...I needed soap, shampoo, conditioner, aspirin, passport photos, alarm clock battery, phone time, eye drops, cashews, peanut butter, blah blah blah...restock, resupply, and then I had to eat more mango-and-sticky-rice.
Would it be wrong of me to get TWO foot massages a day over the six days that I'm here?
Even having woken up at six, I still took forever to get out and about for the day. I enjoyed my second morning of muesli, fruit, and yogurt though. Mmmm. That's going to be hard to leave behind as I move on and head back to the world of winter.
I was able to get everything I needed within a few blocks of my hotel, aside from my haircut and color, so I walked over to the river taxi to head down to Central Pier where I'd catch the Skytrain to Sala Daeng stop to head to Corner Hair.
Hey, Chao Phraya river boat fares went up to 15 baht per single ride while I was out of town! The tourist boat now costs 30 baht for a single ride. First the airport bus had been cancelled and now this...all in my short time in Asia.
I roamed about downtown for a bit, checked out the new Outback in Bangkok's center (eh), and headed back to the budget-travel-land of Banglamphu in late afternoon.
I dodged the fortune-telling Sikhs of Khao San Road on my way to my regular street food stand, and then realized that the fortune-telling Sikhs weren't necessarily Sikhs at all. They were wearing turbans because...that what fortune-tellers are supposed to do. I had to laugh at my earlier assumption.
And that evening, as I sat inside my regular foot massage place after a sudden rainstorm made the staff move everything inside at a remarkable speed, I realized something.
Out the window, a scantily clad still-wobblingly-drunk couple narrowly missed bumping into a monk holding out a pot of rice for his morning alms. I sat up and thought about what I needed to do in Thailand over the next few days before continuing on, first to Singapore and then to Borneo.
Let's see...I needed soap, shampoo, conditioner, aspirin, passport photos, alarm clock battery, phone time, eye drops, cashews, peanut butter, blah blah blah...restock, resupply, and then I had to eat more mango-and-sticky-rice.
Even having woken up at six, I still took forever to get out and about for the day. I enjoyed my second morning of muesli, fruit, and yogurt though. Mmmm. That's going to be hard to leave behind as I move on and head back to the world of winter.
I was able to get everything I needed within a few blocks of my hotel, aside from my haircut and color, so I walked over to the river taxi to head down to Central Pier where I'd catch the Skytrain to Sala Daeng stop to head to Corner Hair.
Hey, Chao Phraya river boat fares went up to 15 baht per single ride while I was out of town! The tourist boat now costs 30 baht for a single ride. First the airport bus had been cancelled and now this...all in my short time in Asia.
I roamed about downtown for a bit, checked out the new Outback in Bangkok's center (eh), and headed back to the budget-travel-land of Banglamphu in late afternoon.
I dodged the fortune-telling Sikhs of Khao San Road on my way to my regular street food stand, and then realized that the fortune-telling Sikhs weren't necessarily Sikhs at all. They were wearing turbans because...that what fortune-tellers are supposed to do. I had to laugh at my earlier assumption.
And that evening, as I sat inside my regular foot massage place after a sudden rainstorm made the staff move everything inside at a remarkable speed, I realized something.
I'd been in Bangkok for 52 hours and had yet to hear Hotel California.
Hallelujah. No complaints here.
Hallelujah. No complaints here.
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