Bangkok (Justin)

We had spent two full days in Bangkok. Here is a quick recap:

The flight got into Bangkok at around 11:30 p.m., about 20 minutes before schedule. Immigration took us about 20 minutes as there was another flight just arrived before us. We decided to take a “taxi service” since there was a long line outside the terminal for meter taxi, plus John thought that we might not be able to fit all the luggage in normal taxi. The Siam Heritage Hotel is very clean and quite beautiful. For some odd reason the topic of our first evening was prostitution (I guess it was because we stay in the red light district of Bangkok). Why do people sell their body? I can understand both sides of the argument. However, I don’t think anyone would do it if they have a choice. People will do whatever they can to survive, including selling their own body.

I couldn’t sleep the first night in Bangkok, and woke up around 5:00 a.m., so I decided to take a walk around the area. This is my 4^th time in Bangkok, but for the 1^st time, I found peace and quite as I walked down the nearly empty Sarawong Road. The fresh morning cool air coupled with a few people along side the road getting ready to open their businesses.

We went to the weekend market around 11:00 a.m., and like the previous time, there were thousands of people at this huge market. John’s parents bought a few things, including a beautiful painting from this friendly young artist (see the above picture). We spent about 4 hours at the market, and yet I didn’t buy anything.

After a quick nap (alright, it was a few hours), John and I went to eat dinner at Soomboom Restaurant (a rather famous seafood restaurant in Bangkok … I personally thought it was alright … nothing to write home about), and did some shopping at Silom night market. By the time we finished shopping, it was around 11:30 p.m., and John decided to call it a night and we went back to the hotel.

Today, we did the more touristy stuffs, visiting Wat Po and the Grand Palace. It is quite interesting to note that I look like Thai, as everyone I encountered spoke to me in Thai, from waitress at restaurant … to taxi driver … to a few white guys along Silom who gave me that dirty look as they think I am another money boy. So I am glad that we are moving on to Laos tomorrow as I have enough of the crazy and busy Bangkok.