Bangkok was the first one of many reunions to come on my way to Finland and I had gotten good instructions from my friend how to get to the hostel from the airport. Everything went smoothly all the way through customs and luggage retrieval. I knew that I would have to take a skytrain to get closer to the city centre but there was no signs what so ever telling where the skytrain is. At that point I realised that there's two airports in Bangkok and my instructions were of course how to get into the hostel from the other one :D Well, no problemo, as a seasoned traveller I decided to ask for help. Can you believe it! 45 minutes in a bus and some wrong turns and found the skytrain. (Don't go undergrounds if you're looking for a skytrain...duh). After the train I was supposed to take a water taxi. Of course the problem was that there was a shit load of people trying to do the same and the boats were totally full and then I was told that they stop operating within the next 10 minutes. Me and my backpack made the decision to get to the hostel some other way...I was actually so annoyed that I decided to walk the whole 4.6km that my map applications showed as the distance. Why was as I annoyed you ask? Well without the flight ticker problems described in my previous post I would have been in Bangkok around mid day. Now I was there way later. It was also dark and it started raining. Also the tiredness might have something to do with it having spent the previous night in a sleeper bus.
 |
| Morning coffee! |
It actually started raining so heavily that I had no choice than to take a taxi. Of course the taxi driver didn't even recognise the street I was trying to tell him. First he couldn't read the text from my mobiles because he didn't have his reading glasses and then when he finally decided to put them on he still didn't know the street. With my map app I kept on giving directions to the driver and I finally managed to find the hostel.
 |
| "Hmm...this is art. I get it now!" |
But soon was gone the tiredness and annoyance when I met the first of many reunions to come, Elena. I met Elena at the Escape bar and at some point we realised that were gonna be in Bangkok about the same time and for me it was a great flight hub on my way to Europe. I also love having my "personal guide". She already knew Bangkok and since I mostly travel alone and make all my own decisions I was more than happy just to follow her "blindly". I actually almost felt ashamed of being such a lazy bastard but then again it also felt kind of great.
We hit couple of really nice music bars and I have to say that the music was awesome. There's one thing that I've been complaining about the Vietnamese drummers as long as I've been there and that is the total lack of being able to deliver just a steady beat. I don't know why but it seems that in Vietnam drumming means to do as much as possible at all times no matter if the singer is in the middle of his/her verse or if the music just doesn't need a fill at that point. I also want to buy every drummer there a metronome. In all my time in Vietnam I don't think that I've heard even 4 bars in a row without a fill or a change from hi-hat to the ride and I shit you not. It's just unbelievable. So in this blues bar and I was just amazed by this local (I think he was) drummer who did all the right things. I even sent Bob (the lead singer of the Escape bar band) some footage of this guy just to make him believe that there are still drummers in the world that listen to the music :D
During the 4 days that I spent in Bangkok we went to some museums, ate a lot of street food and drank local delicacies like fermented rice wine. That stuff really hit's you btw :D
 |
| Toy museum! Funn-Y! |
 |
| Star wars minions! Super cool! |
 |
| I guess these girls were just coming from the spa behind me.. I really hope they live nearby. |
I guess I have to say something about Bangkok in general at this point. For me the biggest surprise after Vietnam was that everybody was driving cars, not scooters. I don't know why I had the prejudice/image in my head but I was really surprised how modern Bangkok is. The food was good and prices acceptable and there's lots to see but the place is way too touristy for my liking. I mean I had a really good time, thanks to my "guide" Elena, but I understood exactly why I have been kind of avoiding Bangkok all this time. I will probably go back some day to explore more but this visit was more like a reunion than exploring.
 |
| This is the best picture there is of me and Elena. ;) (Sorry E, just had to post this..) |
Oh yeah, and happy birthday Elena, one more time. It was a good night! :D
 |
| This is me asking for directions after accidentally finding ourselves on this god forsaken street! |
No comments:
Post a Comment