Bangkok - David - January 2-5
I sleep all the way to Bangkok, considering we didnt sleep the night before, sitting at the terminal, enjoying our last few hours together, waiting for our flights at 5.30 and 7.30am. I cath the shuttle bus into the city, the driver forgets to stop in the area where I am staying and refuses to take me back there. He gets a Tourist Information Respresentative to escort me to the local bus stop and puts me on a bus which goes to where I plan to stay. I then walk around for an hour and find a cheap room in a guesthouse near, but thankfully not in, the tourist centre of Khoa San Rd.
Spend the next 2 hours organising Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam visas. I did get a Vietnam visa before leaving Sydney, as it was going to be my first stop after India, however, in organising Jett to meet me in Vietnam, I have had to reverse my itinerary for southeast asia, and my Vietnam visa will have expired before I get there, so I have to get a new one. I also have to forfeit the cheap online flight I bought from Bangkok to Hanoi before we left, however, small price to pay to get to travel with and expose Jett to other cultures. The travel agent arranges for me to gt the 3 visas in 3 days (fingers crossed, there is a premium for 1 day service, but Thai service is not the most reliable (would be an improvement on India's though). I also book a train ticket to the Laos border for Thursday 5th overnight where I plan to walk across the border.
That night, the heat (it is 32 degrees at midnight and it is mid-winter), time lag from the flight, and being away from Beck all make me restless and I wonder the streets, snacking on roadside Pad Thai and spring roll stalls, watching English soccer on a giant street screen, and the global tourists wlaking along Khao San Rd until 1am. Go back to the guesthouse, have a cold shower to wash off the sweat and cool down, do my washing and hang it in the room, and read for an hour until exhaustion claims me.
I wake at 11.30am, a sleep of 10 hours. I catch the same local bus that brought me here in reverse into town. I have a list of items to buy - small portable speakers for the MP3 player so we can have music in the room; a wire/chain lock to secure our luggage and replace the one we had that was broken in Anjuna in Goa which we used to secure the moped we hired and had been cut and removed; sunglasses (I have broken both of the ones I brough with me) and other items for the next stage of the trip. This is my 4th visit to Bangkok, the last one 7 years ago with Joy and Jett, when he was 2. There is that strange combination of both the existnce and lack of familiarity with somewhere you've been before, but only in a broad sense - like looking at a summary of a book - the important overview are there but all the detail is missing. I walk around til 1am, refamiliarising myself, having a great time bargaining with the streetstall holders, buying some T shirts, light pants and singlets (the clothes I've brought are much too warm for this part of the world) and pricing other items. Again I am alert in the early morning and read to sleep. Beck and I were to SMS and email to stay in contact however she is unable to rceive my SMSs in Nepal, and after a panicked call to see that we are both OK earlier in the day, I miss her more. Beck would have met 6 people by now and we would have been exploring the city and having meals together. I have met no-one. How does she do it?
posted by flamethrower77 at 12:39 AM
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