I give you video. Long time.

I have the hostel room to myself for the first time since I've been here (the only other person in the room right now is out) ...and it's spectacular.  I'm celebrating by listening to my phone on shuffle as loud as it will go.  I didn't realize how much my music selection has transmorphed into electronica, indie, and hiphop until I did this.  Where did all the hard rock go?

Last night and today were good.  Basically, as soon as I finished emailing Tim and telling him about how I've given up on going out for a night in Bangkok (usually too beat at the end of the day), an aussie came into the dorm room and unpacked, and after we chatted for a bit, we decided to go out.  He only had one night in Bangkok, and wanted to make the most of it - as I've already been around a bit, I showed him how to get to the skytrain, and then we took it downtown to get something to eat. 

It was a lot of fun - I wish I had snagged a photo of him, but I was so busy enjoying myself that I forgot.  We didn't even introduce our names until we were out for a drink AFTER dinner.  We got off at Siam, and wandered around and found a little place to get some thai food.  Not what I call 'proper' thai food, but it was tasty, at least.  I got spicy tofu with fried basil leaves (it was a bit odd; the basil leaves were crunchy) and some cashew nut rice.  I'm sure it had fish sauce in it, but so long as I can't taste it, and I don't know it's there, I'm content to think my food is vegetarian.  Actually, finding veggie food has proved MUCH more difficult than I thought.  Apparently vegetarian here means "with seafood" ...eating has been a huge struggle, and I will fully admit I barely eat.  In the heat though, I can't even tell.  I just drink water all day.  In fact, I think I'm consuming upwards of 3L a day, and I'm still so dehydrated I get dizzy.  I just physically can't consume enough. 

After dinner, we walked around some more, and found the Hard Rock Café, Bangkok.  I've never been in one ever, so we went in and grabbed a drink at the bar.  My throat has been obscenely sore since I've been here (there will be a whole segment on how Bangkok is making me sick in a minute) and so naturally, I fixed it with a glass of Glenmorangie.  I'll fully admit - it was expensive, but the company was fantastic, and we exchanged email addresses before bed, so as far as I'm concerned, the money doesn't matter.  After that, not really knowing where to go, we hopped on a tuk-tuk (little motorized taxi) and sped through traffic at an alarming speed on our way to Chinatown, where the driver kept offering to take us to muay thai (which I'd LOVE to do, just not scam style) and "ping pong shows"  ...I have an idea, and I do not want to know if my idea is founded.  

I came up with a new game, too.  "Count the ladyboys" ...I'm at 8 so far, but I haven't really been trying.  Rad and I (That's his name.  I know, right?  Rad.) walked around Chinatown for a bit, and I spent most of it dodging cockroaches on the ground.  I don't care - they are GROSS.  I jumped and squealed every time I saw one.  They creep the shit out of me.  We were going to go into a seedy bar in Chinatown, but even the aussie thought it was too seedy, so we slowly made our way back.  I think we got in at midnight last night.  He had to catch an early flight this morning, so we didn't want to stay out too much later. 

I had a poor sleep again, due to the fact that I sneeze every hour, and my throat is so raw it hurts to breathe.  The pollution here is really making me sick - I've been really ill the entire time I've been in Bangkok.  Like usual, I ignore it completely, though I did cave today and buy some cough losenges at Boots today (they have a Boots in Thailand!) ...I'm a bit worried it will turn into bronchitis, but my lungs are still clear, so here's hoping.  I leave Bangkok tomorrow, and except for the one night I need to be back here to meet Tim, I haven't any intention of coming back.  There's still more to see - but the pollution is killing me. 

I spent the day today out with an English bloke who came in at 4am last night.  I bumped into him as I was getting ready to go out, and he only had one day in Bangkok and asked what he should see, and I told him what my tentative plans were for the day, and invited him along.  It was great.  We went to ChatuChak Market, which is a weekend market that would make certain grandmothers of mine burn with envy.  It was enormous.  Gigantic.  Take the Cloverdale Flea Market and add 500 more shops, condensed down into a seedy building.  There's actually SIGNS warning you of pick-pocketers.  Mark and I wandered around there for ages, looking at all the different shops and practicing our haggling skills (or I did, rather - he is quite good at it, having just spent a month in China and a month in Thailand) ...I bought some hairsticks, and a shirt which is quite hippie/bohemian.  I wanted thai pants, and I found thai pants, but the lady wouldn't drop the price, so I walked away, and then I was going to return later when I realized it wasn't really all that expensive, but the place was so congested and disorganized that I couldn't find the shop again.  Oh well - there'll be others.

I also have one of my twenty-two prospective Buddhas. 

We sampled some of the...local, cuisine.  Mark got donuts on a stick, and I drank coconut water from a coconut.  It tasted terrible, but I needed the liquid anyhow, so I drank it. 

After that, we hopped the BTS (skytrain - it feels too weird calling something a skytrain outside of Vancouver) and headed down to the last station, Hua Lamphong.  From there, we took a tuk-tuk to the Grand Palace, as there is currently no way to get over there easily with the water taxi's not running.  As a special treat, I took a video!   Peruse at your leisure. 

The Grand Palace was 400 baht, and closed for an hour over lunch, so we wandered about and ended up going to Wat Pho instead (for considerably cheaper).  The architecture was spectacular...I took so many photos!  Though, I took them in .RAW, so I'm going to have to batch process them before I link them to this blog.  Don't worry; it'll get done before I even press post.  I've already processed the video.  Wat Pho is home to the Reclining Buddha, which was nothing sort of spectacularly unnecessary.  WHY does Buddha need to be that large.  Why? 

After that, we took another tuk-tuk back to Siam Paragon (that giant shopping centre I mentioned yesterday - by the way, there are apparently actually FOUR shopping centres, all attached to each other on that street corner.  If you can call it a street corner.  Imagine Metrotown, but magnified by 10,000.  That's Siam Square.)  The shopping centre in Bangkok is so opulent that even I want to buy needlessly expensive things.  It's truly jaw-dropping.  And I hate shopping.  We ate lunch there, and grabbed dessert (Mm, more imitation French baked goods) ...now I'm just chillin' in the hostel, doing some laundry.  You know, boring stuff.  I feel quite shit right now, and I'm content to stay in for the night.  I'd worry about dinner, but let's face it - I'm not going to be hungry before morning anyhow.

Oh, and somewhat important news, I suppose:  This will almost definitely be the last time you hear from me
for a week.  Tomorrow, I leave Bangkok (thank goodness) and head off to Songdhammakalayani Monastery, for a week long Living Buddhism international meditation retreat.  I sincerely doubt I'll have internet, so if you're burning to say something to me in the next week, send it to me prior to tomorrow morning (my time) ...I'm going to check my messages one more time before I check out, and that likely won't be until around noon anyhow, but yeah.  If there's internet, I'd be amazed.  

Here's to 7 days of not eating past noon, waking up at 5:30 to meditate, and sitting on my ass a lot being spiritual!  

And the best part - I leave on the 27th, and Tim arrives in Bangkok on the 28th.  Travel partner: best birthday present in the history of forever, no matter how unintentional it actually was.  Ahh yeah.