One Year Away

Joseph

After another overnight bus trip, this time from Chiang Mai, we arrived in Bangkok at 4.30 AM. It was still dark out when the bus dropped us off on perhaps the most famous backpacker street in the world, Khao San Road.  The street and surrounding area are packed with budget accommodations, cheap eats, bars, Internet shops and street vendors.  Basically it’s a budget traveler ghetto.  But it’s one so famous that a backpacking trip through Thailand isn’t complete without a stay here.

It being holiday season we made reservations before arriving to ensure we’d get a room.  Thai Cosy House is on a side street about two blocks away from Khao San Road.  From the name and website description it sounded like a small family run hotel that would be a sanctuary from the all night action of the surrounding area.  Wrong.  It’s actually a large soulless concrete hotel where the rooms have no windows and Penny found (and killed!) a cockroach.

But at 4.30 in the morning after getting off the bus we still didn’t know this.  As we walked towards the hotel the first thing we saw was a drunk male tourist stumbling by with two giggling Thai girls in tow.  Then as we rounded the corner we saw a 24 hour Internet cafe full of Thai girls sending emails.  We later learned that Thai prostitutes spend a lot of time corresponding with rich western "boyfriends" who send them gifts and cash.  Welcome to Bangkok.  The sex industry is everywhere in this city and it isn’t hiding in dark corners.  It’s a very common sight to see older male tourists with a Thai girl (or boy) young enough to be his child. 

During the day residents of Bangkok love to shop.  But this is a city that wakes up late and stays up late.  Unlike most of Asia, stores open at 10.30 or 11.00 AM and stay open for 12 hours.  The gleaming new shopping centerers are like oases from the heat and air pollution. So we did like the locals and started to wake up later and go shopping during the day.

Our first stop was an area on Sukhumvit Road that is crowded with tailors.  Bangkok has a huge number of tailor shops.  We found some good reviews of Crown Tailor on the Internet, so we went there are ordered 4 suits, 8 shirts and a dress.  We chose some of the best fabrics and went with a tailor who quoted us one of the highest prices and it still came out to about the price we’d pay for 2 two ready to wear suits back home.  We’ll be shipping those home tomorrow along with a bunch of other purchases we made at the ever present markets.

Some people try to get out of Bangkok as quickly as possible, but I feel it has a sort of roguish charm that makes this an interesting city to explore for a few days – especially if you enjoy shopping and keep clear of the sex tourists.