Bangkok

I present to you, the city of Bangkok. Joke for many, awesome city for all. 

After +24 hours of travel, I made it to the city around 6 pm on Friday. At least, I think it was Friday after all the time changes, delays, and general jet lag. I took a taxi to WH Hostel, an oasis made of shipping containers in the middle of a red light district. Managed to stay awake until 7:30 and then promptly passed out. I had one roommate, a swell gal from Germany named Heike who came in minutes before I closed my eyes. Woke up around 3 am and after walking around and reading, managed to fall back asleep for a few hours.

My first day consisted mainly of wandering around on foot and seeing what I could run into. Found a really sweet park, awesome food stalls, one of the largest malls I've ever been in, and figured out the metro. Lumphini Park reminds me a bit of Central Park in NY. It has a long running and biking loop as well as a beautifully manicured landscape. All ages and backgrounds were out enjoying it. They have some goofy exercise machines that I first thought was a playground, but has a wide array of body movement strength trainers. Essentially an adult playground. 

Today, Heike and I tootled around town together. She showed me how the water taxis work and we went to the Grand Palace. It's the King's birthday this week, so a lot of the grounds are closed including the Emerald Buddha. We stopped into the Heritage Linen Museum on the way out. Back in the 60's, the King and Queen wanted to make the country more self-sufficient so the King encouraged stronger agriculture while the Queen worked at the silk and weaving industry. She also went on to create the 8 Thai outfits that are now "traditional dress" even though they have a heavy western influence and were designed by the French.

Who can resist a sassy statue? 

After the temple, we took public transport up to the weekend market. Uh. Wow. It's freakin huge. Aisles and aisles of anything and everything you could think of. Including puppies, kittens, and sugar gliders! Bargained for a water bottle purse for Heike and a shoulder bag for myself. Ate more tasty food. Got lost and did a bunch of people watching. 

And now I'm sitting in the train station and about to catch a night train up to Chiang Mai. In fact, the big screen at the station is showing the royal ceremony back at the Palace. 

Overall impressions thus far: locals have no shame when it comes to nose picking, all the stereotypes about old white men coming to the city are true, tourists are herded very efficiently, Yellowstone hasn't seen the worst of HUGE tourist groups (old ladies throw elbows), the royal guard are pretty casual about marching in step, and shipping container living is badass. Later gators.