Journal Entry 2

May 23rd, 2002

"Bangkok"

 

Excerpts from 21MAY02:
Got to Bangkok at 11pm Monday. Decided to take bus into city. Arrived at backpacker's mecca of Khao San road at midnight. Ate questionable food front street vendors. Just about jumped out of my pants when an elephant passed me on the sidewalk at 12:30am (not the norm, even here). Sleeping on semi-clean bed with no sheets or A/C or bathroom (down the hall) for $3.50/night. Went to bed at 1am. Couldn't sleep because I slept too much on 6 hr flight from Tokyo. Got up at 6am. 96deg today with 100% humidity. Afternoon showers. Bought a sarong to use as sheet tonight. Debating buying fried calamari on a stick from street in a little while. Looks better than the roasted various sorts of bugs also available.

Isn't it great?

Bought ticket to Denpasar, Bali today. Leave Friday. Singapore first, one day layover, then Bali on Saturday. Need to learn to surf there.

Today, saw some temples, Buddhas, gemstone scam artists, etc. Black lungs from ride on tuk-tuk, three wheeled taxi. This place smells funny. Trash, food, people, fumes, all rolled into an interesting aroma. Love it.

Excerpts from today, 23MAY02:
Ended up changing mind and going to Nakhom Pathom, about 1 hr west of here. Tallest Buddhist stupa in world there, for what it's worth. For 24 hours, I was the only Caucasion I saw, aside from about 2 hrs over lunch yesterday when some tour buses stopped to drop people off at the stupa for 30-minute visits (don't worry, wouldn't have stayed if it wasn't okay).

Had a blast at the markets there. Tried lots of stuff. Many fruits, some good, some bad. Amazing variety of everything, to say the least, maybe more detail later. Classify this one under Failed Experiments: Dried Seasoned Scuttlefish. If you need more explanation than that, you're as dumb as I was to try it. Here's a poem I wrote, decicated to the Thai market:

Slither, flop, scuttle, squiggle,
creep, crawl, lurch, wiggle,
walk, plod, swim, glide,
hover, fly, waddle, slide,
dart, trod, flutter, bobble,
grovel, hop, scurry, wobble,
If you do any of these,
you'll end up in a tummy here, guaranteed!

First rickshaw ride today (3-wheel pedal-powered cart with chauffeur). Went to a floating market about 2 hrs from Bangkok. Now I'm back, ready for flight in the morning. Staying in a room where "You won't stay here 2 nights" is written all over the wall. Apparently the bar downstairs is quite noisy at night.
Learned you can eat for 1/3 price if you eat where Thais eat, instead of where travelers eat. Things are going great.

Not sure when you'll hear next. Should be somewhere in Bali, maybe early next week.

"There he was, my chipmunk, in the bright clear windy sunny air
staring on the rock; hands clasping he sat up straight, some little
oat between his paws; he nibbled, he darted away, the little nutty
lord of all he surveyed." -Jack Kerouac (Dharma Bums)

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