After leaving the internet cafe last night, I had to walk through the streets one last time to get back to the D&D Inn. There was a man leading a baby elephant through the road...everyone was going crazy taking pictures with him, etc. Then out of nowhere, it was like a mass exodus. All of the people with their food carts, vendors, etc started pushing their carts down the block and through an alleyway...as if they were running from something? I didn't know what was going on...just knew to get out of their way before I was run over! Turns out the police were driving down the block, apparently the carts and vendors are supposed to close up shop at midnight. I guess that was their warning...but everyone basically hid out in the alleyways for about 10 mins and by the time I made it back to my place, they were all trickling back onto Khao San Road.
Took me a while to get to sleep last night with all the noise...exhaustion got the best of me eventually though. I think sometime around 4am is when it finally started quieting down. The quiet was almost disturbing this morning when I woke up...I jumped up to look out my window and make sure everything was ok...It was like a scene from night of the living dead. Just as many people as last night except quieter...newcomers just arriving w/their backpacks, a few straglers leftover from last night squinting in the sunlight...
After showering I had breakfast at the restaurant behind my hotel. There's a small bridge filled w/huge white and yellow fish and it's set back off the main road so you're not constantly being harrassed by the vendors (which is a major plus). Then I waved down a taxi and asked to go to the Siam Paragon...the biggest mall Ever. I really didn't want to go there, but it was a good landmark b/c I remembered there was a smaller, more authentic Thai market nearby and figured if I walked around I would be able to find it...
2 hours later and no such luck!
I did however, stumble upon another market...more like a grocery store but with bras and underwear and a jewelry section, right next to cases of fanta and coke. I also happened to walk past some workers just opening their shops and cleaning out front...I wasn't sure what they were doing, seemed to be on their hands and knees scrubbing at the sidewalk with metal scrapers and oils...? Turns out they were trying to get the blackened, flattened, chewed up wads of gum off of their sidewalk. Now that's some serious stuff.
I gave up on finding my market and defeated, I hopped back in a cab and headed back to my ghetto where I ended up doing some last minute shopping...I am so tired of bargaining. Please just tell me how much it is, this game is getting a little ridiculous!
I hung out at the pool for a little bit...it's a small rectangle up on the roof with a view of Bangkok under a heavy grey sky. I thought maybe it was going to storm, but then realized it was just a thick layer of smog settled above the city...pleasant huh? The pool was packed with people, there were no free chairs. I laid out my sarong on the wooden boards by the rim of the pool and finished "Lovely Bones". The book honestly just annoyed me (sorry Hadas). About a young girl who dies and it's from her perspective in "her heaven". They never found her body, except for an elbow. The entire time I just kept thinking...an elbow is not a bone in and of itself, it is a joint...a "Joining" of 2 bones. It just didn't make sense and every time they mentioned the elbow I was irritated. What do editors get paid to do?
Oh, then I tried to sell 4 books to these used book stores which are everywhere. All 4 books cost me around...$66 USD or 2254 B and these vendors tried to give me 350B for all 4! I laughed in their faces and smuggly took my books back. It's a Catch 22 though b/c I want to get rid of them b/c I have no room in my luggage (and will probably have to pay even more money to Continental on my way home if my bag exceeds their weight limit) but I'd rather give them away free than sell them for pennies just so these vendors can turn around and rip off another unsuspecting traveler...
I eventually gave up on that idea and found a cute vegetarian restaurant to have dinner...away from the torturous frog sellers. I had massaman curry with chicken and vegetables. The curry is a little spicy but also flavored with peanuts which gives it a sweet flavor too. It was so good. I am really going to miss this food!
I decided I really needed a coat. It's below 0 in China right now and after wearing tank tops and flip flops for the past 3 weeks it's going to be a rough transition. Especially without a coat! Thailand, as it turns out, is a difficult place to buy a coat. It makes sense...I mean the country only has 2 seasons really...summer and rainy. I guess now would be their "winter" but it's still 30-35 degrees celcius! Not much of a winter! Hadas said there was a market in China where she bought a coat, but in a later email she told me how much she spent and it was a fortune! I decided to go back to Siam Paragon to look around...
The Siam Paragon is an enormous complex that is quite honestly the biggest mall I've ever seen. Imagine the ritzy side of King of Prussia, elevate the ceilings about 20 feet, add lots more light and shiny glass, triple it's size, divide it into 3 sections, add an outdoor area between each and you'll come close to envisioning what the Siam Center is like. It's 500,000 sqm, has 350 stores, also is home to an aquarium with 20,000 marine life species, and a cinema with 16 screens. It's ridiculous. And everything is super expensive. For Thailand. For the US. I went into Northface and the cheapest thing was a vest which was priced at 6500B, or $191 USD! Forget it!
I made my way across the street to MKB, the "Thai" version of the Paragon. I walked into the department store on the end, picked up the first coat I saw and at 3000B it seemed like a sweet deal. Without a second thought I just got it. I didn't feel like wasting my entire night in this place! Anyone who knows me knows I'm not much of a shopper anyway...I'm the type of person to scan the store and can size up their inventory in a matter of seconds to determine if it's really worth my time and/or effort...if the place has anything remotely like what I'm looking for...but it was pretty overwhelming to be in a mall with 3 different sections, 3-6 levels each with huge outdoor verandas in between and about a thousand teenagers running around.
Afterwards, of course, I had to avoid being scammed by tuk-tuk drivers and taxis...all trying to charge me 200B when the real price is around 70B. I wasn't getting anywhere though. There was a formal taxi stand but even still, the drivers were refusing to use their meters b/c of "traffic". I left the taxi stand line and asked around...the best I got was 150B from a tuk-tuk driver, but I was determined. Eventually a woman on a motorbike offered to take me for 100B. I had bags, wasn't sure how I was going to do it on a motorbike, but she just grabbed them and said 'no problem'...then I said, 'well I don't have a helmet', and she magically produced one for me. Well, with that, how could I say no? I strapped on the helmet and hopped on the back...and squeezed my legs into her and closed my eyes as we zipped in between buses and taxis and motorbikes alike. I tried not to think about the statistic I read earlier which was that ---don't read this mom--- there are 38 motorbike related deaths every day in Bangkok alone. Now that's a scary thought. Fortunately, I made it back to Khoa San intact.
A trip to southeast Asia just isn't complete if you don't ride on a motorbike at least once. It's just surreal. There are so many of them, they drive on the left side of the road (which I still can't wrap my head around), they zip through traffic and through spaces you would never imagine fitting through...it's just, it's just...you just will have to try it for yourself if you are ever here.
Anyway. I'm about to negotiate my way through the madness that is Khoa San Road one last time...in search of ear plugs. Tomorrow morning I'll be boarding a bus to the airport (to avoid the expense, but moreso the hassel of dealing w/taxi drivers) and will be off to China with my new Thai coat :) I can't believe it's already the last leg of this trip...time really flies!
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