Day 15
We wake up early this morning, keen to search the capital of Thailand but that enthusiasm starts to fade as we feel the heat of the place, it's intense and the best way to describe it is like walking into a steam room that's set to 34c with your clothes on. To help us acclimatise, we eat breakfast in the hostel to give our bodies time to adjust and its a brilliant choice, I have pancakes and banana with a delicious lemon drink that freshens me a little.
Our hostel is a little way out of the city centre and instead of walking (urg) or trying to get a non dodgy tuk tuk, we decide to take the river boat 10 stops up to around the Kho San Road area to see what all the fuss was about. The stops just around the corner from us but we are still sweating when we get on the boat. The 20 minute journey is only 30p each and slightly cooling but we still have to sit down, trying to find cool, at a temple. This thing about this heat is you can't escape it, there isn't really any sun through the Bangkok haze of cloud no pollution so there isn't any shade to hide in. The area around Kho San has a chilled hippy vibe with markets selling all the trendy back packer wears including flip flops, vests, sarongs and bags. I notice a second hand bookshop as we wander and pull us in to its fanned coolness. A quick puruse and 2 books bought later, we are back out on the street and I'm really struggling. I'm quite a cold blooded human normally and I'm sweating like crazy, I have no idea how Ben, who over heats in winter in a jumper, is not dead yet. It sucks the life out of you and we make a few stops along the way to refuel and cool down.
A short walk from our book shop is the infamous Kho San road. It's full of markers, bars and a mixture of bewildered and weather worn travellers of all ages. The market stalls sell everything from DIY lampshades to sunglasses and tiger balm. It suppose to come more to life at night with all manner of strange things so we wander off to try and find somewhere cool to read and rest. Fat, fluffing chance in this weather. We find a park but quickly over heat on one of its benches. Our legs walk us to the Grand Palace but neither of us have the inclination to go inside as its brimming with tourists and looks, if it's possible, to be even hotter. We give in at this point and make our way back to the hostel by the river boat. Once in, the only place I can find cool enough before the air con kicks in is the floor and I'm laying there for a full 20 minutes before I feel human again.
Our energy levels boost back up and our stomachs realise that they are empty once we are back to a normal temperature again. We currently have no plan for the rest of our stay in Thailand yet and this heat is both making us want to think of one fast so we install ourselves back down in the hostel cafe with laptops and brains and work out what we are going to do. The heat has really overwhelmed us both and neither can think about staying in Bangkok any longer than we have got booked already so we decided on beaches. 2 weeks of them to be precise around the Krabi area. We book our flights and our first lot of accommodation in Krabi town, day dream about swimming in cool waters in 2 day time and get ourselves ready for a night out in Bangkok.
I know I've held Ben back so far with my fears (which he hadn't complained about once) but I feel that I'm starting to relax here and want to see what the city can offer. Our tummys take priority as they usually do and Ben finds a delicious looking vegetarian resturant called May Kaidee's which is just off Kho San road. It's look late for the boat now so we decide, from the cool of our room, to walk it, not quite realising the distance. The map isn't too scale and makes the 3.3 mile walk look a doddle, again not including the heat factor. It's not as bad as it sounds though and we get to see a more natural side of Bangkok than the tourist areas and actually a lot of the must see sights along the way. An hour later, we are seated at the restuant and it doesn't disappoint. Ben goes for his masaman which he says is the best he has ever tasted, whilst I go for a light peanut and sesame salad washed down with a really refresher cocktail, virgin for me, which had lemon grass and ginger in.
After eating ourselves to a waddle status (I don't see how anyone can lose weight in Asia) we take a look at the delights of Kho San road in the darker hours. All that really gets added is the clientel of a Friday night in Colchester, a few ping pong show offers and some fried scorpions that you can't take pictures of but its a lively atmosphere and fun to be in so we stay for a little while taking it in.
Not really wanting to walk back, we look for a taxi just off the Kho San area, however our first guy saw our sweaty, non tanned faces and fancy taking us for a ride and not one that we wanted to go on. Taxis in Thailand are all metered and by law they have to be turned on for any trip, this guy however though we could make a bit on us and wouldn't put it on, offering us a price of 400 (about £8) instead. I come into my own here, all worries forgotten as I'm not in the mood to be ripped off after the troubles of India and after a few minutes of me insisting he put the meter on and he losing 50 of the price every minute, we get out and wander down the road to flag down another, who has his meter on for takes us back to the hostel for 80.
The night has lost hardly any of the days heat though and even that short distance we walked to find the not so scammy cab, I've over heated again. Cue another floor lay when we get in and a night serenaded by the hum of the air con.
Day 16
Last night, on our long walk to Kho San, we talked about my fears of the adventuring and Ben came up with the idea of having a Ben style day today, one with no real plan or maps, just see where it takes us, to test my control freak nature. Our first task however is to find some sticky rice, we hop on a river boat to Thi Tiem in the hope the market outside the peir will have some sticky rice. It doesn't but we fill up on watermelon and realise we are right next to the reclining Buddha statue which we've been told is quite good. I haven't however, dressed for Thai temples, who don't like shorts or bare shoulders and to go inside I have to borrow one of their lime green nylon dressing gowns. Within 10 seconds of it touching my skin, I'm sweating and by 2 minutes I know what it's like to be cooked in a microwave. Add to this that the temple is packed full of people with no through breeze and it isn't long before I want to dive in the fountains that are just out the entrance. The Buddha is cool though, and very big and all of the temples surrounding it are so pretty but it's just too hot and I can't really enjoy any of it as all I'm thinking about is cold thoughts, cold thoughts.
Also as we are wandering we notice the clouds are starting to darken and even though a nice shower would feel very cooling, I didn't really fancy wandering around is damp shorts so we dive into a cafe. It's called the Gate and does some really nice Thai food which we nibbled whilst watching the rain fall and then quickly disappear again, not even leaving a puddle or cooling the air. At is point with not real plan, we decide to head in the rough direction of our hostel and see what we found along the way. First thing was the brightly coloured flower market with its sweet smells, then back out onto a side road to its not so sweet ones. We walk following the river, hoping to find a peir so we can escape the heat on a boat. It takes a little while to locate one and on the way we see some more of Bangkok at its heart, with tight streets, wooden house and Thai people getting on with their day. Hot and sticky we find a pier stop from ours and carry on our hunt for the sticky rice once we are off. Still no luck so Ben goes for street food dumplings whilst I a 7/11 biscuit feast as we couldn't find anything vegetarian.
Tonight's plan is to go insearch of the worlds biggest adult playground, Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy. Both of which are off metro stops so we hop on one, enjoying its coolness and speed. The stop it takes us to is about 5 minutes from our preferred show of choice but it's at least 3 hours since we last ate and we spot a strange looking noodle resturant playing a film about Pompeii, perfect.
You wouldn't know Soi Cowboy is the devious play ground it is from the side streets around it, and it comes out of the blue after a 5 minute walk. And come out it does. The street is the length of Crouch Street, covered in neon signs, pumping music and full of lady boys. I mean literally full of them, some very convincing and some quite definitely not but all being followed by swarms of elderly western men with a puppy dog expression on their faces but with lustful desperation in their eyes. It's beyond creepy and I feel uncomfortable instantly, we walk it 2 or 3 times looking for a somewhere to sit to people watch but all places seem to want a little more participation than that so we move on to find Nana Plaza.
The main strip is a dual carriage way with pavements on each side, crammed full with of thin market stalls. At first I think it's the usual Thai tourist tatt, just streams of designer knock offs, fake Lego toys, phone cases, sex toys and...wait a minute, what? A close look makes me realise that every third or fourth stall is full of all types of sexual equipment and aids including 6 types of Viagra, blow up dolls and fleshlights (if you don't know what they are, don't google them) Bangkok's adult playground has seeped onto its streets but no one seems to notice and haggles for their Deor top or Nikee top whilst I can't stop staring at it all.
We let ourselves be hustled and bustled down the street whilst we look for our place, but with no luck and after 3 turn arounds and a pit stop in McDonalds to steal it's wifi, we give up and wander down a small alley to see what we can find. I'm hitting panic mode at this point as my 3 triggers, heat, crowds and tiredness, have all been rolled into one. Ben senses this and sees a bar that might be perfect for us to chill out in for s bit with a live band playing inside. He wanders in with a sweet smile from the girls outside, whilst my reception is a little colder. I can't work out why until I adjust to the darkness inside and I realise I've walked into a indie version of a brothel come nightclub. The room is full of dubious look girls, stalking the 6 or 7 men inside who are lapping up the attention and all the other perks of the place. Ben finds it all funny which I know I should too but I can't stop the creepy feeling filling the pit of my stomach and I get Ben to leave after a very quick one drink.
My feeling of frustration replaces the discomfort with each step towards the metro and I try and rationalise why I needed to leave so badly. The girls aren't being exploited, in fact it feels quite the opersite, they use the school boy lust of these strange men to rinse their credit cards. And it's not that I'm not really that prudey. But when I think about it more deeply as I lay awake that night with it all buzzing in my head, maybe I am? I have a distinct idea of what should happen and where, and it shocks my core when that's tested. Although I'm open to the more darker side of life, I think it has a place and everyone in it, and that view tonight of unabated lust of something that was going to be paid for, just didn't fit in to that. But when I really thought about it and how, actually, businesslike it all way, I started to see it all in a different light. It's not as black and white as my values think it is, it's just a service like any other and that horror in me is just heightened by my other overwhelment of this crazy adventure of ours and I fall asleep soundingly, knowing I'll be leaving this mad city in the morning.
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