Bangkok is the usual starting and ending point for my trips to Asia. It started off due to the fact that it is (or perhaps ‘used to be’ nowadays) the cheapest place in SE Asia to fly to from the area I live in. However, both this and last year I have traveled on frequent flier miles and even though I could have an open-jaw ticket, I have chosen not to. Why?
Because I love Bangkok.
I know I’m not alone in that thinking, but I also realize that Bangkok is a love it or hate it kind of place. It’s huge, dirty and incredibly noisy, but also a vibrant modern city. The type of place I enjoy.
This was my 6th trip there and being that I had done most of the tourist things, I decided to take it easy and hang out. I spent time hanging out in a park, taking water trips on the public water and canal taxis, eating at my favorite places and also trying new ones, and I even highly considered going to the cinema (enjoying the perfect weather convinced me not to). .
Then, of course, there’s shopping. Let me say, unequivocally, that I loathe most shopping. Detest. Hate. Period (Full Stop for you across-the-pondies). However, it is a necessary evil that one has to take part in from time to time whether they like it or not. So, I tend to do mine in Asia (when possible) due to the fact that things are much cheaper there.
However, I must admit that there is one kind of shopping enjoy – shopping for electronics (other than mobile phones). The best place to do that in Bangkok is Pantip Plaza, and that’s where I spent way too much time on Tuesday.
Pantip Plaza is a six storey complex full of small electronics shops and other things that deal with electronics (DVDs, parts, carrying bags, etc). Pure heaven.
Most of the shops appear to be legitimate businesses that offer receipts and warranty info (it now even has an IStudio). However, if you explore the back part of each floor, it gets dodgier (not in a dangerous way). Vendors have baskets of loose accessories for sale at extremely cheap prices. I usually buy a few US-Europe and Europe-US adaptors (25 THB/€0.53) since some of my electronics were bought in the US, some in Asia and some in Europe (hotels in Asia – other than Singapore or Malaysia) usually have sockets for both US and Europe electronics). This year, I bought a couple USB cords I was in need of, a couple DVDs (80 THB/€1.66 each – 1.8 long), a cordless mouse (250 THB/€5.25) and a few other accessories that either I needed or anticipated needing in the coming year (and one what will be in another post).
Walking around Pantip boggles my mind. You name it, they have it. They also have things that one couldn’t name or ever had even considered existed. It’s amazing. Actually, I know that I spend way too much time there when I go, so I have limited myself to two trips – one after I first get to Bangkok and the other just before I leave at the end of the trip.
When I woke up at 9:00 on 20 December, I realized that my jetlag had worn off, so I was back on a normal schedule (which is always a good thing). On 21 Dec, I had several things to do that would require stops in different parts of Bangkok so I decided to head too where I could do all those things at once – Khao San Road.
KSR, as it’s called, is the famous backpacker’s area of Bangkok. I don’t know why (and am not near the internet to look it up while writing this) but it is. It’s quite tacky and has lots of neon lights and other things like that and backpackers flock to it from all over the world for reasons unbeknownst to me. Hype, I think. There, the tourists can eat western food, have western drinks, watch movies and do tons of other things that they could do back home all while ignoring the fact that they were not in their home country. However, it was a good place to go to get the things I needed to do done with minimal travel.
While there, I:
- had passport pictures taken (for my Vietnam visa) – I had left mine at home
- bought contact lenses
- found an internet café and did online check in for my flight and printed the boarding card out as well as the reservation confirmation for my hotel (which I had also left at home).
- bought sunglasses for a stupidly cheap price
- shopped for a couple other items (can’t say, they’re presents).
Afterwards, it was 17:00 so I decided to have a beer. After a day of shopping, I needed one. So, I got an outdoor table at a place I had been to on KSR before (I usually visit there once a trip), ordered and then sat down and started reading my book. My plan was to enjoy the beer while reading and wait for nightfall to happen (just after 18:00). Then, I could walk to the river and take a public water taxi to the Skytrain and take that to the stop three minutes from my hotel – avoiding getting stuck on a bus in Bangkok’s awful traffic jams.
About five minutes after that, the Aussie sitting next to me asked me if he could have a napkin because a bird had crapped on his face while flying over him. I chuckled when I saw the bird poop on his left cheek and told him he could, and that’s where it started. He and I talked for quite a while and then a Norwegian came over and asked if he could join us, which of course we let him. A bit later, a Kiwi (New Zealander) who was walking by heard us and decided that he was also thirsty and invited himself to our table. Not much longer afterwards, our entourage included Brit and a Swede, and then it was on – a spontaneous Guys Night Out was declared! We had hours of great conversation in three different locations and the conversation never once lulled. We talked about our lives, our travels, our current trips, our hopes, our dreams, joked around, teased and made fun of each other, etc. It was an absolute blast.
Six independent travelers all traveling alone randomly brought together for a night of
great fun. Life doesn’t get much better than that.
Needless to say, the plan to get home after all that was cancelled, but I did find something almost unheard of in Bangkok – a taxi driver who actually uses his meter!
Bangkok has tons of ‘Taxi Meter’ drivers who should use their meters on every trip. However, 99.99% of the time, they don’t with tourists. They figure that tourists either 1. don’t know how much the trips should cost; or 2. know that the tourist will pay exorbitant amounts to get where they have to go when there is no other choice (it was quite late). So, I was full expecting to be ripped off when the taxi driver pulled up.
Conversation:
J: ‘How much to Silom?’
Taxi Driver points: ‘Meter.’
J [stunned]: ‘Really???’
TD nods.
He spoke not a word of English other than ‘Meter”, but he did his job and when we arrived at my hotel, I was hoping that he would be as honest as he seemed about the meter. The fare was 74 THB. The fare I had had in the past on that same route was 200 THB after negotiating taxi drivers down, and I was prepared to negotiate down to 150 THB that night out of principle (I hate being ripped off when they should be using their meters) – perhaps being somewhat intoxicated also played a role in that – and had put that amount in my shirt pocket (easier to reach before getting out of a taxi). So I took it out, thought about it for a fraction of a second and gave all of it to him for being so honest. His eyes opened wide and he was elated and thanked me many times (in Thai).
After the above, the following day started understandably late and was a relaxing day. I went to the river and found a place to sit in the sun, enjoy the weather, read and relax. I spent the evening at one of the beer gardens at Central World Plaza listening to live music, relaxing and thinking about what was to come the following day (after the previous night, no beer consumed).
Vietnam.
Posted by: J
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