Thailand-Day 12-Bangkok

Unlike the cuisine I had encountered in the northeast and north, my lunch (and the dinner the night before) were fairly mediocre. They lacked the smooth sweetness with a kick of spice that the other food had, and were considerably more expensive. I'm not saying it wasn't still great food. The bulk of the afternoon was spent with Danthemanstan and I wasting some of Peter's time and lots of ours by making it all the way to the Cambodian embassy only to have both forgotten our passports. Peter didn't join us on our second trip, and we successfully obtained visas to Cambodia. Now, traveling in southeast Asia, and especially countries like Cambodia or Laos that score pretty low on any corruption index always requires a bit of reading. I had read to buy the visa with US Dollars, as the Thai Baht price was well above conversion (this later made sense when we realized that the Dollar is the de facto currency of Cambodia). This saved us about $10. But, these shady governments are always one step ahead of the international tourist. Thus, when we asked how much the visa was (we knew it should be $20-a loose "should") we were told "express visa is $25." I'm not sure that we wanted, or needed, or filled out the form for the express visa but this guy was the only one working the counter, so we paid $25. Either that's the price (unlikely) or that guy makes $5 off every tourist that doesn't want to argue (highly likely).

We met back up with Peter and visited Jim Thompson's House, a beautiful and architecturally intriguing former home of an American silk businessman (well worth the visit if you have the time). We were in a bit of a hurry, so when we got off the Skytrain, we grabbed a tuk-tuk and didn't negotiate very much. On our way out of the house we realized that we overpaid the tuk-tuk driver by about 95%. Of the big cities I have visited, Bangkok didn't impress me too much with its public transportation. The Skytrain system is really convenient, it's a light rail system that is quite elevated. It has a fairly extensive network that gets to most of the outlying areas. The metro is really nice and clean, but doesn't have very many stops. Put it together with the Skytrain and it covers most of the city, but transferring between the two is easy enough, but consumes lots of time. It seems that the city planning wasn't very cohesive, as two different rail systems operate above and below ground with poor integration. The biggest pain for tourists, and boon for tuk-tuk and taxi drivers is that neither system goes anywhere near the old part of town and the central government/palace area. Combine that with the guarantee that if you're not Thai you won't be paying anything near the actual price (the first question to a cab driver is whether he'll use the meter or not) and paying exorbitant tuk-tuk prices is part of the Bangkok experience.

We topped the night off in true Bangkok fashion. The three of us met up with Sean and Sarah to only be short of Jordan to recreate the JSTU foreign teacher crew in Bangkok. After another dinner at the outdoor cafeteria along with plenty of Singha beer we headed to Soi Cowboy. Fun fact: during less than two hours at dinner we received 37 visits from the lovely hawkers selling random tourist paraphernalia. Soi Cowboy is supposedly becoming the new main red light district as Patpong is becoming more show-oriented and less pure sex trade. Bangkok could, from what I understand, just be considered one big red light district. It was just a short walk from our hotel, so we couldn't not make the trip. It was pretty much exactly what you expect: a street lined with bars, each featuring scantily clad women in front trying to pull you in, as well as big billboards advertising all sorts of drink specials. We actually stopped at one bar, as Danthemanstan spotted an NFL playoff game on its TV.

truth in advertising

Peter and I took a brief trip inside this bar to check out epicenter of the sex tourism industry. I think the most telling thing of what was the real business going was that each girl dancing, (clothed-don't worry) had a number pinned to her skirt or top. Peter and I also proved true the theory that everyone wants what he can't have. We continuously neglected the flirty insinuations that the girls making small talk with us. As we headed outside after seeing enough of the "sexpat" and "prostitourism" scene, another patron came up to me and said that I shouldn't leave because the girl making small talk with me was really interested. I said thanks for the advice, as I doubt he would have believed that I have a girlfriend and was here mostly just to watch the men in the crowds-not the girls on stage.

now, that's convenience

Most important, what I learned from the walk around Soi Cowboy, was the next time a friend of yours says he is going to Bangkok to see the temples-make sure to see pictures for verification upon his return.