Another weekend in Bangkok

I haven't written anything in a while so I think I should probably tell you all about this past weekend since it was pretty eventful. Our group had a really stressful class load last week so we decided it would be fun to spend the weekend in Bangkok. We hopped on a shuttle that goes between the campus of Thammasat University which is right next to AIT to the one that’s in downtown Bangkok. It only costs 40 baht (about $1.15) so it’s a really good deal. However, since we left around 5pm we got stuck in some pretty heavy rush hour traffic. It seriously took us about two hours to get into the city, which is about twice as long as it usually takes. After the van dumped us out, we headed in the direction of Khao San Road.

For those of you who don’t know, Khao San Road is a famous hangout spot for foreign travelers staying in Bangkok. It’s essentially just a strip of bars, clubs, and cheap hostels, with obnoxious ads and neon signs everywhere. We quickly found the alley where our hostel was located, dumped off our stuff, and headed out to see what we could find to do. We quickly realized that the only thing we could really do was to go to a bar, so that’s what we did. I’ll skip the more, er, “interesting” details since my parents are reading (Hi mom and dad!) but lets just say things got a little out of control, ha ha. Everyone made it back safe and sound to our hostel and nobody even lost anything valuable, yay!

The next morning was a bit rough but we all sucked it up and started trekking towards Chinatown, since the Chinese New Year was coming up and we wanted to see what sort of festivities were going on there. We must have been quite a sight: eight Americans being led by Dane (our self-appointed guide Andreas), most of whom were wearing sunglasses, desperately chugging water, and using a method of locomotion somewhere between stumbling and lurching. At one point we found a creepy alley full of shady-looking guesthouses where Ryan though we could possibly stay for the night. This idea was quickly vetoed due to the fact that they all had locking gates on the front, were extremely filthy, and appeared to be the best place in Bangkok to get stabbed. So, we pressed onward and eventually happened upon a much more appealing part of Chinatown to stay. We found a cheap hotel that looked pretty clean so we all checked in and took greatly needed afternoon naps.

We woke up a few hours later and decided to get some food and then do some exploring. After talking to a few locals, we thought that they were telling us that there were going to be fireworks at the National Stadium that night. Apparently we misinterpreted what they were telling us (this happens a lot here) because after walking for a long time in the direction of the stadium, there were no sign of fireworks whatsoever. Maybe they were telling us that the fireworks were another day, that there was somewhere to buy fireworks nearby, or just that fireworks are indeed awesome, I don’t really know.

Everything worked out though, since we stumbled upon a high-rise hotel that had a rooftop bar with views of the city. We went in to ask if we could get a table there and they informed us that shorts and flip-flops were not allowed. Being the resourceful travelers that we are, we backtracked to the Tesco-Lotus Superstore that we had passed earlier (imagine a giant Meijer store with a two-level food court below it) to buy some nicer clothes. We went back to the bar in our new outfits and were granted permission to go on up. It was really worth it; the bar had spectacular views of Bangkok’s skyline. It was really expensive so we all ordered one drink and nursed it for two hours. We were too tired to walk back the way we had come so we decided to take tuk-tuks back to our hotel. A tuk-tuk is basically a three-wheeled vehicle that has a bench in the back for passengers, a steering apparatus that looks like the front of a motorcycle, a windshield, and a roof on top. The sides are open with some rails on the side that probably wouldn’t keep you from tumbling out if it tipped over. The things also pump out as much smog as a small factory. Our driver said he would give us a “special show,” which it turns out meant that he was going to go really fast and weave in and out of traffic like a crazy person. The trip seemed more fun once we arrived at our hotel in one piece.

On Sunday, it appeared that people were setting up for the New Years festivities finally. However, it turns out that nothing was actually going to happen until Monday and Tuesday. We felt a little stupid for having gone out of our way to stay in Chinatown to see parades and fireworks that weren’t until the next day. At that point we decided we had seen enough of Bangkok for one weekend and headed for home. I had a lot of fun last weekend but I think I’ll need a little bit of a break before I go to Bangkok again.