One Evening in Bangkok

Well, my one "crazy" night out in Bangkok turned out to be an afternoon of jet-lagged wandering through the city.  My hotel is about a 40 minute drive from the downtown core, WITHOUT traffic.  Luckily everything here is ridiculously cheap and I think it was a total of $15 for cab rides and train fare today.

I asked the concierge if he could call me a cab so I could go downtown.  He paused and replied with,

"Uhh, no ma'am, we don't recommend go downtown now."

"Why?"

"Because right now is traffic jam."

"...Okay...is it better if I wait an hour or two and then head out?"

"No ma'am, traffic jam until 9."

"So are you telling me it's always a traffic jam?"

"Yes."

So basically Bangkok is always a traffic jam.  It took a good 30 minutes for the cab driver to get me to a decent skytrain station, and another 25 from there after ticket fare mishaps to get into the downtown core.  I ended up in a bit of a daze still recovering from jet lag and fatigue, but still got a good sense of the city.

 A bit of the Chao Phraya river that runs through the city

Merry Christmas!

I also got to enjoy a little bit of the pool at the hotel before going out.  It was bizarre going from the land of winter in Canada to hot and humid temperatures.

I tried to find some street food that I liked or trusted, but I decided to go with street-fish-that-eat-your-dead-skin-time instead.  It was only 3 BUCKS for 15 minutes, and it was the tickliest, most tortuous, icky thing ever.  But now my feet are super smooth.

Trying to keep a straight face.

Deck party.

I decided to return to the comforts of bed and beer and ridiculously cheap (and amazingly delicious) room service at the hotel after another taxi ride back.  Bangkok is all lit up in preparation to celebrate the King's birthday on Friday.  I can see the lights from my room too - this may rival some of our Christmas light ups back home.  What a wonderful way to end my short stay in Bangkok.

Tomorrow morning I leave for the final leg of this journey and head into Kathmandu.