Khao San Road

Grasshoppers anyone?

Our final three days in Bangkok were spent in the Khao San Road area, also known as the Backpacker Ghetto.  It is close to the Grand Palace and other sights, but mostly it’s a big party area with tons of bars and vendors selling everything you can think of - even bugs that you can eat!  I think the bug vendor made more money from selling pictures of her cart than she did actually selling bugs.  We watched a couple of tourists try them, and I even thought Daron might be up for a larvae or two, but he wasn’t feeling so adventurous that day!

Perhaps a scorpion....or two?

Originally we weren’t big on going to the area where all the tourists hang out, but after being there I can see why they go.  There is some nice patio dining and drinking, as well as great restaurants and street vendors.  It’s all right there, and most of the Thai people there speak good English.  It’s easy and almost doesn’t feel like Thailand – it’s a nice break after you’ve been traveling around the country.   

Besides the day we spent on the crazy tuk tuk tour, we spent one day getting our bus tickets to Chiang Mai in the northern part of Thailand.  We had to actually go to the bus station to buy the tickets.  You can buy them from a travel agency in town, but chances are good that you’ll get overcharged and they’ll underdeliver (charge you for a VIP bus and put you on a local one!).  We read that if you don’t use the government buses you’ll have a good chance of your luggage getting broken into too.  The timetable for the government buses is online, but they aren’t set up to take payment over the internet.  After our experience with the tuk tuk touts, we felt better going to the bus station and buying our own tickets.  We took a metered taxi to the bus station with no problems, but getting back was a whole other ordeal.  Due to the language barrier our taxi driver thought we wanted to go to a different place than we told him, so he inadvertently took us way out of our way.  He felt bad about it, and we were able to salvage the day by just getting out of the taxi (we were stuck in horrible traffic just watching the meter get higher and higher) and taking a water taxi up a canal to a place close to our hotel, which was actually a lot of fun too!

Hanging out in a cafe with a local kitty cat

I’ll leave you with a little information on the city we’re about to leave, good ol’ Bangkok.  Our guidebook says Bangkok has an estimated population of 10 million, but one of the taxi drivers we met said its population is closer to 15 million.  Truly, I don’t know how they get to either figure, since the city is a maze of alleyways and buildings, with people living in all kinds of unofficial places.  I think it would be impossible to know its exact population.  The current site of the capital city, along the Chayo Phraya River, was chosen by the king of Thailand in 1782.  The place he chose was originally called Bang Makok, or “place of olive plums.”  He changed the name to be Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit (say that ten times fast!), which translates to “Great City of Angels, City of Immortals, Magnificent Jeweled City of the God Indra, Seat of the King of Ayuttaya, City of Gleaming Temples, City of the King’s Most Excellent Palace and Dominions, Home of Vishnu and All the Gods.”  It is officially the longest place name in the world. Most of the locals know Bangkok as Krung Thep or “City of Angels.” 

Bangkok took a while to grow on me; initially I was not too big on the place.   By the time we were ready to leave I had started to get the hang of how things worked - bartering for everything, spotting the touts, etc.   The place definitely has its own special rhythm, which I had just started to recognize and become familiar with.  In a strange way, I will miss the Thai City of Angels.