Today is Yan-Shih's birthday. A little depressing that we spent the first part on a bus. Normally I can sleep anywhere, and while I slept quite a bit on the bus, I still couldn't get comfortable. Eventually we arrived in Bangkok, and made our way to Khaosan road (where a lot of backpacker types hang out).
One thing that I find highly amusing is my girlfriend's ability to be marveled by night markets and general bizarres. Karl Marx once said, "religion is the opiate of the masses," for my girlfriend, her opiate must be markets. Even supermarkets.
Finally we made our way to the Lamphu House, which was highly recommended by various people online. When we arrived at 8:30am every room was full, but since checkout was at 11:30, we decided to wait. We had a nice breakfast (I had more curry, which was more Thai style than Indian style, but good nonetheless), and read some more. The character development in War and Peace was initially dizzying, but now is addicting.
Around 10:30am or so the room was made available, and we situated ourselves. We both took showers, brushed teeth, and went out. We rode the "boat taxi" for the first time, and walked around the Wat Phra Kaeo (Grand Palace). Across the street we stopped at some bar and had a pitcher of Singha, and ate some grub. Yan-Shih got tipsy, which was humorous as usual.
Another boat taxi and we went to the Central Station, and got off at Nana station. This area (called Sukhumvit, I think) is where I had my suit tailored, and after one last fitting, a coffee and long talks at the shop down the street, my suit fit perfectly, and we departed. Carrying my suit back to the hotel we took some more showers, and went shopping through the various markets located near our guesthouse.
Bargaining is an art here; and not being white helps. I swear, there is a Standardized White Person Tax added to all products. Since I'm pretty shit at bargaining anyways, I only bought two shirts (which is basically all I wanted to buy). We eventually realized we needed to save some money for the ride out to the airport, and headed back to the guesthouse. A little more reading, and we both passed out.
This entry is from my journal and was written on Aug. 11, 2006. It's been tagged with Travel. There have been 0 comments so far.