Bangkok

I should start this post by confessing that I have a tragically poor sense of direction. It was made clear to me gradually over the past few years, but my wanderings in Bangkok have eliminated any doubts about it. This has caused a good deal of frustration for me, especially in a city raging with perpetual traffic, smelly pollution, stifling heat and humidity, and hordes of tuk-tuk drivers descending on me anytime I look at a map, take a breather, or just pass by ("Tuk-tuk! Tuk-tuk! Where you going? My friend... I take you to big Buddha, temples, only 30 baht, you have map? Whistle-whistle").

But getting lost is also an opportunity to see something you would have otherwise overlooked. On my first night, the taxi driver from the airport dropped me off in front of a narrow alley in the rain and told me to walk two minutes through it to get to my guesthouse. He couldn't drive in because it was too narrow. Like an idiot, I obliged, paid him, and entered the rainy alley under the weight of my much too large backpack. After a few minutes, I started seeing clotheslines and motorcycles instead of backpackers and guesthouses, and walked back to avoid being murdered. Of course the driver was gone, and I was hopelessly lost. But the first person I asked for directions happened to speak English, had visited New York for a photography field trip, and was headed in the same direction as me. The walk with her was pleasant and the whole experience was unique and, as I'd soon learn, not life-threatening as I'd thought. Thailand is quite safe, with the exception of thieves, a universal phenomenon.

Also from Night 1: checking into a 300 baht ($10) room with a bed, fan, dim light, small table, and towel (electrical outlets and toilet paper sold separately); being approached by two prostitutes just down the street from my guesthouse while going out for a 3-4 AM meal; searching my floor and then the floor below for a bathroom.

A guesthouse room can't feel more like a prison cell (If I'd turned the camera the other way, the lens would be millimeters from the wall.)

Bathroom experiences are often interesting in foreign countries. On my first morning in Bangkok I went downstairs to take a shower to find that the shower head, toilet, and sink were in the same room with no division. The shower head was also on a loose screw, so if I didn't adjust it perfectly it would swing upside down and splash water all over the toilet bowl (which happened). After turning the shower off I noticed that the water hadn't drained much into the hole in the floor and that a spreading lagoon had almost reached my flip flops beneath the sink. The same day I was on the Khao San Road, the extremely touristic street where backpackers stay and hang out and basically Bangkok's Times Square, when a feeling in my stomach indicated that it was time for a Welcome-to-Thailand celebration. I found a 3 baht restroom just in time, but the fun wasn't over yet. There was a normal looking toilet but no toilet paper and what appeared to be a hose hanging from its stand. Luckily, my bowels haven't betrayed me as much on this trip as two years ago in Armenia. Also, stealing a roll of toilet paper from my guesthouse hallway has given me more peace of mind.

Bloodshed: On my second night I was kept awake on my hard bed by the insane yelling and cursing of a young Englishman in the hallway. He was threatening to kill someone. Two other men were shouting as well, one occasionally weeping, and the high pitched shrieks of a female Thai staff member went ignored until some banging sounds made me imagine her small frame being tossed around like a pillow. Eventually I stepped out of my room. My neighbor told me that the insane guy had beaten his father to pulp. This turned out to be quite true: a short plump middle-aged man appeared in the hallway, his nose a red blob and the entire front of his shirt stained dark red. Then a lanky young guy with tensed muscles came out and told his father to give his plane ticket away because he was about to go to Thai prison. The younger brother who'd been the one crying before pleaded with staff members not to call the police. Both warriors apologized several times to us in a calm tone. As if the father's nose wasn't practically gone.

The crazy stuff out of the way, I can express to you about how incredibly beautiful the architecture of the Buddhist temples and shrines are, but photographs will do a better job at that:

Food: Great food is incredibly cheap and plentiful in Bangkok. Food stalls in markets and other locations are  open for seemingly all hours of the day and night. If you're craving noodles or rice with chicken and morning glory at 3 AM, go for it. There are many flavors in Thai cuisine, often combined, which are categories most basically as savory/salty, sweet, spicy, and sour. It's common something salty like beef to be soaked in a sweet sauce, have a sour liquid ladled on, and finally sprinkled with hot red pepper. Several different cultures have influenced the cuisine, such as Laotian, Indian, and Chinese. If you venture down more hidden alleys away from the touristic areas, you'll find an amazing assortment of cooked foods and ingredients sold in markets, such as grilled fish and meats on skewers, various fruits and juices, and some more "exotic" things like roasted frogs.

Food stands near my guesthouse

RIP-bit!

People: Making friends is probably easier when traveling that at any other time. Everyone is there for more or less the same purpose and most are eager to share their experiences with others. Although I found it more difficult to strike up relationships with people as a solo traveler in a one-person room in Bangkok than here in Ayutthaya (more about that later), I did meet a few fun and interesting people. One of these was a German girl whose last night it was in Bangkok. She had quite an adventurous spirit, having even begged her friends to rent motorcycles in Bangkok--if you've been there, you know just how crazy that idea is. Multiple times during our conversation she expressed an interest in taking "crazy mosh-rooms" that night, before leaving Thailand on her flight the next day. I told her that was probably a bad idea. Still, we managed to have fun by frolicking in the rain through Khao San Road, grooving at a club, and searching for the woman who sells insects on a cart. I'd challenged her to try a scorpion with me and we'd shook on it. Although the cart was empty when we got to it because of the rain, a man in the next cart over asked us "How many?" and took out a plastic tub of the fried creatures from a shelf beneath the cart. My German fried shrieked in horror and jumped back, but went for it without too much protest. I also bought a scorpion for the vendor, the Thai incarnation of Tom Hanks, and the three of us crunched on the ash-tasting arachnids together.

Me and Tom Hanks eating scorpions. What a night.