Leaving Bangkok

Final days in Bangkok! Sad/relieved to be leaving. For the last five weeks part of my belongings or I were/was stored there. The A-1-Inn. Ha ha, if ever a name were designed to mislead… There was a shrill, on-again, off-again drilling sound just outside my window…no matter which room I stayed in…every morning starting at 5 am. I think, actually, that 5 am is still night time. No, for sure it is. Especially to a traveler. For anyone who hasn’t experienced noise-reducing (passive) in-ear headphones, they’re life savers and don’t physically interfere with sleep. Hardly useful at “home”, these things are saving my small remaining thread of sanity while traveling. They’re firmly among the must-pack items.

So, it’s been officially > five weeks since I last slept in a dorm room. SE Asia is so inexpensive, it’s just not necessary to keep the cost down that low.

While back in Bangkok, made plans to meet up with the two Aussies from Phuket. Went down to Koh San Road and shared a drink, out of a bucket…a french guy and his wife walked by. We’d originally met on Ko Sai island while snorkeling…such a tiny place, and there they were, two days later. It was hilarious. We we’re then seven and as a group made our way to the revered petrol station for the next bucket. The pictures from the menus at the petrol station were hilarious to read and this time I got pictures…will post.

Managed to wrestle a Vietnamese visa out of the nice people at the Vietnamese Embasy.
“Nice”. Yeah, like how the people at the DMV are “nice”. Sort of like, I wonder who would win a fight to the death, me or those three behind the counter holding my visa until 4 pm for no reason and laughing at me for wanting it earlier, or at all, “nice”. Anyway, I now have a visa good for one month past 16 Jan. Got the malaria prophylaxis pils. Bring on those little blood-sucking death-bugs of the far north!

On a bus now from Bangkok to the Cambodian border on my way to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I decided last night to do it today. That still has to be one of the oddest feelings, unique to travelers (or pre-depressive lottery winners), just picking a place within striking distance and going there as soon as possible. Cambodia? Sure. It’s bizarre. It would be like waking up in San Diego and saying Yosemite… then thumbing through a guide book for the route and getting on a bus two hours later with little or no idea what’s in store.
It’s brilliant.

Farewell Thailand and:
Bye pad thai. I will miss you dearly. May we meet again…in my kitchen!
Bye $5 Rolexes and Breitlings and Ray Bans and, well, just about anything’s $5 in Bangkok if you look long/hard enough.
Bye $2, one-hour taxi rides.
Bye street food!! (the best, for real)

This entry was posted on January 11, 2007 at 8:15 pm and is filed under SE Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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