Nothing too terribly exciting to report. I've been in Bangkok about 5 days, but haven't done a whole lot other than shopping, hanging out by the pool and using the internet. Although I just changed hotels today, so no longer have a pool to hang out at. It was time to stop splurging, and besides things were pretty noisy there at night with the club music blasting nearby, so I was ready to start getting to sleep earlier than 2 or 3 am. The main thing I've been dealing with here is that I wanted to mail back a bunch of stuff I don't need, such as my jackets, boots, long underwear, hats and gloves, etc. from the trekking, since I definitely won't be needing them at the beach. And while I was at it I figured I'd do some shopping and get some things I could use back home, but which are a heck of a lot cheaper here.
But once I got a box and piled everything into it, I realized it was getting pretty dang heavy, and I'd heard from someone else that mailing things overseas from Thailand was pretty expensive, more so than from India. So I went to the post office today with just a couple of things from the box, to get an idea what it was going to cost. Based on how much that was going to be ($20 by sea and $45 by air, for not very much), mailing the whole big box was going to be way expensive, at least $100-200. But I'd already formulated Plan B beforehand. I can store the box at my current guest house for 30 cents a day, for the couple of weeks I'll be gone. Even factoring in the outside chance that it could get stolen in the process, this makes more sense, since I doubt I spent much more than $100 altogether on all the stuff that's in the box, even though it's a lot of stuff. So then when I get back to Bangkok, I'll just separate everything I have into two equal bags, since that's what you're allowed on the flight. And then I think I'll still be able to squeak under the maximum weight limit for bringing things onto the plane, since I didn't buy all that much new stuff here.
So that's pretty much the only news of interest to mention. Other than that, some friends I met in Nepal are supposed to fly here in a few days, so I thought I might wait around to possibly meet up with them, before leaving Bangkok. Also there are some places around here I'd still like to see, so I'll probably do a little more exploring in the next couple of days. But mostly I'm about done with the noise and bustle of the city and am ready to get to a peaceful little island and relax on a beach, do some snorkeling and walk around where it's quiet and you don't have to constantly be dodging people and trying not to get run over by cars and buses and tuk tuks (the Thailand version of a rickshaw).
But overall I really like Bangkok, it's a perfect mix of modernity and culture, with plenty of interesting character. It's so hi-tech that when you go to cross the street, the "walk" signal is a symbol of a guy who actually walks. There's three different positions that he moves through. And the stoplights have screens that count down exactly how many seconds there are left before the light changes from green to red or else red to green, and it even counts down 3 seconds for the yellow light. But then the sidewalks are chock full of street vendors selling everything you can think of, including all kinds of smelly dishes, many of which you can't figure out what they are, but in some cases whatever it is, it's way too smelly for me to want to find out.
So it's a pretty interesting place to hang out, and also just a heck of a lot easier to deal with than most Indian cities, where there's so much garbage and pollution; and you're just such an oddity to the Indian people apparently that you feel like you're walking down the street in a clown suit or something, the way people are staring at you. I still don't quite understand the reaction you get in India as a western traveler, but things are much more back to normal in Thailand, where people certainly view you with some curiosity at times in certain places, but it's not the constant barrage of attention.
I'll probably be here at least a few more days, then be heading south. I'll most likely take a half-day bus ride, to either Hua Hin or else Prachuap Khiri Khan, both of which are on the eastern coast south of Bangkok; and then I'll continue on from there to the island of Ko Chang, on the western side of the peninsula (not to be confused with the other, more well-known Ko Chang, near Cambodia and the other islands I visited previously). From there I'll most likely hop over to another nearby island, Ko Phayam, that sounds pretty nice. At this point, I'm not sure if I'll make it over to Cambodia to see the temples at Angkor Wat, even though everyone says they're amazing. I've seen enough temples at this point, and am not really feeling up for dealing with both the bus rides getting there (which would require coming back up to Bangkok and then heading east) and back, and the extra cost for both the Cambodian visa, and the ticket to see Angkor Wat, which is pretty pricey. But who knows, maybe I'll get bored of beaches pretty quick and be ready to do something else. But either way I'll definitely get back online before I take off from here, because after that I might be out of touch for a little while, as apparently internet access on most of the islands is both slow and expensive.
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