I Admit it: I'm Lame (Bangkok, Thailand)

My parents will be happy to know that while in Bangkok I was in bed before 10 pm every night. 

I admit it: I’m lame. I was in Bangkok for a week and I didn’t debautch or witness debautchery at Khao San Road, I didn’t venture out to see the floating markets, and I didn’t visit a single temple. What’s wrong with me?

Well, I’ve been thinking about it, and realized that most of what tourists and travelers flock to in foreign locales boils down to shopping (markets, malls, etc) & religion (temples, mosques, churches, ruins, ceremonies, & festivals); the two human preoccupations and influences of which I have purposefully tried to eliminate from my life as much as possible. (It’s no wonder I hated Rome!)
I’m always and ever-learning about myself of course, but the more I travel, the more I realize that I like to stay somewhere long enough to get into a rhythm where I know where I’m going, have my “places” and things I like to order, people recognize me, and I create a bit of routine. I tend to prefer strolling around, observing, and trying to experience what it is like to “live” in an area to get a feel for the place; things like grocery shopping, eating out, using public transportation, going to a movie, etc. 

I still struggle with moments of guilt that I am not seeing the things I am “supposed to” see, or go out and do what everyone else likes to do, but come on . . . everyone knows that Laura just has to be a contrarian! She has to do things differently! She can’t help it! It is a foundational element of her make-up! 

*Sigh*

Now don’t get me wrong, I do like to do some touristy things! I love the more natural “sites” that involve hiking and views, etc, and I love art, so museums draw me as well. I also love to see dance. But in general, I don’t really travel to see things. I think I travel to live in different contexts. I like to get a glimpse into someone else’s reality in the hopes that mine will not end up shallow, naive, and one-dimensional. 

Maybe that is why I am still going to bed early, waking up early, and pretty much still being normal me, working towards my 2014 goals. I’m still living a normal life. It’s just a bit more interesting (and cheap) for me to do so in new places while meeting people from all over the world and seeing what “normal” is for most of the rest of the population.  

 So instead of shopping and temples and golden buddhas and ladyboys and late-night partying, I walked around in one neighborhood where I was staying; the newer and “richer” Sukhumvit area. I ate at food stalls and in restaurants, rode public transport around, went to Crossfit most days, saw a movie, did lots of reading, and got to know a few people at the hostel. 

The Crossfit class was hosted on the roof of a fancy corporate gym (Aspire) at the Asoke Sky Train station where people could watch us working out from the train platform. Sometimes the whole platform was filled with people watching us! It was ridiculously hot for the 4:30 pm class, so after the second day when I almost had heat stroke I started going to the latest possible class for the rest of the week. It was a pretty amazing view to work out to, though. One of the best parts was the ice-cold scented towels they handed out at the end of class which would quickly become black from my skin being covered in residue from the weights and mats.

I happened to select a hostel (HI-Sukhumvit) which is on a road famous for some of the best street food in Bangkok, including Bangkok’s finest burger (it was ridiculously good). I had the BEST soup of my life for $1.50.

I chose this hostel because it had easy train access from the airport. In fact, I found the public transportation efficient and organized. I only needed the train system for what I did in Bangkok (which wasn’t much, I admit). Otherwise I walked. 

The hostel was really clean and all the bunk beds had curtains around them which was a nice plus. I stayed in a female 6 bed dorm room which was never entirely full. They provided sheets and a pillow as well as a personal lamp, outlet, and hooks for each bed. Everyone was respectful and I had no issue with noise. It cost about $10/night.

I befriended a small group of travelers, put together by the hand of a fellow American whom I may write about in the future, but let’s just say he was an “interesting” person who taught me how to say “hello” and “thank you” in Thai, which is pretty much the minimum amount of a local language you should know if you don’t want to be an a*&hole. In our group we had Dries from Belgium, (my age), Adrian from Switzerland (50s and retired), the American guy (40s), and Simon from New Zealand (50s). We shared some meals and walks together, and exchanged lots of stories and information about our own countries and cultures. This is one of my favorite parts of traveling; you get to meet so many people from different places! 

Preparing for my departure from Bangkok, I went to buy a train & ferry combo ticket to Koh Tao at the train station the day before I was planning on leaving, and was told all of the sleepers were sold out! I was disappointed since I was planning on it being my first experience sleeping on a train; something I had dreamed about as a kid. So I shrugged and agreed to instead purchase a ticket on the later train that was just a normal seat. However, seeing my sad face, the guy at the ticket counter told me if I showed up 1 hour before the sleeper train was leaving, I may find that there is a cancellation in the sleeper car that I could exchange my ticket for. I didn’t have a lot of hope, but decided to give it a shot. $31 for 9 hour overnight train ticket, bus to ferry, and ferry ride.

The day of departure, I had to fill the day without getting too sweaty and gross because I wouldn’t be able to take a shower for over 24 hours. The hostel let me keep my bag in a closet for the day, so I walked down to the local cinema to see a movie. They had fancy touchscreen purchasing stations where you could select your seat! There were preferred seats and ones that could recline, etc that cost more, but I just bought a normal ticket since I was able to select a great spot on the screen. (We so need that in the states!) Then you can even order your snacks on the machine as well and then take the ticket to the concession stand to collect them! They had 3 different kinds of popcorn but no diet soda. I chose “classic” popcorn and I admit it was different, but very tasty! The portion sizes were small (you can’t really get a huge bucket of popcorn). Overall, I’d say it was a great experience. The ticket cost $5.50, and popcorn and soda probably half of that. Oh yeah, the movie was “Divergent”, which wasn’t great. The most interesting part was before the movie when everyone stood for the national anthem, but I already wrote about that in the last post.

I arrived at the station with a little over an hour before the train was leaving and found there was indeed ONE 2^nd class sleeper available and I was rushed over to the proper window to purchase it while it was still available. I figured that if they all told people to show up one hour before that I had better show up a little earlier than that if I had any chance at all. However, I heard yesterday that travel agencies buy up all the tickets from the train station so they can charge travelers higher ticket prices and then an hour before the train leaves, they give them back to the train station, so there’s that. I was indeed able to buy the ticket for another 230 baht, or 7 dollars.

I loved-loved-loved-loved the train and can’t wait to take my next ones to Kuala Lumpur!! The Chinese man on the top bunk across from my side snored like crazy, but the constant clanging and banging of the train easily sent me into a deep slumber. 

The toilet situation isn’t the sweetest-smelling or most hygienic there is in this world (it's just a hole straight to the tracks below), but as long as I wear a skirt and learn how not to pee on my right foot, all should be fine. I am learning to love the “bum gun”, I carry spare TP, moist wipes & a over-the-door hook for my bag, and my squat is ever-improving thanks to Crossfit. 

I can squat for at least five minutes unassisted no problem. 

Same Same. No problem.