BKK 3 days in

Dear Reader,

Three days into Bangkok and it feels like I've been here for a lot longer, I've seen and done many things.

Day 2 involved getting a haircut from a totally awesome older lady. That was great, simply because the Thai I know is "Koh toht: chan meh poot paa sah thaii" (I'm sorry I don't speak Thai) and her English was "okay; yes; no" which made for a lovely interaction of charades and describing various lengths of hair. She gave me three bananas afterwards.

After getting lost in back alleyways and moving through temple complexes, I caught a taxi to the train station to book an overnighter to Chiang Mai; a city in northern Thailand. Train stations are great places to hang out for a while and get a sense of a country. Most European train stations have a frenetic ambiance about them, in Iceland, there is no train station. The station in Bangkok is quite lovely; food sellers at all doors, interesting smells and people sitting and wandering about waiting for trains. Not entirely urgent feeling; a stark change from usual BKK style.

I asked a worker where good food was, and she pointed in a general direction, and so I ventured into an area where food stalls and blue collar workers ruled the small streets and tuk-tuks did not venture into.

"Phad thai?" "No phad thai. PHAD THAI!" She shouted down the street, to which I heard a cacophony of "Phad thaiii" echoing around me as other food stalls relayed the message to the phad thai stand. After a plate of phad thai, I saw some amazing soup, and feeling like I needed some spicy-ass-melt-your-face-off cures, I tucked into it and by my hand, over spiced it. A badly diseased, scarred, mangy, dog watched me from a short distance. I hoped it wouldn't come ask me for anything.

From there, I decided to get LOST. As lost as possible. The abundance of cheap taxis, and the fact that I had a flyer in Thai that would direct me back to my area, makes getting totally lost more of a fun challenge then a daunting prospect. I ended up in what can only be described as grease monkey central, where row upon row of shops specializing in only motorcycle and car parts were king. Many looks of "Where'd this guy come from?". Other highlights included chinese market, mangostine, hanging with an old dude outside 7-11 and inevitable trek back to the hostel.

Yesterday was market day. A brit and a lady from San Fran accompanied me to the 15,000+ stall, 7 football field size mother of all markets. Everything you could imagine there was being sold, hocked and haggled for. Again, brilliant food, interesting conversation and completely unnecessary haggling over literally pennies. The best part (in my opinion) was getting there. We took a water taxi to the train station, and it made me wish every american city had canals... even if they do become disgusting cesspools. My favorite cholera contracting experience was when two water taxis blasted past each other and the convergence of wakes made one almighty wave that poured into the cabin of my water taxi, right on me. It was gross and I tried not to open my mouth.

On that note, my steripen works brilliantly!! I've successfully sterilized two liters worth of Bangkok water and drank it to no ill effects. Who knows how many heavy metals and free radicals are floating around in there, unfazed by the stereipens usefulness, but that being said, giardia and other critters don't stand a CHANCE.

After marketing for a while, and sadly saying goodbye to a right good chap (brit Mike who came with the mega-market) it was time to organize a group to get some lovely noodles. After that it was a quest to find bugs. I decided everyone should get two taxis to go to a night market on the edge of town that i'd hear harbors fried insects and such. Well, how did I not predict this one: the cabs took us to two different markets, and consiquently, i didn't se group B again. But, thatt being said, we ended up at such a cool market! Everything second hand, found, stolen, pieced back together, and ONLY locals; nary a tourist to be seen. We took a beer at a make shift bar blaring old American rock hits. In many ways, Bangkok reminds me a the dystopian city in Blade Runner; a multitude of cultures, languages, technology, pollution, dilapidation and modernism that's all smashed together and marbled like lightly mixed, think oil paints, only to be cut across with a pallate knife and gently smeared across a humid canvas.

After venturing back to old Bangkok and into the backpacker central (Koh San Rd), I found complete mayhem and pandemonium. Think Paranoid Android, Koyaanisqatsi, and Reykjavik night life only 10 times cheaper and sprawling out onto and into everything. Utter. Fucking. Chaos. The best part about it was all these foot massage chairs and patios with drugged/drunk gringos (fa-nahh in thai) "relaxing" with (no doubt) Burmese workers smashing their thumbs into their feet, along with 100db thumping techno also smashing just as enthusiastically into their ears. As much as I love everything about Koh San Road, I moved on. But only after getting some good video of the whole spectacle.

Next, off to take in some Wats and take more water taxis around the city.

All the best,

-e