Bangkok is not a pedestrian friendly city. The whole place is criss crossed with busy thoroughfares with no over bridges. I went for a walk anyway, deciding the exercise would do me good. I ran into P_rn (imagine having a name that gets blocked by mail marshal) the masseuse after being away from Bangkok for 3 weeks and she asked how I got so big. The result of too many baguettes in Cambodia... Nah, I'm actually back to normal after wasting away on Thai food.
The railway station is approximately 4k away from Khaosan road... well, on the map it is. So I headed off in the right direction and found myself in an area of prayer shops followed by a bunch of appliance shops then the Bangkok equivalent of Dick Smith. A street lined with stalls peddling capacitors and diodes and stuff. Then a bit further along there were guys attacking old TVs and stereos with soldering irons. I inadvertently found myself in the flower market which was rather impressive. Some really interesting plants and spectacular umm.. flower arrangements.
I continued on and found myself in Chinatown which was good, I was heading in the right direct despite the minor botanical diversion. I never actually got lost but couldn't have given my exact location either due to a dearth of street signs and a seemingly endless maze of alleyways and markets with the occasional really busy road to cross. One is expected to automatically know what that really busy 4 lane road is called too. Much like Great St Road in Auckland, except there are lots of really busy 4 lane roads all over Bangkok After a period of respite in the Internet cafe I headed off and there was the railway station, right where I expected it to be, I just took an infinitely more interesting route than my planned thoroughfare down New Road.
I now have a train ticket for Buriram tomorrow morning and its at a civilised hour even. A 6 hour train ride with a few bevvies, sounds good to me.
I headed off in search of the nearest wharf so I could get the ferry back. There's a cool looking church hidden away in the alleyways around there, I wanted to go in but the gates were locked. My course took me to this execrable highrise hotel area with d!ckheads everywhere and a wharf cattering only for boat charters and a special ferry to get across to the unsightly hilton on the other side. Two doddering old pensioners were boarding at the time. I though about jumping on for amusement purposes but figured they wouldn't believe I was a guest and I'd only be stuck at the hilton anyway.
With that awful place behind me, I found the proper wharf and jumped on a ferry. Some how I managed to get the tourist boat. Not an overly bad thing, it was just a bit slower and had some dude calling out the attractions on a megaphone. He mixed up the wharf numbers though so I got off at the wrong place. The good thing is that they forgot to charge me. Bonus. Cost me nothing to get to the railway station and all the way back! Actually another bonus. As I headed up river by foot I went through market after market with not a farang in sight. I was seeing the Bangkok the locals see and it was a pleasing experience. There were hundreds of people peddling Buddhist charms that have been dug up in the rice paddies.
I found fortune teller alley. There was a large marquee with rows of Thais toting Universal Waite Tarot decks. This is obviously the deck recommended by the 'Thai School of Tarot'. Fair enough, its a good deck.
A con artist found me. He was friendly and wanted to have a chat, so I figured why not. His brother is a Professor working in NZ. If one is wont to believe such tales. I myself had a nice chat to the man then went on my merry way. Thais never stop you in the street for a casual chat and he was very well dressed to be sitting on a stool on the sidewalk among the charm peddlers. He casually steered the conversation to making money while travelling if you know what to buy. Very smooth. I'm sure he makes a lot of money from the greedy and stoopid. Must have been an annoyance wasting 15 minutes talking to me for naught. I figured he might do a bit better if he didn't look like the mafia...
A planned detour took me to a park for an excellent session of Qigong and Taiji, facing the palace complex with impressive storm clouds behind it no less! Then it was back to Khaosan Rd across the busy road I managed to part the flow of, a few weeks back. This time there was no biblical antics, I had to dodge and run like everyone else.
There is another Kiwi staying at my jap hippy guesthouse. I didn't pick it though cos hes got an Aussie accent after spending the last 10 years there. Was good to have a chat to a fellow kiwi even if he sounds like an ocker. Only the second kiwi I've met this whole trip! There is a black German girl staying there too. First one of them I've met also, dads from Sudan. She doesn't have the staunch German manner, was practically bouncing off the seat telling me about India. Must get there in the near future.
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