Once in Bangkok, haggled with a Taxi driver for the forty-minute ride to Banglamphu (home of the famous Khao San and such), as the buses had all stopped running. The taxi was a bit expensive by Thai standards, but 40 mins for twelve bucks ain't bad. Damn it's hot here!!
Got to Soi Rambuttri, where my guesthouse is, to find everything shutting down for the night, although many people were still sitting on the street in plastic chairs buying beer from different vans parked around. After sorting my guesthouse (New Siam I 280Baht/night) I met a few Aussies and had a beer with them. We swapped stories and Joel, the "leader of the pack" went on about how good Trailer Park Boys is once he found out I was Canadian. Dave, a friendly Aussie living in London, was asking about Korea and had a hell of a story to tell. Apparently, the night before, while he was taking a piss, a lady-boy (read:transgendered prossie) walked up and gave him a grope. After telling him to piss off, he was approached by an undercover cop who asked him, "Have you just been robbed?". Checking his pockets, Dave found that indeed his mobile was missing. The undercover cop jumped on his motorbike and sped off to catch the lady-boy. Suffice to say, Dave spent the next three hours in a Thai police station, signing statements he couldn't read and generally shitting himself. Joel sat with him, chuckling away and they both tried to convince the cops not to give the lady-boy 5 years in prison. 5 YEARS! Anyway, they all got away fine (except the lady-boy, who i'm told will serve about two months of her sentence) and that was that. Awesome story to walk up to. Don't worry, I'll be fine. Any woman with bigger hands than me better keep her distance. Bangkok is bustling, noisy, and grand. Sure, there're lots of scammers, but we can come here and get so much for so little (my two big 1L beer changs last night cost me 120 baht, or about 3 dollars), having to keep your head about you is more than a fair price to pay. My first impression of Thais is that they're all incredibly friendly. (Including not a few ladies-of-the-night making kissy noises at me last night as I headed to my room. Well, I think they were ladies.)
Joel gave me a tip on a cheaper guesthouse across the street from the one I stayed last night, they have cheap internet, more atmosphere, and the rooms are cleaner. Wild Orchid it's called:
Heading to Chatuchak market today to get some first aid gear, and t-shirts. Might pick up a crocodile for protection. Yeah, you can buy a crocodile there. Don't know if I need one, but it's nice to know I can get it.
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