Bangkok, round three

Here we are, once again making our way through the polluted streets of Bangkok. We still don't like it, but we're getting used to it and we felt almost at home. Right after arriving to the infamous Khao San road area we knew where to look for a hostel and where to grab our lunch. We settled pretty fast and tried to plan our next days. Would we be able to do some tourism this time?

Actually our plans were pretty basic: try to find a copy of "Le Petit Prince" in Thai (yeah, we don't give up easily), buy some new books and gear for the trip, have our hair cut, and collect information about our next destinations. Oh yeah, and visit a couple of touristic hot-spots in the city. In any case the first thing that we noticed was how much nicer the people are in this part of Thailand, or rather how much less nice they are in southern Thailand. We had already noticed it arriving in Kanchanaburi, and Bangkok confirmed it for us: people here are as nice as we remembered. What's wrong with the south?

The next day we got up early and headed towards the Royal Palace, a touristic must-do and a place we have been able to miss on our previous visits. Apparently some Chinese representatives were in town and the Palace was closed to the public, or at least that's what they told us. It seems that we won't be able to see the palace after all. Honestly that didn't bother us much. Instead we went to visit the temple "Wat Pho"and the huge reclining Buddha statue that it hosts. An impressive sight.

The Royal Palace (from outside the walls)

A small part of Wat Pho

Nevermind the Thai Pickpocket gangs, OK?

A big Buddha indeed (random tourist on the left for scale reference).

Time for some Buddha-scrubbing

By the time we left the temple our stomachs were roaring, and we decided to walk towards the part of town that our guide book calls Little India. According to the book these streets should be filled with Indian shops and restaurants, and we couldn't wait to eat a butter Naan with Dal. I don't know what has happened since our guide was published, but we weren't able to find many Indian commercial activities of any kind. It looks like Little India has been completely taken over by the neighbouring Chinatown, with Indian shops and restaurants replaced by their Chinese counterparts. Having walked around the streets for a while we surrendered and had rice with roasted duck instead.

Our next goal required us to go to the big malls in a different part of town, and we decided to do it by bus. The public bus system of Bangkok is absolutely chaotic, as we would find out soon. Knowing which bus number could take you where you want to go is definitely not enough. In fact every bus number can come in different colours, sizes and versions, each one with its own route and price. Not only that, apparently the drivers take some freedom along the way regarding the route and the bus stops. While waiting for our bus we saw a series of buses with exactly the same colour/size/version taking the most different routes and most of them skipping their assigned stops completely. After one hour waiting for our bus to come we ended up taking another line that wasn't even supposed to pass on that street. The fact that all indications are written in Thai alphabet only doesn't help. The system is chaotic and clearly designed to make you want to pay for a taxi instead, but it's hard to beat the sense of fulfilment when you manage to catch a bus and eventually arrive at the desired destination.

Unfortunately all this work and effort would be fruitless. None of the bookstores that we visited had a copy of the book that we wanted. Out of print, they said. We had never had so many problems to find that book in other countries, but in Southeast Asia it is virtually non-existent. K was crushed, and we bought a guide book of New Zealand to give her some relief.

The rest of the time in Bangkok was spent accomplishing a set of small tasks around Khao San road and reading about our next destination. It is definitely not the best season to be there, but we are really looking forward to visit Borneo!

Last dinner in Bangkok. We'll miss the street food.