April 10th, 2008 – Well today was the best day so far. I did a ton and only had 6 near death experiences!

Got up, had a traditional Thai breakfast of rice, cantaloupe, and OJ.  Ok its not traditional Thai or traditional anything for that matter but its soo good.

After breakfast I hit the internet @ 10 for an hour or so.  I spent the time finding a place to stay in Cambodia.  Most of the places are booked for some reason, but they still have some higher end hotels for $20-40 per night.  I was going to treat myself to one of those but most of them were not near the “main strip” part of town, (as main as you can be between Jungle and rice paddies!)

I emailed a few places and within minutes I had a room for $12/night w/ac, window, double bed, breakfast and airport transfer! Sold! He confirmed my confirmation and I went to find a way to get there.  This ticket is probably the most expensive one of my trip at $250 but its totally worth it in my opinion. Angkor Wat is one of the places I’ve wanted to go the most so the price is not a problem, plus I have a 12$ room!   I’ll be in Cambodia from the 11th-16th.

I also booked my ticket to Chiang Mai, so I come back to BKK and immediately head to Chiang Mai.  That was only $60.  I’ll be there for 3 or 4 days and then heading down to Koh Samui and the other beaches. 

After I booked all my trip stuff for the next week, I sat down at one of the street carts for lunch. I ate some chicken, noodles and vegetables.  Damn good as usual and only 90cents with a liter of bottled water.  You really could eat for a month and spend no more than $25 and its almost always good.

Funny Story
I went to a food cart on some random street and he was cooking some meats over charcoal with some noodles and fruit.  He had chicken, pork and some dark meat.  I asked him what the dark meat was and he paused, looked me up and down and then said “Beef” with a huge smile on his face.  He was totally lying and I promptly ordered the chicken.

While I was sitting at lunch and starting to take a picture of my food, I hear this laughing and looked up and this guy says “showing your mates at home what your eating?”  I laughed and responded and invited him to my table.  His name was Bobby.  He’s a big guy from Liberia (or Libya I forget).  He grew up mostly in Georgia (USA) and went back to work in his dad’s country after school.  He’s a gemologist and was very nice.  We chatted about Thailand, Travels, and on cue just like any other foreigner he asked my opinion on US politics.  I gave him my typical response which I’ve already said so many times I could probably say it in my sleep:

I don’t follow US politics too much. I think the whole system is screwed up  and all politicians have their own agendas.  Sadly we are in need of some major reformation that is bigger than one person and is going to take longer than 4 years.

It is truly my opinion, and almost 9 out of 10 people seem to agree.  they usually give their two cents and the conversation moves on.  
We talked for 30 more minutes about everything else and when he left he called me “Evan my American Brother.”

I hit the boats after lunch and made my way to Chinatown.

Chinatown, Bangkok is truly like no other place I’ve ever seen.  It was an orgy of smells, sounds, colors, people and eventually tastes.  Wall to wall people, stalls and shops it puts any other Chinatown to shame.  I had a random thought as I was walking through this other world, “I wonder if there is an American Town in China.”

I snaked my way down the alley ways which caught the small Asians off guard.  I barely fit through the small aisles as it is, but throw in a zillion small people and the occasional scooter, I felt likea bowling ball knocking the pins out of the way.  They stood no chance.

When I got to the food area of Chinatown several older ladies would see me and smile while sticking out their hands offering me a sample of whatever they were selling.  I didn’t see them do this to anyone else so I’m pretty sure they just wanted to see if I would eat it and my reaction if so.  What the hell, I’m in Thailand!  Most of the time it was a sour looking face as if I just took a bite out of a lemon.  By far the nastiest thing I had was a Durian fruit.  I’ve seen countless Food Network shows with a traveling host who eats the spiky looking fruit and pretends its not too bad.   They are full of shit.  To give you a clue what it tastes like, imagine being able to take a bite out of my sock after walking miles and miles in 95o heat.  Mmm delicious!

The old woman roared with laughter and I soon followed after I chugged half of my water bottle to rinse my mouth out.  I’ve personally blacklisted Durian fruit.

Tired of torturing my tongue for one day, I snagged some stir friend chicken and moved on.  A few crowded blocks later I got to the mythical electronics market, Wow! 

Air soft guns, ninja stars, nun-chuks, DVDs, Games, Cameras, R/C cars lined the walls.  It was like NewEgg.com and Hobbytron.com exploded into one huge big-kid toy store, I was in heaven.  I felt odd taking pictures of it all so I didn’t get too many.  It just felt wrong.  I did come away with some Wii games for Ross for about $2 each and an Olympus waterproof digi-cam for myself .  It was $150 and I almost bought it in the states before I left for $400, just for the trip.  I probably could have come to Thailand with nothing and bought it all here for about 1/5 of the cost.

Lonely Planet books – $5
Digi-cams – dirt cheap
Clothes – $1-4
NorthFace bags – $15 etc etc etc.  Its just nutty.  You do have to be aware of the quality you are getting but the good stuff is there somewhere.

After Chinatown I headed to Little India which is the huge cloth and fabric area. I was hoping to find a bathing suit for my island time, which I eventually got for $3.   Not many Thai’s have a 34inch waist so it was a bit of a gamble, luckily it fit.  I should have gotten 2 now that I think about it.  I was also looking for some silk wraps for @@#$ and @#$@ but I couldn’t find anything.  I’ll try another market.

While I was trying to find a pier to catch a boat back, I stumbled upon the flower market which was amazing.  Much like Pike’s Market in Seattle but blocks bigger and it was all flowers.  I didn’t walk all the way through it, I was all marketed out, so I just hit the road and found my dock..eventually!

Sitting on the dock I ended up talking to a pier worker and he happened to be from Cambodia.  He too was nice and we chatted a few minutes about Thai, US and Cambodia before my boat pulled up.  Very nice guy, like all Thais I’ve met that are not Tuk-Tuk drivers.

Back to the hostel, picked up my tickets and cooling off at the open-air bar before I hit Khao San Rd to see the night scene.  I’ve gotta say, it was a good day.

I almost forgot, Akon is everywhere.  He must be a hit over here b/c Tuk-Tuk drivers, taxi drivers, and everywhere else seems to have his music playing.   Speaking of, I haven’t listened to my ipod at all yet, its more interesting to hear the soundtrack of Thailand.

Debating whether or not to get a shave from the barber-esque shop next door or just grow a dirty hippie beard.

Also noticed all the open-air drivers, ie tuk-tuks and motos, all wear surgical masks b/c the air is so terribly polluted.