Holla, city of squalor!
Well, after an extremely long bus/boat trip, I’m back in Bangkok. It feels like coming home in a lot of ways. For one, I absolutely love the hostel we’re staying at. We stayed here during our week in Bangkok before and now we’re back. It’s called NapPark and it’s two streets away from the famous Koh San Road. It’s pretty, functional, and the front desk people even remembered our names this morning! We also got upgraded to a room with personal TVs next to every bed. Seriously! So awesome.
That upgrade news was welcomed with open arms, mainly because we spent the night sleeping in the lobby of the hostel (yet again). Our journey began yesterday at 11am in Koh Phanghan. It was the morning after the Full Moon Party and we were still covered in neon body paint. That party was fun by the way, with lots of fire dancers, dancing stages, buckets of booze, and people wearing neon clothes. Anyway, we weren’t exactly excited for an extended bus/boat trip at the time. Too bad, because at 11am we were taken to the pier with our bags. We spent the next five hours on the boat, followed by eleven hours on a bus. Yeah. Brutal.
My Full Moon gear. I also covered my arms in body paint flowers and bought a neon flower for my hair. I love theme parties.
Cayley and I are planning on just relaxing while we’re here, because our trip to Chiang Mai tomorrow should be very interesting. You may have heard of the floods that are covering a lot of Thailand at the moment. Well, due to those floods, there are no buses or trains going from Bangkok to Chiang Mai right now. This wouldn’t be as much of an issue if we weren’t volunteering at an elephant sanctuary in a few days. We are though, and I’m really looking forward to it. So it looks like we’re spending more money than anticipated (as per usual) and flying there. Oh well.
It’s really nice being back in Bangkok. I missed this city of squalor (Hangover 2 joke, it’s actually way cleaner than anticipated).
I missed the sidewalks that seem like tunnels because of the food/clothing stalls that line the roads. I missed the smells of unknown foods wafting into my nose every few seconds and laughing at the variety of goods that are sold on the streets of Bangkok. Street underwear, anyone? How about a street wig?
I missed the people watching on Koh San Road. Today I watched as a 60ish-year-old man dressed as a pirate held a rubber chicken and squawked at people passing by. He stood beside a man selling fake drivers licenses. Behind him, a tout tapped on people’s shoulders offering “wedding dress!” for “good price!”. Ah, Bangkok, how I missed you. Never change.
A few updates from our time in Koh Phanghan: The cockroach in our bathroom turned into a family of cockroaches. Two male roommates moved into our hostel room, but they were no match for the fearsome creatures. We rarely slept during our five nights there, as there was a cat that meowed and scratched at our ceiling throughout the night, every night. Our roommates were from Manchester, England, so I’ve had Smiths songs stuck in my head for days now. The closer it got to Full Moon time, the busier the island got and the more crowded the beaches got. The goods sold on the street also got more and more…interesting.
Some classy bracelets for sale. Yep, that one says “I love rape.” That other one? “I love AIDS.” Uggh.
I celebrated my 22nd birthday with cake, buckets and the beach. I’ve always been a big fan of birthdays, and this one was no different. It was a good week and it went really fast, but it’s good to be “home”.
First drink of my 22nd year.
I’m not sure if I’ll have internet access in Chiang Mai, but it’s not looking so good. I’ll try my best, but if you don’t hear from me for a week just picture me playing with elephants in the rain. Yay!
Kelsey Parsons 