Bangkok

We are staying on Kao San Road, which is full of hostels and budget guesthouses for backpackers, as well as hundreds of street vendors selling everything from dvds, knockoff bags, clothes and even fake international I.D. Cards. There are dozens of massage parlors, bars and restaurants too.

Kao San Road

We had lunch at a little sidewalk restaurant. Vendors with push carts line the roads and sidewalks and set up little folding tables and chairs for people to eat at. The side walk literally becomes a restaurant. All the food is really cheap and delicious! I had a big plate of fried rice with cashews, chicken and pineapple for only 40 baht ($1.30). There’s even cheaper places too that sell sicken and pork skewers for 6 baht ($0.20).

Fine Dinning on the streets of Bangkok

All the tuk-tuk and taxi drivers park and hang out at the end of Kao San road, and nag every tourist as they walk by. One man was nice enough to help us find our hostel earlier and approached us again offering to give us an hour long tour and take us to a few of the major sites for only 40 baht ($1.30). So we decided why not. It was cheap enough and faster than walking. Well of course there was a catch, there’s always a catch. After seeing Wat Po, the famous big Buddha, 45 meter tall, he took us to silk factory and also to a jewelry/souvenir shop. He told us that if he takes us there he gets coupons for gas, and he gets double if we bought something, which we didn’t. The silk factory was pretty cool, and anyone can get custom made clothing, tailored to fit you perfectly! They had beautiful dresses and lots of suits, which I was debating on getting because I have such a hard time finding one in the US. But it was still quite expensive, 4,000-10,000 baht ($135-335). But they also had gorgeous wedding dresses for that price too! After this our tuk tuk driver brought us to the Grande Palace. In order to go inside you must have your arms and legs covered, no tank tops or skirts, not even capris! You could borrow clothes if you needed to, long pants for men and sarongs for women, of course they ran out when we got to the front of the line! We decided not to wait and we’d go back tomorrow with Air, who would be able to tell us more about the Grand Palace anyways. Well we couldn’t find out tuk-tuk driver anywhere outside where he had dropped us off, and after searching for him for 10 minutes we gave and walked back to the hostel, and we never ended up paying him either….at least he got his gas coupons!

Wat Po

Our view from the back of the tuk-tuk

Sometimes our driver would even drive on the wrong side of the road and if a bus or truck turned into the land and started coming at us, he would just swerve back into the line of traffic. Or they would weave in between the cars, the lines not meaning anything, and a few times I thought we were going to be sandwiched in between two cars. We took cornors pretty fast and I had to hold on for dear life. But I did feel safer than some of the taxi rides I've taken in the Philippines.

We haven’t had sushi in almost a week and we were craving it so we decided to check out an area called Little Tokyo. It is full of Japanese and sushi restaurants. All of them are way over priced, but we found one that wasn’t too expensive. Sushi doesn't seem to be too popular but that makes sense when you can buy a full meal of noodles or rice with beef/chicken/pork or vegetables for 25-60 baht and 2 pieces of salmon sushi cost 50 baht!

After the this we walked through Lumphini park and went to to the Suan Lam Night Market, The nigh market is huge and they sell maps just for the market because it’s that big! It was the typical market just like we saw in China and everywhere else, also a lot of the same stuff that the vendors on Kao San Road sell, but we bargained and got some great deals! I can’t tell you what I got or it will ruin the surprise!
Tomorrow we are meeting Air in the morning and he has offered to show us around and be our tour guide for the day!