Bangkok, Thailand

Everything was telling people not to go to Thailand and specifically to avoid Bangkok because of all the resistance from the red shirts. Ignored.

I arrived in Bangkok as scheduled. I got on the city bus 77 to the nearest BTS station to take it to the BTS station near where I was couch surfing (I am not sure if that is supposed to be one word or two so which ever one I type is the one I am going with for that instance). I got out of the bus at the BTS stop to discover that the BTS was shut down for the time being because of the red shirts/red shirt situation. So, I walked. I knew it was not far and that it was straight south down the road I was already on so I knew it would work out. I found the place no problem.

About my second couch surfing experience: awesome. My host, Peak, is a Thai American from California. She converted her family's 5-story building that was being used for storage as a place to host couch surfers. It is located between the N5 and N7 stops on the BTS route, and as there is no N6 stop currently, she named the place N6. Check out more information here if interested. It is in Bangkok, but not in the central part of the city and outside of the CSers at N6 and a few Westerners that live in the area full-time, there are no falang. I turned down another couch at a fancy apartment building because Peak's place sounded cool. She has beds for 15 surfers but often has as many as 30. The door is never locked and people are always coming and going. N6 was probably the highlight of my time in Bangkok.

That said, I did not do much in Thailand's capital city. The first couple days I was there I slept in because I needed some sleep and spent the time after I woke up lazing around. I explored the area a bit but avoided the backpacker mecca of Khao San Road except for one night out when I was just going with the crowd and did not even know I was in that area until I learned so the following day.

In truth, I did not enjoy Bangkok much. Most backpackers do not like big cities in general but I usually do but Bangkok just does not have any charm. The city is too spread out to explore on foot (plus it is too hot and humid) and a bike would be suicide. City buses would probably work out nicely but do not allow the opportunity do to anything other than look through the windows unless you want to keep getting on and off and pay another fare every time. I probably should have done something like this but I really was just not motivated enough.

After a few nights in Bangkok a friend from Chicago finally arrived in the city for a visit of unknown duration. One-way tickets are wonderful. After a somewhat complicated time meeting up, I brought him to N6, put his bags down, walked around for a couple hours, and then boarded a bus to Kanchanaburi.



After Kanchanaburi my friend and I returned to Bangkok for just a night before heading south so I will include that part here as well. It will be brief as there was only a few items of note.

The plan to get back to Bangkok in time for Jekky's birthday. Jekky is a friend of the CSing host, Peak, who comes to N6 nearly everyday after her work and cooks us dinner. It is pretty awesome of her and I liked the idea of attending the birthday celebration of a Thai person I barely know. However, I quickly learned that after her birthday dinner (which she cooked herself) she would want to go to a club and dance, which is not my scene. "Luckily" for me, I had an excuse not to go. My friend that visited got an infected wounds from his new sandals and was concerned about it. So, we made a quick jut to the hospital instead of the club. It turns out that some German guy also at N6 needed to go to the hospital as well so we were going to split a cab until some Thai girl that was attending Jekky's birthday dinner offered to drive us. The drive there took about four times as long as it should have because of all the increased security because of the red shirts. The hospital we were going to was right in the heart of the "action" and police officers were everywhere. We finally made it to the hospital, my friend got cleaned up and some medication without issue. The German guy refused to pay the cost of an injection he was recommended to get so the Thai girl drove us to another hospital, this one a government one that is less expensive. He ended up not getting the injection and I was not paying much attention when he told me what eventually happened. I hope he is doing well, though. While going to the hospital probably does not sound like a fun-filled evening it was actually cool to see the city at night especially because I had done so little exploring before so I ended up getting a free mini-tour of Bangkok.

Other than the BTS being shut down when I first arrived and the check-points when on the hospital excursion I did not feel the presence of the red shirts' resistance much at all. I assume that the police I saw everywhere I went on the side of the road are not normally there but that is pretty much it. I did not venture into the risk areas during the day, so my view it skewed but I can only judge by what I experienced myself so there it is.

The following day we headed south to the famous Thai islands and beaches.