One Night in Bangkok

Bangkok is busy, crowded, noisy, polluted, over stimulating, and hot. For me, I found it is soothing and relaxing. I've never felt more at peace in a city even amidst all the random chaos. 

Bangkok has balls. Bangkok has soul. Unlike Vancouver, Bangkok is alive with a beating heart. Vancouver barely has a pulse. Vancouver is like the pretty girl who has nothing else to offer. Everyone says she's beautiful but inside she's generic, boring, and self-absorbed. She's high maintenance, expensive and dull at a party. 

Okay. Enough of the pretentious personifications already. I'm starting to sound like my Lonely Planet guide book for God's sake. All I'm saying is I love this place. What a fantastic city. There are so many nooks and crannies it would take you a lifetime to explore every street, alley, and neighbourhood. All of them alive with personality and charm.

Late yesterday afternoon I arrived and checked into my hotel in the Silom area. During the day it is white collar and all business. At night the alleys turn into a night market and is lined with seedy girly bars. The virtuous ladies inside perform talented feats with ping pong balls. In the market, one vendor will sell  Chinese Viagra and sex toys next to another selling meditating Buddhas. The irony is inescapable. As weird as it sounds, there's an honesty about this place.

The only item on yesterday's checklist was to try out a rooftop bar at dusk. I went to the Moon Bar at the 61st floor of the five-star (or probably five diamond) Banyan Tree Hotel. It's an inspired setup. I was nursing my one and only expensive drink and started chatting with the guy at bar beside me. It turns out he's a pilot from Ireland and we got along famously. He ended up buying the two of us a ton of drinks and picked up my tab as well. I think the bar bill, without a tip was around $400! People from the UK are great (No, you're supposed to take the piss out of them) peeps from the UK are wankers! I can't believe how lucky I am. I'm so blessed it's retarded. 

Today began with a maze-like Tuk Tuk ride to Wat Pho to view the ginormous reclining Buddha. Afterwards I stopped for a quick snack of stir fried basil and pork with rice for twenty Baht (less than a dollar) and some fresh pomegranate juice.

Next was a two-stop ferry ride to Chinatown. The waterway looked like an Asian Venice and we rode under a one-quarter scale version of the Burrard Bridge. I explored the massive covered market and some of the side lanes off the beaten path. I went around a corner of a narrow alley and walked through an open kitchen with a woman cooking prawn soup. It felt like walking through someone's home. 

In my experience in Thailand, the cheaper the food is, the better the quality. My theory is that in the more expensive places you are paying for the atmosphere. Twice in a row I had meals that were about twenty-eight dollars and they were certainly good, but not great. I've consistently had excellent small, healthy and fresh meals here for about two dollars. Skip the Indian food. I've had it three times in three different regions and they all sucked.

My next stop was the Golden Buddha in the Traimit Wat. The Buddha is almost sixteen feet, weighs 5.5 tons and is made out of solid gold. Let me repeat that. The Buddha is 5.5 tons and is made out of solid gold. Let's do the math. At today's rate gold is $1,573.55 per ounce in Canada. There's 2000 pounds in a ton and sixteen ounces per pound so that makes the gold worth … about $278 million dollars. I'm sure Bill Gates has a few of these Buddhas scattered about one of his summer homes that he never visits.

I went back to my hotel for a short rest then had my last Chang beer on the street with a bowl of pork noodle soup and wontons. Followed by emptying my wallet of my final Bahts at the night market.

I fly out tonight to Hong Kong where I arrive at 6am and my connecting flight to Vancouver is not until 4:30 pm. I'm going to leave the airport for a few hours and have lunch in Hong Kong. Rough life.

Back in Vancouver there will be no more exotic blog post for a while as my life will be back to boring again.