I have been to Bangkok before, and I was convinced that that was plenty.
We sucked it up and each paid $163 to fly directly from samui to Bangkok. Otherwise, we would have had to take the 3 hour ferry back to Surat Thani and either a $60 flight or an overnight sleeper train. In the end, we just wanted to get the most out of our time.
Samui airport is the best and most adorable airport ever. We checked in in about 5 minutes. The whole place in outdoors and looks like an outlet center, with palm trees and little shops. There's free wifi in this dinky little airport, and free snacks and drinks. FREE SNACKS AT AN AIRPORT.
I chose a hosteling international hostel, because it is in sukhumvit, the more upscale neighborhood far from the seedy, nasty, backpacker hell known as Khao San. It got good reviews, and it had a triple room that cost each of us about $16, and is right at one of the sky train stops. Bangkok is NOT well connected by their metro, or sky train, and the traffic is horrendous. The directions given by the hostel says it's an easy 20 minute airport link train which connects to the sky train that lands us right at the hostel.
We get to the airport link, no problem. You have to buy a token to enter, and then you have to use the token to leave. It has an automatic turnstile thing that opens and closes, and the thing was too fast and stabbed me in the vagina trying to leave. Three days later and I still have a bruise. We ask for the skytrain and the guy says "down." We go down two levels, to the street, and I'm expecting the skytrain right there, but we don't see it. It was like leaving the metro north at 125th street and looking for the subway, but there's a lot of traffic and no traffic light and we walk down the street we realize we have to go back to get the stairwell with the escalator, and now we're crossing railroad tracks in heavy traffic and just hoping that no one runs us over.
It turns it that all we needed to do was go down one level and the bridge to the skytrain was right there. Oh well. We got escalators to the skytrain, and we're a little sweaty but I'm still not particularly bothered... When we finally get to our skytrain stop, we look around at the corner, and I don't see it at all. I ask the young man holding up a sign for a store, and he doesn't speak English and has no idea where it is.
It seems that very, very few people in Thailand speaks English. I'm not upset by this, but very surprised.
Lisa turns on her GPS, and I see the hostel down the block. Success!! We get to the hostel and our room is on the 4th floor of a walk up. No elevator. I sigh. It's is really the first time this has happened since Singapore. Well, it sucks but it's exercise, which I haven't really gotten too much of. My bag is the lightest, and Timeka's is really heavy, and Lisa helps her up with her bag. Everyone is huffing and puffing.
Right away, we run off to see three major wats (temples) by taxi. We get in a taxi, and ask for the temple, and the taxi driver in his really shitty and very frenetic English is telling us something about a 400-baht canal tour. I read in my guidebook that there is a ferry that costs 3 baht. We tell him a number of times to take us directly to that temple, but he ignores us and takes us to that damned canal tour, which is far away from where we started AND where we wanted to go.
This is very normal in Bangkok, I've heard. You can't really trust the taxis, and you can't trust the tuk-tuk (covered motorcycle) drivers at all. The tuk-tuk drivers negotiate a price and instead of taking you to where you want to go right away, they make pit stops at their friends' shops and coerce you to go inside for a commission.
We get into another taxi, and he gets it right.
We see three temples, and they're magical. Huge Buddhas. Gilded and awesome.
Around temple 2, I finally figure out that Timeka is really stinking mad at me for dragging them all around town on the trains, and for not checking for a lift at the hostel. I was dumbfounded. I never explained to Timeka what hotel/hostel situations are like, especially in Asia. It really never occurred to me to ask about the lift situation when i booked, and it never occurred to me to find out how much a taxi would be to to hostel from the airport (i failed big... i think it would have cost us each about $5). When I travel, all I care about is a clean place, with aircon, free of vermin. I really didn't realize it was so important to her, but we worked it out, and now I know. Three girls traveling together, we're bound to disagree and get upset about stuff, but it blew over pretty quickly. We were all hugs and smiles by late afternoon.
The girls wanted to ride in a glitzy tuk-tuk, and somehow we found one who charged us a reasonable price and didn't take us shopping.
I took them to khao San - just to see it - and we ate and did Internet shit and went back to the hostel, to discover that our street, soi 38, is a night market street. I am so excited.
We rest up, and for our one night in Bangkok, we go to sukhumvit soi 11, a street that I read is where the Bangkok locals go to party, a little more upscale. We're low on energy but are doing our damnedest to make a good night out.
On the way, I stop for satay. 10 pieces for 50 baht. I don't want 10, I only want 3. Timeka reminds me that's $1.50. We start laughing. Still can't think in local currency. I get it to go, and they have cleverly wrapped the sticks in one Baggie, the cucumbers in another, the peanut sauce in another, the vinaigrette in another, and stick all baggies In a handled bag. The satay is perfectly bite-sized and I eat them one by one, only leaving the one I promised Lisa.
It's Sunday night, and it looks dead outside, except for three VW minivans
That are tricked out and converted into bars complete with subwoofers in the back and disco lights all over. Lisa is disappointed in this street because it doesn't look like what she expected of Thailand. It was too nice. She had wanted to go back to khao San.
After spending 3 weeks with me, I think I've made Lisa less fancy. Even lowbrow cindy doesn't want to party on khao San. We settle on the party bus. We're in plastic chairs on the street, the bus is playing hip-hop, and the bartender is WORKING.
I see that at the bar stools in front of the bus, there's a couple of black guys. I tell Timeka that they're bound to come over. She says she's not interested. Of course, within 10 minutes, one of them makes a bee line straight to Timeka, doesn't even look at me or Lisa.
I don't remember his name. He's Nigerian, and there's a lot of Nigerians in Bangkok, he says. The hang out on "Black Man Street," soi 3. He says the street is full of Africans. They talk a bit about Africa, America, and Timeka asks what he does.
"I'm a businessman. You're from New York. You understand what I mean."
Yup, he's a drug dealer.
They keep talking, even though neither Lisa nor Timeka are interested, and he keeps talking calls and walking away, but we all sort of appreciated how direct about his business and how much he knew about the world.
I need a new drink, and I sit at the bar next to a guy from Toronto, who says to me, "tired of the black guy? He's Nigerian, right? Is he a drug dealer?"
I hate when stereotypes are true.
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