making up syllables: 1 month to the motherland: bangkok, thailand

this is the first in what will probably be around ten or so posts in the series. after i left korea, on september 6th, i set out on a roughly one month excursion through four countries in south east asia, including twelve cities. the first of which was bangkok, thailand.

as my family had just finished their tour of south korea, this trip kind of felt like the second part of an already initiated vacation, but i was much more nervous about this portion. partially because i didn't plan it very well - so i wouldn't be trapped into any kind of schedule and because i was lazy - and mostly because i would be on my own for the next twenty-eight days.

suited with a newly purchased hiking backpack (not a huge backpacker style one but something comfortable and slightly larger than your average jansport) and the j.crew weekend bag my dad got me for christmas, i boarded the jet, took a quick stop in kuala lumpur and finished the rest of the trip to bangkok. even with the challenge of figuring out the bangkok transit system i arrived to the hostel (we bangkok - for a dorm style room it was a nice, modern hostel with helpful staff and a bar/restaurant on premises, ★★★★) a good 2 hours before check-in. i took the time to sit in the large open lobby space and plan my next couple of days. my room was a typical dorm style room with 7 other occupants, all male, all similar in age. i wouldn't know this until later but bangkok would be the easiest city to meet and go out with other travelers, just because there were so many there.

i spent most of the day tired from flying but, from my research earlier in the day, i found out that night was one of only two in the week that held muay thai fights. i managed to find my way to the muay thai stadium and paid the ~$20 for ring-side seats. i was surprised by how young the kids were in the headlining fights (there were about 8 fights and i think only 2 of them weren't main events) but apparently they start when they're barely out of diapers. even at a local level its an effective, and common, way for poor families to make some good money. it wasn't exactly bloodsport level entertainment (i'm talking about the jcvd movie obviously) but a pretty good way to initiate myself into thailand. after about 3 hours i went back to the hostel with the full intention of getting a beer, checking my email and then going to sleep. but apparently that's not how it works in bangkok as the large gathering of travelers informed me when i got to the public space. instead, that night i hopped in a cab with a group of 6 guys and headed to the royal city avenue (rca), the destination for bars and clubs in bangkok. really the only significant thing to happen was i met a guy from korea, named kyu, who had been living in australia, meaning his english was pretty good. so we would end up hanging out for the time i spent in bangkok.

the next day i went with kyu on a short river boat ride to the main tourist area of town. we started by visiting the very famous wat pho, house of the world's largest golden reclining buddha. it was really was pretty amazing to see in person, but the housing structure makes it nearly impossible to photograph. also, for some reason, i decided to not bring my camera with me that day and just took photos with my ipod. this was slightly better than kyu who apparently never took photos of anywhere he went, instead relying on his memory to lock everything up. this is pretty surprising coming from someone who is korean as, in general, they not only take photos of everything, they usually take photos of themselves in everything. after wat pho we hiked it over to the grand palace and its many spires and shrines. we were planning on hitting up wat arun, perhaps the most famous of bangkok temples, but our legs were tired so we took a tuk tuk to khao san road, backpackers haven, and got some beers. then were caught in the first of several rainstorms that would haunt me throughout thailand. luckily we were already drinking so we just kept at it and soon enough the rain subsided. we headed back to the hostel and i headed out to get a massage (minus happy ending).

afterward i met kyu back at the hostel and we decided to go check out the sleezy side of bangkok, soi cowboy. we recruited another kid in the lobby who requested we first go to patpong, another notoriously slimy street. patpong was part night market, part den of hidden pleasures. well i think im being a little too loose with the term pleasures. men and women were constantly at your heels trying to pull you into their poorly lit rooms with a whole list of services, from the tame strip show to the much lauded ping pong shows. i barely managed to talk everyone out of climbing the steps of a subtly named establishment called 'super pussy' and back into a tuk tuk to head to soi cowboy. soi cowboy was slightly nicer. it seemed cleaner at least. and because we were there and it's as much a part of the culture as anything else, i finally acquiesced and we found ourselves in a tiny club called 'kiss'. inside girls of questionable age (and really let's face it, gender) danced apathetically on stage while guys peered from the sides, usually flanked on one or both sides by similar looking girls. two of the girls who were quickly ushered over to us couldn't have been more than 17 and spoke about three words of english. every drink on the menu cost the same price, which seems kind of nice until you realize you're supposed to pay for the girls drinks and they just want some kind of fruit soda and it costs as much as your jack and coke. i spent most of the night trying to talk to the girl next to me - she told me she likes dancing and dogs but didn't much like old men, she even joked asking if i was into old men myself - while my new friends were getting the lowdown on the inner workings of the thai strip clubs. apparently, the style and color of shoe (in this bar's case, white boots) indicated whether a girl was merely a dancer or could be taken home for a little extra money. if i'm going to be completely honest, the girl who i was talking to most of the night was pretty cute even if she was illegal in the united states, and as i was leaving i'm pretty sure i saw a real tinge of sadness in her eye, as if to suggest, 'he was one of the good guys, or at least not a gross old white man.' at any rate, none of us would be going home with a thai stripper that night.

the next day i went to the train station to secure a ticket to the southern peninsula of thailand, the next destination of my trip, and the next post in the series. photos and some more details below.