First impressions

Too long have I been away from a keyboard. But quite a lot has happened, and I've seen and experienced so much that I'm afraid that I won't be able to convey it all in writings, mostly due to lousy memory. But I'll give it a shot anyway.

day 1

my first day, after waking up at 7 am in the morning, was a long one. I woke up to an empty apartment, since Jasper, my first host in Bangkok, left already for work. My plans, after I finger-brushed my teeth, were to head straight to the Australian embassy and apply for the visa, and later on was to stop by at the Kao-san area, where all the Israeli centers such as Habbad and the Israeli connection are stationed, in order to get some info. BUT first things first, and my top-most priority was to buy a deodorant, since my own was in my lost-at-that-time bag.

I took the sky-train, a most convenient way of traveling through the main areas of non-Israeli Bangkok. Its practically a subway, without the sub in it, and same as in Japan, it can have its crowded moments.

Sky train

Anyway, I made it to the embassy and handed in my Passport, so I was officially stuck in Bangkok for the next 10 working days. Finishing that, I decided to do walk all the way to Kao-san, and perhaps get a glimpse of the actual city life. I did. mainly it was hot and sweaty. From time to time I detoured from the main roads just to see the livelihood of those tiny backdoor streets that combine with a puzzling success some of the dirtiest stores, workshops and houses with tiny food stands that offer you every type of food, except the one I actually eat.

Notice the plastic bag drink. very common.

After a good 2 hours of walking, I decided that maybe the map I'm holding in my hand wasn't conveying the true scale of Bangkok, so after some searching and questioning, I hopped to one of the city buses, or the "family bus" (runs by the family), going to Kao-san area. I suggest, if some of you ends up in Bangkok for a couple of days, to try this mode of transportation, since Its dirty cheap, and the traffic is usually bearable enough. It only seems that the traffic is awful, but thats only because the interval of the traffic lights is unusually long. The only risky thing in buses are that some of them don't really stop and wait for you to get on... you just have to jump on them when, IF, they slow down.

half an hour later, I was sitting at the "Israeli connection", one of the many Israeli centres in Kao-san... there is actually a whole street with Hebrew writings. Sitting on the wooden stump chairs, I was surrounded by Israelis talking with their companions about past times and adventures. I guess I couldn't help but feel a bit out of the loop, since I was the only one sitting all by myself, munching my Schnitzel and Hummus, while the hustle and bustle of the restaurant vibed all around me.

Hebrew writings glint in Ka0-San

After my Israeli meal, I walked all the back to one of the Sky-train stations (a 2-3 hours walk), and headed back to Jaspers place. We met there and he offered me to meet up with one of his couch-surfers friend, and I gladly accepted the offer.

Chicken feet.... yumm yumm

We met up with his Thai friend, Shompoo (yes, Shompoo), at a Thai restaurant, and it was an interesting experience, in more than one way. The food itself was not exactly my cup of tea, but I gave it a shot anyway... I could tell you that chicken feet aren't as tasty as they look, and they don't look tasty at all. but most of the food was good, and the conversation was educational.

Jasper and Shompoo

We talked about the phenomenon of lady-boys in Thailand, and we talked about politics, and we talked about the revered king. Especially the part of the king was astounding since I didn't know how much the Thai people really adore him. I thought at first that it was a ordinary sign of Propaganda, just like in other monarchies around the globe, but it seems that, though the king has no political influence whatsoever, he is honored to an extreme. Shompoo told me that one time the king has fallen ill, and in order to cure his spirits, the whole of Thailand wore yellow shirts, the color of the king, to help him recover. They highly rever him for his involvement in humane acts and helping poor families all over Thailand. Moreover, they seem a bit uneasy when it comes to his future successor, the incompetent prince.

We parted from Shompoo, and ended day 1 with a good cold shower.

day 2,3
these two days were mostly dedicated to looking at huge malls in the Siam center of town, such as the MBK mall, which has relatively low prices on everything, and also on arranging the delivery of my now-been-found-bag to the Israeli connection.

MBK - sort of a huge economic bubble

HOWEVER.

day number 3 (Friday) was definitely an interesting day. Jasper and I decided that we wanna go clubbing, so Jasper hooked up with a friend of his that stayed at another friends place, all of them couchsurfers. and they told us to go to their place and join them for dinner, and later we should all go partying together. Jasper himself didn't exactly know where this other girl lives, but we took a cab, which is a good way of traveling, especially if you are in a group, since its cheaper that way.

After a long ride, about an hour from the center, we met these two girls, Fai and Prow, and we all went to prows place, which, to my amazement, was a bloody villa. I wouldn't have guessed that I'd end up in a lavish house in the suburbs of Bangkok, but there I was, sitting with my couch-surfing friends, eating good food in a beautiful apartment, with a big garden and a direct access to the river.

Couch - Surfing... got it?

We decided going to the Kao-san area, where there are some clubs. The place was packed with foreigners, many of them are Israelis, but the music was good and the company was lively and fun.
After a while, we skipped into another place, a little bit more fancy, and the party was hot. Really hot... so hot that I was sweating like a pig, and the shirt Jasper gave me turned into a wet towel... but I didn't care, since I was having a good time.


At 2 o'clock, the Club threw us out... apparently there is a time limit on partying and drinking. So we headed to a place nearby and we sat down with other couch-surfers that joined us at some point. One of them was from Kansas, and the other girl was from Swiss, another one French and some Thai people, and the conversation lasted till 5 in the morning. Actually, the last place we sat together was at the Israeli connection, where I invited them all to have a bite of some middle eastern food, like the Humus and Malawach. Needless to say, I was practically the only one eating.

interesting notion - from 2 am many places won't sell you beer in a bottle, and if they do, then they must pour the bottle into a cup... government orders.
Again, we parted from everybody, and went to bed, satisfied and happy.

day 4

We barely slept 4 hours, but we woke up, all groggy and hungovered from the mixing of the drinks while dancing the previous night, but we decided on resting our souls in the nearby Starbucks. I don't know for how long we've sat there, but it felt like a good rest. We headed afterwards to check out the Weekend market, a huge market filled with every thing you as a tourist desire... for me it was pretty mundane, but I guess it was worth seeing. We already decided on doing the same partying routine, so Jasper tried to contact some people, and we were invited to this sort of a pool party at Shompoos building. Shompoos apartment was small and cozy, but the sight of the pool on top of the roof startled me. The view was magnificent, and the pool area was all ours. Soon, other couch-surfers, both hosts and surfers, joined us and we passed the time talking about different topics.

amazing view of the city

At about 21:30, Jasper and I parted the party, and went back to his place to get some shut eye, and plan the next party to crash. We decided on going to a more fancy sort of club that was in the RCA neighborhood. we got out at 23:00 at arrived to a relatively big club with live music and DJs. The club was designed to look like a church, and crosses were hanged on top of different walls. The place was full to the brim, and the music was seeping to our veins. Soon enough we were joined by Shompoo and another Couch-surfer from Bulgaria, and we danced till we fell. I don't remember a better dancing experience than this one... we found our little place on top of some sort of a balcony overlooking the entire view of the club itself, and we danced like we own the place. Too bad I didn't take my camera this time :) but the memory will remain.

After falling from our feet (and after we were kicked out at closing time) at about 3 am, we ended up in one of the red light districts to have some midnight snack. We sat outside, with a clear view of ladyboys and real girls waiting for customers, and around us were bunch of foreign clients with their Thai girlfriends... one peculiar scene was a mature foreigner that was caressing in a suspicious way a sobbing Thai boy, a young one... after a few minutes they headed off somewhere together.

Once again, we came back to the apartment at about 5 am, and sadly, that was my last night with Jasper. The next morning, I said goodbye and headed off to meet my new host, which would be a story by itself... no doubt, I've learned a lot, and, for my part, gained new friends.