I spent the rest of my time in Bangkok hanging out with these new friends. We watched The Hangover II when it came out which was fun to see in Bangkok since it was filmed there. I can't wait to get to the beaches that look like the one from the movie! Before the movie started we had to stand up because they play the Thai national anthem. A little weird, but whatever. I met my first weird backpacker as well. Another Canadian who was a physics major and is going to be working for Google really really close to my neighborhood. I had to pretend I didn't live near there. haha. He was kind of like Allan from the Hangover, except not funny. Oh well..there's always going to be a few right?
I rode on the back of a motorcycle taxi, too! Lots of fun weaving through Bangkok traffic, except my abnormally small head obviously didn't fit in the helmet he gave me. I had to hold on to the helmet the entire time bc whenever he gunned it or braked the thing would fall right off. Definitely not the safest thing, but it was way faster than a tuk-tuk or taxi. And way cheaper. I managed to take some video while I was riding but am having a hard time uploading it. Looks like it won't be seen for a while since I've spent the last hour trying and wasting my money. boo.
I opted not to go to what is called a Ping Pong show that night. To explain it briefly, people go and watch girls shoot/pull things out of their private parts. Examples include ping pong balls, long string with razor blades, fish, darts...I think you guys get the point. I'll be honest, I was going to go watch it since it's one of those things to do in Bangkok. But the guy at the door was charging way more than seeing that is worth, so my friend Giang and I turned around. The guys we went with stayed though, and like every other person I've met, they are hoping to erase the entire 2 hrs of mental images that have been seared into their memories. I think I made the right decision. haha.
Since my first horrible food experience things have really turned around for the better. I've had pad thai everyday since that day, and it's been wonderful. Pad thai for less than $2. I need to live here. :D SOOOO GOOD! Everything here is SO CHEAP. I can't get over it. A liter of water is just 10 cents, a 30 min thai massage is $2, clothes I've bought are maybe $3-5. And this is less if you bargain the price down. I feel bad doing it sometimes, especially when it's an old lady trying to sell me something, but everyone is out to get you here. It has to be done. By the time I get to the end of my trip I will be an expert haggler, and then I'll come home to the US and I'll have to head to Chinatown because where else can I go? haha.
I went to the floating markets with a new friend, Chris one morning. The night before a group of us basically decided that we wanted to get there when the locals did which is at 5am. By the end of our night, we decided we could get there when the tourists came which was at 7am, but it still required at 5:30am wakeup. Only Chris and I got ourselves up to go, and we managed to get on a tour to go. A definite plus since it was 90km out of the city and we had no idea if we could get a good price for a taxi to take us out there and back. We arrived to the market thinking it would be floating alone on a river and we'd need boats to see everything and that there'd be food and snakes and craziness! Not the case. haha. Obviously. We took a boat around to various stalls but it was pretty much a waste of money to do that. Oh well. It was still cool to see. Another massive market to add to the list. I think I'll be going to quite a few of those. I'm heading up north to Chiang Mai via train with Giang! Pretty excited since there's elephants and hiking!
They sing the national anthem at movies in India too!!!
ReplyDeletePig balls and Ping Pong Shows... thats the title of your blog.