Somewhere Over Asia - Bangkok, Thailand
The plane landed in Bangkok at 4pm local time, coasting down through cloudless blue skies. The view from the window seat was spectacular; the patchwork of fields giving way to the edge of the capital with the city's minareted skyline shimmering in the distance.
Not that I saw any of that.
A woman with a window seat told me all about it as we disembarked.
I couldn't see anything squeezed into the middle seats of the middle aisle and was too busy worrying about a landing disaster to do anything more than stare stiffly at the back of the chair ahead.
It was my first time in Asia and the thing I remember most as I got off the plane was the intense heat. A kind of heat that has substance and you have to push your way through it to move like wading through water. And then you breath it in and the heat comes into your chest like your whole body is regulating itself to the climate. It sparks a feeling that everything will be more leisurely here, more sedate. Or maybe that's just a cliche looking for a susceptible mind....
Attempting to look like a seasoned traveller I confidently left the airport ignoring the offers of taxi touts and walked up to the bus stop just outside. There were lots of other backpackers milling about so I guessed this was the right place. If it wasn't at least I was in company.
Eventually a bus pulled up and everyone, including myself jumped on. It was here I met my first travel buddy - a strapping Australian named Campbell. He'd been working on a cattle farm in England for six months and was on his way home, stopping over in Bangkok for a couple of nights only. It was good to meet another lone traveller and we agreed to share a room in town.
Khaosan Road. If you're in Bangkok and you're a backpacker you will almost certainly stay in or around Khaosan Road (Cow-A-San if I've got the pronunciation right). I don't think I've seen any other city with such a compressed tourist area. It's a long wide street but it doesn't seem so due to the almost relentless activity and life which plays out on itself. The contrast between the quiet early mornings and the rest of the day is amazing. Stalls line the pavement on both sides of each sidewalk (next to the shops AND the kerb). They sell T-shirts, alarm clocks, jewellery, perfume, batteries, sarongs, coconuts pierced with a single straw, and a lot of other stuff. Between these stalls a single-file line of mainly young tourists bustle, looking for bargains or trying to get access to the numerous internet cafes, hotels, guest-houses, bookshops, pubs, restaurants, travel agents, laundrettes, bars, tattoo parlours. Most people walk on the road proper with scooters zipping past and the occasional honking car.
For a tired, first-time traveller it's a bit of a sight. With night descending we walked the entire length of the road in a daze. Then we hit one of the street's lesser tributaries and walked down that. Eventually we shook our collective heads and ducked in to a chilled-out looking guest-house. (Actually once inside, discharged of bags, and sipping a beer, everyone does there best to give an air of pitying nonchalence to the poor sweaty fools still trying to find a room--the lounging is so affected on occasion). We checked in, dumped our bags and went back out with newfound confidence.
I'd arranged to meet Mark and Luke at 8pm outside Gullivers--a bar on the corner of Khaosan Road. They'd been travelling for a few months by that stage and happened to be in Thailand when I arrived. I jumped at the chance to have some familiar faces around--especially with such seasoned hands. We were a little early so we sauntered down the street again. And bumped into Mark and Luke half-way down. Like I said, Bangkok starts and ends with Khaosan Road for most. I was really happy to see them.
We went to a vegetarian restaurant. I don't remember the conversation, but I do remember still being on edge a little and Luke really helping me relax with his bouyant mood. I barely ate my food and was happy to get on to a bar. Beer is a real good fix for calming nerves. We laughed and I found out a lot about Mark and Luke's adventures in India. By the time I crawled into bed--not even that late--I was pretty drunk.
Travelling's the best I thought as I slipped to sleep, completely removed from reality by the logic of the intoxicated.
Later I woke with a raging hangover thinking 'Oh my God, no turning back now....and who's that strange man in the opposite bed?'
Not that I saw any of that.
A woman with a window seat told me all about it as we disembarked.
I couldn't see anything squeezed into the middle seats of the middle aisle and was too busy worrying about a landing disaster to do anything more than stare stiffly at the back of the chair ahead.
It was my first time in Asia and the thing I remember most as I got off the plane was the intense heat. A kind of heat that has substance and you have to push your way through it to move like wading through water. And then you breath it in and the heat comes into your chest like your whole body is regulating itself to the climate. It sparks a feeling that everything will be more leisurely here, more sedate. Or maybe that's just a cliche looking for a susceptible mind....
Attempting to look like a seasoned traveller I confidently left the airport ignoring the offers of taxi touts and walked up to the bus stop just outside. There were lots of other backpackers milling about so I guessed this was the right place. If it wasn't at least I was in company.
Eventually a bus pulled up and everyone, including myself jumped on. It was here I met my first travel buddy - a strapping Australian named Campbell. He'd been working on a cattle farm in England for six months and was on his way home, stopping over in Bangkok for a couple of nights only. It was good to meet another lone traveller and we agreed to share a room in town.
Khaosan Road. If you're in Bangkok and you're a backpacker you will almost certainly stay in or around Khaosan Road (Cow-A-San if I've got the pronunciation right). I don't think I've seen any other city with such a compressed tourist area. It's a long wide street but it doesn't seem so due to the almost relentless activity and life which plays out on itself. The contrast between the quiet early mornings and the rest of the day is amazing. Stalls line the pavement on both sides of each sidewalk (next to the shops AND the kerb). They sell T-shirts, alarm clocks, jewellery, perfume, batteries, sarongs, coconuts pierced with a single straw, and a lot of other stuff. Between these stalls a single-file line of mainly young tourists bustle, looking for bargains or trying to get access to the numerous internet cafes, hotels, guest-houses, bookshops, pubs, restaurants, travel agents, laundrettes, bars, tattoo parlours. Most people walk on the road proper with scooters zipping past and the occasional honking car.
For a tired, first-time traveller it's a bit of a sight. With night descending we walked the entire length of the road in a daze. Then we hit one of the street's lesser tributaries and walked down that. Eventually we shook our collective heads and ducked in to a chilled-out looking guest-house. (Actually once inside, discharged of bags, and sipping a beer, everyone does there best to give an air of pitying nonchalence to the poor sweaty fools still trying to find a room--the lounging is so affected on occasion). We checked in, dumped our bags and went back out with newfound confidence.
I'd arranged to meet Mark and Luke at 8pm outside Gullivers--a bar on the corner of Khaosan Road. They'd been travelling for a few months by that stage and happened to be in Thailand when I arrived. I jumped at the chance to have some familiar faces around--especially with such seasoned hands. We were a little early so we sauntered down the street again. And bumped into Mark and Luke half-way down. Like I said, Bangkok starts and ends with Khaosan Road for most. I was really happy to see them.
We went to a vegetarian restaurant. I don't remember the conversation, but I do remember still being on edge a little and Luke really helping me relax with his bouyant mood. I barely ate my food and was happy to get on to a bar. Beer is a real good fix for calming nerves. We laughed and I found out a lot about Mark and Luke's adventures in India. By the time I crawled into bed--not even that late--I was pretty drunk.
Travelling's the best I thought as I slipped to sleep, completely removed from reality by the logic of the intoxicated.
Later I woke with a raging hangover thinking 'Oh my God, no turning back now....and who's that strange man in the opposite bed?'
posted by Steve at 12:34 PM
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