Let me recap the last couple days for you;
I arrived in Bangkok late Sunday evening to meet Anderson, Liz and Brian. Brian is a friend of the Muths who has just finished up a contract with the Peace Corps in Moldova. Brian won't be coming on the trip with us, but is departing early next week for America so this first week was and will continue to be spent doing the 'normal' backpacker thing around Thailand. Considering my original plan of buying a 10,000won 'throw-away' duffel bag in Korea to exchange for my panniers on arrival to Thailand, it's been awkward and rough on the shoulders gallivanting around with this cumbersome, oversized piece of garbage that has since broken 4 times. “4 times!” you say? Yes, but as I assured everyone who questioned my duct tape decision, it would save my butt. It has, many, many times.
My first impression of Thailand is that it is quite similar to South Korea. That is of course if you factor in the humidity, recklessness, debauchery, excellent English speaking skills and general compassion directed to me as a foreigner. At first the idea of Thailand I had implanted in my mind was one of danger and panic. Butterfly knife wielding Thai teens with nothing to lose and my wallet to gain. In reality I've found it to be the complete opposite with most people seeming to generally care about your well being and impression of their county. Bangkok is truly a tourist city with people everywhere. At a population equivalent to that of my entire country which I can only assume grows drastically in peak tourist season, this place is always busy.
After getting situated at the “Sukhumvit On Nut” Guesthouse, I had my first Thai beer and reconnected with the Muths as well as finally met Luke and Christine. My emotional wreckage from the weekend of saying goodbyes to great friends and an amazing woman took it's toll after a few hours so I retired to my bunk. Fourth floor, 10 person bunk room and one special bunk left just for me, just above Luke, just outside of the closest fan's oscillation territory, just on the brink of 'maybe you die from dehydration in your sleep'. As I lay awake with sweat pouring down my face it was hard to think about anything but how uncomfortable and tired I was, but I did for a second realize that I was feeling probably the worst any non-incarcerated person has felt in Thailand. Upon this realization I kicked my ass, and smiled. I was homeless, jobless and losing nearly all of the stored liquid in my body. But I was in Thailand.^^
Monday morning was my first day to actually get around and see some of Bangkok. We took the coveted 'Sky Train' across the city to the Chao Phraya River, where we fended off the tour group haglers and long boatmen who ensured us theirs were the best and fanciest boats on the river and would take us anywhere. We opted instead I am proud to say for the public transportation boat. In this sense Bangkok is pretty neat I think, public transportation is available on land, sea and air. The trip up the river was great and afforded a grand view of passing temples, luxury hotels towering meters from slums and a deeper look into Thai life along the canal. I would 
suggest to anyone who passes through this way though to avoid getting spray from the river boat into your mouth, it's not exactly fresh spring water.
While we thought we were going to the tip of the river the boatman insisted we should disembark the vessel now, somewhere between the middle of the river and the end. I can't be quite sure. It did happen to be quite close to the famous Khao San Road, a touristy souvenir road packed with kiosks and guesthouses, hotels and restaurants. We toured around for awhile before deciding it was time to see some temples. We hired a set of Tuk-Tuk's to drive us around. This was an admittedly difficult bargaining process whereby the drivers give you their prices, but will drop them by staggering numbers in exchange for you to stop at some shops along the way. Anderson compared it quite nicely to a time share presentation; “If you put up with the rambling bullshit for 15 minutes you get to ride for next to nothing”.
As anyone who has any sense of worth knows, comparing prices for things includes more than just baht, won and dollars. Time is money as they say and even though as unemployed vagabonds we have no real place to be, our time still has some, albeit less, value. So after stepping back and letting our pit-boss cut-throat negotiator Liz-asaurus take charge, we settled on 3 temples and two shops, 10 mins per shop and no obligation to buy anything. All for the low low price of 10 baht per Tuk-Tuk.
With that interesting experience complete we headed for an afternoon of golden gem encrusted Temples and more Buddhas than I've ever seen before.
Our awesome drivers delivered us impressively quickly and unscathed to Wat Indravihan, a giant golden Buddha and on to several others. All equally golden and impressive in stature.
After being sufficiently templed out it was decided we needed to experience something a little closer to the preconceived idea of 'Bangkok'. This was not at all difficult to accomplish as our Tuk-Tuk drivers insisted that they knew the best place, a little something called a “Ping-Pong Show”. I'll let your imaginations take hold here and you can think whatever you want to think about what this show actually involved because to be honest, words cannot describe. I will say however that I will probably never again see anything like that. For lack of both availability and desire. After some dinner and drinks we returned to the guesthouse where I was relieved to see an empty bottom bunk with... could it be... access to intermittent sweeps of the fan!!!
Tuesday morning was my first taste of relaxation. We walked a short ways to a Thai massage parlour, a very clean very peaceful relaxing environment where teeny tiny Thai women get to beat you up for money. Upon laying on the bed my first thought was “Ok Blaise, don 't get too excited here. We don't want to embarrass the nice Thai lady”. This thought was blown from my mind quicker than a jack rabbit on speed when she commenced the massage by punching me in the thigh. Ow! I thought, maybe she can read my mind. Then BANG! Again! I get caught with a quick left hook to my calf. With the massage underway and a couple “You ok? Me hit too hard?” I started to relax and really appreciate the massage. It felt great and also opened my mind to the hidden power of tiny women and their ability to hurt me. When we had finished the masseuse looked as if she had just wrestled a bear. Visibly tired she looked at me and said “You too big! I'm too small!”
The afternoon was spent seeing some more temples which included among others the famous Wat Pho. This, according to Lonely Planet and misspelled information plaques represents when the Buddha finally reached Nirvana. It was pretty amazing and is complimented by the surrounding temples and places of worship. 
It was truly beautiful and calming. The slower paced day was wrapped up however by a slightly irritating fact that my 'Global' debit card, issued to me by the Korean Exchange Bank who assured me it was perfectly possible to use abroad, failed to function as advertised. This was ironed out the next day via a white noise speckled Skype call to a Korean representative who after a long time fixed this small yet potentially disastrous issue. YAY FOR MONEY!
Wednesday I finally got to take a look at my bike first hand. It's nothing spectacular but giving it the cursory bearing checks and eyeing up the rims and derailleur motion I am sure it will be more than adequate for the trip. My panniers however were not available for pick up, inspection or packing because the store was closed. This may be a problem because the 2x20lts panniers look awful small...
I can still be seen today fighting with a sketchy black bag covered in duct tape scurrying around the city. Anderson and Luke had gone to pick up our train tickets to Chiang Mai while I was investigating my bike situation so when we reconvened together around four we had a quick dinner and took off for the train station. We had gotten 2nd class sleeping seats, which are exactly what they sound like; seats you can sleep on. Our rickety train also offered dinner and breakfast as it's a 12 hour train ride. Dinner was not worth mentioning. The same could be said for breakfast though I will add it tasted like play-dough with some butter on top.
Right before bed I was blessed with the notification of “Hey Blaise look at that cockroach above your pillow”. With the thought of a cockroach nestling down in my throat for a comfy ride at the top of my head I concluded that a counteraction of “I don't really care anymore” juice was needed. Anderson and I sat awake for awhile playing UNO and cards with Liz and Brian while we drank a few night caps from a 4 dollar bottle of whisky. Indeed by the morning I was referring to my bunk mate as Carl the cockroach and reliving old memories we had made together on the train ride through lush Thai jungle.
We arrived at Chiang Mai train station around 7 am Thursday morning and took a Songthaew, a pickup truck with bench seating in the back , to an area with guesthouses. We split up to find the best bargain place to relax and sleep. Anderson and I stumbled upon the winning house, a beautiful old wooden house owned by a Scottish man but run by three caring Thai women. Named “Finlay's Cottage Bed and Breakfast” I assumed it would be ridiculously expensive and as such not conducive to our vagabond status. We we very happy to find though that along with it's cleanliness it was also quite affordable. Once we saw that it also included A/C (insert heavenly noise) we had decided this was the place.
The following day was in itself amazing and requires more time than I have to write and I'm sure you have to keep reading so I'll save it for another day. The access to internet has been a bit complicated so forgive me for such a long post but know that yes mom, I am safe. I am having a ton of fun and seeing some amazing things. Tonight we will FINALLY get to see a Muay Tai Championship fight (it got postponed several times) and tomorrow we are doing some jungle trekking to isolated tribes and also do some rafting so I'm excited about that.
As a side note, I have never seen so many dogs roaming free. I'm assured by the Muths that these numbers are not quite as high as India's but they are huge nonetheless. They meander around the temples like they own the place!
I'm afforded several great picture opportunities so here's one we saw taking a break from the heat under a tree.
Miss you all.
Blaise
