Final day in Bangkok – big changes, some good.

Bangkok has really taken it out of me. I was really getting edgy towards the end of the third day and felt like I was about to crack. After chatting to the Gecko’s tour guide I had to make a very difficult decision to cancel my tour to Chiang Mai and surrounds. My blistered feet are making it hard to walk long distances at the moment, my state of mind stemming from Bangkok communication and culture was not good, and the tour itself turned out to be with a bunch of hippie back-packers, none of whom I related to. The last thing I needed was 10 days of village hut conditions, and all I could think of was that I would be unable to get back to civilization for 10 days, and would probably end up in a mental hospital.

Goodbye to my tour fee, and hello to more accommodation spend. However, enjoying myself is more important than money. The good news is that my last day in Bangkok was actually quite fun. I decided to check out the Computer City plaza. A huge place full of technology for sale.

First I checked into my hotel, and learned that I really should be watching out for the good looking pick-pockets. Seeing as I wasn’t pick-pocketed that day I never found out why, or even what management thought was good looking.

Walking along the tiny lane-ways, looking for pick-pockets, I passed through a very popular market.  This view is repeated in rows of three or four for the length of the street, and nobody moves to let you through. I eventually learned to be more aggressive in my movements around people.  No-one complained.

In a city of chaos there is some sensibility.  There are traffic cops who look more like military police, and then there are traffic management guys like this one. His responsibility was to stop left-turning cars from running over pedestrians, and as you can see he did so with the use of movable barriers.  We could use those in Little Bourke Street to stop the pedestrians from running over cars.  To add to Thailand confusion, I’ve noticed some streets in which cars change the side of the street they drive on!

Street vendors dominate this place, although I still haven’t eaten from one.  This lady looked more Chinese to me, but you can see from this angle how she sets up and, in a rare example, she can serve seated guests.  One of the main reasons I haven’t been eating from these vendors is that it seems most of the food is meant to be takeaway, and I would rather sit down whilst working out what things are and how to eat them. Not to mention that it gives me a table to discreetly throw up under if it comes to that.  Just kidding – all the food I’ve eaten so far has been awesome – except Burger King.

I really should have tried some of this squid.  It looks great! This stall was along a street that presented jewelery, perfume, clothes and food according to no particular plan.

I get the feeling that the local touts are too busy with passing traffic to bother poor tourists as much on Sundays, as I was hardly harrassed at all today.  I was able to dawdle along a few city blocks before eventually arriving at Computer City.   I have a reasonably wide-angle camera with me, but I wasn’t able to fit enough into this image. To fully appreciate the size of this place you need to imagine what you see times two in height (five floors), surrounding you on all four sides, with each floor occupying the depth of an entire city block.  That’s not impressive if you think of Chadstone or the Singapore malls, but it certainly is when you remember that this mall is for nothing but technology.  I purchased a translation gadget and a power adapter.  I wanted a lot more, but the prices didn’t seem to be any cheaper than what we can get at home.  The only touts here were at the DVD/VCD stores.  Dodgy types were standing on each side of the walkway quietly asking if you wanted to “buy sexy video”.  In a real turn-about in my retail experiences they took “no” for answer.  Probably something to do with the fact that their trade is rather illegal.  In the larger stores, the salespeople that actually understood English didn’t seem to want to make a sale. Those on the ground floor were actually helpful.  The lady who sold me my translator put batteries in, showed me how to use it, took $500 baht off without me saying a thing, then when I said I wanted to pay with credit card she said I would have to pay the full price (surcharge) on the card, but that she would give me the $500 baht discount in cash!

Despite being told that monks are not allowed to shop, plenty were.  I’ve since been told that these aren’t “real” monks.  I just think that monks understand the importance of technology to society more than certain unnamed Australian retail organizations might.

I was extremely close to buying this from a second-hand store for about $250.  Then I realized that I didn’t actually think I’d want it in my house!  So a photo will do nicely.

My Bangkok trip finished at Soi Cowboy (spelling?). Soi means “street”, by the way.  It’s effectively Bangkok’s red light district (although I got the impression the entire city was a red-light district!). In my opinion it seemed more like a bunch of sideshows at a carnival.  I parked myself at the bottom end in an Aussie bar, drinking Singha and watching the passing parade.  Highlights included an actual floor show on the street involving 12 “Moulin Rouge” style dancers and a cabaret singer, the tiny little kid that kept trying to sell me roses for the entire time I sat there (on my own mind you, after having said no at least 15 times). Best of all was the tiny elephant that regularly walked right through the very crowded street with her trainer   I got footage on my phone, but can’t upload from there so you’ll just have to use your imagination for now.

I got talking with a couple of Aussies, which was a breath of fresh air – to actually be able to hold a conversation again!!!  They were regulars and wanted to show me the sights. I let them do that until we entered the third bar, after which I decided enough was enough and grabbed the next available tuk tuk back to the hotel to get some peace and quiet.  I won’t bother trying to describe what goes on here.  You’ll just have to experience that for yourself.  I won’t be back to do it again, that’s for sure.

PS – I started my Malaria tablets when I hit Bangkok.  I’m not experiencing any side-effects at all, unless reduced tolerance for people is one…