Traveling

Check.

I love when I start to feel comfortable in a city. It starts when I decide I don't need to pay attention to every little thing going on and can wear my mp3 player eevrywhere. I have also mastered the public transit. Ah, who am I kidding? I know how to get from Mike's to khao san... no really I am not that bad.
Let me tell you about my day(s).
I went to Khao San rd., the super backpacker area. The streets are lined with cheap pad thai stands, shops selling just about anything, fresh OJ and/or pineapple sellers and a gazillion backpackers. I came here (by sky train and public bus) to find a used copy of an India travel guide. (Have I told you there is a golf course right in the middle of the city? Very odd, you see it from the sky train).
So I went from used book stall to book stall, trying to get a good price for my SE Asia guide book and a Bradbury book I had acquired along the way. No luck. And on top of it all, they wanted 30$ for a photocopied India book!
I had to meet up with Christina (the girl I traveled with in Burma) at 3 so I gave up on the book.
Sat and had coffee in a back alley for about 3 hrs and it was just so great.. she's trying to decide if she can do a year travel trip coming this June.. Strolled around a bit and found a rough guide to india from 2003 for 20$.. I gave in, I need Something! We also decided to get Thai massages.. i was slightly reluctant bc I don't esp like massages, they usually hurt, but the guy I had, well, I almost asked him to marry me! Awesome. Half way thru, this Chinese couple comes in to get an oil massage. The masseuse says "take off your clothes" and the lady, in shock, exclaims "no!" and then the masseuse, i guess she's used to this says " well how i give you oil massage with clothes on?" and then all the other masseurs started to laugh.. there was a lot of chinese between the couple and after a couple of minutes i guess they gave in. Didn't hear a peep from them after that.
Found some hiking boots at a stand along the road. tried to bargain but he was not budging- got them for 40$. They are super light but still sturdy and are hardly used (stop judging- i'm poor!) so they were a pretty good deal. He said i could sell them back to him when I got back, but I think it would be more worth it to keep them. So much for getting to Chinatown for new years celebrations. Just couldn't be bothered...

I had big plans for today- I got up relatively early and headed to the Indian embassy. Took the sky train and then a moto. I think I will just start taking motos everywhere cause I love the adrenaline you get when risking your life.. you know?
There were only about 500 people waiting to get their visas. Fair enough. I had to fight to get a number- I am getting used to the whole "we don't queue in Asia" but come on! Sometimes, it's just plain obvious I am waiting patiently as soon as the person is done talking and he just butts right in front. Serenity Now, right Nahida?
So I push and shove my way to the front, get a number and sit down. Waited 2 hrs but got my paperwork in. Should be ready Friday. Thing is, I left with my passport. The lady had no interest whatsoever in talking to me, whatsoever, so I didn't push the subject. I may not be getting my visa after all. :)
Talked to an American couple who had just been to Burma (and were sailing around the world- it had been 8 yrs!!!) and were astounded at the fact that the Burmese laid roads by hand. This other American next to me interjected, "Ya but if you use a huge machine, that only takes 3 people to operate, then the other 97 people are out of a job". Ok, fair enough. BTW, I think it's pretty silly that white people think they can talk to white people anywhere they please. (Still stuck on the whole Singapore thing, Christina...) I digress.
I sauntered along, back to the sky train. Stopped by chance in a travel shop along the way to check out prices for BKK- Calcutta. So far, I had been letting Caitlin email me all her travel itineraries and prices... lazy bum that I am. The women found me a flight 2000 bhat cheaper (fine fine, that's only 60$ but it pays for my boots and book!) I am flying Druk Air. Scared yet? It's Bhutan's airline. Don't ask me why I am flying with them from Bangkok to Calcutta but anyways... I was very close to leaving a day earlier and doing a stopover in Bangladesh (Dhaka). Druk air was cheaper and what does a night in a dirty city give me other than a headache? I will get plenty of headaches in India, I am sure!
So visa, check. Flight ticket, check. Guide book, check. Trekking boots, check. I am almost there. All I need are socks.
Now, I know that sounds easy enough, and you are all going 'why is she telling us she needs socks? Just go to any silly little shop and get some.' Oh, no, no, no, no, no. For some very odd reason, you can not find socks. Ok, wait a sec, you CAN find socks but they last for 1 days wear. I am a stomper, not a lily footed light stepper, or whatever. I went to a huge dept store- an upscale one- bc i wanted good socks. I was sent to floor 2, then to floor 1, then to floor 3. I found some on sale (on floor 5), but then at the cash, well, 'those are not on sale!' I found trekking socks (floor 4) and they were just a bit cheaper than my boots. I told the guy too expensive and he said 'No No! Good socks!' I looked down and he had on the little white see thru type socks everyone wears here... I guess there's not much trekking to be done in Bangkok anyways.

I gave up.

Went to the train station by sky train and I took the metro! (I'm almost a local- except for the fact that I say "Hello" when I want to say "thank you" and vice versa.. )
Booked a ticket for the overnite train to chiang mai. I have to test out my trekking boots before bringing them to india... So I'll head there Wed nite and come back Monday morning to pick up my visa and get ready for my 650am flight to Calcutta!
So very very excited.

Oh, I had a revelation today. There are very few foreign kids around, you know really young ones, like 2 or 3 yrs old. But every once in a while I see one. i have been thinking they look like alien babies bc they are so huge- I wonder to myself, well perhaps the parents are working long hours and they can't potty train their children or take the seuss away from them, thats why they are 4 and still in diapers. But I realised today that I am an Idiot. foreign kids are just much larger than Thai kids are. Much Larger. Like, do you remember that commercial where the guy is walking along the hall holding onto the banister and hes sniffling and sulking bc he has such a bad cold. You only see his feet, then the camera pans up to his hands, which are adult hands, but then when they get to his face, it's a little baby's face..? Whata creepy commercial. Anyways, that's what all the kids look like to me. Little walking adults- they are quite scary/silly looking.


Hey a couple books I have just finshed that were pretty good:

The Corrections. Couldn't put it down. But oh so very depressing. Really well written, but stay away from open windows and bridges.

Freakonomics. Easy read, and really interesting. Definitely gets you thinking about how certain things are connected, could be connnected, are not connected at all. But we still can't be sure. What is it? Correlation is NOT causation?

The Hungry Tide. this was an awesome book about a woman who was tracking dolphins in some part off India. Unfortunately I am horrible at describing anything, but if you want a great novel, find this one.

If Not Now, When? Great great book about a band of Jews trying to survive in forests while the Germans go around leveling towns. (Again that whole description thing..) Pretty heavy read tho..

A Graveyard for Lunatics. So very strange. Set on a movie set in the 50s a writer witnesses a death that had already happened and tries to solve it (?) and people go missing. Easy and strange.

Platform. French guy decides to go to Thailand on a package tour... a lot of talk about sex tourism, a lot of sex, but still a book of substance. Somewhat. Strongly recommended.

posted by jjoollee @ 2:37 AM