Suhkumvit, Bangkok

On my flight to Thailand I sat next to a woman from Richmond who was on her way to visiting her globe-trekking daughter. She told me that she had previously been to Egypt (I LOOOOVVVED Egypt!), the Phillipines (I LOOOOOVVVED the Phillipines!), Honduras and Costa Rica (I LOOOOVVVVED Honduras! I LOOOOOOVVVVVVED Costa Rica!), and a few other countries that she most likely loved very much. I checked my watch: only sixteen more hours to go.

What little I have seen of Bangkok is more or less what I expected. I am staying at a pleasant place called Suk 11, which is full of backpackers and pulled-luggagers alike. The neighborhood is a hotbed of sexual commerce, and I can hear, even now at five in the morning, the very faint thumping beat of aweful trance music from the girlie bar around the corner. Old and overweight caucasian gentlemen walk the streets with their young Thai girlfriends.

After walking and sweating I realized that the Skytrain and the subway were more hydrating means of getting around. Unable to work up the courage for the street vendors, I wolfed down some fried rice and laksa at an indoor food mall that looked like a chic cafeteria. Then I managed to get a train ticket out of here. Tonight I leave Bangkok on the overnight sleeper to Chumphon, where I will take a bus and a ferry to Ko Tao.