Kamikaze Canuck

After haggling with the taxi driver over prices, we took the 1:30am ride to our guesthouse: “Sam Sen Sam”.  Our room didn’t exactly look like the pictures on the internet but nonetheless it was clean, had helpful staff, and looked awfully comfortable to two people who had just spent 24 hours on flights.

Excited to explore, we awoke early and went for a walk.  “I think I’m in for an eye opener” was one of the first things out of Megan’s mouth.  She’s probably right.  Our senses were overstimulated as we walked deeper into the city.  Street vendors vying for our business, dogs barking, horns honking, “the smell of old stale water” in Megans words, the proletariat rushing through the streets tending to their work, an old man doing a pelvic thrust workout in the park (No joke – I had to cover Megans eyes).  The WTF factor is as high as it’s ever been in Bangkok.

What better way to introduce Megan to the city than by a river taxi ride down the famous Chao Phraya river.  We piled onto the worn 70 passenger taxi boat like cattle and the exact second the last person steps on the boat, we are headed down river.  As we float down the river, it’s impossible not to notice the staggering contrast between the “Have’s” and “Have Not’s” in Bangkok.  On one side of the river we have a slum.  Filthy, battered, wooden shacks, chicken wired together.  On the other, the immaculate 50 story Hilton Hotel……. literally.  No BS.

Here are some of the sights from the view of the river taxi:

From the river taxi, we hopped on the newly built Bangkok skytrain and arrived at our destination “Rajawongse Clothiers”!  This father-son “hole-in-the-wall” tailor shop is highly regarded as one of the best in the world.  They have a loooooong list of VIP clientel as seen by this picture:

After being measured for my 6 dress shirts and 2 pairs of pants, we hailed a tuk tuk, hopped on, and proceeded to the largest weekend market in the world – Chatuchak.

For those of you not familiar with what a tuk tuk is, allow me to open “Jason’s Dictionary” and tell you:

Tuk-Tuk (pr.tuck tuck)

>Noun

A small, 3 wheeled, golf cart looking contraption, usually sporting a flamboyant paintjob that acts as a taxi.  Get on and hold on for dear life…. 

After slogging around the market in the sweltering heat with Meg (who was surprisingly non-Shopzilla that day), we decided to sit down at a comfortable  riverside restaurant on bean-bag chairs for some great food and cold beers.  Nom nom nom……..  I have a ton of other stuff to post, bu that will have to wait as I’m being drug out of the hostel for another day of exploring!

Oh, and ask Megan if she likes banana pancakes……….