January 30, 2019
On this day we wake up on the jail train much earlier than we should have. The train man came around to shimmy-shake our bunk beds into couches for the remainder of the ride, and we still had a ways to go. Looking back it was a pleasant ride; we opened the door between our two rooms so that we could chitchat and laugh back and forth. We were just so hungry! So we were itching to get off that moving 12-hour prison sentence.
Once we docked, Brooke could absolutely not tell that we'd already been in that train station before. I found this fairly hilarious. We were back in Bangkok!
We had an engaging tuk tuk haggle that I wanna note. Of course, as soon as you walk outta the train building there are fifty-five hundred men hollering "tuk tuk?" at you. I see this as pure excitement and sweet adrenaline, but the others are supremely annoyed. Drooling, I approach two men thinking they are taxi guys, but as they turn to me and their pupils dilate, I realize they are tuk tuk drivers. Shoot, this won't work! We have four humans, four little backpacks, and four huge backpacks. We absolutely cannot fit in your tuk tuk, sir. They were determined, each with their own tuk tuk. I tell them we're headed to Chinatown and they say 200 baht. Then point at both of the tuk tuks. I confirm 200 baht for all of us, which they brush off in a way... Then I say, "WAIT! 200 for this one AND 200 for this one?" Then men laugh and I laugh because I caught them. Eventually, we all pack into ONE 200 baht tuk tuk... He ASSURES we can fit. And in fact, we do after he yanks down a little back tailgate and ties some rope around our bags. It was ridiculously stuffed and hot in that ride... And the pollution was actually very noticeable....
Key: Be careful in these situations, especially in open air vehicles on a BUSY street in a big, compact city like Bangkok. People will snatch your bags. We were holding on tight being BAR. Bright, Alert, and Responsive. But this marks the only time I was slightly concerned on the trip. Otherwise, no fears.
When we make it to our hostel, I'm impressed. It's nestled into the tall concrete walls of Chinatown and I think you'd miss it if you weren't on your BAR shit. We hop out and pay our tricky man.
My goal for the end of a trip like this is to splurge a little for comfort. We are all exhausted, sun burnt, and dirty. Securing hot showers in a touristy hostel can do a lot for your crew's energy levels. Touristy hostels cater to your annoying questions like, "how does the metro work?" and "how much should a taxi to here cost?" When you're tired at the final stop of your whirlwind vacation, having someone offer to think for you is a godsend.
To our mega surprise, one of our rooms is actually ready for us when we arrive! It's early, so we were expecting to have to beg them to shower in their public showers and drop our bags off in their luggage closet, but! Woo! We all head up to the room. The hostel is nice! Once we drop all of our bags off, we just lay down and breathe. I have no plans for the day because I'm not sure what anyone if willing to commit to. So I'm just relaxing and checking the vibes. We settle on running to go eat as we wait for Olivia's room to be ready.
We walk off, heading to Starbucks. They should have bagels and hummus, right? WRONG! They find food and I pout. The coffee was delicious though.
I rise to a 7/10 on our mood scale at this point. I'm hungry and I'm wanting to go go go... But no one's with me on that. I'm not afraid to admit that I end up at a 9 this day. It was a slow decline (ascend?), but I wind up being a solid 9. This is after we eat though.
We traveled allll the way to Khao San Road. Ethos Vegetarian and Vegan Kitchen was where we were headed. Oh it was so cute upon entering. You can sit on the floor! The owners were Indian, so it was a nice little fusion food selection. Their menu was extensive because of this. Basically it was a book because not only did it tell us all of their food availability, but often also the history and reasoning behind some of it. For instance, Coca-Cola was literally on the menu... But it didn't show a price, it just displayed a paragraph underneath about how awful the chemicals in soda are for your body, what the chemicals exactly do, and how they don't sell soda because you should seriously avoid drinking it. But they did have beer, so I ordered one of those. ;-)
We ate. Good food. Time to move on.
I think at this point we'd actually wasted enough time for it to be 1pm. This would mean Olivia's room was probably prepared at the hostel. So, we Grabbed back over there. We all showered. I think it was now that I had a break down? My memory may be failing or blocking this out one, because it's fuzzy recalling. But I'll explain my breakdown quickly.
I was basically sad and overwhelmed about how the trip was almost over and I wasn't sure if we would be able to make the most of our time. We were about to have to go back to real life. Which, my real life isn't bad or anything. It's just that adventure is so much higher than regular life. I almost always have short breakdowns at this point in my trips. I remember my breakdown in Brazil was certainly the worst. Not even sure if I wrote about it. Anyway, Brooke was very nice to me during this collapse. Sweet girl.
Suck it up! Olivia and Kiana wanted to nap before our night plans. We were meeting up with a fellow Worth County Ram, Chandler Bell, at a vegan restaurant. But before that, I wanted to get a feel for our new area of town.
Brooke and I took a little stroll around the Old Market there off of Yaowarat Road. We walked using my GPS (which, key: still works in airplane mode if you were on wifi previously). I love navigating this way *foreshadowing*.
The market was different than the rest of the markets we'd been to. This certainly helped to cheer me up! It was so crowded! Lots of food and the typical stuff, but it was decked out in New Years decor for the upcoming Chinese New Year on Feb 5th. We strolled and headed down some creep-o alleyways, eventually leaving the market on accident. Fine with me, I like seeing every inch of a city that I can.
With an elevated mood, we head back home to get ready for the dinner with Chandler and his wife.
If you're plant-based and going to Bangkok, you know about May Veggie Home. Everyone online recommends and rants and raves about this place. Cool fact, my favorite football freestyler messaged me on Instagram to tell me to go eat there. In conclusion- We were excited to stuff our sweaty faces with some vegan foods this night.
We had to use the metro to get here because it was fast, cheap ($1) and, as it turned out, thoroughly simple to use. I love subways but they scare me. Or maybe I love them BECAUSE they scare me.
We made it to the restaurant 6 minutes late, which I consider a major accomplishment. Dinner was DELIGHTFUL and both Chandler and his wife Emily are wonderful people. They live in Bangkok and work as schoolteachers. Quite epic. They recommended our next activity. Thanks, guys! May Veggie Home exceeded expectations, in my opinion. Which is remarkable knowing how much praise I'd heard about it before arriving.
Next, we shot off towards the Rot Fai Market Ratchana. We used the metro again and it was a short easy road to the market. As soon as we stepped off we knew we were in a popping spot. SO MANY PEOPLE. Huge majority were Thai, which I was stoked about.
This market was NOTHING like anything I'd been to. It was modern and less food oriented than usual and more about the goods. Lots and LOTS of goods. Rows and rows of goods. Probably over 200 tents selling clothing, knockoff shoes and bags, electronics, everything. It was set up in an organized fashion, but it as so large that we kept getting lost! Chandler recommended we go to the very back and visit a bar named Sorry, I'm Gay. Sounded like a good fit, so we made it our home base. Finding the place a was tricky. The back of the market was so dense with bars, they were literally stacked on top of each other. Each bar was its own old train compartment! It reminded me of the Container Bar in Austin, TX. Except it was so much more complex. We found the bar and it was bumping some tunes. Then we split up.
Brooke and I walked all around looking for some nice knockoff goods to grab. Eventually I snagged a nice little watch. We were really blown away at how cheap and plentiful this market was. We really had a great time here. Plus Brooke scored an incredible watermelon slushie that literally made us both shout.
This satisfied my hunger for activities quite well. On our way home, we had a little hiccup.
Kiana apparently had to pee so badly that she had to get off the train at an early stop so she could find a restroom. Olivia went with her. BROOKE AND I DID NOT KNOW THIS DECISION HAD BEEN MADE until she and I got off and Kiana/Olivia could not be found anywhere. We deduced what happened and just hoped we could make it home without Google Maps.
Now, we'd walked TO the train station earlier in the night. We tried to retrace our steps at first. We were the only people out walking around, it was 12am after all. Our alertness was peaked. We made an incorrect decision at a fork and had a small panic (huge excitement for me, I love it). But fear not- I could use my iPhone Maps app with GPS location. We were walking swiftly. I was mainly worried about my sister being separated from me at this hour.
We made it home and hit the sack.
Once we docked, Brooke could absolutely not tell that we'd already been in that train station before. I found this fairly hilarious. We were back in Bangkok!
We had an engaging tuk tuk haggle that I wanna note. Of course, as soon as you walk outta the train building there are fifty-five hundred men hollering "tuk tuk?" at you. I see this as pure excitement and sweet adrenaline, but the others are supremely annoyed. Drooling, I approach two men thinking they are taxi guys, but as they turn to me and their pupils dilate, I realize they are tuk tuk drivers. Shoot, this won't work! We have four humans, four little backpacks, and four huge backpacks. We absolutely cannot fit in your tuk tuk, sir. They were determined, each with their own tuk tuk. I tell them we're headed to Chinatown and they say 200 baht. Then point at both of the tuk tuks. I confirm 200 baht for all of us, which they brush off in a way... Then I say, "WAIT! 200 for this one AND 200 for this one?" Then men laugh and I laugh because I caught them. Eventually, we all pack into ONE 200 baht tuk tuk... He ASSURES we can fit. And in fact, we do after he yanks down a little back tailgate and ties some rope around our bags. It was ridiculously stuffed and hot in that ride... And the pollution was actually very noticeable....
Key: Be careful in these situations, especially in open air vehicles on a BUSY street in a big, compact city like Bangkok. People will snatch your bags. We were holding on tight being BAR. Bright, Alert, and Responsive. But this marks the only time I was slightly concerned on the trip. Otherwise, no fears.
When we make it to our hostel, I'm impressed. It's nestled into the tall concrete walls of Chinatown and I think you'd miss it if you weren't on your BAR shit. We hop out and pay our tricky man.
My goal for the end of a trip like this is to splurge a little for comfort. We are all exhausted, sun burnt, and dirty. Securing hot showers in a touristy hostel can do a lot for your crew's energy levels. Touristy hostels cater to your annoying questions like, "how does the metro work?" and "how much should a taxi to here cost?" When you're tired at the final stop of your whirlwind vacation, having someone offer to think for you is a godsend.
To our mega surprise, one of our rooms is actually ready for us when we arrive! It's early, so we were expecting to have to beg them to shower in their public showers and drop our bags off in their luggage closet, but! Woo! We all head up to the room. The hostel is nice! Once we drop all of our bags off, we just lay down and breathe. I have no plans for the day because I'm not sure what anyone if willing to commit to. So I'm just relaxing and checking the vibes. We settle on running to go eat as we wait for Olivia's room to be ready.
We walk off, heading to Starbucks. They should have bagels and hummus, right? WRONG! They find food and I pout. The coffee was delicious though.
I rise to a 7/10 on our mood scale at this point. I'm hungry and I'm wanting to go go go... But no one's with me on that. I'm not afraid to admit that I end up at a 9 this day. It was a slow decline (ascend?), but I wind up being a solid 9. This is after we eat though.
We traveled allll the way to Khao San Road. Ethos Vegetarian and Vegan Kitchen was where we were headed. Oh it was so cute upon entering. You can sit on the floor! The owners were Indian, so it was a nice little fusion food selection. Their menu was extensive because of this. Basically it was a book because not only did it tell us all of their food availability, but often also the history and reasoning behind some of it. For instance, Coca-Cola was literally on the menu... But it didn't show a price, it just displayed a paragraph underneath about how awful the chemicals in soda are for your body, what the chemicals exactly do, and how they don't sell soda because you should seriously avoid drinking it. But they did have beer, so I ordered one of those. ;-)
We ate. Good food. Time to move on.
I think at this point we'd actually wasted enough time for it to be 1pm. This would mean Olivia's room was probably prepared at the hostel. So, we Grabbed back over there. We all showered. I think it was now that I had a break down? My memory may be failing or blocking this out one, because it's fuzzy recalling. But I'll explain my breakdown quickly.
I was basically sad and overwhelmed about how the trip was almost over and I wasn't sure if we would be able to make the most of our time. We were about to have to go back to real life. Which, my real life isn't bad or anything. It's just that adventure is so much higher than regular life. I almost always have short breakdowns at this point in my trips. I remember my breakdown in Brazil was certainly the worst. Not even sure if I wrote about it. Anyway, Brooke was very nice to me during this collapse. Sweet girl.
Suck it up! Olivia and Kiana wanted to nap before our night plans. We were meeting up with a fellow Worth County Ram, Chandler Bell, at a vegan restaurant. But before that, I wanted to get a feel for our new area of town.
Brooke and I took a little stroll around the Old Market there off of Yaowarat Road. We walked using my GPS (which, key: still works in airplane mode if you were on wifi previously). I love navigating this way *foreshadowing*.
The market was different than the rest of the markets we'd been to. This certainly helped to cheer me up! It was so crowded! Lots of food and the typical stuff, but it was decked out in New Years decor for the upcoming Chinese New Year on Feb 5th. We strolled and headed down some creep-o alleyways, eventually leaving the market on accident. Fine with me, I like seeing every inch of a city that I can.
With an elevated mood, we head back home to get ready for the dinner with Chandler and his wife.
If you're plant-based and going to Bangkok, you know about May Veggie Home. Everyone online recommends and rants and raves about this place. Cool fact, my favorite football freestyler messaged me on Instagram to tell me to go eat there. In conclusion- We were excited to stuff our sweaty faces with some vegan foods this night.
We had to use the metro to get here because it was fast, cheap ($1) and, as it turned out, thoroughly simple to use. I love subways but they scare me. Or maybe I love them BECAUSE they scare me.
We made it to the restaurant 6 minutes late, which I consider a major accomplishment. Dinner was DELIGHTFUL and both Chandler and his wife Emily are wonderful people. They live in Bangkok and work as schoolteachers. Quite epic. They recommended our next activity. Thanks, guys! May Veggie Home exceeded expectations, in my opinion. Which is remarkable knowing how much praise I'd heard about it before arriving.
Next, we shot off towards the Rot Fai Market Ratchana. We used the metro again and it was a short easy road to the market. As soon as we stepped off we knew we were in a popping spot. SO MANY PEOPLE. Huge majority were Thai, which I was stoked about.
This market was NOTHING like anything I'd been to. It was modern and less food oriented than usual and more about the goods. Lots and LOTS of goods. Rows and rows of goods. Probably over 200 tents selling clothing, knockoff shoes and bags, electronics, everything. It was set up in an organized fashion, but it as so large that we kept getting lost! Chandler recommended we go to the very back and visit a bar named Sorry, I'm Gay. Sounded like a good fit, so we made it our home base. Finding the place a was tricky. The back of the market was so dense with bars, they were literally stacked on top of each other. Each bar was its own old train compartment! It reminded me of the Container Bar in Austin, TX. Except it was so much more complex. We found the bar and it was bumping some tunes. Then we split up.
Brooke and I walked all around looking for some nice knockoff goods to grab. Eventually I snagged a nice little watch. We were really blown away at how cheap and plentiful this market was. We really had a great time here. Plus Brooke scored an incredible watermelon slushie that literally made us both shout.
This satisfied my hunger for activities quite well. On our way home, we had a little hiccup.
Kiana apparently had to pee so badly that she had to get off the train at an early stop so she could find a restroom. Olivia went with her. BROOKE AND I DID NOT KNOW THIS DECISION HAD BEEN MADE until she and I got off and Kiana/Olivia could not be found anywhere. We deduced what happened and just hoped we could make it home without Google Maps.
Now, we'd walked TO the train station earlier in the night. We tried to retrace our steps at first. We were the only people out walking around, it was 12am after all. Our alertness was peaked. We made an incorrect decision at a fork and had a small panic (huge excitement for me, I love it). But fear not- I could use my iPhone Maps app with GPS location. We were walking swiftly. I was mainly worried about my sister being separated from me at this hour.
We made it home and hit the sack.
Fun, exciting and intense. Love how y'all visited with Chandler and Emily
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