Bangkok

Having ditched my sweater during a drunken all night rally in Beijing, the only thing left to do was cut my pants into shorts. I arrived in Bangkok with 1 Chinese Yen until my bank took the hold off my debit card. I got a ride from our Bangkok tour guide who my friend Jo had sent to get me from the airport. He is Bangkok born and raised. Drives a tuk tuk, drinks Hong Thong Thai whiskey, laughs and jokes in the most inappropriate ways he can. Basically a Fannytrekker's best friend. He grabbed a cab to come get me and when we got to downtown Bangkok, the cab dropped us at his tuk tuk. All decked out in pinks and yellows, the thing could move. If drinking around in an open air three wheeled motor bike isn't sketchy enough, in Thailand people drive on the wrong side of the road. Many roads are 4-6 lanes, but it's hard to tell which lanes go which way. 1 in one direction,3 in the other. We spend through town on the 3 day of Thailand's New Year, Songkran, the Water Festival, and every few blocks we would pass a gathering of folks with squirt guns, water buckets, hoses, and water balloons. I got doused pretty quick by a water balloon and some squirt guns, and the started keeping my phone in a dry pouch in my fannypack. The humidity makes it hard for your clothes to dry, and walking in wet Levi's isn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but the joy and splendor of watching locals toss water all over the white people who fill there city day in day out all year makes it worth it. Kids of 3-10 years old especially get into the act. They'll stand in from of their houses or apartments, drenched to the bone in white t shirts and shorts, often standing in tubs of water already. And everyone is joyously yelling Happy New year. Getting in on the act is contagious.

I finally met with Jo at our hotel and we hung out and caught up on the last 8 months since we'd seen each other. The funny thing about Facebook and Instagram is learning about people's daily lives without actually speak a word to each other. The catching up nowadays consists of asking questions about things you already know about. We discussed our plans for our two week stay and set a time to meet our guide the next day. In the morning we had breakfast at the Buttri Village Inn where we were staying then set out to find some adventure. We bought tickets on a long boat for the canals of Bangkok. The trip was early in the day so it was just us and a nice French couple and their daughter. These longboats can carry some 30 people, but the French screwed us out of our private gondola ride. Lol. Their daughter was about 5 years old, she was having a hard time understanding why every boat we passed was throwing buckets of river water at us. Jo and I got a little wet, but this little girl had what looked like a waterfall thrown all over her dress. It was funny, but kind of sad. She didn't cry though, some part of her understood what was happening. The rivers are incredibly polluted though, so Jo and I passed many pink eye jokes between us. The boat took into a floating market and we bought fruit snacks, fresh juices, and checked out potential souvenirs to buy (waiting until the end of the trip to stock up, can't weigh down the fannypack).

Later that day we booked a trip to a national park to stay on a floating barge, look at tigers ( who we suspect are doped up), and later take a train south to a full moon rave party on an island. Our guide, who's name I keep forgetting hooked it up.

One last thing from my introduction to Bangkok, Thai massage is fucking amazing.