Bangkok to Siracha!

Dan and I had 21 very long hours from NYC to Bangkok with a stopover in Tokyo. All in all the trip totalled about 30 hours, it definitely felt like it. But because I slept so little on the planes by the time we got to our airport hotel I fell right asleep and I haven't had a problem falling asleep yet even with the eleven hour time difference. The only tricky part is staying asleep on the "Traditional Thai Mattresses" as the hostels like to advertise, which as Dan so aptly puts it are so hard they can double for a cutting board. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get used to it one of these days. The first two days in Bangkok were a bit of a whirlwind of sorting out our credit cards which were turned off after we used them in Tokyo coupled with exhaustion and jet lag. We managed to see a bit of the city though including KoSahn Road, the backpackers hangout, and took a ferry down the river to get around. We are back in Bangkok now so were going to see a bit more of what we missed tomorrow.

After Bangkok we checked out of our Hostel and headed off towards the direction of where we thought the bus station was located, but after twenty minutes we stopped and asked directions and found we were way off course. A quick taxi ride brought us to the bus station where for $2.80 we caught an air-conditioned bus to Sirahca. Two hours later we arrived and called Dan's family friend Tip form the pay phone and she arrived quickly in a tuk tuk. Tuk Tuks are 3 passenger open aired motorized carts that serve as cheap taxis. Tip was sweet enough to host us for the weekend and let us stay in her apartment. As soon as we arrived we changed into our swimsuits and were off again on a whirlwind of a weekend. Tip certainly was not lacking for ideas of stuff to do right down to the museum of "Little Miniature Things" :-). We took a couple of buses to get to the beach where there were very few tourist, really there are few tourist everywhere we go, because it is still low season. The tourist/farang were scattered on the waters edge in the sunlight while the Thais were all thoroughly covered. Tip explained that the reason so many people, women especially, wear long sleeves and pants is to keep their skin white. I've found on my recent hunt for body wash that most products have a whitening ingredient to make your skin lighter.

We met up with Tips friend Paul, from Holland, and after a few absurdly overpriced beers from a great local brewery we headed out to see what Pattaya is all about. To put it bluntly the whole town is simply about sex. It is one huge red light district from one end to the other. The only farang there were western men middle aged to decrepit looking to watch some shows, be showered with fake attention, and get lucky. They walked around the town like they owned the place. This is where Paul lives because he is "studying Thai". Right. Prostitution is a common practice here somewhat regulated by the government and it is not unusal to see western men who have hired women as "companions" for the day or their entire vacation. The couple will go everywhere to together. It's sobering to compare the mans cocky pleased face and the women's blank emotionless stare. We spent the evening walking around and looking at the different bars filled with women or ladyboys, tried various street food, and got a coffee at "McCafe" (the popular coffee shop inside McDonald's).

We returned late to Tips apartment in Siracha and fell quickly asleep. The following day we met up with Tip's two friends, one of whom had a car, and drove over to the next town to see the Water Buffalo Races. Unfortunately it turned out the races were not until the following day, so I just got to pet some Buffalo. Tip picked up lots of amazing Thai snacks though that she brought with us to the beach later that day. The beach they took us to is tucked away at the far end of a Thai Navy Base and westerners are only allowed to go if they are accompanied by a Thai person. As a result we were just about the only farang on the beach, and I think that's one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much. I wore my bathing suit but saw the previous day at the beach that the Thai women swim fully clothed. So I put a t-shirt and shorts over my suit and jumped right into the pristine warm ocean water. Dan wasn't exactly keen on jumping right in as he had forgotten his swimsuit so Paul, who joined us again, had so kindly brought an itsy bitsy speedo for him to wear. Tip picked up that Dan was less then thrilled with his proposed swimming attire and made a quick stop at a road side market to find him some shorts. She grabbed a pair that looked like size small camo printed boxers. I've read that laughing burns calories, if so I laughed off my entire lunch when he put those on. The rest of the day we spent swimming and eating all of the great Thai snacks tip had brought along including a prickly fruit that you break open and inside is a little thing that looks like a butt and taste like a mango. It's delicious. One of my favorites was sweet sticky rice cooked in a large bamboo stick.

After swimming Dan and I were exhausted but tip still had a lot on her agenda. We told her we wanted to go home and shower, and thus got a brief respite of 30 minutes. That evening Tip and her friends took us to an amazing Thai restaurant right on the beach and afterwards they surprised us and took us to get Thai Foot Massages. I'm definitely working in one massage a week into my budget.

Today we took the morning off and hung out at Tip's and watched movies and made good use of the free internet. We decided to come back to Bangkok for the night and tomorrow we will go to Kanchanaburi in the afternoon where there is great hiking, swimming in waterfalls, and going on a jungle trek on the back of an elephant. I can't wait!!