Day Two

The day started out not so good. The problem is that the area where this hostel is located is not very friendly to tourists. Its dirty, poor, and their are not many foreigners. So when I tried to find the subway by myself it was a bit disconcerting, culture shock maybe.

Luckily there was another lone traveller in the hotel, who hadn't even tried to venture out, so I introduced myself, and we set out to explore together. It was much better that way.

We must have walked accross half the city, despite using both the subway and the skytrain. And in the heat and the humidity, sweat gushes out of me. Despite drinking three large bottles of water and two cups of coffee, I only urinated once during the day, the rest of the liquid leaving through my pores.

But walking is interesting, as you can see much more. Bangkok being the capital of Thailand, the area that we walked through had alot of government offices, interesting ones like The Office for the Empowerment of People with Disabilities, and also the Kings palace. It seems as though every other person is wearing a yellow shirt, which is a symbol of their respect for the King.

The Kings moat is an interesting sight, despite the fact that it looks like a sewer, there is an outrageosly thriving ecosystem. The water moves with life. And situated alongside it every 100 yards or so is a man with a big gun, though they aren't all that frightening as one clearly had an ipod he was listening too. Anyway, in this moat live thousands of fish, you can see there bodies just under the surface (they must be close to the top as the water is murky). Also there are the occasional turtle. But most interesting of all was the existence of giant lizards. I saw at least three giant lizards at leat two feet in length, not including the tail. All in the kings dirty moat.

There are warnings throughout my guidebook, and on the tourist maps to beware of extra friendly locals. Its apparently a fairly common occurence to be approached by some stranger, who just really wants to help you do all the neat stuff you can. And there is always something that is just about to close, or that is only open for one day (that day) that you just must see. So after looking over our map and telling us where we need to go, and also pointing out where to get a really nice tailored suit, a tuk tuk pulls up. This right after he informed us that you haven't been to thailand if you've not been on a tuk tuk. (These are three wheeled open air taxis.) And then you know its a scam. Its quite disillusioning, but I'm glad I was warned.

Then dinner: the food here is extremely spicy. And after that we took a taxi back to the hotel. The taxi driver was very friendly and taught us a few Thai phrases, and told us about how much he liked the king. He was wearing a yellow shirt.