My last day in Bangkok, Thailand

I guess I overdid the drink and the dvd as I did not wake up until around 11am which was just in time to get the free breakfast voucher, which for some reason they had not told me about or given me before on any of the previous days.

However when I sat down for the breakfast I was mildly dissapointd as it was so small that it was hardly worth the free voucher and it did once again remind me that although Thailand is cheap sometimes cheap is not always good as I could easily have eaten twice what I was given and still had room left over for some munchies as I went walkabouts.


Getting a bus in Bangkok is a great experience and its so cheap that anyone who wants to be frugal should learn the routes and the numbers that they need as it is only around 7 baht to get a bus into the heart of the city centre when it was more like 60 baht by going the same distance, more if you dont insist on them putting on their meters and instead ask for a fixed price.

I had half a desire to visit the floating market, but with a two hour bus ride there and the same back as it was already past midday I felt that I would not have time to get there and back in time not to miss meeting my friend M' who had texted me and arranged to meet me in MBK shopping mall around 5pm.

Whiling away the afternoon I took a stroll to find a working internet place where I did a little research on how to get across the border easily and what else where was to do in Siem Reap but both my tour book and the internet was so flooded with stuff about Ankor Wat that it was almost as if there was nothing else to do at all, which may or may not be true.

With maybe a little more than an hour I went to the bus stop to get another bus into the town centre and with good timing and better traffic the journey was little more than twenty minutes which left me plenty of time to go shopping and browse for some more dvd's and such in the mall before meeting up with M'.

It was almost a good thing that M' was delayed a little through a last minute emergency as it took my dvd seller almost an hour to get me the films that I wanted and in that time I had a bit of time to reflect upon a curious phenomenon. In my travels around the rest of the world I had noticed a few good looking locals wherever I went, and here in Thailand it was no exception, but I have to admit spending more time looking at the other female travellers and backpackers more than the Thai women.

I am not sure why but when outnumbered and surrounded by Thai women most of the female backpackers seemed to look more attractive and desireable, which is something I find very odd as normaly I would say that I go for asian and latin women, but here this clearly argues against the case.

Anyway, I met up with M' and immediately made a faux pax by trying to greet her like a friend from anywhere else, only to find that she was a very traditional woman and withdrew from my attempted greeting like I was a vampire or something. It puzzled me more so when I found out that she had travelled to other countries and so was not entirely unfamiliar with how europeans met each other, but then this isnt europe so perhaps I should have let her greet me and then responded in kind.

Together we went to a great little restaurant that she knew, that she said was one of the oldest original Thai style houses in Bangkok, and over a two course me we chatted and thought that perhaps we could go watch a show.

I had not seem much advertising for shows in my hostel or around the place, but she informed me that the large hotels are the place to go as they either host a big show themselves or have a booking desk where you can find out about where and what time shows are being performed around the rest of the city.

This seemed like a good idea and so we went to the Asia hotel to ask about their cabaret only to find that it was 600 baht for locals and 1200 baht for foreign tourists, and this double price fixing for an outside seemed so unfair to both of us that instead we gave up and watched a movie in the local cinema for a tenth of that price before saying goodnight and myself catching a bus back into Khao San road.

It was great to have met both S' and M' in one trip, but I am still a little surprised about my other Thai friends in Bangkok not making more of an effort to meet up, especially as I had known them for quite some time, longer than many of my other international friends.

Back in my hotel I crashed and went to sleep for a bit, debating on whether I would travel to Pratchin Buri for a stop over of a night or to skip there and just head on over directly into Cambodia.