bangkok

i arrived at 4am after a long and boring flight without much sleep. my backpack wasn't on the luggage belt and after talking to the luggage claim office people i figured out it had been flown back to amsterdam with the kiev flight. at first i thought oh shit, this cannot be happening, i just want to get to my hostel and sleep!! and then i thought oh shit, what if they can't find it! the girl at the office asked for my luggage tag (note to everyone, NEVER lose your luggage tag) and told me the backpack was in amsterdam. damnit. i asked her what the plan was now and she said it would be coming back with another flight to bangkok. a colleague came over and they started talking in thai and all i heard was august 16th (it was august 5th that day) so i said WHAT, AUGUST 16TH!?!?! but i misheard and he actually said august 6th. relief. and they also sent it to the hostel, so i didn't have to come back and pick it up myself.

all was good again. the hostel i booked was in the silom area, close to a BRT station (which is a skytrain). all international flights arrive at Suvarnabhumi Airport and to get into the city you either get a taxi or take the train. the train costs 45 baht (1,15 euro) and takes about 30 minutes. but when i arrived the trains weren't going yet so i found a bench and slept for a bit. i arrived in the city a few hours later, but couldn't check into the hostel until 2 pm. i went in around 10am anyway and the sweet lady let me into my room already. probably because i looked like a mess, was coughing and my voice had pretty much vanished. i wanted to sleep for just an hour and stay awake until 10pm, so i'd not get a jetlag. however, i completely passed out and woke up around 7pm. hello jetlag.

i booked 4 nights in bangkok and i was happy i didn't book more! the famous patpong market was a 5 minute walk from my hostel. it's basically your typical asian night market, but a bit further down is the gay area (and i do mean men) and 'adult entertainment' section of this lively city. the market itself sells everything from watches to dildo's and while wandering around you will be asked if you're interested in seeing a ping pong show. for all the innocent souls reading this, they do not  mean the sport, but the adult entertainment version if you know what i mean (if not, check google). 

other known places in bangkok include the grand national palace, sleeping buddha and the backpacker haven koh san road. the palace is only open until 3pm and after that you can't get in and will have to see it peeking out of the wall surrounding it (see photo). i haven't seen sleeping buddha but did manage to check out koh san road and it was alright, not spectacular or anything. 

it's basically a big road with bars, cheap shops, hostels, food vendors, massage places and tourists on every inch of the street. i actually preferred the roads surrounding it, which have a lot of the same things, but are a lot less crowded and therefore have a more relaxed vibe. i did get a footmassage and it was AMAZING, especially after walking around the city for three days. 

other things you can do in bangkok is shop shop shop and eat eat eat. as i'm going to be a teacher here i'll have to dress like a teacher when i'm in class. here that means no visible tattoos or piercings, no flip flops tank tops or shorts and no low cut shirts. since i usually don't wear smart outfits at work or in my personal life i had to get some teacher outfits here and shopped at a massive mall called MBK center. it was nice to escape the pressing heat and busy traffic outside. 

i also went to the cinema (was dying to see the new batman movie) and they play the national anthem before each film and you MUST stand up when it does. in thailand the kingdom is highly respected and people tend to have pictures of the king everywhere. another place where i went to escape the hustle and bustle of the city was lumphini park, which is in the middle of bangkok and the only public park in bangkok. it was created in the royal occasion of the King's 15th anniversary of accession to the throne in 1925.

when i arrived at my hostel i didn't have any nice people in my room, but the second day a girl from the uk arrived and the day after we went to the zoo. she asked me if i wanted to go with her and of course said yes. on the way there we saw gok wan walking past us at the brt station! i also booked a train ticket to surat thani for the next day and after finding a tuktuk that wasn't ripping us off we finally arrived at the zoo. it looked abit run down, but i got to hold a penguin so i was happy. btw, if you want to plan things in bangkok and have to go by taxi, tuk tuk or motorcycle taxi, always add about an hour to your arrival time, because the traffic is always insanely busy.

so bangkok was basically your typical big noisy dirty smelly asian city. i had a cold, sore throat, jet lag and a hostel room that smelled like mold. i still had fun times, but i was really happy to get out.

 

my course is on koh samui, which is an island in the south and next to koh phangan, famous for the monthly full moon party. koh samui is more of a family island with plenty of resorts and fancy restaurants for all the holiday goers, but also a lot of gorgeous empty tropical beaches and cheap street food. you can fly in from bangkok, but i wanted to take the train, because that way you can actually see the country and spend less money and yes it does take about 12 hours, but hey, i'm not in any rush. 

the train ride was really relaxed. i had a seat instead of a sleeper cabin, because they were all sold out. the window was wide open and i spent most of the ride reading and staring out the window. the seat was acually a lot better than what i'd expected for only 10 euros. i thought it would be a wooden bench with 30 people on it all smooshed together, but it was just a normal train seat. i arrived in surat thani and after that a bus takes you to the ferry which takes you to the island. 

and 3 hours later there i was on koh samui, surrounded by blue skies and a white sandy beach :)