Four Nights in Bangkok: III

Day three was spent lazily; this was a vacation, after all.

I’d wanted to visit the beach, but the nearest nice spreads of sand were a two-hour bus ride to the southeast or west. The floating markets would have been sights to see as well: areas mazed with narrow canals clogged with small boats, from which people are selling fruits, veggies, crafts, spices, and more. Touristy, but perhaps interesting to experience this traditional, canal-centric way of doing business. The legit floating markets, however (not the tours advertised near the ferry docks, promising a “floating market experience” just down a canal within the city), were a couple hours’ bus ride out of town as well, to the northwest. We could have made a day trip to either of these destinations and in retrospect I’m regretful we didn’t, but at the time, we just wanted to relax.

Thus, after ferrying from our Chinatown guest house to our new hostel in Banglamphu, we glued ourselves to a pair of lounge chairs next to the rooftop swimming pool and basked in the 90-degree heat.When we felt it time to tear ourselves away and see a bit more of our new neighborhood, we weaved the streets and located a shop with a vast selection of curry pastes, jarred curry mixes, and envelopes of mystery spices. Fabulous.

After Indian for dinner (with giant fruity drink accompaniment)…

We hit Khao San Road. As featured in the opening scenes of The Beach (late 90's Leonardo DiCaprio flick...not very good), this uber-touristy street is lined with hostels, cafes, travel agencies, souvenir shops, and bars with chairs and tables spilling out onto the pavement.

Here were more Westerners than I'd seen since December: coming or going with heavy backpacks, weaving through the crowds; sipping tropical drinks or Chang or Singha beer, watching a live performer at a beer garden; perusing the colorful sarongs, scarves, and knockoff goods at stands and side-street markets.There were vendors pushing food carts up and down the street, people pushing beads and ornamented hats on tourists sitting along the road, and everywhere, unceasingly, men asking if we wanted a tuk-tuk ride to the red light district for a show.

We ended our evening with falafel sandwiches from a cart instead.