Tropical Punch Tour: Thailand Part 30
Friday, August 27, 2010
Bangkok, Thailand
I jumped on the Chao Phraya river taxi to catch a cool breeze, but, unfortunately, they had installed some clear, plastic splash guards that blocked most of the air. But, soon after, the ever-present blast of air conditioning on the Skytrain offered a brief relief from the tropical heat. I walked around downtown for a while, stopping to sit and people watch whenever I could find some stairs that overlooked the street. I bought a pretzel coated with fine garlic powder that almost made me choke to death! Ha-ha.
I usually catch bus 15 from Siam Square back to Banglamphu, but tonight I thought I’d walk up the street a ways to avoid sitting on the sweatbox while it sat in stopped traffic for a half hour. But, I waited over an hour at the next stop, but the bus never showed up. I asked a local and he advised me to go back to Siam, which I did. I waited there for another hour as some dudes threw metal poles into the back of a big truck, which created the most annoying racket I had heard in the past hour. It was half past midnight and I just wanted to go back to my room. I asked a young lady about bus 15, but she said it had probably stopped for the night. Instead, we shared a cab ride.
Back in Banglamphu, I returned to the same food cart I had visited the night before for another cheese baguette sandwich. I overheard an American guy talking to two girls from Austria. Not so much a conversation, it was more like the man had launched into a 30-minute intellectual soliloquy chock-full of big words and obscure American references that flew right over their heads. But, at least I was amused. After the girls departed, a young couple from South Korea sat down for dinner next to me wearing full-on snorkeling gear. I asked if they had been snorkeling in their hotel pool, but they said no. They had just returned from an island 10 hours away in South Thailand. I have no idea why they were still wearing their snorkeling gear in Bangkok, of all places. Maybe to more efficiently combat the high humidity.
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All words and photos ©2010 Arcane Candy.
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