Arcane Candy

Thursday, August 2, 2012
Bangkok, Thailand

In the morning, I was happy because I got to move into a bigger room at the Nat 2 Guest House for the same price. The other room was way too small–barely bigger than the bed–and because of various pipes and such, the bed was in the middle of the room and could not be pushed against the wall. I like to have the bed against the wall because I line up the contents of my backpack on it and the wall prevents it from getting knocked onto the floor. Plus, my new room is nice and quiet, as it’s down a back hall with only one other room and the walls are super-thick. Other more centrally located rooms with thin walls can be really loud with people constantly walking by yelling and slamming doors, etc.

For breakfast, I headed around the corner to May Kaidee’s for some delicious, fluffy pancakes. Since the last time I was here in 2010, they moved to a new, much smaller location that is really just a narrow food stall a hundred feet from the old one, which had two spacious rooms. I guess they couldn’t afford the rent in low season and had to downsize. The food at May Kaidee’s is so yummy, I also ate lunch, dinner and a late-night snack there. Along with all of the fabulous sight-seeing, it’s the main reason I returned to Bangkok.

In the afternoon, I ventured out onto Thanon Khao San, the main tourist strip of Banglamphu, where many bars, restaurants, shops, stalls and food carts are located. I was looking for a new messenger bag to carry around my laptop, umbrella, etc. After trawling through literal caverns of bags, clothing and souvenirs, I found one ostensibly made by the Diesel brand. Maybe it was a knock-off, but I examined it closely, tugged on all of the seams and it seemed to be well-made, so I asked how much. The clerk responded $40, which I thought was way too high. I offered $10, which they balked at. They reduced the price a tiny bit under $40, then I offered $20. When they said no, I walked away. That did the trick. They called me back and offered it to me for $25. I was happy I managed to bargain them down almost to half price.

Late in the evening, I walked around the corner to 7-Eleven and witnessed firsthand that distinctively Thai phenomenon of eating for fun. I saw a group of young twenty-somethings sitting in a circle right on the sidewalk sharing some kind of snack. A few yards away, two well-dressed young ladies who looked like they worked in an office were huddled toward each other on the tiniest plastic chairs and tables you could ever imagine, snacking away. It looked so cute, I wanted to ask them if I could take a photo, but I chickened out. Maybe next time, if there is a next time.

Roll over photos for captions.
Words and photos ©2012 Arcane Candy.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2012 at 9:39 pm and is filed under Tropical Heat Tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.