Day 34 - Bangkok

I booked out of the hostel and made it just in time to the train station to catch my train to Kowloon. The train took about an hour and 40 min to arrive. I realized though that it was good that I had decided to leave a 4 hour window before my flight left because the train drops you off a the other end of the city. I ended up paying for the MRT to take me to Hong Kong station where I could check in. It cost about $20 HK to get there. When I arrived at the terminal I bought an airport express ticket off a girl who accidentally bought 2 for $80 HK (they're usually $100) so that was good. I checked in and had about 1 1/2 hours to spare. I decided to get money changed and get something to eat. I ended up changing the money into Thai Baht at Hang Seng bank as they charged a $50 service fee and HSBC charged $100. I was hungry and walked into a McDonald's, looked around and decided that really wasn't what I wanted to eat and had a few oranges on the Airport express to the airport.

I arrived in Bangkok around 8 pm and took a taxi to the Hostel at Sukumvit, Soi 25. The taxi took the highway and the toll was about 65B in total, they had an airport service charge of 50B and the actual meter read around 170B. So I ended up paying about 300B ($10) to get from the Airport to the hostel. I realized later that it would have been cheaper and took a little longer if I had decided on the no highway option. I checked into the hostel that cost 290B ($9.70) a night and went out to check out the night life.

I found myself in the Soi Cowboy area of the city where all the sex workers were. It was insane. All the girls had numbers on them there were go go clubs everywhere. It wasn't as seedy as I had expected but still kind of sketchy but great for people watching.

Afterwards I got into a tuk-tuk and headed to Khao san road where all the backpackers were. I'm really glad I didn't stay in this area. The place is a dive. But there is really good street food around. The material goods however, were way over priced by sometimes triple what they were being sold for in other non-tourist areas. I had dinner at a place called the Rooftop and had a spicy pork salad. I think it was the spiciest thing I've ever eaten in my entire life. I was enjoying the experience of eating, drinking, listening to a Thai guy sing Oasis in the background and watching the ladyboys down on the street trying to pick up foreign men. Only in Bangkok! :)