Good Morning Bangkok!
We have a charming little bedroom on the 5th floor of Roof View Place in the Khao San neighborhood. We chose this neighborhood largely because it's the cheapest, but it's also where most of the backpackers come to stay when visiting this terrifyingly large city of roughly 7 million people. Furthermore, over 12 million foreigners visit Thailand each year, and most start their journey right here in Bangkok.
Our bed is lemon yellow and we have a bright blue door. There's a small balcony, and nice white wrought iron furniture. The most appealing aspect of the hotel, however, is the roof. At 6 stories high, the roof is higher than most of the surrounding buildings and we can celebrate miles of scenery in every direction. There are dozens of golden roofed temples, the tall wiry Rama VIII bridge, and the Baiyoke Sky Hotel - the tallest building in Bangkok at 88 stories high. The street noise on our own Soi Six consists mostly of barking dogs (every house has at least one, and then there are strays), the tinkling bell from the ice cream vendor, and the laundry shop across the street (the machines are lined up outside on the sidewalk, 30 Baht per kilo).
We wake up to a glorious buffet breakfast, the best we've had in Thailand, with scrambled eggs, fresh watermelon and pineapple, cereal and milk (OMG!), toast with butter and jam, and spaghetti with meat sauce (that's right). Free coffee and tea all day. What an unspeakable luxury. I have two cups of coffee to celebrate while Chris enjoys three breakfasts. It is right before we are scheduled to meet our high school friend Jake 4 hours later that I am crippled by raging stomach cramps. It was the coffee. The water hadn't been boiled and now I have Thai bacteria in my stomach giving me hell. Fortunately it is nothing more than cramps, so I power through dinner at Jenny Restaurant on Soi Four. Jenny turns out to be a Thai boy, who is very hospitable and serves delicious fresh food of the veggie persuasion. I can't believe our buddy is here with us, we haven't seen any of our hometown friends for about 10 months and it seems surreal that we meet up in Bangkok, a city none of us has been to before. It turns out we have a very nice ladyboy working at our reception, as well as a small fluffy white dog who I decide to call Cupcake. This is our first ladyboy of many, many that we encounter over the next few days. Most of the time you really can't tell, they are beautiful. Gender really doesn't play a big part in society here.
Tomorrow is my birthday and I am determined to sleep off the bacteria and drown them with the water of a thousand bottles, wish me luck!
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