Bangkok Beginnings

It's Saturday morning in Bangkok and I'm getting ready to pack up and leave the hostel. I'll be staying with a Thai girl from couchsurfing for a couple nights before heading down to the beach. Last night I was over at her place hanging out with everyone who's staying there. Right now she has five (yes that's right 5!) of guests. Her family owns a building which has her mom's dentistry business on the ground floor and then her parents have let her have the run of the upper floors which she has turned into a massive couchsurfing spot. The current group is quite a cast of characters which include: two American guys, one a hacker training in Thai massage, the other an aspiring artist who is also practicing to be a muay thai kickboxer, a former Russian soldier who plans to stay in Thailand and thus studies Thai constantly stopping only to talk about planned economy and eat, a pretty Finnish dental hygenist, and a German guy seeking to do the cheapest trip around the world ever but loves to splurge on sweet drinks (of which there is no shortage in Thailand).

On Thursday I went to the floating market (pictures are below) with a friend of my sister's who happens to be traveling at the same time as me. It was certainly quaint floating in a long boat (a sort of wide canoe looking thing) between the rows of water level stalls selling handicraft style souveneirs. Other boats floated by selling fruit and sticky rice  - I tried some taco looking things that were sweet and crispy with some kind of sugary fluff and cooked coconut inside.

Then yesterday morning I relaxed by the world's greenest pool at a nearby hotel, wondering if it were some kind of Thai joke on tourists. Posted on the wall were the day's pool chemistry stats declaring the pH, etc. to be in the correct range and everything to be normal. Had they actually looked at the pool? In the afternoon I took a water taxi up to the grand palace area and walked around there. The word "beautiful" definitely sells short its gleaming golden domes.
 
Which brings us to this morning when I'm debating between going to the weekend market or heading up to Khao San Road to have mini-piranahas nibble all the dead skin off my feet. (yes, I'm serious.)