Who hasn’t heard a crazy story from Bangkok? Well, our mere overnight stay in Bangkok to catch an early morning flight gave us a glimpse of the city that entitles me to believe any story you might have from this land. We drove in around 10:30 pm passing by a fruit market that is fully open. I thought that maybe Thai people just really liked fresh fruit when sleep walking. But then, as we drove the busy city streets past many spread out high rises, a number of well lit Buddhist temples, many Buddha statues along the highway, and many pictures of the well-loved King and Queen posted on all billboards I knew that Bangkok was special.
Greeting us upon our arrival at the most happening spot in all of Bangkok, Khao San Road, were many signs and travel agencies in Hebrew. Odd as that was, nothing was to prepare us for the hype around the street we had to walk through to reach our hotel. The backpackers mecca, there were far more people with long matted hair, Bob Marley shirts, and hemp leaf shirts then I had ever thought was possible to be found in one place. Yellow lights illuminated the street as throngs of people were partying in bars, shopping at offensive t-shirt stores, and engaging in a general level of merriment. Street trolleys were so numerous that we were trapped behind a pileup of sliced watermelon and Pad Thai handcarts. After our traffic jam, we just had to dodge the man trying to get us to take a free green Jello shot and we were home free. That is, we were home to a dark alleyway full of cats that looked distinctly Siamese (we were very pleased at the appropriate face shape of the cats) tattoo parlors, food that had been sitting around far too long and people playing cards.
In our room we dried off from the dripping heat before we ventured into the metropolis again. In our second tour outside we noticed the many underwear street stalls as well as the large number of Thai women dressed in very little with a great deal of makeup hanging on the arms of disheveled backpackers. There was comfort to be found in the midnight crowds, however. For example, if I were to have lost my passport like the $3 watch that was taken off my wrist while wandering the streets here (yeah, take that you thief…$3!!) I could have just replaced it by paying the nice men (yes, there were many of these stands) who displayed all of the different states, countries, and type of IDs that he could make for you. I felt sort of bad for these men though because a few of them were next to bars who made very clear that one need not purchase an ID for their establishments proudly “Don’t Check IDs” as per their large street signs.
The strangest observation made in this college student heaven was most definitely the Chabad House (a religious Jewish family’s home that often serves as a synagogue) that was two blocks away from our hotel in the midst of the hustle and bustle. As it was Sukkot (the Jewish holiday of the harvest) there was also a giant Sukkah (a tent that religious Jews sleep in during the 8 day Sukkot holiday) inside which no doubt were a family trying to sleep. An open air Sukkah in the middle of the craziest street I have ever seen was true devotion to religion. We went to bed just in time to be serenaded by a trombone and clarinet duet being played on the street.
Eye popping and exciting! G
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