I arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport in the early afternoon and took an Airport Express bus to my hostel, NapPark, in the Banglamphu area. It dropped me off just about 2 blocks away, very convenient. No one was in my dorm (of 8 beds) when I got in, but about half an hour later, I met Cathrine, a girl from Norway, making a stop in Bangkok for about the same amount of days as me. She was very friendly and sweet. She was also traveling by herself as well, so we made plans to grab dinner. I wasn't going to eat alone my first night in town, after all.
After a little bit of a wait, due to miscommunication, we were on our way out to explore Khao San. As we were stepping out, a fellow named Martin (from UK) asked if we were grabbing dinner, so we invited him to join us. He was traveling by himself as well and had only arrived the previous night.
We stopped by a pad thai stand for a quick meal and proceeded to find a bar for a drink. Unsure of where to go, we ended up buying a beer from a street vendor and just strolled around, which turned out to be a better option.
I remembered there was a Couch Surfing meet up that night going on at Silk Bar, so we decided to land there. I just joined Couch Surfing recently, with the intention of maybe finding a couch to surf on in Bangkok, but I was still a little hesitant about messaging someone to see if I could stay on their couch. Plus, it took time to research who you might want to stay with, which I didn't have a whole lot of. But after going to the meet up, I would try it. We met some really nice people and the great thing was, even if you don't do a couch exchange, at least you can find a fellow traveler to meet up. Such a benefit if you are traveling alone. Instant connection right there.
Khao San Road
Cathrine, Martin, and I felt a little bad that we brought our drinks into Silk Bar, and weren't planning on ordering anything, so with the advice of one of the CSers, we went in search of the Suan-Lum Night Market. I've been to several Asian markets by now, but this one was pretty cool in that there was one section where there was a giant stage set up with performers singing pop songs, with a full band and even dancers. The singing was a little bit like karaoke style, but I think they were more serious than that.
Next, we planned on going to Chinatown. We walked a bit and found ourselves on Thanon Silom, where was another night market going on on the sidewalk, along with several side streets filled with bars. We walked down one that had a couple gay bars, where Martin got a lot of stares haha. Eventually, we found ourselves in yet another night market, Patpong. Similar to other night markets, only it was sandwhiched in between bars and sex clubs. I can't tell you how many people came up to us with laminated lists of "sexy shows". And even just walking past the club doors, you can see about 20 or so women in bikinis just dancing on the stage. it was really strange for me to see. No thank you!
We wandered around some more, thinking we were in Chinatown, but it turned out to be in another direction, so we decided to head home. We stumbled across the Sri Mahamariammant Temple before we grabbed a taxi home. I'm glad they lit it up, because it just looked amazing.
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