I bought that ticket on the night train which left at 5pm and arrived in Bangkok at 7am. What a great deal, dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer... then stretch out in my upper berth, jiggle jaggle through the night and arrive pretty refreshed, all things considered. I made my way back to the Khao San Road area for several reasons... lots of cheap lodging and tourist facilities, I know the area, and I've got this song cooking called Khao San Road, and I needed to observe it more closely to generate some lyrics. Basically I took the progression to 'House of the Rising Sun', sped it up from a slow 6/8 into a more rocking minor blues, and then I'll tell the story. This place is backpacker central, folks from everywhere and the Thais who try and make their living from the tourists.
I got my first little taste of scam artistry an hour ago as I was trying to buy tomorrow's ticket to Siem Reap. Some tuktuk guy asked me 'what I looking for' and when I told him, he brightened up and told me 10 baht to go to and from the tourist office... cheap ticket. 10 baht is 35 cents, so I figured it was close by, and it kinda was. The guy said he'd wait while I bought the ticket and then bring me back. So I go into a room with a handful of middle aged guys behind desks, a big picture of an air conditioned van on the wall and here's the guy who is going to help me. He asks if I'll need a room in Siem Reap when I get there, and I thought maybe I could grab something for the first night, make it easy on myself after a travel day. He quotes me a price of 1800 baht ($60) for the trip and one night's lodging. Uh, no freaking way... how bout just the trip? He quoted me 1300 baht which is more than 4 times what I ended up paying. Well, now I know how come the tuktuk was so cheap... he'll get his cut from the suckers who don't know any better...I came back to Khao San Road, found the right guy, 300 baht and we're off tomorrow at 8am.
Tonight I have a dinner date with my Vietnamese friend Lan Anh... Here's what I wrote on Facebook about her earlier today. Dinner tonight with Lan Anh, my Vietnamese, disabled activist friend who is in Bangkok for a conference. I'm not saying she is the number one activist in the entire country of Vietnam, but there is a consortium of more than 200 groups who work with the disabled and she is in charge of the organization. OK, yes, I guess I'm saying it. Really lucky to know that woman.... the 5 days I spent with her and her family north of Hanoi two years ago during the Tet Holiday was one of the highlights of my life. She had spent 3 weeks with Mark and me in Eugene a few years ago, and Mark's joke was, 'What, is she Ho Chi Minh's granddaughter or something?' She was that accomplished and self confident. And then when I was the altar of the ancestors at her mom's house, damn, her great grandfather looked exactly like Uncle Ho. Dinner with her and her staff tonight. Cambodia tomorrow. Am I psyched? Why yes I am.'
Speaking of cool Asian women, I have to hand it to Oh for being extremely classy and wonderful in the way she dealt with our change of boyfriend/girlfriend status. I know she was hurt a few months ago when I told her I had a girlfriend in Oregon and that I wasn't sure I was coming back. She was cool about it then, and she was cool about it now, and I have a lot of respect for her. We spent a little time together outside of the CU Corner, shared a couple of meals and conversations, and it was quite special to have her as a friend (without benefits). I have a lot of feeling for her and it felt great to be able to enjoy her company, talk about stuff and feel good about one another. That's a gift.
I wrote on Facebook about the ridiculousness of traveling without a mobile phone in 2013, because I'm a stubborn anachronism, and because of that post, I got a message from Johnny Uke, a Chiang Mai friend who said that I was welcome to his extra phone that he's not using. So now I have a phone... nice one too, now if I can figure out how to use it. Slowly slowly, and yeah it will come in handy. I'm apparently being dragged into the 21st century, first a camera, now a phone (OK twentieth century, but I digress). Feeling good to be on the road and tomorrow, the adventure will get really interesting. New country, new adventures...
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