Big Bangkok Finale - 1/7/10

There's plenty of good reasons why I haven't been in front of a computer lately for long enough to update this. The past few days have been a nonstop whirlwind of events, so I'll just start from the beginning where i left off.

Thursday started with a trek through Bangkok to see the two main historical attractions: The Grand Palace and Wat (Temple) Pho. Its a good thing I left these two for last, because they surpassed every other temple and Thai construction that I had seen the previous days. In one swoop I saw enough Wat temple attractions and stellar ancient Thai architecture to last me the rest of this trip. These constructions were entirely on another level in terms of detail, mass, complexity, and sheer beauty. It's as if the current scale of the city was preceded by these two goliaths.

After seeing these static structures, I wanted to see some filled with life, so I headed over to the Ratchanaburi Muay Thai boxing Stadium. The 3 mile long journey on foot was rewarded with a fine slice of the Thai man's man sport. I got the cheapest ticket and was caged in outside of the ring with local men that were as fierce with their betting as was the fight in the center stage. The fight was raw and brutal with every connecting knee shot to the visiting opponent arousing yells of encouragement, and a frenzy of betting. I loved every minute of it. The excitement continued with my taxi ride home. After agreeing with a driver on a price for the trip, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was for a Scooter Taxi. We zipped through the city in no time, I was literally on the edge of my seat.

All in a days work here, and I was just exhausted that night, but the adrenaline rush from the fight was barely waning at 11:30pm. I went to the ground floor bar of my hostel to have a night cap and do some reading to settle down. I grabbed a table and sat down to my open book and a drink to accompany me. As if a flag was waved, a backpacker came to my open table to join me. "Ist hier frei?' 'Ja, bitte sitzen!'. Ingo was from Germany and we hit it off from the start with talks of extreme sports, cultural quirks and traveling. This was someone I definitely could hit the road with, and fortunately you will hear more about our adventures in the days to come...

But ok, enough of Bangkok. It's a huge 'ThailandTown' and not really the experience I came here for. The air, noise, and tourist pollution are only tolerable for so long. I booked my ticket out to the countryside for the next day...