BKK

As we were flying into Bangkok, my seatmate Todd (American expat living in Phuket now) pointed out the clouds to me. They literally went from nice and white to black, that's the smog from Bangkok.

After waiting in line for 2 hours in immigration, I promptly fell for the cab scam (which I was warned about) and ended up paying 650 BT (instead of 300). I was too tired and cranky to get another cab though and just wanted to go to my room. The cab didn't drop me off in the right place, so I wound up walking around looking for the4 new Joe Guesthouse forever. but finally found it, had a shower, then had a beer at the bar where I was immediately talked politics AT by an American expat. He was complaining about this and that and how he almost felt he needed to tell people he was Canadian. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm dead tired and I don't care about your bitching.

The next day I fell for scam #2 - the TukTuk scam. I feel it's best to get these out of the way in the beginning. I was at this public square where people were celebrating the New Year, and going up to this giant buddha for blessings. So this guy approaches me and tells me what's going on and then tells me about these other temples that I need to go see TODAY because it's the new year and blah blah.

So he writes up this list for me, being kind enough to include these Export shops, and gets me a tuk tuk for 40BT ($1)

OH GREAT NOW MY KEYBOARD WILL ONLY TYPE ENGLISH IN ALL CAPS. IN LOWER\ CASE IT'S TYPING THAI כחגלךעחלךשחלךחל THE LINE AT THE COUNTER IS TOO LONG FOR ME TO BUG THE GUY ABOUT IT.

SO DEAL WITH IT. I WILL JUST TYPE ANGRY-STUPID I GUESS.

ANYWAY, I SPEND THE AFTERNOON GOING AROUND TO DIFFERENT TEMPLES IN A LOT OF SMOGGY TRAFFIC AND THEN HAVING TO GO INTO TAILOR AND GEM SHOPS WHERE I WASN'T GOING TO BUY ANYTHING ANYWAY ׂ[THE TUK-TUK GETS A COMMISSION]. IT WAS ANNOYING BUT NO HARM DONE.

BESIDES THE HEAT SMOG AND NOISE, BANGKOK [AND I GUESS THAILAND IN GENERAL] HAS LOTS OF STARVING STRAY DOGS AND CATS , IT'S VERY SAD. THERE ARE ALSO LOTS OF DEFORMED BEGGARS.

I'VE GOTTEN A COUPLE THAI MASSAGES FOR 5 DOLLARS EACH. THEY ROCK. I'M GETTING ONE LATER TODAY TOO. IT'S WRITTEN INTO THE TRAVEL BUDGET AS A NECESSITY.

OK. ALTHOUGH I HAVE MORE TO WRITE ABOUT I CAN'T STAND THIS ALL CAPS ANYMORE AND THIS KEYBOARD SUCKS. OVER AND OUT.

נרןשממש