Khao San Road by Night
19th October, Bangkok, Thailand
It was another lazy day today, a chance to wake up late, get ourselves a little bit organised for our next journey - a trip to Vietnam.
The first task was to get all the odds and sods that we'd collected up so far in the various markets up and down Thailand, stick 'em in a box and send them home. It's amazing how a few tops, hair accessories and other knick-knacks can soon add up (not mine, I hasten to add!). I had my usual fun and games trying to explain to the people working at the post office at Lotus Shopping Centre where I wanted to send the box, how long it needed to take and so on (Bang Su as a district is not heavily visited by westerners, hence communication can sometimes be a little tricky).
Having shed some of our load, I came back to the house and took a look at what we had left. There still looked like too much, but at least we won't have to carry it all around for too much longer, and thankfully we won't have to carry all of it around Vietnam, just what we need for the ten days that we've allotted (Stef has said we can leave our excess baggage at the house). Is ten days enough? Is it too much?
Originally, the plan had been to make our way to Vietnam then work back overland through Cambodia and once more into Thailand. The plans were changed somewhat, though, because of worries about malaria. We have not been taking any anti-malarial pills, and Angkor Wat - one of our planned destinations - was listed in our guidebook as being a place where malaria is a very real risk. So why not just take the pills, you might be asking? One of the side-effects of doxycycline, the recommended anti-malaria tablet for Cambodia, is that it makes you more susceptible to sunburn. Given that Angkor Wat would be just one day in this round-the-world trip, and also given that we had not planned to spend much time in Cambodia anyway, it seemed a bit silly to take pills for 6 weeks (2 weeks before, 4 weeks after, as a minimum) that would make our skin burn once we get back to Thailand and do the islands in the south. No, Cambodia can wait. I had read enough about the place to suggest that Cambodia is not the easiest place to travel around as an independent traveller, so maybe we'll come back and do that as part of an organised tour one day. Of course, Vietnam isn't likely to be a walk in the park either ...
We headed into the centre of Bangkok early evening to collect our passports from the travel agency, predictably in Khao San Road. The backpackers' hub has everything that most people travelling through could want - eateries, pubs, newsagents, clothing and CD/DVD stalls (none of it kosher) and a vibrant nightlife. Strangely enough, while undergoing 'operation: rescue abandoned hard drive' the other day, I'd been reading The Beach again (cliché though it is). In it, Richard describes how many travellers arrive in Bangkok, head straight for this place and never really get to see the 'real' Bangkok. I can see how it could happen - Khao San Road is its own little bubble, an insulator from the even more manic streets of Bangkok beyond. But while this street is not representative in any way of Bangkok, or Thailand as a whole, it's worth a visit all the same. For me, the appeal of visiting Khao San Road lies in watching the other visitors: eaves-dropping on people haggling with store holders; marvelling at people rifling through the catalogues of copy CDs, placing orders for entire collections; wondering who's next for the hair-braiding experience. It's not Thailand, but it's fun, fun that's only ocassionally spoiled by Mr Stumpy, the resident begger who cheerfully says "How are you? 1 baht for me?" while holding out the stumps of his arms, almost is if he's about to impale you with them. On every visit here I've seen him, and every time I've wondered the same thing: Where the hell would I put the money? .
Once we picked up our passports from the agency, now freshly stamped with Vietnam visas, we sat down for something to eat as close to the road as possible and spent an hour and a half just people-watching.
Khao San Road comes alive at night.
