Our flight back to Bangkok was a bit solemn, as Emma is leaving today. We enjoyed a free breakfast at the Bangkok Airways lounge. This time there were tasty curry pastries.
In Bangkok we had our last meal together at Black Canyon Coffee, where Emma ceremoniously ate her last Pad Thai. Then we parted ways as I hopped on a bus to the Vietnam Embassy, and Emma made her way to the International Terminal for her flight back to the states.
The Vietnam Embassy was as uncoordinated as ever. When I got there I went to a free window and was immediately helped only to find the man standing at the window next to me had been waiting for a long time. I apologetically let on how typical this was.
My visa was to be ready in half an hour, and after a trip to the nearby mall for some green tea (The third time I have been to this exact place) I continued to wait in the embassy for nearly an hour. I do now have my visa, so there is little to complain about.
I then made my way down to Hua Lamphong station to a hostel that I found on the web. I went by motorbike (I wore a helmet, if that makes it any better) and realized that this is the only way to travel around Bangkok. It was cheap after haggling and the drivers calling me a Farang and telling me to pay a higher price. I countered by telling them I'm not a foreigner in my broken Thai much to their amusement. This went on, and we settled on a fair price. The motorbikes are also a lot faster and more fun as they squeeze through the congested roads.
After being offered a room at a couple sketchy guest houses, I found the hostel I was looking for. It's very nice, very cheap, and the staff are extremely friendly. They showed me were to go to replace my ipod cord, and I was off walking to the MBK center.
I forgot that I actually really like Bangkok. Most of all I love the pace of the city. Everyone is either rushing or relaxing, with no medium.
I took the long walk to what I realized was an enormous shopping mall. I thought I've seen big malls before. this one is seven stories high, with a maze of escalators in the center. I was lost and ended up wandering around for a few hours until I found the cellphone department. When I say cellphone department I mean section of the mall with numerous cellphone kiosks all hawking what I assume to be fake, stolen, and unlocked merchandise.
I haggled for my charger and explored some more leading to me to the arcade. Crazy place. I played some Time Crisis with a little kid. He was super into it, and we had fun.
All malled out I made my way out of the mall, a challenge in itself. As I crossed the street via a skytrain bridge I found myself in the midst of a group of people in red bandannas getting guided down the stairs by the police. As you may know there has been a large political protest here in Bangkok for the past week or so, the protesters being the "red shirts" ala the red bandannas. It was an interesting situation, not at all hostile, as the red shirts simply walked away with their handfuls of pamphlets.
I than ran into a peace "demonstration" in front of the Art and Culture center where there were walls and streamers set up for people to draw on and a youth break dancing crew. I stayed and checked out the festivities for a while, but I still don't have any idea what it actually was.
Then another motorbike trip back to the hostel, where I sit now catching up with the world and resting up for my 5 AM train to the Cambodian border, where I will travel to Siem Reap.
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