Sa-wat-dee-kaup! After nearly 10 months away, I'm back, and everything is as I left it but without the revolution - busy, sinful, exciting and NOT FILTHY!!! I must say I have only been here for two nights but I am already reveling in the contrasts between here, Bangkok and there, Kathmandu. It is incredible how only a thousand miles can separate two cities with such different customs, ethics and psyche. For a start the streets are clean and this is really not by magic, people just use bins and don't shit in the alleyways - pretty simple stuff aye?
Everything after the last post went without a hitch, the flight and the arrival was simples, even enjoyable, now i have the secret knack of getting my baggage out first on the reclaim belt, every time, I was off the plane and on a train in under an hour - the airport high speed train has been completed recently as it certainly wasn't fucking there last time (!) so i was at the end of the line with 3 heavy bags in the new found heat and at that moment I thanked the universe that my flight was delayed otherwise I would be in the same place only at 1pm. Unlike my previous prediction it I didn't get on 1 tuktuk but on 3 to get to my destination... The first one was a bastard, i haggled him down to a 3rd his asking price on the the commitment that I would spend 5 minutes in a tailor shop (a very common con in this part of the world, but it is useful to do if you're in not much of a rush and you need a price to go substantially down as the tailor shop/jewelers/art gallery or whatever usually pays for their petrol or lunch if they bring in a certain amount of people)... well the tailor was slightly wise to me not actually wanting to buy anything and to be honest I couldn't be arsed to make him think any different - i just wanted to get into a hotel room. The tuktuk driver said he couldn't take me any further as he had no petrol after i was shown the door so i refused to pay, took my bags and got into another one, a nice tuktuk guy, with no tailor, but not much idea of where I asking him to go but in all reality I probably said 'soi rongmai' wrong and i was 15 minutes later dropped off on a busy street that turned out to be 'soi rangmai' and i payed him 50 baht. Luckily another driver did know where i was trying to get to and even a cheap hotel to stay in near there and 40 baht later i was there. I checked into the budget hotel where my room contained only a bed, a window (lucky) and a plug all for the meager price of 150, oh and just a 5 minute walk from the infamous Khoa San rd... where the streets are as ethically dirty as the Kathmandu streets are actually dirty. But I'm alone and on a budget so it's just not as fun as last time - Harry Williams or Max Carpanini, get your arses out here!
My first night was great though, i was up for celebrating so after hitting a bar I found some good laughs and music with many of the party-holics that litter these streets and indeed much of this country, the kind of people who happily spend $30 a night/every night and its crazy to think that that was me last year, and now for the first time in almost a year I can see how i spent £1000/month in my last travels, compared to £1000 in the last 3 months I'm doing a lot better but probably having a little less obvious fun! One thing I am happy about though is all this cheap beer, its always possible to be slightly tipsy most of the time and still be cheap, just stick to street food, something that already has gotten me a tad ill, jeez 3 months in Nepal and no diarrhea, two nights in Bangkok and it arrives - that's just the wrong way round!
So the next few days will hopefully be spent productively, today i will research and tomorrow I will go find one of the offices in the city that I can go to to put myself on the TEFL course, hopefully somewhere in the North or somewhere in the South, who knows? Bangkok is great but its tiring, like any massive city, and expensive, like any massive city, and dangerous, like any... well you get my drift... many years in London and it turns out I'm truly a country bumpkin, accent and everything. So i guess I will chill for a while, i feel like i deserve a little relaxation and with hour long massages from £3 this is truly the place to release all the stresses of wonderful yet harmful Nepal. I'll catch you later X
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