Travelman's first 24 hours in Bangkok: The good, the bad, and the lady man (part 2.1)

After waking at 430 am, I tried to go back to sleep without success. The young backpackers had been coming in from their night of getting shit faced in an unfamiliar country. They'd finally quieted down about 415. It turns out the Khao San Road area is full of young backpacker's either in college or recently graduated. So imagine an American college bar street full of young patrons, now magically transport all those patrons to a street full of bars in Bangkok. It's not really my scene.

Here's some pics I took before I went to sleep at 730 the previous evening, like an old man...

Unable to sleep anymore, I walked downstairs at 500 am to get on the internet and plan my day. I had to figure out where the MBK mall was, figure out how to get there, and once there buy a phone. I needed a burner phone because I can't re-activate one of my credit cards (that was deactivated because they suspected fraud when I unexpectedly used it in the London Airport) unless I call them. Plus I realized on my first day what a wonderful thing GPS can be when you have no idea where you are.

Five drunks were still up and lounging on the cushions in the lobby. I sat at the table and got on my computer. The two drunk girls were loud and thought they were quite interesting. Why? Well, because the young, dumb, horn dog, men who also thought they were cooler than cool for partying in Thailand (Dude!), and wanted to sleep with them, were encouraging them to think so. At the girls request, they were playing a game wherein they counted to three then said their friends favorite movie, favorite food, year of their first time having sex, favorite song, etc. All of the answers and all of the conversation were nauseating. One of the young women casually mentioned that she didn’t know where her passport was. Zoinks! It made me happy to be older. I do not miss those conversations. This was the first of "the bad."

Here's a couple pics of the lobby the next morning when the drunks were gone...

At 5:30, I decided to take a walk to see if the Starbucks was open (yes there's a Starbucks around the block. The only one I've seen in town.) I got a coffee and water when it opened at 630, used their wifi to google map an hour long walking route to the mall, took screenshots of different zoomed in points on the map because of my lack of GPS, then headed out into the city.

Here's a lot of pics of what the area is like at 530 in the morning after the backpackers have passed out and it's time to clean up...

These are the locals partying on a street just off the tourist street. I'm imagining most of them recently got off work.

I'm so sad that this picture is blurry. He's a few feet away from the people in the other pics. I think it would have been a beautiful picture. That's an old sewing machine on his table he's working with.

These guys were scrubbing the side walk where their booth had been set up.

This is where they sell the Gremlins.
Remember, don't get them wet, and don't feed them after midnight...

Here's an empty alleyway I thought made a cool picture...

I got my Starbucks, the woman behind me in line kindly told me the value of the coins I was inspecting in my hand.

By seven am the city was already bustling with bumper to bumper traffic. Buses, motorbikes, cars, and Tuk tuks buzzed down the street, pedestrians dodged the traffic that doesn't think of stopping at crosswalks, and street vendors sold breakfast foods to locals who know where the good stuff is. Mourners lined up to pay their respects to the king. I don't know if his body is there or it's just a place of mourning

Shrines like these are everywhere to the royal family...

This post has gotten so long with all the pictures... I'll post the rest of the second part of the story in a few hours. It's the second morning right now and time to go get coffee.