Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Meal on the plane. Arrived at Bangkok. The transfer I had arranged with Gap Adventures did not work out, and I could not figure out how to use the payphones, so I took a taxi instead. He charged me 500 baht. Checked in to the hotel but had to wait a while because I arrived too early. The hotel is called Hotel De Moc or Hotel De' Moc or Hotel De'Moc or Hotel Dé Moc (+66 2 282 2831, 78 Prajatipatai Road, Pra-Nakorn, Bangkok, 10200). Breakfast buffet in the restaurant adjacent to the hotel lobby. Sat in the lounge and browsed the web after getting the wireless credentials. During the beginning of my trip I used UCSF VPN with iOS 4, but this became too cumbersome or unreliable and later on in the trip I used internet wherever a hotel provided it with password protection. I avoided only completely public wireless networks. Got into my room, settled in. Fumigated clothes with permethrin. Later on in the trip I realized that this was not really necessary for where I was traveling and for the time of year. I encountered very few mosquitos and had only 3 bites the whole trip. Hotel De Moc has a tailor onsite, so I decided to just go with him for the suits I wanted made. His name is G-Wan, and he speaks English very well. It's worth the convenience to simply walk downstairs and not have to leave the air-conditioned building. After setting up an order for 2 suits I walked over to Khaosan Road. The hotel had a complimentary tuktuk, but it was only a 15-minute walk. I walked the main street of Khaosan and lots of other neighboring streets, ended up eating at a place that had disappointing food. Walked back to the hotel. More clothes fumigation. The balcony of my room had a very convenient clothes drying rack built into the wall which made the permethrin treatments much easier. Cool shower. Nap. Took a taxi. The driver could not find my destination but I was probably given incorrect instructions anyhow. Ate at Restaurant Suda which was closing earlier than the stated time in a guide in which I had found its listing but they let me eat anyway: fried rice with vegetables and tofu, water. I took the Sky Train to Sala Daeng. The train was pretty easy to use and looked brand new. Danced at DJ Station, a gay club. It was packed. 3 floors, but people mostly used the first 2. There are lots of steps that are not clearly marked, so it's really easy to trip all over the club, especially for drunk people. Music was a mix of pop, anthems, hip hop, and mashups. Think Badlands crossed with Industry. There were video screens, but disappointingly they only occasionally showed the video of the audio that was playing and even then not necessarily in sync with the music. I occasionally saw the INPUT display notice on the screen when the VJ/DJ switched inputs, laughed at that. Taxi home, about 100 baht. He had trouble twice trying to find the hotel.