A Return to Bangkok and Karaoke

We weren’t sure what time the bus for Bangkok left on the 15th, so we woke up at 5:30 and packed up our stuff and headed out to the bus station. well, luckily once we arrived we had some time to get some noodle soup and coffee before the bus left. That ride turned out to not be half bad at all. It was only about 6-7 hours which was half the time the train took.

When we got into Bangkok, we really just wanted some cheap, easy accommodations so we got the first cab we found and told them to take us to KSR. We found a place that was dirt cheap (around 4 bucks per room) and it was that cheap for a reason. The supposed wifi didn’t work, nor did any of the outlets I found anywhere. But, it wasn’t too far from KSR so we walked around for a while and tried to find some food. I had the worst pad thai of my life. It was essentially stir fried ramen with a little egg and chicken. I don’t think I even finished it—which was saying a lot for Thai food.

After we ate, we wandered around for a while and came across a little road stand bar where we ordered some beers and started talking to these two German girls and an Australian guy. They seemed nice enough but I eyed a few African guys sitting not too far away so I went up to them and struck up a conversation. Turns out they were Francophone (one from Togo, two from Niger) so I got the opportunity to speak French with them. I ended up talking with them for a couple hours and they were really cool dudes and put up with my passable-though-not-great French. They worked in China as businessmen of some sort and I wasn’t sure if they were in Thailand on vacation or just passing through on their way back to West Africa. We had a great time talking about Africa and they were really proud to head that a white guy like me loved it so much--I even told them that I was no longer American but instead I was Bamileke, a tribe in Cameroon. They got a real kick out of that.

The next day we woke up a bit late and wandered back to the previous hotel we’d stayed at in Bangkok because Joey had paid to leave his backpack there and Patrick had forgotten a folder with all of his medical stuff. Well, we got both and then we had to say our goodbyes to Joey who was heading back to the Seattle (via Seoul) that night. It was a bit sad to say goodbye to him, especially because he meshed so well with our group and our dynamic certainly changed once he was gone.

Anyway, we then went and met up with a couple acquaintances of Paul’s who are in Peace Corps Thailand, Elliot and Ashley. The three of them went to college together and though Paul didn’t know them too well they were still incredibly gracious and offered to put us up for a night at Ashley’s brother’s apartment in Bangkok with them. (The brother wasn’t there but works for USAID and was posted to Thailand two days after Elliot and Ashley arrived.) His apartment was really nice and swanky and we relaxed all day, did laundry, took showers, and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Later we went and met up with some of their Peace Corps friends and got some pizza. We chatted with them for a few hours before heading back on the BTS towards the apartment. We got off at one point and were in a 7-11 buying some snacks when Elliot said “hey, it’s 2-for-1 margaritas next door, you in?” So naturally we all said yes. The margaritas weren’t very strong but it sure was interesting the different takes on margaritas that they had. After we were done we went back to their apartment and Elliot, always the wildcard, then offered if we wanted to do Karaoke. I think we all kinda though he was joking at first until he pulled up a program on his computer (which was hooked up to the flat screen TV) that is actual Karaoke. Well, we did a few sing-a-longs and then some people went swimming in the apartment building’s pool while I went to sleep.

We had thought about staying in Bangkok the next day to get our Laos visas, until we realized that it was Saturday and the Laos Embassy would most likely be closed. So instead, we ended up saying goodbye to Ashley and Elliot and heading East to the Cambodian border.

On the bus to the border we met a couple Canadian dudes from Vancouver and started talking to them at one of the pit stops. I noticed some day glo paint on his Brewers hat so I asked if they’d been to the full moon party. Affirmative. We didn’t get to the Cambodian border until just before sunset and rather than try to cross the border at night and then either arrange transportation to Siem Reap then or find a hotel on the Cambodian side, we decided to just go back to the nearest guesthouse, grab some food at a nearby restaurant (and also watch Live Free or Die Hard there!!) and go to sleep.