Final Chapter

So as I sit here at the airport for the next few hours before I check-in to head back home, I thought what better time to look back on my past few weeks here. Before I do that, lets go over what I have been doing for my last few days in Thailand, Bangkok in general. So after my 14 hour journey from Koh Phangan to Bangkok, which to say the least about Thailand, is not meant for people that are taller than about 5'10 let alone 6'2. They should really have a warning label or something. During the bus ride, my knees easily touch the back of the seat in front of me. However to make matter worse, it was an overnight ride, so the bus's seats reclined. You get where I'm heading here? Well no more then five minutes into the bus ride, the seat in front of me decides to recline. It wasn't too bad however because I had the aisle seat. A little trick that every tall person should know, always aisle seat! 

Well during the trip the guy next to me, who was from Sweden, actually lived in Bangkok for a year and was visiting. Always a pleasure to have someone like this around cause after the bus ride my intention was to get a taxi from the bus station to where I was staying at, at all costs. However he told me he was heading to the same area as me and he was going to take the local bus. So i decided to join him and take the local bus, total cost 15 baht (50 cents). 

After getting back to same hostel I stayed in when I last was in Bangkok. I rested up and actually got to meet up with a friend that I use to work with. She is currently teaching two hours north of Bangkok. It was great to finally talk to someone without using broken English or, could only understand you half of the time or the other way around. It was funny to talk about the differences of Thailand and The States. Like all the abnormal things you see here to us Americans, all while its just quite normal here. To list a few: the number of stray dogs, the crazy amounts of traffic, using toilet paper as napkins, having to pay to use the restroom, motorbikes on the sidewalks, the list can go on.  The next day we decided to go to the Chatuchak Weekend Market and if anyone has ever been can tell you it's more like a maze of swap-meet type shops then anything else. This place was huge with what was an infinite number of shops selling anything from dogs (for pets not food), to clothes, to food, to even having a tattoo parlor.  

After shopping, the rest of the day was more or less shot and I ended up resting. This damn heat and humidity takes a toll on you. But the next day which was my last, was more of the same, shopping. However, I spent it at the MBK mall and the Siam Center. I mean unless you want to do more tourist stuff and get swindled to buy stuff there, shopping in a cool mall is a little better. Shopping here is a little different too. It's more negotiating then anything. You really can negotiate at any store to get a better price. Trust me these people are not worried to grab a few extra hundred baht from you. I negotiated on stuff and payed half of what they were trying to sell it for. But hey I'm tourist and you learn how to negotiate quick here or else you become broke.

So since it was my last day, I decided to spoil myself and go to an actual restaurant, rather than just picking something up and eating it on the streets. The price of things here is something I'm definitely going to miss. I had an appetizer of fried rice, red snapper fish for my main course, some coconut mango dessert, and two beers. The price of all that 280 baht (about 8 bucks). It would be insane if I ever thought of getting that back home, the check would easily get up to about $30. 

Now that leads us up to here, currently 2am. A night in the airport! But to look back on this experience, even when backpacking alone, you are never really alone because there are tourist everywhere. No matter what you end up talking to someone from other part of the world enjoying the same things you are. It's great! But its all of what you make of it.

To end this thing, I wanna thank all the people that helped me during this and won't even read this! No matter what almost everyday you had to ask questions of where to go, or how to find this, and those  people were more then happy to help. Jing, my new friend that worked at the hostel that I stayed at in Bangkok, I don't know what would have happened for the first few days let alone the two weeks I was here. She helped me get acclimated here real quick with all of the her knowledge of her home. Also, from only talking to her of Facebook prior to going, she welcomed me as if I met her years ago. I wanna thank the readers as well, thanks for checking in on this. My first intention of this was to have my parents follow it so they could have the security they needed to sleep at night, but it grew so much more. Thanks! As for this I'm ending this now so I can maybe get some sleep in the next few hours before I have to check in at 5am. To enjoy/endure/encounter whatever you wanna call my 19 hour flight back home. 

Peace!