Day 103 - Wat Arun and the Cabaret Show

My friend Maco and I stayed at a hotel near the airport yesterday since he arrived at around midnight. Today, we checked into a hotel on Silom Road since it was closer to everything, including the subway, sky trains, and commuter boats along the Chao Phraya River.

The hotel was a little farther away from the main Silom area and infamous Patpong area, which was both good and bad. It was more peaceful with less street peddlers, but it also meant we'd probably have to take tuk-tuks to get to the market areas.

It rained most of the afternoon, so we stopped by some of the stores near the hotel, including some Afghan jewelry stores, which had some really cool rings that I'd never seen before on my travels. Usually, you'd see the same touristy souvenirs in multiple countries. Maybe I'll see them again the closer I get to Afghanistan.

Once the rain stopped, we took a boat towards Wat Arun, which I had already visited with my family at the beginning of my trip. I figure I'd play tourguide again since Maco hadn't visited Bangkok in a long time. We made it to the temple 10 minutes before closing, and luckily, we didn't have to pay the entrance fee, which definitely made Maco's day after he bought an expensive ring earlier in the day.

At the end of the night, we headed to the Caberet show that I went to about a month ago with my other friend from Vietnam. This time, we got front row seats, but even close up, many of the ladyboys looked genuinely like women!

Wat Arun

Ladyboy Cabaret

Day 66 - Myanmar Embassy and Wat Pho

Woke up early to head to the Myanmar Embassy to apply for my 30 day visa to the country. I booked my flight for July 31, since I had to be out of Thailand by that date. I plan on visiting for about three weeks, give or take. Getting out of Khao San road using local transportation is difficult because there aren't any subways or sky trains near the old city. It's a good spot for you to visit some of the famous temples and the Grand Palace though.

I ended up taking a boat down the Chao Phraya River to get to the embassy. It was a convienent and quick way to get around a city full of gridlock road traffic throughout the day.

Afterwards, I met up with Quang at Wat Pho, which I had already visited with my family over a month ago. It was cool to see everything again though. You get to see some of the things you missed the first time around, when it was blazing hot outside. The weather today wasn't too bad and we got to explore the grounds a little more.

Afterwards, we took another boat ride down the river to Chinatown to grab some food and check out some of the bargains at the wholesale markets. By the time we wanted to leave, there was rush hour traffic and no taxi would take us back to Khao San road without paying a premium, so we took the boat back up.

We ended up getting lost along the river because the boat didn't stop at our pier. We took a couple transfers back and forth along the river, until we reached yet another University. For some reason, I feel like I always get lost at a university. Luckily, we were able to walk our way back to our hotel.

At night, we met up with Quang's friend, who took us to Silom road, where we had dinner and went to the infamous Patpong district to see what was offered there...