Fishing in what seems to be an open sewer in Bangkok

After our visit to the floating market, we headed back to Bangkok and to the apartment of Tom, a local who we found through Couchsurfing. As he works from home, we quickly dropped our bags off at his sweet apartment and headed out for a day of price checking and shopping at the MBK mall. Though it is called a mall, it is really a massive indoor market with more vendor stalls than actual shops and bargain prices. Needless to say, we only left because we ran out of time.

Upon returning to Tom’s place that night, we promptly headed out to check out a local market to have a delicious meal. The poor guy had been waiting for us for hours, as no taxi would use their meter to take us home (they just wanted preset and sky-high flat rates) and we had to hop on the subway, which got stuck in between stations for 20 minutes.

Dinner was great and Tom turned me on to a new version of the traditional Thai soup that I have had countless times over the months. I guess all along they could have put sweet and sour sauce in it…I just never knew to ask! Our evening concluded over a few beers back at Tom’s house where we chatted for a few hours before hitting the hay. Tom was a great host and a wonderful final encounter with Couchsurfing…for this trip at least.

Escalators at the Paragon Mall in Bangkok

The next day we woke up early and headed over to Khan San Road, which is backpacker central in Bangkok. Basically two long streets filled with bars, guesthouses, clubs, 7-Elevens and thousands of tourists, it is the first stop for most people in Thailand and a hub of activity. We found the cheapest guesthouse possible, locked our stuff up and hopped in a cab for the Chatuchak Weekend Market.

The Weekend Market was actually our first stop in Bangkok when we arrived back in April. After a few hours there we realized that we wanted to return at the end of the trip, buy an extra suitcase and go hog-wild shopping for clothes, souvenirs and other fun things at dirt cheap prices. Return we did, as we spent the entire day wandering around shopping until, before we knew it, the stalls were closing. Still, our shopping spree was not done, so we returned to the MBK mall once again before heading back to Khan San Road.

Walking around Khan San Road at night is a very unique experience. There were food vendors every five feet, drunk Westerners stumbling around, beggars, lady boys and people selling everything from teeshirts to lighters, hats and drugs. This one blind guy was led up and down the street all night singing into a microphone hanging around his neck for tips. I saw woman shoving a disabled boy with sores all over him into a stroller and trying to make him look as pathetic as possible for donations. Massage parlous and strip clubs were handing out fliers, as were the clubs and bars.

Tall buildings and shacks share the Bangkok Skyline

Really, Khan San Road is a paradise for all types of vices or sin. It is party central and a completely unique environment, hence why I wanted to experience it at least once and spend the night wandering around and taking it all in. However, it is not Bangkok. It is not Thailand. It is not anything other than an fake little fantasy world. That said, we did have a blast people watching. We also once again met up with Claire for one last evening on the town. Our destination was The Club (original name, huh?) where we joined a room full of mostly Western tourists and bad techno music and danced until the wee hours of the morning.

As our flight the next day was not until 4:30pm, we headed back to MBK for one final trip through the aisles. Needless to say, our bargaining power was lessened by the fact that we had all our bags with us and were clearly headed to the airport.

All in all, we spent 16 hours over three days shopping…which is funny considering how much I hate shopping. By the time we got to the airport to head to Hong Kong we had around 30lbs of new items. Additionally, we never made it to the Royal Palace or to a Thai boxing match, both of which were big reasons for our return to Thailand. Oh well, at least we got a ton of cool stuff!

Communist propaganda signs are all over Vietnam

Our time in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, was mostly spent on the move. After a sleepless night in the front seat of our Open Ticket bus with Amelia, we had just enough time to catch the new Harry Potter movie before getting on yet another overnight bus to Sapa. We returned a few days later for long enough to grab a snack and head onto another bus for our Halong Bay tour. Then, on our final night in Vietnam, we reached out to a couchsurfer who, out of the kindness of his heart, got a hotel room for us since his cousin was visiting and taking up the extra bed.

Everything seemed cool at first. After meeting us for a few drinks on the street and getting to know us, he proposed that we go out to the club. Carrie and I went back to change and get ready, but I was beyond exhausted and never made it out. She, on the other hand, had chugged a Red Bull earlier and still met up with our new friend at a bar down the street before heading out.

Long story short, he spent most of the night hitting on her and, after being rejected countless times, found a different lady friend to go off with. Carrie stayed at the bar and made tons of new friends, though she had to continue fending off the couchsurfer when he returned later that night. Guess we should have known better when the guy’s profile said that he only wanted to host ladies…or that when he was asking how long we had been dating and how serious we were that he was just trying to size up his chances.

Us with Amit at Suraj Kund on our first night in Delhi

As I briefly mentioned in my last postings, we have discovered couchsurfing, which is an Internet site much like a dating site but it puts you in touch with people with a couch you can crash on for a night or two all over the world. After an average first experience in Europe, Carrie and I gave it another go on our first night in Delhi and arranged to crash on Amit Ghandi’s couch. This turned out to be the best decision ever, as we wound up spending the next four nights making a great new friend and seeing a side of Delhi that we never would have staying in a hostel.

It all began on Christmas Eve day, when we arrived in Amit’s beautiful house in south Delhi He took us to, as he called it, the best place in the city to see the sunset. Next he took us to a delicious outdoor grill by his house for our first taste of authentic Indian food…and authentic Indian spice. Upon returning to his house, he and his friend Shago decided to throw us a little Christmas Eve party. We began by decorating his money tree with homemade ornaments (paper and crayons all the way) and, by the time the party ended at 4am, more than 25 people had come through the door to party.

The traditional Indian breakfast we had on Christmas morning

On Christmas day itself, after sleeping off our jetlag, we had a traditional Indian breakfast (I still have no idea what anything is called…we just point and say, “meat or vegetable”), went to a park, visited a Sufi temple (The Dargah of Sufi Hazrat Nizamuddin), drove around and saw the India Gate and PM’s palace lit up at night, had a gourmet Indian dinner and finally, got to bed early. The next few days were spent getting to know Delhi as Amit drove us to the Red Fort, Jama Masid Mosque, Humayun’s Tomb, Old Delhi and more…all the while showing us more delicious food and introducing us to Lassies, which are traditional yogurt drinks.

On our final night in Delhi, Amit’s cousin took a bunch of us to his house in the middle of a gated community where a bunch of us hung out, sipped beers, danced and talked under the stars on a beautiful grassy front lawn gated in from the dusty roads and fields around us. All in all, we could not have asked for a better way to start our trip. A million thanks to Amit, Shago, Quincy and everyone else who gave us memories for a lifetime.

While in London we saw a graffiti filled cement park where people were doing all sorts of freestyle jumping acrobatics, flips and more

While in London we saw a graffiti filled cement park where people were doing all sorts of freestyle jumping acrobatics, flips and more

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