When I got into town, I had not yet booked a room. But while riding back with my group to the airport, the American couple, Ben and Michelle (U.S. Forest Service firefighters from Washington state), told me they had booked a room in Bangkok for 1,100 baht, or about $36, but had been unable to use it. They gave me the receipt and said they hoped I could. I asked Ben his last name, and then jotted that down on a piece of paper.
The hotel was on Khao San road, a street I had somehow avoided/missed on my arrival into town the first time. The street is apparently like Bourbon street, mobbed, narrow, dirty, covered with signs and shops piled one atop the other. I'm not sure it's ever empty or quiet. The front desk of the hotel was mobbed with guests and their backpacks. It was 11 p.m. I warily (and wearily) eyed their packs wondering about bed bugs. The hotel staff were tired, overworked and incredibly brusque. Apparently my friends had had to leave Bangkok early and had already put the money down for their room. The hotel would not give them back the money, but allowed them to put off their reservation to, conveniently, that night. So though the hotel was full, I walked in and handed them the receipt. The staff said I needed to have two passports, I told them my "boyfriend" Ben had gotten very sick in Koh Tao and that he had to leave early, so it was just me. They said, sorry, it's a double, so we need two passports. I protested, and they asked me what my boyfriend's last name was. Huzzah.
The room was nice and clean. The room included breakfast and access to a rooftop pool, A/C, satellite TV and its own bathroom and hot water shower. But I only had it for one night. This morning I was able to change over to a 750 baht single superior room (so just a smaller bed), and I was all set.
At breakfast this morning I met an Israeli couple. I've neglected to mention, actually, that there are surprising number of Israelis in Bangkok, so much so that Hebrew is the third or fourth language on most tourism signs, after English and Thai (and sometimes Japanese). It's pretty awesome to meet them, and they're very easy to recognize with their accents and demeanours. The Israeli couple asked me a bit about myself, and essentially told me when it was my time to die, I would. So not to worry--I hadn't said I was, but they'd asked me about my parents' thoughts on Baghdad living. Their comments were very Israeli. The guy did qualify his comment, however, with the (I thought evident) statement that I am not Rambo, so I shouldn't go looking for trouble. I told him I was glad he said that, because I had been contemplating heading for Mosul the following week based on his fate theory...
I packed up my stuff and checked out of my room after breakfast, leaving my bag with the staff for the day since I didn't want to wait around for the room to be ready. And with that, I headed out to hail a taxi so that I could get the few things I wanted to get done, including a haircut and other vain-ish errands, and to check out camera memory cards. I'll update on what actually happened, the real "bang" in Bangkok of the post, tomorrow morning. Not only am I exhausted, but two very nasal, annoying guys are sitting right behind me chattering away continuously to each other like insecure teenagers who are scared to be up in their rooms alone without the other. As you can probably tell, this has been going on for a while, and frankly, I'm annoyed. I like to be able to write in silence, and well, anyway, who said a net cafe was as social club...? Well, goodnight for now. It was actually a good day, and I had been looking forward to writing about it. A demain.
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