embrace the sketch!

After talking to both Ryan and Jeremy last night and having them say the exact same thing to me I decided to take their advice and head back to Bangkok. I think it was a good decision. I hope... I was getting pretty bored in Phuket. Doing the beach thing is nice but gets old after a while. I'm here to see culture... not just beaches... and the beaches are pretty much devoid of anything Thai... actually, for the most part they were overrun by European tourists who didn't even try to speak a word of Thai. And insisted on topless sunbathing (which in most cases was a bad thing.) Anyway. I booked myself into one of the cheapest hostels I could find in 'downtown' Bangkok (wherever that is? is there a 'downtown'??) and here I am! At first when I saw this place I thought to myself it's a lot of sketch and I was kind of scared to be quite honest... but after coming back after walking the neighbourhood for a couple of hours I realized it's really not that bad (maybe the neighbourhood is major sketch and this is a breath of fresh air? I don't know there was a pretty sketchy man outside... I'd rather not over-think it because then maybe I'll get scared again.)

I've met a few people in the hostel so far... maybe I'll go out tonight after all! That would be a nice change of pace... Only problem is that in my old age I'm getting tired... And walking all afternoon / evening does not help! I ended up walking over to the MASSIVE malls here (I also walked the other direction until it got kind of deserted and then quickly turned back) and got lost numerous times in just the food court in one of the malls. Honestly, the food court must've been the size of one floor of the Eaton centre. I ended up eating there (I had a mad craving for Japanese food so I indulged) and met a 63 year old thai woman who spoke English quite well... It almost made me wonder what her story was because she spoke the best English I've heard in a long time... I didn't ask - she seemed to be almost... kind of... crazy maybe...

Not sure what's in the plans for tomorrow... Now that I'm back in the big city I've been taking pictures again which makes me happy... I figure if I can take pictures there must be something interesting happening... It's kind of nice to be able to walk and find some random things all over the place (I found some pretty random things tonight... nothing too crazy though) And tomorrow I definitely need to get myself on the Sky Train. (There's a station about 5 minutes away from the hostel I'm in.) We'll see how tonight plays out... maybe if the hostel is good I'll stay another night... The price is right - tonight is $11 canadian... if I stay tomorrow it'll be $8 - I really can't complain as long as I get a shower out of it (hot or cold, it doesn't matter to me at this point... either one would be fine it's so hot here!) and some sleep... And the place is quite clean... We'll see... maybe I'll discover something in the next few hours that'll make me change my tune.