My Post-Sabbatical Year(s) in Asia (or wherever): Beginning of my summer trip: Bangkok through June 23rd

Here is what I know (and maybe a little traveler advice for anyone heading to Bangkok), or at least think I know, since traveling inspires a little skepticism about "truths."

1. The train from the airport into the city of Bangkok stops running at midnight. I missed it by a few moments, and maybe I could have made it if I would have rushed through immigration and knew where I was going. But it was hard to find the tourist information booth to give me information about how to get into the city. And it is just not my way to rush, especially that first moment when I land in a new country. If traveling could be a religion, then it would be mine. And that first moment is something very holy to me. I cannot and will not rush it. Anyway, the train is on the first floor. It costs 150 baht (about $5) and takes 15 minutes (the express train). A taxi costs 5 times that amount (by the meter) and takes at least twice as long.

2. Even the taxi drivers get lost in the disorganized sprawl of Bangkok. I had a street address and a google map for my friend Sheila, who I was meeting in Bangkok. Here is how Bangkok works: it is divided into a number of neighborhoods. In between the main streets are numerous alleyways going every which way. And even though the small alleyways are named, the houses and buildings take on the street name of the main street, and the numbering system is no system at all: across the alleyway from building number 77 is number 3, and the next number is 112. And the buildings in next alleyway might start at number 23. So the taxi driver, after going round and round, discarded me at 1:15 am with "I am 100% sure this is the correct place," and drove off. It was not the correct place.

3. The Thai people are very friendly, and, at times, even helpful. Luckily, early in my wandering of the alleyways a sweet woman named Som took pity on me. She spent the next two hours directing me in my wandering. Finally after almost 2 hours of searching, we found Sheila's apartment building. It was now 3 am. So, all in all, it took 26 hours, door to door. But it seemed like 30.

4. The car is king in Bangkok. Unlike Vietnam, where most people drive motor scooters, and everyone makes way for everyone else, the Thai driver convoy at times seems to go on forever, and crossing the street can be a challenge.

5. Bangkok has the best street food in the world. Restaurants on carts fill up the sidewalks, especially in the morning.

morning street food

6. There are mangosteens everywhere. They are smaller than the mangosteens of Vietnam, but just as delicious, and way cheaper (about 35 cents a pound, whereas the Vietnamese price when I left at the end of May was about $1.40 a pound).

3 mangosteens

And then there were two: inside the indescribable mangosteen, the most delicious fruit in the world.

There are other good fruit as well - dragon fruit and rambutan

Sheila had many surprises for me - a bag of mangosteens, and Portuguese egg tarts, which are similar to the traditional Chinese egg tarts, but ever so much better. We used to eat Portuguese egg tarts together in Seattle. There was only one bakery that made them, and then they stopped making them and we were left adrift with no reasonable explanation. Sheila first discovered that Portuguese egg tarts were sold at Kentucky Fried Chicken in China. And so it is true for Bangkok as well.

Sheila and a Portuguese egg tart

7. The rainy season in Bangkok is pretty nice. The rain cools things down and the climate is pleasant so far. It hasn't rained all day, and it hasn't rained very hard.

8. There are wats everywhere. This is my 7th trip to Bangkok, and I am still wandering across wats I have never seen before.