Finally...Bangkok...Now What? (Day 10)

We did not sleep much and gave up. Instead we just sat up anticipating how much longer it would take before we could get off the train. When we finally arrived way late, we got our money from an ATM and paid Matt back. He was headed up to Khao San road (AKA tourist/backpacker central), but my sister wanted to avoid that area at all costs. So we went our separate ways and caught the train over to Siam Square. We stuck out with a few guesthouses, but finally found a decent place that only wanted 500 Baht/night (about $15), was right on the street, and had ice cold A/C and private bathrooms. We booked it and jumped right in the showers. We then relaxed a bit before heading out.

We then headed out for some food and internet cafes. We struck out on the cafes a few times due to large volumes of screaming kids, fresh out of school. We could not find a decent place with Skype and gave up. We decided to check out Little Arabia and stopped by some street vendors on the way. We got some grilled squid that was amazingly tender and delicious. I was amazed at how good it was considering how bad squid usually is.

I also got some grilled pork, which was also very delish, but pretty fatty. But hey, for about $.50 per skewer, this was a delicious little meal.

Welcome to Bangkok, the home of the street food.


Little Arabia was two long blocks right next to the sex district. There were a few Middle Easterners around, but mostly North Africans and some Malaysians. Everyone intermingled very cordially and seemed to get along very well. We walked around for a while, Chimay got some Arabian coffee and I got some grilled chicken feet in a plastic bag, then we stopped for a beer and some people watching. We saw a bunch of creepy old men with under aged prostitutes, working girls, ladyboys, etc. We decided to take one last trip through Little Arabia and met an African man while contemplating getting African food from a street vendor. His name was Emanuel and he was a tall, Liberian guy with a ton of raw emotion. He told us of the atrocities of war in his country that have been funded by the US and how he joined the military as a child and fought the US. He watched our troops kill people he knew right in front of him, including his father his mother, who was raped first, his little brother and sister as well. Only he and one other brother survived and he was taken to Europe, where he was discriminated against. He then received a scholarship to attend college in Kenya/Nairobi and eventually transferred to China, which he identified as the only culture that embraced him. His Chinese visa had expired though and he could not renew it because of the Beijing Olympics, so he was forced to leave and fled to Bangkok. I was waiting for him to ask for money or something, but he never did. He just wanted to educate us about his culture, background, and, of course, the food we were looking at.
We eventually found an internet shop and I got to call home. We were pretty beat though so we headed back to the room and crashed. We were planning to leave for Chiang Mai the next day, but wanted to get our Cambodia Visas so we wouldn't have to do it when we came back. We slept so well though that we almost did not make it.