Day -2 & -1

Bangkok

Times have changed or so have I... I get to Bangkok and... nothing.

Nothing happens: no magic, no excitement, no feeling. Thai capital is more of a disappointment really: big, dirty, suffocatingly moist, almost damp and without any architectural interest. I am mostly taken by the curious technical solution of keeping all the electrical wires out in the open in the streets. Tons of wires hang between poles and cover everything that lives behind. If your flat happens to have a window giving out onto the street, well, the view might just as well be that of gloomy dirty cords hanging out right in your face.

My many questions do not bring any satisfactory answers. Some of my interlocutors don’t even notice until I ask whilst me, it is the only thing I can see!

I am tired. Upon arrival at the hostel (Bed and Bike! Of course!) I force myself to stay up and beat the jet lat. I go out into the sticky streets to get some food and get into the local beat. I listen to the suggestion and go to Ken Sao Road for a bite. Fatal mistake: a huge tourist-trap, where the only exchange you'll ever get is the commercial one. No interest whatsoever. I wonder how come people actually do go and spend time in places like that. I was just repulsed. Discouraged. All you can do there is just spend your dough.

The only positive outcome of the stroll is the idea that one of the travel agencies prompts: fly up to the north to Chiang Rai.

I return to the hotel and fall into a 22-hour coma. Must be the jet-lag effect.

I force myself out of bed only because of the plane ticket I need to buy for Sunday if I want to get out of Bangkok. And I do. And pronto, please.

I decide to rent a bike to go for a quick tour of the neighbourhood. It's bizarre to be living at night: I haven't seen the Sun in 4 days though (flights took 1 day and a half). The city's pretty lively. Surely some of the party must be taking place once the Sun has set and the temperatures have become more bearable. What I find most appealing is cycling in the warm air of the night. The city of Bangkok being just in the background of me and my pedalling and my music. Cruising being the art in itself, the most pleasurable one I have recently found.