We awoke decently early considering how late we'd been out the night before, and our plan was to walk around and just get our bearings. We were only to be in Bangkok for 2 days and 3 nights, so we decided the first day to go back to Khaosan Road and explore. Khaosan Road is maybe a half a mile long from end to end (I'm terrible at estimating distances, plus they're on the metric system), so you could walk it for hours. I can only liken it to downtown Playa del Carmen in Mexico, except for if Playa was like 12,000 times better - less 18-yr-old drunken Americans, more history, more Europeans, and just less cheap crap they think Americans will want. We christened Thailand 'Buddhist Mexico'.
Our first stop was an outdoor smoothie place where they chopped up the fruits in front of you and served them at a table out on the street. They cost 40 Baht, which is about $1. So of course, I had 2. So delicious. We then hit the street for some shopping, and it was a potpourri of travelers, hawkers, tuk-tuk drivers, henna artists, street-food carts, and tons of outdoor shops selling jewelry, sunglasses, sundresses, swimsuits, watches, purses, shoes, books (in ENGLISH!!!), pirated movies and cd's, pharmacies, restaurants with outdoor patios, massage shops, hair braiders, and so much more. And everything was ridiculously cheap, but also of really good quality, not just the cheesy souvenir type shirts and key chains you'd see in most tourist-y places. There were so many cool shirts and beautiful dresses, I thought I was going to buy half of Thailand before we were through, and the food was so good I was going to eat the other half. Sarah and Marcus both got henna tattoos while I wandered around, marveling at all the incredibly attractive people. It was a feast for the eyes. I mean, I can see good-looking Korean people every single day in Busan (because Koreans are generally very attractive, at least partly owing to the fact that physical appearance is a very high priority here in Korea), but there were so many exotic, gorgeous, tanned, worldly-looking travelers, most on holiday for months from Europe (which made me extremely jealous). The people-watching was unbeatable.
After we spent almost all of the Baht we had for the day (probably the equivalent of all of $17 American), our feet were tired, we were hot, so we decided to take a break at a place with a bunch of Bob Marley decor, in an alleyway off Khaosan Road. The locals all spoke pretty good English, I assume because of the touristic nature of the area, so we sat and talked to the owner of this tiny little literal hole in the wall while we enjoyed a Tiger beer and some real Cokes from glass bottles (for whatever reason, Korean Cokes don't taste quite right, but Thai Cokes were real Coke, so we drank them like crazy). After we got our second wind at the Bob Marley joint, we went back to our hotel to clean up and found our friends Cameron and Paul, who had shown up that day. After we all cleaned up, we went back to a place we had passed earlier called the Cool Corner, sat outside on this street that was in a grove of trees, and I had the first of the 6 Thai green curry meals I would have on the trip (I figured, hey, I LOVE this meal and where else can I get it so authentic and so delicious?). We all got a different entree and every single one was simply amazing. The food there was a dream, and I was sooo glad I was with people who didn't mind sharing.
After our insanely good dinner, we decided to walk it off and ambled down the street some more, then decided to go for Thai massages. Which. Were. Incredible. I got a one-hour foot massage plus my first pedicure since Dallas for what would be $9 American. Ahhh it was glorious. After that, it was home to bed because we had booked an all-day excursion and were being picked up at 7am the next morning for our big adventure. Not only was Day 1 a success, it was merely a harbinger of the amazing things to come.
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