After three weeks of traveling together, Shannon and I were excited to meet up with our friend, Derrick, from New York. We boarded an AirAsia flight from Mandalay to Bangkok, Thailand. We planned to meet Derek in a guesthouse on the (in)famous Khao San road, which is often referred to as a backpacker ghetto.
Bars, restaurants, food stalls, massage parlors and souvenir shops spill out from all around.
Thailand, and especially Bangkok, has been the site of massive demonstrations and protests against the current government. As we drove from the airport, we saw signs everywhere of these protestors. Our cab driver even pointed out where some had died after clashing with police.
Only a few months later, the military would step in and depose the current government. Thailand has had several dozen military coups in the past 80 years.
We arrived at the Sawasdee Guesthouse to find our good friend Derek waiting for us! We sat down for some drinks to catch up at one of the outdoor seating areas on Khao San road
Having only been in Bangkok for a few hours, Derrick already had an order for several tailored suits to be made so we had to go to his fitting before hitting the town.
After the fitting, we grabbed a cab to meet up for the Midnight Food Tour by Tuk Tuk. A tuk tuk is sometimes called an auto-rickshaw. It’s a three-wheeled motorcycle hybrid with a row in the back for passengers. Tuk-tuk is an onomatopoeia, which is a word that is spelled to imitate the sound it is describing.
At the meeting place of the food tour there was a massive demonstration and speakers rallying the protesters (The panorama at the top of this post is a pic of this)
The Erawan Shrine was next to the rally and people were making their prayers
We jumped into our tuk tuks and were off to several different locations to try about 6-7 dishes.
Due to the demonstrations in addition to the normal Bangkok traffic, getting around was a hassle. Traffic was horrible and slowed down our tour considerably. We stopped at Wat Po (we weren’t allowed to see the famous reclining Buddha) and a flower market
We didn’t get back to Khao San road until around 1am and being a Saturday night, the place was slammed. We hung out a little and then crashed after a very long day that saw us waking up at the crack of dawn in Mandalay, Myanmar and ending in Bangkok, Thailand.
