Khao San Road madness.
I finally got some sleep last night and i've basically been walking around all day. This place is unreal. Khao San Road literally has everything you could ever want to buy. Bootleg designer clothing, sneakers, bootleg books, t-shirts, tailors, thousands of bootleg cds, places to fill your iPod with pirated musc, everything! The amount of bootleg clothing here is awesome. Now I know why some many of the sellers on eBay are from Thailand. Prices are good too however I haven't bought anything yet.
I've been hunting around at different tailors today looking for a custom-made suit since i've read that Thailand and Vietnam are mecas for quality and piss-poor tailors. I've only been to about 3 tailors so far. Prices are between 3800-6000 baht for a custom tailored suit made with cashmere or wool, silk lining, double stitched with a couple dress shirts, a hanger and bag for the suit. Everything i've seen has looked excellent but you know how that goes. I don't want to jump into anything quite yet. To put that in perspective, 6000 baht is approximately 150 US dollars. The one place I spent a lot of time in waited to charge 4500 baht which is 117 US dollars. Like I said, I have no idea how much I should pay. I know I can spend considerably less and get something piss-poor that will fall apart of spend a bit more money and get something that is going to last. I am going to keep looking and ask around before I make my decision. Nevertheless, before I leave Bangkok I am going to have a suit tailored as part of my "South Asia Experience."
Until my next update, here is picture I took of Khao San Rd. I will take more pictures and post them tomorrow.
Sawadee Bangkok!
Well it's about 2:00AM Bangkok time, I finally arrived. Fortunately, I did not get stuck in Narita although the flight was EXTREMELY full. I was the last person to board the plane. I didn't think I was going to make it there for a second. I didn't get first class this time but I managed to sleep for the entire duration of the six hour flight to Bangkok. At this point i've been flying almost 18 hours.
Flight landed around midnight and by the time I got out through customs, out of the airport and to my hotel room it's about 2:00AM. I'm fairly certain I got ripped with the taxi because it cost me 700 baht for the ride to Khao San Rd. 700 baht is approximately 18 USD dollars. I'm staying at a small little place called Rambuttri Village Inn which is about one street off of Khao San Road which is the main backpacker hangout/ghetto. Room is pretty small/modest. It's costing me 700baht a night with two beds, A/C and a bathroom.
So far, so good. This place is insane. It's basically an assault on the senses. I can't really describe it. For one thing, Bangkok smells like shit but everywhere you look there are street venders and restaurant carts. I don't think this place ever goes to sleep. I will update this tomorrow sometime. I'm heading off to find some pad thai at a street vendor.
