Well, here I am. Finally made my trip to the second town, Bangkok. I stopped at the last train stop: Hwa Lamphong. I’ve been advised to pick a taxi with meter on to get to my hostel. It will cost around 70-80 baht. One man offered me taxi, without meter, off course and I asked him how much, he said 250 baht. After convincing me that he knew the hostel (I showed him the address, the map and the picture), we settled at 150 baht. Okay, since there’s only this last driver there is at the time, I take the chance.
Apparently, he doesn’t know where the hostel is. After a while, he gets silent and just driving, but I keep watching my map, and realized that we’re just circling around. I asked him to stop and I move to sit beside him on the front seat. I asked him again, does he knew? He said, I know, Siam Paragon. Well, everybody does, I said.
So I told him where to go, because the map is easy and we arrived soon. Now I wonder if he can’t read a map, maybe. I don’t know. I told him that next time, if he doesn’t know, don’t tell people he knew. Rather tell the truth and find out by asking the police or people in the street. That’s better.
I went down and get my backpack to the lobby, makes sure that this is the right hostel and check in. I also exchange some bills to pay the taxi. But when I’m back, the taxi is gone. And I couldn’t find it everywhere. I tried to wait for 10 minutes, but it’s not there.
So I went inside, protect my self from the crazy sun that morning, cleaned my self good and by 1100 I fell asleep in my dorm.
I woke up at 1700 with my stomach protesting, hungry. So I went out and try to find some food. Food, actually is everywhere. I forgot my stomach and just walk around this mega city with a lot of mega malls.
Different than in Jakarta, these mega malls are connected by skywalks, and you can reach them all without having to deal with cars and vehicles down on the street. Off course, if you want to experience more, walk on the street. They have sidewalks, full of food and stalls offering you many kinds of food and fruit, sometimes clothes even merchandises.
And at one point, I realized I bumped with people too much. What happened? Apparently, people are walking on the right side.
I remember in Japan, we’re walking on the left side. And when you’re stepped in an elevator, you must set your self to be on the left side, so that people who were in a hurry can use the right side to walk faster. You’re not suposed to stand 2 people in a row, just one.
That’s in Japan. In Bangkok, people do the same way, but on the right side. But Bangkok is more considerate. I mean, if you’re in an elevator, standing in the same row with your friend, talking giggling, while other people behind you needs to walk faster, he/she won’t shout at you. You can involutarily step aside, or usually they will tell us that they need to walk faster and we can step aside. No shout, that’s guaranteed.
People here, mostly, recognized me as a Thai. I mean, they just instantly talking a lot in Thai language, even before I say anything. One time I entered a mini market to buy my roomate a coke, the cashier girl just talk like crazy, like we knew each other before and told me the total of my shopping with Thai. I looked at the monitor, but they’re damaged, can only see from her side. I was just smiling at her and ask, I’m sorry, how much is this? And she suddenly said sorry, she thought I’m a Thai. I said it’s okay. I don’t know, people seemed accepting me nicely around here. I’m a friend.
This helped, because they don’t treated me like a tourist. And sometimes I just go along with them, like laughing and smiling with them, but I depending my own translation by visual movement and things like monitor and off course hand gesture, since mostly Thai is good with this kind of communication, hand gestures.
So, do you think I look like a Thai?
I finally ended at Mc. D. Hey don’t judge me, I was too tired and it’s the closest from exchange money booth. The chilli sauce here definitely is different and delicious!