One night in Bangkok (A night with slippery creatures)

Play THIS, LOL

Lyrics Quote:
And if you're lucky then the girl's a She.  I can feel an angel sliding up to me.

Good thing I don't have to worry about that issue, LOL

One reason is that I'm actually here for the "muddy river or reclining Buddha".


The other reason should be obvious, LOL.  

3:30 am.

I've slept 8 hours, so I might as well get up.  It wasn't the best of sleeps.  There was this noise.  At first I think that the A/C unit in my room has a loose belt because the noise is similar to that of a car with a loose alternator belt accelerating.  You have heard that horrible squeaking sound.

But that wasn't it. There is an organic tone to it.  Millions of crickets living in the swampy bit of the canal right below my balcony?  Similar too, but not quite it.

The strange thing is that the noise STOPS the moment I step on my balcony, only to resume from various directions a few moments later.

FROGS, that is what is making that diabolical noise!  The strange thing is that now that I know that the sound is organic in nature, I find it much less objectionable.

The guest houses/hostels across the canal

When I check my e-mail, I discover I have a message from Taskin in Istanbul.

When I left the bottle of The Wine in my room back in May, I left a note with it, saying "For Taskin, September !".

Seems that lovely man kept that note pinned to a board.  And now he noticed that the note had been REPEATEDLY attacked by a SNAIL !

And NO, I kid you not, LOL, Taskin sent evidence.

5 am.

I'm shaved, showered, and yesterday's laundry is soaking in the sink.  Time to go for breakfast.

Breakfast consists of two mugs of instant coffee, one day-old croissant, one day-old small muffin, and a small bowl of instant tom-yum noodles.  I have to leave room to be able to sample the world-famous Bangkok street-food later !

6 am.

I'm on my balcony hanging the sink laundry when I see something moving and CATCHING things in the shallow water's edge on the opposite side of the canal. OH NO ! THIS CAN'T BE what I think it is !!!! The bloody thing is about 1.5 meters long.  And Nessie should be in Scotland and not here.    That only leaves two other explanations.  A giant water snake. Or a CROCODILE ! But hang on!  Crocodiles don't have wiggly snake tongues !

I go back in the room to get the camera.

When I point the camera and have finally located the thing again at maximum zoom, I feel fear.  It's STARING at me !

I go back out 10 minutes later and it's still there.   COULD it be what I think it is?  A quick internet search confirms it.  

It's a Waran, or Monitor Lizard.

And the picture I find tells me another thing.   These babies can climb roofs !

And it is AWARE of me.  It STOPS what it's doing and STARES at me. 

6:30 am
Time to leave the house. I'm in Bangkok after all !

I'm not sure about the water lilies. But the fish are REAL

memories of Ha Noi

Everyone smokes Everywhere !

Along the on-concrete-stilts walkway along the river.  I'm in the middle of a city of 12 Million inhabitants, and standing on this walkway I can see a total of 3 of them.   Try THAT in Vancouver, LOL.

Those big Big BIG barges? They are being pulled by a tiny orange boat

At first taking the side streets seems like the thing to do ....

But then it gets weird .....  especially after the 'shortcut' is CLOSED

One of the market women shouts HEY and directs me IN HERE 

wheew!   I'm RELIEVED that there is indeed an exit.  Kind of, LOL
And it even leads to Khaosan Road

Am I ever glad that I've booked the hotel that I have and NOT around here.  This looks like Pubstreet in Siem Reap !

This place looks like I would HATE it.

When I pass this alley again a few hours later, the backpacking crowd (hey, by the word definition, I'm actually one of them ;-) has finally woken up and these stores will all be open

I hit my road again and realize that I have to walk a little bit AWAY from my hotel again to find the food stall again that I had noticed (I smelled the spices and admired the colour) earlier.  15 Baht (0.66 CAD$) gets me three fried ground pork patties with lemon grass and lots of other spices.  OMG, life is cheap here.

7:45

I'm back in the hotel and Grandma finally answers the phone.  I can tell by her voice that she is extremely grumpy.  Maybe it's because the insurance people showed up but I'm still relieved because I know she's still alive and I won't be flying back to Vancouver in 2 days.  She tells me that it's warm in Vancouver and that therefore there was no reason to waste all that money to fly over here.  Wow, old habits die hard.  

In the breakfast area I nuke my 3 ground pork patties and eat them on mini croissants.  A look around the breakfast area shows me that MOST of the other guests eat toast with jam, peanut butter, or Nutella, or Kellogg's Frosties, all provided for free by the hotel.  Why come to Thailand for that though?

At 9 am I feel that I'm ready to nap again.  Phew.  As soon as I'm away from 'home', I finally can SLEEP ;-)