The post title is for Billy Diskette (Autocorrect has a much better spelling of your last name).
After leaving everyone behind, and staying an extra night in Koh Samui (much to my disliking of having to pay 500 baht for a hotel room with ants crawling all over me), I booked a boat, bus and train ticket to Bangkok.
At that point, I wasn't sure what I was going to do in Bangkok, but all I know is I wanted to start there, so I made plans to go there.
Later on in the day, I had heard back from a volunteer organization called Isara that I had emailed a little while ago, advising me that if I wanted, I could head up to Nong Khai as soon as I wanted. I booked a train ticket for the night I arrived in Bangkok, and thus my one day in Bangkok was born.
lost trying to find the Canadian embassy.
The Boat, Bus and Train Ride
I started off with having to get a cab from the harbor; it was totally normal, except this one lady and her husband. They were basically having a fight, in a language that I do not speak (I think it might have been Russian?) in the back of the cab right behind me. Then that escalated into them yelling at each other - which was totally making everyone in the cab feel comfortable, and then the lady insisted on putting her Iphone on full volume, without headphones, of course playing Ai Se Eu Te Pego, three times in the cab, singling along every time.
We had got to the harbor, and the boat was late by an hour - which kind of panicked me, but after I found out my ticket was 6:40 and not 5:40 I was a little less worried. And sitting across from me was none other than the Russian Lady and her agressive husband, playing Ai Se Eu Te Pego, 4-5 times, I lost count.
While we were waiting, the boat was very late, as I mentioned, so the husband started to get a little angry. He went over to the food counter of the waiting area, and started demanding that they give him answers... Everyone in the pavilion was sharing the same smile, as it escalated into the entire staff of the food counter yelling at him, and him yelling back and storming off to the ticket agent across the road. I was nearly on the ground laughing.
Long story short, the ferry came, and we all got on it. I settled down into reading a book, and what did I hear but "delícia delícia, assim você me mata" as the lady sang along very loudly on the boat. Turns out despite trying to choose the seats where they wouldn't sit, they had sat one across and one behind me; I was thrilled.
At the end of the boat ride, I had my backpack on, and was waiting to get off the boat, when not the 300 other people on the boat, but none other than the husband and wife, got up behind me. The husband, grabbed my backpack while it was on my back, and started rocking it back and forth. He was a rather large man, so I didn't feel like being confrontational. Instead I just turned him around and gave him the biggest death stare imaginable. To which he responded "Why you no smile?"
At that point I was thinking many a things to say in return, along the lines of "Why you THINK I no smile?" but the only thing that came out of my mouth at the time, was to pretend I didn't speak English... so of course, I uttered...
"Non, je n'ai pas d'argent"
"What?"
"no engleesh"
"huh?"
"nooooon"
I don't know why, but that gave me a large satisfaction with the whole situation. Partly because that guy had just rocked somebody's bag, and had absolutely no way of explaining his joking intentions. I just couldn't get over the fact of how rude they both were... Jeeeze, travel to see another country and be immersed in it's culture, not force yours upon them.
Anyways, long story short, I boarded a sleeper train, and it was actually very comfortable, and I awoke the next day, 6AM in Bangkok.
Bangkok
I basically did a bunch of stuff, it's a crazy city, and I'm excited to go back, even if just for another day. I spent the day walking around, loving life, riding the sky train, the underground, seeing skyfall in imax (Not pleased with the ending at all), purchasing 700 baht worth of books, etc.
Not really much happened other than that, I basically wandered around the Central World area of BKK, and checked out the malls, stores, and sights. I'll post some more pictures of it when I can. After, when I ran out of things to do, I tried to find the Canadian Embassy for fun.
Good lord, you would think this place was a clandestine operation... I could not find it anywhere. Walking past the US embassy, with it's high walls, barbed wire, and flags everywhere, I thought that I would easily be able to find the Canadian one... especially since I had it's location on a map.
It took me over an hour, I wandered back streets, back alleyways, until I eventually came across a tall building that I wandered into by chance, due to it having no signs on it what-so-ever. I expected to see Canadian flags, since that's the international representation of Canada, for those who can't read, or who aren't anglo/francophones... but I did find one Canadian flag.
It was on a piece of paper, and the flag was no bigger than my thumb. On the paper, at the information desk of this tower, it said Canadian Embassy / Embassie Canadienne (or however the french spelling goes). I then got out my passport, and asked if I could go into the tower to see the embassy... I was told that I could not.
Kind of freaky, despite being a Canadian citizen, that I was not allowed into the embassy, nor was able to even find it due to lack of representation... but whatever. I wonder if others have this problem. This is really the only problem I've had with Canada so far. Other than that, being a Canadian abroad affords me tons of opportunity, people are instantly nice to me when they see the maple leaf on my backpack, and a lot of people tell me that they love Canadians for some unknown reason to them, only that they're very polite and nice. I'm so proud that my country has this stereotype... and that I get to convince everyone that I live in a barren winter wasteland surrounded by polar bears, and igloos.
Anyways, after that I went back to the train station, and caught the night train to Nong Khai... I fell asleep immediately, and didn't wake up until 8 in the morning, which means I slept for 11 hours on a train with people yelling, the cars moving, and loud sudden grinding sounds from the tracks... I must have been tired.
I also met an old couple from Belgium, who spoke absolutely no English, and no Thai... seulement francais. It gave me the opportunity to speak with them in french, without having the ability to use ANY English words, which was very difficult, but it also showed me that I can now string together full conversations in french, and if I don't know the word (like enseingner) I can put together a sentence that will help them tell the word to me (The Professor _______ the students in class). Despite asking them to "parle lentement" I was pretty proud of myself for carrying on about an hour's worth of conversation in french.
I started off with having to get a cab from the harbor; it was totally normal, except this one lady and her husband. They were basically having a fight, in a language that I do not speak (I think it might have been Russian?) in the back of the cab right behind me. Then that escalated into them yelling at each other - which was totally making everyone in the cab feel comfortable, and then the lady insisted on putting her Iphone on full volume, without headphones, of course playing Ai Se Eu Te Pego, three times in the cab, singling along every time.
