Second time in Bangkok and it's still not my favourite place in the world. We found a great little Israeli guest house tucked around the corned from the noise of Khao San Road; Secret Garden Guest House. Although it wasn't the cheapest, we decided it was okay considering we only spend $1 on the previous two nights accommodation. We spend the following evening pottering around Khao San; N buying T-shirts while I chatted to a guy who made bamboo saxophones and (selflessly, of course,) helping him with quality control.
The next day's agenda consisted of buying a tent for a festival I was headed to, which proved more difficult than it should in such as huge city. We took a local bus to another part of Bangkok where we were advised there was a market where I could purchase one. After hunting around for a while and receiving numerous opinions we ended up at Tesco (ahem)! 270 baht, job done. We jumped in a tuk tuk back to Kao San Road as I had a girl to meet who would be joining me on the night bus. The rush hour traffic was heaving with cars headed in a chaotic and directionless cloud of smog. We made it back to Kao San just in time for me to grab my rucksack and head to the bus stop where N and I, after a month of travelling together, parted company.
I was meeting a girl, A (a friend of a friend of a friend on Facebook), and we were travelling to Ko Tao together for a four day psytrance event: The Experience Festival. But as the traffic in Bangkok was so bad, A was nowhere to be seen. After pleading with the travel agent and a phone call between her and the bus driver, it was established that she was only 5km away; but who knew how long that would take. This is Thailand though, nothing ever leaves on time, so I didn't doubt that she would make it. 15 minutes later I received a call from an unknown Thai number: both our phones had run out of credit but A had been lucky and found someone who had lent her their phone. The travel agent again conversed with a guy at the end of the phone and gave him the name of a bar nearby. Through the language barrier I wasn't sure what was going on so 10 minutes later after no A and much pressure from the bus company, I left my backpack and headed there on the off-chance. Armed with the memory of Asia's Facebook profile picture and limitless optimism I got to the bar and said her name very loudly. As luck would have it, a girl matching her description turned around and we were on our way. That is, after a 30 minute wait for the bus to show up!
A and I got along really well and swapped travel stories as the bus headed south. After the final dinner stop everyone started to snooze so I headed to the bathroom to freshen up. Pulling the door aside, there were too Welsh boys in there drinking and smoking: great. I went back and grabbed A and we joined in the toilet party! The morning bought another bus journey and then a boat ride via Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and finally to Koh Tao.
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