Khaosan Road

We finally figured out how the city was oriented, and we set our way towards some of the local sites. It so happens that the hotel that Paola picked was right in the middle of most of the traditional sites like temples and such.

The first place that we went to was Khaosan Road. It is basically a short pedestrian street with shops, restaurants, bars, and vendors completely covering the sidewalks. Again, the vendors, and waitresses at the restaurants were constantly hassling us to buy their stuff, or to sit at their restaurant.

At the end of Khaosan Road, another tuk-tuk driver came up to us, trying to convince us to take a tour that he was offering. This is typical of these tuk-tuk drivers, and I suppose that they make a lot of their money this way. Because we said that we didn’t know where to go, and that we were just walking around, he suggested that we go to a wat (temple) where there was a Buddha sculpture that was 40 meters tall. I told him that we wanted to walk and not interested in a driver. So we walked a little while to that wat.

The walk took about an hour, and we got to see a lot of normal life in Bangkok. Like before, I thought it was mostly filth and poverty. The stray dogs walking around looked diseased, and the vendors on the side of the street sold food that, mixed with the gas exhaust from the cars, buses, and tuk-tuks, contributed to the overall stink of the city. We had a little trouble finding the wat, as the map showed it at a certain cross street, but in fact it was further within the block.