Dazed and Confused

Day 312
I made sure that I was up early so that I could search around for cheaper hotel. I asked around for a while but they just kept telling me to come back later. I didn't have later, I had to be out of my hotel by noon. At the last place I checked I got lucky and got a room for half the price. I would even have outside windows! The hotel wasn't far but buy the time I had moved and gotten lunch it was after noon.

I decided to head towards China town because I had heard that the market was fabulous. I think I made it there, the signs were in Chinese, but I couldn't find the market for the life of me. I was the only farang (tourist) that I had seen for a few hours. I was definitely off the tourist trail. This was both good and bad. Good because I was seeing bits of Bangkok that I wouldn't have seen, and bad because I couldn't find my destination. I did manage to find some odd looking statues and a big building with cannons out front. Ok, so it wasn't very exciting.

After wandering around long enough to make myself tired I went back to my hotel. Before I didn't have any outside windows, now I do and it is much more pleasant to hang out here. After reading for a bit I grabbed some street pad thai for dinner.

One of the typical night time activities in Bangkok is to go to one of the street side bars. I didn't want my single status to prevent me from doing this so I picked one and sat down. In no time I had met some local women who worked as masseuses and wanted to pick up western men. They struck me as a bit odd, but they were funny and I enjoyed chatting with them. After the street bar we went to a place that we could dance. They started trying to get me to drink more and told me that they would make sure that I made it back ok. This was no longer sitting right. Then they ordered me a shot, I saw the bartender bring it and they insisted even though I had previously told them that I don't do shots. I did the shot and then left, things would have probably been fine, but I didn't want to take the chance of waking up in a strange place missing a kidney. On the way back to my hotel I picked up some chicken and some water. Soon I was asleep.