One night in Bangkok

The flight from Bahrain to Bangkok was overshadowed by the pain that I got from an infection that settled into my right ear. I have not the slightest clue where it came from but I am sure that flying and too little sleep was certainly not the best way to get rid of it. I basically only could only lie down on the left side of my face. So I was not entirely disclined to accept a ‘sleeping pill’ that I was offered from my German seat neighbor. However, after I read the instructions which stated that this prescription-only ‘muscle relaxant’ could potentially be lethal for people with any kind of bodily dysfunctions, I kindly refused. You should not use drugs (aka ‘poppers’) that you would normally buy at your local street drug dealer to get a good night of sleep.

In Bangkok the weather was surprisingly pleasant with 27 degrees and hardly any humidity. Not exactly what I was used to from my last stopover here during the rainy season. After I got off the plane, I slowly carried out the plan that I had thought out in the air: buying a Thai cell phone card, calling my old Thai friend Victor and meeting him. Unfortunately it turned out that he could not host me after all because his family was visiting him from Chiang Mai. So he took me to Koh San Road (‘the Backpackers’ Street’) where I found a hostel for 8.50 euros a night, excluding space to move, a window, toilet paper, electricity outlets and warm water but including a floor-hard mattress, A/C and… that’s about it.

We spend the night having some delicious Thai food and then strolling down the nightly streets of Bangkok. At 10 o’clock I felt as tired as if I hadn’t slept in two days, which is almost true.

After roughly 15 hours of sleep I woke up in my windowless room wondering what time it might be. Any jet-lag researcher would probably cry now, my day-night schedule is totally messed up. The first thing I will do today is getting rid of that pain in my ear, i.e. go to the hospital. The ear pain is totally messing up my plan to go diving and meeting Tilmann in Koh Tao but first things first.

The hospital I went to was an experience in itself. When I walked into the entrance I had the impression of entering a five-star hotel lobby. Would you expect a sky lobby in a hospital? You got it. A Starbucks? Got it. And lastly: a McDonalds??? Got it! It got me really cracking up to see the ‘healthy living club’ next to McDonalds.

The service was excellent as expected. The doctor diagnosed my ear-pain as ‘a little pimple in my ear’ (yes I know you didn’t want to hear it) and prescribed me a cream. I’ll certainly be fine before the diving class starts.

The rest of the evening I spent setting up my blog (and it’s still not online) and then having some EXPENSIVE Thai food (I didn’t know that existed). We spent around 17 euros in total EACH… However, the conversation we had afterwards was invaluable, reaching from the weather all the way to the violent Red-Shirt protests a few months ago and the luxurious problems of the West (such as democracy).Furthermore I became aware of a two great habits of Thai people: They always put all the food in the middle of the table and share it with everyone. Secondly they always order one additional dish for the case that another person shows up. In this case, however, nobody showed up and we ended up splitting that humongous bill…

Later tonight we both had a ‘fish massage’ in which super-small fish suck the skin under your feet until it is soft. It got both of us cracking up (which victor proved to the camera). 

 

Later he gave me a ride around town before taking my huge duffel bag to his place. As we were driving, the yellow-shirts (the pro-urban/pro-rich/pro-south interest party) held a protest in the city center. Now heading to bed with a headache from too many beers. Tomorrow I want to go out and explore the city.