The "holiday" portion of the trip (Days 6 & 7)

DAY 6 - 4TH FEBRUARY 2013
Being short on cash and planning to catch on some rest, I decided to stay in. I spent the day basically eating street food, watching TV and did some reading. I didn't manage to sleep in though, Koreans in my room were not the most stealth of people. I woke up around 9AM and took a shower and decided then what I was going to do with the rest of the day.

Which is eat, tv, book. Maybe a nap in between.

The hostel wasn't really that huge. The building was 4 floors, 3 with rooms, and an average of 4 rooms per floor. Some were 12 bed dorms, some were 8 bed dorms and limited private rooms. Why I'm describing the rooms is to establish the fact that it's easy to remember people's faces. During the first night there with the rooftop party, I think I met a little more than half the hostel occupants.

One guy stood out from the whole bunch. I think it was the red mohawk and the vine tattoos peeking out of his t-shirt sleeves. As much as I wanted to say hi, something about him felt a little intimidating. So I decided to shut up and just continued watching TV with a couple of other boys to avoid embarrassing myself in a foreign country.

Thomas secretly wants to be
a wizard.

Towards the evening, I got a little hungry so I decided to head out and get something to eat. I ran into him at the stairs and finally muster up enough courage to say hi. He introduced himself as Del. To my surprise, he was actually very pleasant.

You know it's a good party when
someone puts a cone on his head

I spent most of the evening on the roof talking to another guy, Thomas, who was also heading back home the next day. He's been away from London for a month and he just couldn't wait to go back home. Thomas is a fucking riot, I'm kinda bummed that I didn't get his Facebook details while we were there.

 A few hours passed, and the community once again grew. Not as epic as the night before, but it was a good size. But around midnight or so they decided that they were going to go to Khao San road to party. They invited me to join, seeing as it was my last night in Bangkok but I didn't feel like making the trip. So I stayed. Rooftop was empty so I went back down to the TV room.

le boys

Del was there, tapping away on his little netbook. I decided to sit next to him, and we started talking the night away, and reluctantly on my side, went to bed at 6:30AM.












DAY 7 - 5TH FEBRUARY 2013
No thanks to the not-so-stealth Koreans, I was up by 8:30AM. I was hoping to catch a couple of hours more of sleep before checking out. I waited a little bit for them to leave the room at some point. But it was just taking them too goddamn long so I decided to get up and take a shower, pack my shit and just bring it up to the communal room.

Waiting for departure pt 1

I sat down talking to Rick and Dan before Dan leaves for Chiang Mai. We chatted for a bit and soon Dan had to leave. A hug, and he was gone. I decided to go find something to eat.

Coming down the stairs, Del came up with food in his hands. Possibly the most pleasant 'good morning!' I've ever had in my life. He gave me a hug, I went down to check out and get something to eat.

My flight was at 9PM. Don Mueang was about 30 minutes away from the hostel. Given the Bangkok rush hour, I figure leaving at 5:30PM would probably be smart. But it was only around 11AM after I ate. I pretty much attached myself to the couch for the next 6 hours, using Del's lap as a pillow, going in and out of sleep.

5:30PM rolled around a little too soon. It was time for me to go. With a heavy heart, I got my bags, hailed a cab, said my goodbyes and was on my way to good ol' Don Mueang airport.

A few hours later, it was time for me to say goodbye to Bangkok and go back to my life back in KL.

Waiting for departure pt. 2

Purchasing that ticket randomly in December, not knowing if I could actually afford the trip was possibly the best decision I've ever made. I needed to get out of KL. After that whole thing being blacklisted by immigration because of my student loan and never having enough money to even travel within my own country, let alone a different one, it was a refreshing change -- even if it was trading one city for another.

Next on my list for this year is Bali to learn how to surf. And possibly Nepal or Cambodia for my birthday.