Back to Bangkok

In Morocco, the Peace Corps Volunteers are forbidden from traveling at night – Morocco has one of the highest road accident rates in the world. I thought this was a world-wide rule, but in Thailand the PCVs are encouraged to travel at night – it’s safer. Especially in the trains and the VIP air-con buses. The bus ride was actually fairly comfortable – with a pillow, blanket, and reclining seat, I managed to get some sleep. There was a middle-of-the-night food stop – I didn’t want to eat, but it was interesting to walk around and try to identify the various foods (without a lot of success).

When I decided to come back on Friday morning, there was a chance that Marilee could have taken the day or even the afternoon off. She couldn’t, but I had plenty to do back in Bangkok anyway. First, I slept a little more. Then I hand-washed my clothes and went to Wawee Coffee for some internet. Since I had the next hotel set, I thought it was safe to be away from the internet for a couple of days down south. No! There was an email about a job interview! Luckily I was able to arrange it for that night. I couldn’t have talked on the bus anyway.


Then it was back to the Monk’s Bowl Village, to get bowls for my sister and myself. I walked around more of Old Bangkok for a while – it’s a big city, but I felt pretty oriented. Went to Khao San, the backpacker area – very lively, with lots of shops and street food and guesthouses. Glad to be staying at a more sedate place, but also glad to see it – had street-food pad thai and then an espresso brownie at Starbucks!


I walked to the river and got on the boat, this time passing under that cable-stay bridge (turns out it is the world's longest single-span cable-stay bridge), to head to the Peace Corps office. It’s a beautiful office, in an old mansion, and is shoes-off! My kind of workplace. I visited Marilee, took a tour of the office and met some staff and current volunteers (in Morocco, the Administrative Officer sometimes sent friends and friends of friends to spend the day with me when they wanted to meet an actual volunteer; in Thailand, they won’t let people visit actual volunteers – they would get too many requests!).



Back on the boat, I visited Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn. This looks impressive enough from the river, but up close you see the beautiful porcelain mosaics, and you can climb it for a nice view of the river and the Grand Palace complex on the other side. Then it was back on the river to the Skytrain – and to Bodytune, for a head/shoulder/neck/hand massage (had to balance out the foot massage I got early on). Marilee met me there and we went out for some delicious Japanese food for dinner. You name the cuisine, Bangkok has it (inshallah, Manila will too).