Bangkok to Phuket

May 11 to 22:

So the last little while I have been feeling under the weather some and this coupled with some not-to-be-understated laziness. I had a bit of a cold when we were leaving Istanbul and as we dealt with the overnight flight, the time difference and the unbelievable heat and humidity this just morphed and worsened. I am much better now and will attempt to give you a brief summery of some of the events of this past little while.

The Istanbul Airport was crap and things were pretty delayed. At the Malaysia Air counter they warned us that we could get turned around at the Bangkok airport if we didn’t have a return ticket to show plans to leave. They made us sign a waver then we were on our way. We made it to Bangkok no problem after a three hour stop over in Kuala Lumpur.  And got to out hostel, the Lub D Siam Square with ease. Siam Square is a really nice uptown shopping district with some beautiful malls. We did most of our eating in Bangkok in the malls food courts though we also found an A&W.

One Day we went on a shopping expedition and Pat bought a new wallet and some shorts. Another day we saw some Thai boxing going on in an outside ring sponsored by one of the malls.

On one of our first evenings there it was a Monday or Tuesday and was the last day of a Thai long weekend. We ran into a Teacher from Vancouver back to his native Thailand for a visit and he told us about how the government tourism office was having a sale on trips for the long weekend only. This being the last day of the sale we got a taxi to the tourism office and got a trip that would take us to Phuket for 5 days then to Koh Pha Ngan island for a week before heading back to Bangkok.

I am currently in Phuket, specifically the Patong area. It was pouring the day we got in by overnight bus and we thought this didn’t look so good for our stay here but since then it has been much drier if not sunny. Our sleep cycles have still not completely adjusted to the time zone because of factors like terrible sleep on the overnight bus but we have been using our late nights to play video games. 

Spice market

May 10:

Today we went to the post office first thing and I managed to ship all the stuff home for just under ten lira or about five dollars. This accomplished we headed to the Spice Market. This is a much smaller market then the Grad Bazaar but I thought it was cooler in its own way, being filled with food goods rather then knock offs and souvenir items. We wandered the surrounding area and even made it most of the way to Grand Bazaar via back streets. Sights seen and culture experienced we headed back to the hostel. We played Borderlands at the hostel for a while before deciding to get food. Once we got food Pat had the same issue as the day before and was no longer able to play. We headed to our rooms and I was asleep before midnight.

The Day We Did Things In Istanbul

May 9:

The night before we had found a new acquaintance by the name of Lucie and together the three of us planned to see some of the main attractions around us in the city. Once we got up and going we headed to the Hagia Sophia. We got in line but, after I asked around, it was the line to get in and we had to go through another line for tickets first. During this process we met an engineer from Edmonton who stayed with us for most of the day. Once we got in we looked around. The Hagia Sophia is a museum now, not an active mosque so you don’t have to be specially dressed to enter. It was really interesting to see the juxtaposition of old Christian mosaics with newer Islamic symbols. Other then that the Hagia Sophia is known for being old and big and I can attest to its being both. After a thorough walk through we went off in search of some lunch. After lunch we hit up the Blue Mosque, it’s use as an actual mosque meant that there were some restrictions on attire but the only ones that needed addressing were that we take off our shoes and Lucie cover her head (something they were more then willing to provide for but she decided to tie a shirt around her head instead. The mosque was pretty though the effect was lessened by the inherent sexism in making women cover there heads and pray in the back corner. Next on our list was the Basilica Cistern, a large ancient cistern situated right by the Hagia Sophia. It was pretty neat. Having done so much that day we were pretty tired but once we got back we had to start planning our next step. We had only one more night booked at the hostel and no plans after that. We soon got the computers running searching out a place to fly to in Asia. Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur seemed like the easiest/cheapest places to fly to. Looking into cheap flights we could find some for around $500 but most of them had ridiculous layover times. We were able to find one flying through Kuala Lumpur International to Bangkok with just a two and a half hour layover two days from then. We booked the flight and the Lub D Bangkok Siam Square Hostel for five nights and then booked another night at Harmony Hostel on our way out to the post office. I have mail to send back to Canada and had been trying to send it since Greek Orthodox Easter.  Today was not my day though as the post office was already closed. We put it on the list for tomorrow then headed back to the hostel to play video games. After a while we went out to get food and when we got back Pat couldn’t get on the internet so we headed back to our room and I was soon asleep. 

A Park Walk

May 8:

Today our main event when we got up and going was to walk through Gülhane Park, a largeish park near our hostel. Once we had sufficiently walked through the park we played Borderlands on the hostel patio until dinner was ready, a lovely vegetable dish prepared by Mahmood, one of the hostel staff. After dinner we hung out with a group of cool people from the hostel and played card games and the like until we all decided to call it a night. 

Down by the River

May 7:

Today once we got up and going we decided to walk down by the water. Near the hostel there was a neat bridge with restaurants all along the underside of it. We walled along and eventually stopped at a place for a fish sandwich, a popular local food. After our meal we walked around the other side of the river for a bit before deciding to head back. As we walked around we discussed many of our favorite video games Such as Team Fortress 2 and Borderlands 2. Neither of us had played these games in months and rather missed them. Borderlands is designed for cooperative play but since the mac version is much rarer then the windows I had never been able to play it with anyone. I decided to pay Pat back for buying me Minecraft by buying him Borderlands 2 over Steam. On our way back to the hostel we picked up some more Turkish delight and some other snacks as well as a mouse for Pat. Once we were back I got the game and sent it to Pat and he started the process of slowly downloading it. We rested and chilled and I even napped for a bit before it was getting late and we decided to go get some dinner. After dinner we found a good area on the patio where we could boot up Borderlands and start the game together. We played for a few hours before we decided to call it a night. 

The Grand Bazaar

May 6:

Today we got going after another delicious breakfast on the roof top patio of the Harmony Hostel we decided to see the Grand Bazaar, now that it would be open. This was a neat experience. Trade has been going on there for hundreds of years, since back when Istanbul was a key stop on the spice road. Among the spices being sold were many types of tourist goods and knock off products, not to mention the near infinite number and variety of scarves. We spent hours walking around the Grand Bazaar and its surrounding area before we were tired and decided to head back to the hostel. It was already pretty late and by the time we thought to get dinner it was seriously late. Most of the places in our area were closed down but we found a place that was open where we could get some yummy lamb shish kebab. After dinner we called it a night.