Bpai Tiao: Enjoying Home Comforts in Bangkok

In Thailand, a bpai tiao is a trip of any length. I’ve written about some of my more significant bpai tiaos to tourist destinations here, to be used as travel ideas and tips.

So after nearly 5 months in Thailand I finally made it to Bangkok for more than a couple of hours. I spent an entire long weekend in the capital city in fact. However, this was one big farang trip. There was no sight seeing done on this excursion. There was an unspoken ban on eating Thai food. And it was a nice chance to rejuvenate.

I left after school ended on Thursday, since Friday was a holiday and I had it off. After around six hours on two different buses, countless rice paddies and two ridiculous Thai movies I stepped off the bus and into the big city. Seriously big. I had to take a public bus from the regional bus station to get to the Skytrain. To make my way to my friends, who had gotten me a veggie burger and fries.

They had wanted to go to a club, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to since I had my bag of stuff with me, and some of them wouldn’t be able to get in because they were wearing flip flops. So we all decided to go back to the hotel and just shoot the breeze there. It was really nice to just be able to have some laughs with each other.

The next day we went to MBK, one of the many huge malls in Bangkok. I ate McDonald’s and Pizza Hut and watch Star Trek and bought Outside Magazine. All of these things made me extremely happy. (Hint: Outside is one of my favorites and would appreciate it if included in care packages.) Later that evening a group of us volunteers found our way to an Irish pub that was serving alcohol. Most places were not because it was the Buddhist holiday, Vishaka Bucha. We enjoyed our beers to the sweet tunes of a Thai Beatles cover band. It was really quite the evening.

Later we made our way over the Khao San Road, which is a bit of a party spot for all kinds of travelers. At the bar there, a woman sat down next to me and my friends with a hula hoop. I was so excited, I asked her if I could borrow it and headed out into the street and hooped for a bit. It was lighter and smaller than what I am used to, but I was definitely able to show off some of my skills and had a crowd watching for a while. She and I traded turns for a while before we were both too hot and sweaty and thirsty to hoop more. Not too long later my friends and I headed back to the hostel.

The next day was full of more generic vacation things and not much Thai culture. We went for breakfast at a bagel place that had amazing bagel sandwiches. We spent the afternoon swimming at the hotel’s rooftop pool and taking goofy pictures and then we got ready to go out and eat Mexican food and go to the gay clubs and dance our butts off. It felt like a summer Saturday in the States and was great.

On Sunday, I got up early to head back since I had two camps to host the next four days, which you will read about next time.