Kyoto and first days in Bangkok

Despite two less-than-ideal nights of sleep on buses, Kyoto was definitely worth the trip. I nearly didn't make it on account of the most cryptic of bus stations (in an unlabelled underground parking lot...wtf?!), but thankfully this really nice Japanese guy walked me about a full 2 km to it and gave me a bag of pizza-flavored potato chips as a parting gift (oishii!)

The bus arrived about an hour early, which under normal circumstances might be desirable. However as it was 5:30 am and I had no guide book for Kyoto, no sense for the orientation of the city or anything really, I was a bit lost until the tourist office opened 5 damn hours later. I passed the time mainly by getting jacked up on caffeinated beverages from the vending machines and finishing my one brought book (Imperial City, a great book about San Francisco and Bay Area history for anyone interested). Another highlight from that morning I will recall in haiku:

Early morn' Kyoto

What do the heavens bestow?

Bird shit, dirty shirt

Anyway, the tourist office finally opened and I got a city map, bus routes etc. Kyoto is a beautiful city set in the hills and has a veritable plethora of temples--one could easily spend days there and still miss a number of gems. Unfortunately, fatigued from the night before I didn't have it in me to do marathon temple visits, so I stuck to a few highly recommended ones:


Kiyomizura


More Kiyomizura

Part of the charm of Kyoto was just meandering through the little streets and alleyways. There seemed to be a shrine or temple along every turn. Here was another highlight


Kodaiji

After wandering the peaceful Kodaiji temple for a while, I sat down at the teahouse and had a cup of matcha next to a woman my age who chatted me up. Marie, originally from Paris was in Japan on business from Switzerland where she works for Cartier. We shared some tips about the temples we'd seen and agreed to meet up for a drink later that evening as we were both on our own.

I spent some more time wandering around Kyoto...I think the Air song, "Alone in Kyoto" captures the feeling well. After some time, I was all templed out and finished my book and killed some more time wandering around the giant "Cube" mall there. Marie and I had a nice drink together that evening after meandering through some small streets along canals, and losing track of the time, I had to run back to the station to retrieve my backpack and catch the bus. After another overnight on the bus, I was back in Tokyo and on a plane bound for BKK shortly thereafter.

Edit: Forgot to include this hilarious shot...

In case of cardiac arrest, please insert 120 yen and press A1

Welcome to Bangkok

The plane arrived at about 4:oo and was quickly set up with a hotel recommended by guide book by the kind people at the airport's information center. A taxi was soon negotiated to take me there and I was on my way. Unfortunately, we hit atrocious rush hour traffic coupled with an accident or two and what normally takes 30 minutes, turned into a grueling 3 hour crawl. I tried to make lemonade by getting some language instruction from the taxi driver, with varying success. Thai is a tonal language and has some tricky phonemes so unlike Japanese which has very literal and pronounceable transliterations, when I take a stab at an expression in my book, the actual pronunciation is way different. At this point I still have command of only the very most basics, but this is apparently enough to impress most.

I decided to "splurge" (~$35/night) on my first night in Bangkok on account of the taxing bus nights and overall grimy state I was in and checked into the Royal Hotel. It's about 3 blocks from the backpacker ghetto, Khao San Road and was a big let down, unfortunately. The staff at the front desk was less than welcoming and the odd cockroach in my room confirmed my belief that I was getting ripped off. After a long shower, I struck out to wander around Khao San and get some food. Khao San is definitely where it's at if you're a young backpacker in Bangkok. There's food stands everywhere, tons of bars, cheap grubby guesthouses (e.g. $6/night) and pushy vendors. I've heard that serious backpackers consider Thailand "too easy" and I understand why now. Just think the Thai equivalent of college students in Tijuana and you're not too far off. Still, for the solo traveller, it's a good place to meet people and I ended up chatting with a seasoned Swedish traveller over beer for a long time and got some good tips.