Couchsurfing in Bangkok

After the magic of Koh Samet and the splendor of the Siem Riep temples, we were pretty sure that returning to Bangkok would be a bit drab. I had lined up an extremely sweet Thai girl named Sinsiri as our host; she wanted to improve her English and said she would have a bit of time to show us around town.

We arrived back in Bangkok at Dom Muang airport and got a cab back into the city. The cabs charge an airport fee, which is.. whatever. I guess it's fine since you have to take a tollway to get in Bangkok from the airport. Well our cab driver approaches the toll and holds out his hand to us for the money! So, ok, we'll pay that, but in hushed tones we decide that he better not try to pawn the airport fee on us after this. Then we got to our meeting point with Sinsiri and the driver rings us up - alas, the airport charge still stands even though we paid the toll fee out of pocket. Huh? I had calculated his fare and added a pretty nice tip, but with the airport fee the tip was negated. So he asks for more money, and finally Grecia looked him right in the face and said, "That's all you're getting!" God knows I would have never been able to do it. Bless pragmatic and no-bull-accepted people like Grecia. In such awkward situations I am totally worthless, I usually just laugh nervously like a total nitwit, which is what I did as I gathered my stuff from the cab and went into Sinsiri's building.

Sinsiri came down and met us in the lobby: she looked about 14 years old (though extremely stylish with high heels and a work dress) and I was shocked when I later found out she's older than I am! She led us to the metro and from there we took her car to the outskirts of Bangkok. At this point she asked if we preferred to stay in her house or in her condo (note: we were expecting to have one of us sleep on the floor and the other on a couch). We ended up having her lovely condo all to ourselves, complete with humongous swimming pool:

Grecia and I stuck to the shade after SunburnGate

The first night, Sinsiri introduced us to her husband (Eik, pronounced"ache") and his older sister (a lovely, English-speaking nurse), and her daughter (Sinsiri's niece in law). We learned that as a sign of respect to women (mothers and elders), you add "Pi" (pronounced "pee") in front of the name. So Eik's sister Wan was called Pi Wan. Between Eik, Pi Wan, Sinsiri and Pi Wan's very smart daughter, we had an army of helpful Thais wherever we went. As luck would have it, we were in town for the local Temple Festival, and Sinsiri was nice enough to drive us there. It was amazing! Not another tourist in sight, this festival was as authentic as it gets. We ate way too much, fished for minnows with paper nets (Speed is a prized quality in such fishing expeditions as the paper tears after the 4th or 5th swipe), got blessed by a monk, WENT BACKSTAGE at a traditional dance show, and basically had a blast.

The food:

I politely declined eating roasted insects. Don't you start with your "when in Rome" judgments,  this girl doesn't voluntarily eat larvae, period.

That's better! Got the hookup with some vegetarian pad thai.

Dessert was coconut sugar candies which tasted amazing.

Pi Wan was on hand to explain all the new fruits and foods!

Gone fishing: Pi Wan's daughter negotiates with the fishing game madame. You can see the paper nets used in the bottom of this picture. I caught one fish, the madame ended up pitying us and scooping more fish out with a bucket to put in our bag of loot. Hey, winning is winning.

As we watched the traditional dance show from afar, Pi Wan asked if I would want to meet the dancers backstage. I assumed she meant like, in another life or something; it was a huge spectacle and the backstage area was very clearly roped off, not exactly welcoming to the general public. Well, next thing I know, Pi Wan has whisked me and Grecia to the side of the stage and started negotiating with the production team in rapid Thai, and suddenly we are walking up the rickety stairs to the backstage area. The dancers just kind of looked at us blankly, clearly they aren't accustomed to the "meet-and-greet during the middle of a show consisting of 2 American chicks tip toeing through their belongings" dynamic. But they were professionals and quickly recovered, even taking a few pictures with us. We managed to get out a few "kop khun kah"s (thank yous) and then scrambled hastily back down, all while thinking, "Did that just happen?!"

Leaving backstage

Pi Wan, her daughter, Eik and us

Eik, master of the selfie

All the girls at the temple festival: thanks Sinsiri!

Sinsiri makes an offer to the Buddha: weaving some baht into the ribbons of other offerings

The next night, we went into Bangkok center to see as many sites as we could. We did pretty well, seeing Khao San Road, the sites of the recent protests, some incredible black markets, and the grand palace by night.

Khao San Road is basically where all the younger tourists (and the sketchy, "I'm still hip now where are the young girls" older tourists) go to party. There are dozens of restaurants touting strong drinks and the fact that they don't check IDs.

This one didn't bother with subtle hints on the menu, rather, their flagrant willingness to serve minors is right there in the name. It's a pretty long name.

You could also, AT MULTIPLE LOCATIONS, buy a fake ID, along with fake diplomas, TOEFL certificates, you name it. It was amazing, and kinda like this:

We saw a few soldiers hanging about close to the palace, probably because that's where most of the protests were located. Here, a car representing the government (note the flag paint job) is overturned. See if you can gather the symbolism there.

The Grand Palace by night!

All in all, Sinsiri showed us both the authentic and touristy parts of Bangkok, and we were extremely lucky to have her as a host! I went back home to Boston (and freezing temperatures) and Grecia went back to India and later to Reunion island (definitely check her blog if you haven't lately!).

I can wrap it up by saying that Thailand and Cambodia have two new lifelong fans!