Travel Day and Khao San Road

We woke up and somehow managed to coax a shower out of our pod bathroom (it was like the inside of a boat, a seamless fiberglass prefab bathroom – we are beginning to think Japan is the prefab country). We made it to the platform in time to get a couple pictures of the train approaching. The airport was a breeze, the lounge tasty (free soba noodles, drinks, and snacks!), and the flight to Bangkok comfortable and uneventful.

We caught a cab from Bangkok's airport into the city. Shortly after the driver put his foot on the floor, we discovered the lack of seatbelts! A gripping half-hour of the barely-ordered chaos they call driving, and our driver dropped us off in a narrow alley, next to the sign for our backpackers guesthouse at the entrance to an even narrower alley – actually, more of an outdoor hallway with awnings that overlap in the middle.

It's very hot here. It's about 95 degrees and what feels like 110% humidity – we're on the verge between the dry and rainy seasons. Soon after we dropped off our packs in our room and locked up our electronics, we donned our raincoats and headed into the street just in time for the skies to open and make our gore-tex worth carrying! We didn't realize until a couple hours later, while sipping a beer and people-watching on Khao San Road, why the other backpackers seemed to be chuckling at our raincoats. Everyone just takes siesta during the afternoon rain, then goes out to party in the evening. Whoops. No matter, we found the vegetarian curry joint from the Frommer's book and ate a delicious dinner – a little early by local standards, but we're still kind of on Japanese time. We walked by a lot of tailoring shops, junk shops, street vendors, tuk-tuk drivers, expats, backpackers, vacationers, and pretty much everything else you could imagine. Khao San is a dirty place – cheap, and probably a lot of fun – but dirty. Margaret kind of has this permanent 'blech' look on her face. Now we're hanging out in the guesthouse's veranda writing the blog, contemplating whether to crash early and see the sights before the day gets hot, or to go out and watch (or be) the nightlife. Probably the former, we're tired.