Bangkok and Home.

We left for Bangkok from Koh Phangan at around 5pm by ferry. It was a strange feeling leaving the island. It had been good to us and provided some of the best nights of the trip. But as the saying goes, "All good things must come to an end." Sometimes the best moments are had, when you know your time is almost up. Things were winding down quickly. One thing I wasn't looking forward to was another 12 hour ferry and bus ride. The ferry would take us south to the mainland and from there we would jump on the VIP bus and take it back to Bangkok. The VIP bus is a little more expensive, but you get a bigger seat and it reclines more. Plus you get some snacks and dinner at a rest stop on the way. We would arrive sometime around 6am in Bangkok. Everything goes pretty much as planned, even the dinner is good and we arrive on schedule. Before we left Mam gave us a name of a hotel to stay at called the Nasa Vegas Hotel which is close to Sukhumvit Road, which is where we want to go. We get to the hotel by taxi around 7am and check in for the night for about 700Baht ($21/night). The place is nice and seems to be in a pretty good location. We both pass out for a few more hours, because those few hours sleeping on the bus are never very good even if it is VIP. Back into the hustle and bustle of the big city. We are in luck today though. Monday and Tuesday are Buddhist holidays, so many people are not working so traffic isn't nearly as bad as usual. I believe the holiday celebrates the Buddha giving his first teachings after becoming enlightened. Cramer wants to buy some gifts and things for his family before he comes back home. So we venture out to find the Sukhumvit Market, which is suppose to have many good and cheap things for sale. Now Sukhumvit Road is very long, but most of the taxi drivers act like they have no idea what we're talking about. The internet and Lonely Planet all talk about Sukhumvit Market like its a well known place, apparently the taxi drivers didn't get that memo. After driving around in two different taxis looking for the place, we finally settle for MBK, which is a big shopping mall, with 7 levels of shops and restaurants. It is pretty nice and does have AC to beat the heat. After an hour or so, we still want to find this "market" so we now get into a tuk tuk with the driver claiming he will take us there. Big fricking mistake. We fall right into the trap we we're told to avoid when we first visited Bangkok. The guy drives us around, not taking us where we want to go, but instead to a gem dealer. We tell the guy, "No gems, take us to Sukhumvit Market!" Ok he says and then drivers a little further to a place that makes suits. This guy just doesn't get it. I tell him I'll give him more to just take us to where we want to go. He gives us a sob story about how these places give him vouchers for gas for his tuk tuk and if we just went in for 5 minutes then he could get more gas. Of course we already know what these places are like. Just looking is hard to do as the salesmen are very persistent and persuasive. The suits, pants, and shirts all look nice and are completely custom made, but we manage to make it out of there with out buying anything. Finally we just tell the tuk tuk guy to take us back to MBK again. Next we jump in an official taxi. He says he knows Sukhumvit Market. He drives us to some back alley where they sell bootleg purses and shoes. WTF? Dude we don't want any fake Louis Vuitton bags. Finally he drops us off on Sukhumvit, but there doesn't seem to be any real market going on in this part of it. As I mentioned earlier it is a Buddhist holiday so maybe that is impacting the market, but I doubt it. These guys are all bent on shaking us down or something. Finally after getting no where with another taxi driver, we finally just tell one of the guys to take us back to the hotel. We never did find this "famous" market. Either it goes by a different name or all these guys were plotting against us. I think some of the problem was Sukhumvit is so long, that you need to tell them block numbers like Sukhumvit 12 or Sukhumvit 23. Apparently the markets run from Sukhumvit 3 to 15. I don't know if we ever got close or not.

After a few hours back at the room to rest, we decide to head down to Sukhumvit 1 through 3 for some night life. This is suppose to be an area well know for debauchery and hedonism. Cramer sees some Korean BBQ places and we decide to grab a nice dinner before any partying. Cramer says that in Korea any night that starts with Korean BBQ and Soju (Korean alcohol) is bound to be a good good night. We're treated to a great feast. Korean's definitely know how to eat. Tons of side dishes, dipping sauces, vegetables, grilled meat, and bottles of Soju... how can it not be good. The area we're in is also known as "Little Arabia" because there are many stores, restaurants, and people from the Middle East here. We find out from a guy that all the bars and nightclubs are closed due to the Buddhist Holiday. Again I don't know if this was ever confirmed. There are "other" places that are still open he tells us. After hanging out awhile I head back to the hotel, leaving Cramer to try his luck with the ladies. I end up walking across the street to get one last massage before I leave. My back is sore from the bus ride down, and I admit I'm somewhat addicted to a nightly massage now. An hour and a half later I walk back to the room feeling loose and relaxed. Cramer is back. We catch up on each others nights and go to bed. I have to leave for the airport at about 6am.

I'm packed and ready to go at about 5:45am. I say goodbye to Cramer, he's coming back home on a later flight and staying in Los Angeles to visit his brother for awhile too. I take a taxi to the airport and I'm off at 8:15am. I have two stops. I fly to NRT (Narita/Tokyo) for 6 hours, switch planes, then 10 hours to LAX (Los Angeles), then 5 hours to ORD (O'Hare). The way back seems to be a lot shorter and painless than going there. I am treated to a great homecoming when I get to LA. I'm the only one pulled out of line in customs and my bag is entirely searched. I guess I look like a drug smuggler or something. Also when I exchange my Thai Baht back to US dollars I get royally screwed and take a $15 loss. Welcome back... My flight back to Chicago is smooth and I arrive on time. My mom picks me up and I'm back at 8:45pm. After a month on the road in South East Asia I finally arrive home.