Bangkok, for a moment
For a city I have never expressed any interest in visiting I find myself in Bangkok for the second time in my life. Funny how that works out. I still don't have any interest in visiting it though it has been nice for what I needed: a cheap place to stay for a few days, some shopping venues and all of the western chain restaurants I can eat my way through. My last morning I am chilling in the hotel restaurant biding my time before I need to leave to the airport. I had an itineray planned out for this morning, a walking visit to temples and buddhas but I can't be bothered.
I really shouldn't beat up on Bangkok but for some reason it has never appealed. It is as if every travel cliche that has ever been written or noted can be footnoted to Bangkok, to Thailand. All of the suspects are here: the drunk spring breaker, the pretty young girl who spends entirely too much time making herself up, the gracelessly aging hippie or the dazed over look of one seeking enlightenment but finding only neon.
I won't say any of that is a terribly bad thing. It's just a wearying thing. I am too jaded, too old a backpacker to feign excitement over questions of "where are you from" or "what do you do". I have become my own cliche, of course.
This visit has been a layover, a 4 day break in my journey to India which commences tonight. India snuck up on me. Up until just a few months ago I had told myself I had no interest in visiting, in dealing with the hassles. My assumption that India is a place you enjoy after the fact, after you have survived the daily onslaughts seemed born out the more and more I spoke to people who had been.
But then I found myself booking a ticket, planning a route, setting aside 2 months to make my way through this massive, intimidating and overwhelming country. I enter with a belief that I am going into battle and maybe that is the wrong frame of mind. But I am expecting the worst and hoping to be pleasantly surprised by the reality. Or I will spend the next 2 months dodging touts as I race to the nearest toilet. We shall see....India will be good for me, I think.
Don't know if I will be regularly on LJ but I have been missing the venue to write, to put words to a screen. I also have some other adventures planned:
And, sweet jesus, when did the backpackers get so young?
I really shouldn't beat up on Bangkok but for some reason it has never appealed. It is as if every travel cliche that has ever been written or noted can be footnoted to Bangkok, to Thailand. All of the suspects are here: the drunk spring breaker, the pretty young girl who spends entirely too much time making herself up, the gracelessly aging hippie or the dazed over look of one seeking enlightenment but finding only neon.
I won't say any of that is a terribly bad thing. It's just a wearying thing. I am too jaded, too old a backpacker to feign excitement over questions of "where are you from" or "what do you do". I have become my own cliche, of course.
This visit has been a layover, a 4 day break in my journey to India which commences tonight. India snuck up on me. Up until just a few months ago I had told myself I had no interest in visiting, in dealing with the hassles. My assumption that India is a place you enjoy after the fact, after you have survived the daily onslaughts seemed born out the more and more I spoke to people who had been.
But then I found myself booking a ticket, planning a route, setting aside 2 months to make my way through this massive, intimidating and overwhelming country. I enter with a belief that I am going into battle and maybe that is the wrong frame of mind. But I am expecting the worst and hoping to be pleasantly surprised by the reality. Or I will spend the next 2 months dodging touts as I race to the nearest toilet. We shall see....India will be good for me, I think.
Don't know if I will be regularly on LJ but I have been missing the venue to write, to put words to a screen. I also have some other adventures planned:
And, sweet jesus, when did the backpackers get so young?