The Backpacker

BangLumphu:

We returned to Bangkok when the evening had set in. I had saved myself the trouble of findind transport to Ayuthaya and back, made a friend in the process. Now Pari was worried about my hotel accomodation, but I wasnt. I mean, I was willing to spend the night at the railway station if required, it didnt really matter to me. However she dropped me off at some point, i dont remember which, but from where I paid 8baht for a bus ride to Bang Lumphu. Ah, it was heaven! This is what is also known in the backpackers circles as the "mecca" of backpackers.
After seeking out a backpacking couple who pointed out the right way to the Mecca, I found the Star Dome, with free internet facility...for 350 THB. Fair deal, I thought and by then I was sort of tired...I would be, hadnt slept a wink for two nights straight!

A quick shower (works miracles for a tired body) and was soon out to explore the night in the streets of Bang Lumphu, look for something not found else where.

It is true what is said of the BP community. They are like the 'fly-by-night' shops, come up for a short time, make friends with their immideate environs and move on...exchange few words with other BPs, share a drink in of the many roadside bars, share the stories fo the trails and move on. They dont make friends, they dont attach emotions...they come and they go...some come back again.

I did the same. Walked the streets that come alive in the nights...No. Its not the same as Silom and its famous or rather infamous Patpong. This place is a world in itself. It caters solely to the BP's. There are money exchanges, hotels, internet cafes, massage parlous and food joints in a straight row...all for the visitors. You will hardly find "family" types here. Perhaps they stick to the better places and thus miss the pulse that essentially makes Bangkok a place BP's love to come back to. I loved the anonymity...and to my surprise I found that I was the only single Indian woman backapcker around...people I struck conversations with readily told me it was a change to see Indian women traveling alone! Either I didnt see any of my kind or they didnt, but whatever it was, I enjoyed the freedom adn the security in the unfamiliar streets....

Thai food is appealing, no doubt, when treated as a luxury. Perhaps a more affluent visitor opting for the stay-breakfast option at regular hotels would be happy to eat three common Thai meals during their stay in Thailand. But when you have decided, like I did, to eat only Thai food during my entire stay, (and i had only had three such meals), the smell of fried food coming from the stalls and hittign your nose quite strongly, can shaken the strongest resolve. However, not the one to give up easily, I sat down to a meal by the roadside...well, can harldy find a regular hotel where you order meals, for one, the night shops flood the streets and its hard to look behind the rows of clothes and the thick fumes of frying meat!

A Thai meal that cost me 20THB was one of the spiciest I had eaten. By comparison, the break fast at airport and lunch with Pari was mere nothing...

Served with rice was a curry of fish...no, I have no idea what the fish was, a as extra helping, another kind of fish was added and something else. Everything was spicy...but there is something that serves as a balm. The water. I dont know why, Thai's drink water through a narrow straw...I gulped of course, I couldnt sip milli liters of ice cold water when my tongue and throat was on fire, could i? There was a peculair taste to the fish...later I learnt it was courtesy the Holy Basil..Tulasi!

The night at Star Dome was more or less like a stop...sleep hardly came...bands kept playing through the night...it was a cheerful place, savouring every minute of their short life, making merry...I cursed, however...I needed rest.

I think I managed four hours before I woke up and realised I needed to hurry to the train station on the other side of the river.

I managed. When I left the key at the counter, the sky was just getting light. The early morning streets had the same cheer in them, although a bit empty, but there was determination to return to its happy self in a few hours!

I made it on time. I was back at Tha Phra Chand...and going someplace at last :-)