Before I tell you the resolution of our 8-hour ordeal, here’s the entrance to the toilet of the Koh Samui airport:
The rest of the toilet is just as plush. Anyway, back to the monsoon drama. Eventually the rains stopped, but we all had to wait for the planes to fly to Samui from wherever they were diverted to. After about 8 hours of waiting and so many flights canceled already, 1 plane was able to land. 3 flights worth of passengers, 1 plane. Imagine the chaos! I felt like they had to perform triage just to figure out who goes where. Us being on the first flight of the 3, got priority. So once again our luck pulls through. By 12 midnight, we were in Bangkok. The last meal I ate was breakfast at around 9am. I skipped the food they gave us at the airport because it was fried rice. So first thing we did at the Suvarnabhumi airport was eat. We opted for the classic Phad Thai and some satay:
Recharged, we took a taxi to deposit us into the luxurious folds of our gazillion-star hotel. WRONG. When we get to our hotel, which for record looked AMAZING on their website, we were greeted by people who looked and acted like creatures from the black lagoon. Rude, unkempt, sleazy, unprofessional (and that’s me being kind). Then we were led to the 2nd floor, asked to carry our own luggage (because they don’t have porters), and squeezed through this hallway:
I don’t know if the photo does it any justice. Seriously, 2 people cannot walk side by side in that “The Shining”-inspired hallway. And when we opened the door to our “room” (I put quotes because I will fight tooth and nail if you insist on calling that abomination a “room”):
It was a box, with a sink in the corner. If we wanted to pee or poop, we had to go and squeeze down the end of the hallway, avoid the twin girls with knives, and do our thing on the communal bathroom (yes, singular, bathroom with no “s”). Not even the worst motels looked as prison-like as that room (not that I’d know, since my experience with motels are as limited as this statement is defensive). So suffice it to say, we upgraded to the “superior” (their word of choice, not mine) room, which at least has it’s own toilet (and to be fair, free wi-fi).
The sheer exhaustion served as our sleeping pill, otherwise it would be difficult to surrender to sleep in a room that seemed forsaken in comparison after the splendor we bathed in in Sareeraya back in Samui. But, we aren’t in Bangkok for luxury; we are here to experience the Siamese queen city in all her heady/dingy/debaucherous glory.
The next day, with a renewed spring in our step, we rode Bangkok’s beautiful subway, so clean and so orderly, to be deposited in the heart of the city.
We didn’t know where we were, we just kept walking, entering thanons and sois (I think that means roads and alleys), taking us heck knows where. It was so much fun! Bangkok’s crazy, like an Asian New York:
And the food! There’s food everywhere! And I grew up avoiding street food (mainly because our germaphobe mother instilled into our brains on a genetic-level the fear of dirt in our food). But this time, I put scandalous things in my mouth (definition of scandalous: anything skewered that I cannot identify)!
Then we chose a hole-in-the-wall joint to eat in, looking filthy but authentic. We ordered something new. First, a delightful dish the flavor of which I’ve never encountered before, rambutan and shrimp salad:
Such an explosion of flavors! We also got minced pork something:
And then we ate a weird street food snack. It’s sliced grilled squid with cocktail hotdogs in super spicy vinegar sauce:
We’re just taking break, then once the Suan Lum night market opens, we’re off! We’ll stay there, shop till we drop, or until it closes at 11pm, whichever comes first. And once we’re done, we’ll see where else the night takes us. I don’t know if we’ll find wholesome or sleazy things to do…if it’s wholesome then I’ll blog about it tomorrow. Otherwise…you’ll never know… 
