After the market we snuck in one-hour massages (@ $5 each!), then walked to Khoa San Road to see where the tourists and backpacker crowd congregate. Here we ate some Pad Thai prepared on the street for $1/each, which was actually pretty tasty!
Next we opted to avoid tuk-tuk drivers and walked to the train station to purchase tickets for the next evening's journey onwards. To fully understand why we opted for an hour plus walk through the heat, we first need to explain how Bangkok works.
Tuk-Tuk drivers generally pick up westerners and instead of taking them to the requested destination, drive them to an assortment of businesses that pay for their gasoline if they bring in customers. These include tailors, travel agencies, restaurants, etc. It takes extremely direct language to get your way with a driver, and we felt our New York impatience helped us a bit in dealing with them.
Anyways, en route to the train station we walk through the largest and most chaotic Chinatown we'd ever seen. We also passed Wat Traimit, which holds a solid-gold Buddha weighing over five tons.
After picking up train tickets, we headed to the night market and strolled through Bangkok's Patpong red light district, not the least bit interesting.
Our biggest amusement of the day was the Bangkok local's favorite question: "How much did you pay?" Everyone you talk to, concerning any purchase will ask you. Massage, food, bus, tuk-tuk, taxi, tailor, hotel: how much did you pay? We couldn't stop laughing at their obsession with the market. We also began to tell them ridiculous prices to see their reactions.
At day's end we were proud of seriously coming in under budget. $20 on hotel, $6 breakfast, $10 on massages, $5 on water, $2 dinner! Not bad for having a great day.
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