Bangkok, Thailand

Woke up today and relaxed in bed for a while before getting up and walking southwest to the River City Mall near Chinatown. I passed by many stands selling pieces of marine life, vegetables, fruits, and spices all lined up along the sidewalks, bottle-necking the flow of pedestrians. I finally reached the River City Mall and inquired about a canal tour there I was told about the previous night. They did have a canal tour available, but the price was nearly five times higher than what I was told about yesterday; it was probably a different tour company altogether, but I couldn’t be certain since the office for the tour company I was directed to was closed. Either way I gave up trying to organize a tour through the canals and instead decided to walk there by foot and see what I could see. I took a ferry to the west bank of the Chao Phraya River and then walked north to Bangkok Yai canal. Once at the canal, however, I saw it was impossible to follow along either bank of the canal by foot due to all the homes built alongside the canal (some smaller canals in the city had pedestrian pathways along both banks, so I thought I might have had a good chance at being able to walk the canals, but it was not to be). At this point, I decided to give up on touring the canals altogether, so I walked northeast to Wat Arun, where there was a Buddhist sermon being given by a monk clad in orange to a large group of seated worshipers. I then took the ferry near Wat Arun back to the east bank of the Chao Phraya River. From there I walked back to my hotel; my plan for today had completely fallen through and I struck down several other plans I had developed in my mind due to cost, distance, and time. So, back in my hotel, I typed out some journal entries, researched the next leg of my adventure (i.e. Cambodia), and also reserved a room in Siem Reap. When it was time to eat dinner, I walked out of the hotel with my umbrella (it was drizzling), and walked to a popular Pad Thai restaurant . . . which was too popular – it had a blockbuster line stretching along the sidewalk past the restaurant -, so that plan also fell through. I then reluctantly walked back to the Khao San area (ughh); I made sure not to enter Khao San road since I didn’t feel like getting molested, and instead went straight to the alleyways surrounding it. I ended up eating at the restaurant I ate at my first night in Bangkok and had a mixed fruit shake, a Chang beer, and a pizza with onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes as toppings. After dinner I walked back to the hotel and bought a bottle of wine and chocolate along the way. Once back at the hotel, I had my wine and chocolate – the wine had blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry flavors added to it (just as the label shows) and that’s pretty much exactly what it tasted like; although I could taste hints of the terrible wine that the forest berry flavors were trying to cover up; the wine was produced and bottled in Thailand, though I’m not exactly sure where the grapes were grown (possibly in Thailand? I know there are some vineyards in this country). I then went to sleep, hoping I would be able to wake up in time for my early morning train (05:55).