Down and out in Bangkok - Dec 2015 - Jan 2016.

The Bangkok I returned to felt different than I remembered it. The call of the TukTuk driver less often heard and less intrusive than 2 years past, the sellers on the MBK 3rd floor less interested in drawing  your attention as you sweep through the floor, engrossed by the giant phablets that were clasped tightly in their comparatively tiny hands. It all added up to a less frantic, more subdued feeling, less energetic, maybe a bit more mature. It was easy to draw the conclusion that something was different in Bangkok, but there was also the possibility that maybe it just seemed less frenetic, that maybe some of the places I had travelled to since the last time I was here somehow made Bangkok a much less daunting affair. In the end I  drew the conclusion that maybe it was a mixture of both.

I spent the first week or so just getting a feel for the place again, visiting places I had been before with older but fresher eyes. Walking around I was surprised at how well I my body was coping in the city, the humidity no longer as imposing, the heat not as intense and I was able to move around fairly easily and at length without breaking into a pouring sweat. In the evenings as I talked through my observations over a beer or 2 with others who had been here before, I found many were generally in agreement with me over the more languid nature of Thailands "City of Angels" (or "City of Angel" if you go by one of the local T-shirt prints) when comparing it to Bangkok past. I don't know what it is, but I must be able to articulate my thoughts and ideas more cohesively when I have a bottle of Ale beside me. Either that or maybe a mischievous look in my eye that is usually otherwise well hidden. A week or so after arrival however things started to head a little bit south. 

I had arranged to meet Vicky in Bangkok just before Christmas with the idea of hanging out for a bit before we would be heading up to Chiang Mai and onto Burma together in early January, being safety in numbers and all that. Unfortunately within a couple of days of catching up, something else decided to take me down. Suddenly tiredness was the ruler of the day with planned visits to night markets and other places we wanted to go falling foul of my inability to keep going. Some days I could manage 6 - 8 hours straight before heading back to bed, others I would be struggling to keep going after 2. All days for about a week would have me requiring a sleep by mid afternoon and then struggling to find any energy or enthusiasm for travel or adventuring out in the evening. The only positive being that we were able to find some really good street food a very short distance from the hotel but even these small trips were leaving me completely drained, sleep was never more pillow drop away. The plan for New Years eve consisted of heading out towards the shopping areas of Bangkok (Siam, Paragon, Centralworld), grabbing something to eat and enjoying the spectacle of seeing in 2016 in the hustle, bustle and bright lights and entertainment that had been under preparation in the area since before I had arrived. The reality of the evening was we arrived at Siam at around 8, had had something to eat and small wander and headed back to the hotel by 10. It was not really the way I had envisaged my time here. The idea of Hospital checks had been floated, with my conscious self giving my physical self a "by the end of the weekend" deadline to start shaking this off, which luckily it seemed to start doing, but it's still taking it's time to piss off completely. My rhetoric here maybe indicates that it's welcome has now been truly outstayed.  

So not as busy or as enjoyable as I would have perhaps wanted these last few weeks to have been, but they haven't been completely unproductive. I have managed to pick up a replacement unwaterproof waterproof Sony Z2 phone (albeit it in purple) for 6,800 baht, which doesn't seem to be too bad when you consider that it would have cost me around 4,500 baht to send the broken model back to the UK for repair (not including having to get it sent back after) along with picking up a few other bits and bobs to replace items that have been broken or lost on my travels so far. I got to watch StarWars: The  Force Awakens in the fantastic Paragon iMax 3d cinema, standing for the pre-show reel of the king before the feature was shown before pouring half a bucket of popcorn over the person sat in front of me as I struggled with both my 3d and normal glasses, and then laughing throughout as the man sat directly to Vickys right somehow managed to sleep through the entire ear deafening feature. 

The Snores were strong in that one. 

so this means the ones before are even less waterproof than the ones that let in water?