6th of August, A new passport,
Martin and I had to get up early in the morning, to go to the Austrian embassy and the immigration centre, to get new passports and a new visa. Five days after our “Worst Case Scenario” on Ko Pha Nang we finally became full Austrian citizen again and Martin was able to leave the country without any problems. I think this is also the right time to thank Martin to accompany me for almost three weeks, and staying calm during the “Worst Case Scenario”. We had a lot of fun together and also a lot of serious discussions about tourism in Thailand, which was a great input for my writing.
7th and 8th of August, Stomach sick,
I was a bit stomach sick on the 7th of August, so I decided to stay at the hostel and explore a bit of the neighbourhood. On the 8th of August I met Nancy, a girl from Canada. She is currently bicycling around the national park somewhere in South Thailand as I’m writing this. It was really difficult for her to get from the hostel to the train station so I decided to help her. Taxis don’t carry bikes and neither do busses, so Nancy went to the train station by bike, and I took her stuff and followed her with the bus. I don’t think Thai’s see a lot of foreigners on bicycles in Bangkok, everyone in the bus and even on the street was looking at her (some of them where laughing, others just nodding their heads).
By the way, Nancy arrived at the train station before I got there, so bicycling is a non-polluting fast way to get around in Bangkok, if you can bear the heat. Unfortunately I couldn’t join her, I love hiking and bicycling around in the nature.
9th and 10th of August, Sightseeing and relaxing at Siamsquare
To wait for a flight to Australia can get quiet boring, fortunately Bangkok has a lot to offer. The 9th of August was a typical sightseeing day, I woke up around 8:00 am, looked at my map and decided to visit the temple of dawn (Wat Arunrat) and a fish market I discovered the day before. Both sights (the fish market isn’t really tourist attraction.) where close together, so I could easily walk from one location to the other. . The smell at the fish market was unbelievable, but after a few minutes I got used to it. I spend there about an hour, walking around, talking to some of the sellers and taking some pictures of the huge hills of seafood. On the 10th of August I went once again to the Siamsquare, to watch a movie, have something to eat and look around in the hundreds and hundreds of little shops.