Bangkok: Couchsurfing and Cycling

First a brief introduction into Couchsurfing; it is a website/organisation where travellers can request to stay on a local’s couch/spare room/floor. Hosts can also offer to host travellers, or ‘surfers’ as they are called in CS terminology. There should not be any money involved, as the idea is rather to exchange knowledge and culture and ideas. It’s all very hippie really. There are also forums and groups to ask advice and find travel buddies, and events to meet up with potential travel buddies, or hosts (as well as have fun).

I have had some brilliant experiences with it whilst hosting in Oxford, and overwhelmingly in Bangkok, Couchsurfing has enabled me to meet some brilliant travellers and locals, and has really improved my experience of Bangkok and will hopeful contribute to the rest of my trip.

So, by this point, I had already attended a CS meet-up on my first full day in Bangkok, and got very drunk playing Thai drinking games. All very fun. On Friday, I had my first surfing experience with the awesome-but-at-times-too-shy James.

My Couchsurfer host, and my very effeminate milkshake!

I met him near his apartment (I was a teeny tiny bit lost as Bangkok does do road signage) and he showed me in, let me take a shower, and then we headed out to Khao San Road backpacker ghetto, where he showed me around and gave me some brilliant recommendations.

The awful, the brilliant, the addictive Khao San Road.

Neon lights!

We eventually ended up at a local noodle place (well it was full of farang (foreigners) but the cook was Thai and it is more authentic than the Irish bar or Burger King!) where I was able to find out about his life and family, and able to wrangle a cheeky Thai lesson out of him. I can now count (badly) to 10 in Thai.

nunngg, sonng, saaam, seee, aaaaah, hoh, jet, pat, gOw, sip

(This is of course not how they are spelt, just how I remember the strange tones and sounds.)

I felt bad but by about 10pm, I was really flagging; I had been up since 6am seeing markets and travelling, so I really needed some sleep. James I reckon thought I was boring of our conversation, and looked slightly crestfallen, but was OK heading back. I was asleep within about 5 minutes of coming back...I feel I was not a good surfer that night.

My bad surfer vibe was not helped the following morning when I headed out at 8.30 to a Couchsurfer cycling tour across the other side of the city. I invited James, but upon describing cycling around a rural river island he looked at me as if I were mad, and declared he was going shopping instead. Certainly the cooler option.

The view from James's apartment; he was very nonchalant about it.

I accidentally arrived ludicrously early to the meeting point in the MRT, and sat there sweating for 20 minutes before other people arrived. Eventually around 15 people arrived for the tour, which was lead by a rather….assertive host who literally shoved us into taxes to the ferry port. I just started saying ‘Yes Maam’ everything she told me to do something; she pretended to be annoyed, but secretly she loved it.

We're on a boat!!!

The biggest problem for me when cycling abroad is the bicycles. They are always these great,heavy, wrought-iron, Victorian beasts that have no gears and nowhere near strong enough brakes to stop their massive momentum. They are always hugely front-heavy, with huge curved handlebars and a basket jutting out ahead, which means when turning the bike leans precariously. To put it bluntly, I HATE RENTAL BIKES!

My displeasure with my assigned Victorian beast was compounded by the situation in which we were cycling; the island is very low-lying, surrounded by the Chao Phraya, and bisected by hundreds of khlong, so is very susceptible to flooding. The locals all live in stilt houses, and the roads and paths are correspondingly also raised on stilts.

These paths are about 60cm across at most, and make tight right-angle turns regularly.

Below these stilt paths are a two metre drop, and then if you’re lucky, crops and grass. If you’re unlucky, mangrove and water.

My bike only stays upright when I cycle in a straight line.

It was terrifying, but in a mostly good way. It did however make me curse the decision not to bring a waterproof camera.

This was a nice path, hence my ability to photograph while cycling.

I'm the leader. I'm the leader. I'm the leader of the gang I am!

The fear is real when seeing what you could fall into.

One first stop on the island was a Siamese Fighting Fish farm. These fish are bred and raised to fight each other as a form of entertainment; aquatic cock fighting if you will. They did a demonstration where they put two fish in separate jars next to each, and a piece of card between them, with the idea being when they removed the card they would start trying to fight each other through the glass.

It was less fighting, more staring at each other with blank expressions. Very fiersome!

fish...

Sirrr! I challenge thee to staring contest. Grrr!!!

I look like I am modelling water...why was this my chosen pose....

Next was the ‘floating market’. I was really excited as this was something I really wanted to see. However, it was most definitely on stilts on dry land, and more near water than on water. However, it was still a brilliant market, focusing on snacks and food. The food was very, very good, most likely because we had locals to recommend the best places to eat.

Most definitely not floating.

After our food pit-stop, there was more hot cycling through some beautiful scenery, such as this:

Insta-photo!

There were some cold drinks here:

This island has a problem with erroneous titles. This was called a Treehouse.

And there were views like this on ferry back to the city:

Surprisingly cloudy sunset!

It was a good day.

Unsure if this is a good photo of me or not...

I thought the evening was over when we disembarked in Khlong Toey, but Nong (our gracious if slightly militaristic host) invited everyone to eat at a brilliant food court. Here was where I began to feel guilty, as I hadn’t seen my own host all day, and he was beginning to sound a little irritated at me continuing to extend the time I spent out that day. But loads of people of the CSers were going, so I tagged along too.

I might have had the best Pad Thai ever.

I definitely did have the cheapest sushi I’ve ever had.

Not the best view, but it was super!

My apologies for the lack of photos of said brilliant food, but it was that good I didn’t even think of my phone camera. Sorry Instagram, you were deprived of several dramatically-filtered food photos. However will you manage!

By 9pm, I decided I should probably head back to my host, who lived 25km across the city (and the river, which made the taxi driver very very irritated). When I got back, things were a little awkward, and I made the decision to check back into my hostel. Nothing against my host, he was friendly and welcoming. Just Couchsurfing requires a certain amount of interaction between host and surfer, and today I hadn’t spent more than about 10 minutes with my host, and knew that the following day I wanted to sleep and relax before spending more time with my new found friends from the bike tour. I just didn’t have the time to give my host, and felt guilty treating him as a hotel, so I left. I believe I insulted him, but personally, I felt much better leaving him than abusing his hospitality.

DSP