My first, and due to Spanair only, day in Bangkok

I woke up to the sound of the Muezzin. I didnt realize before that there was a mosque right next to my window. He stops calling for his religious people in the neighbourhood about 5 minutes later, and before I can think about getting up I fall asleep again.
The next time that I wake up it is very hot in my room. I had turned off the airconditioning in the night because it was blowing to cold, but now I really needed it. I turned it on and waited till everthing cooled down. Then I got up and got dressed to conquer Bangkok, finally.

I left the hotel and turned right. I walked past many noodle soup stands and Ga-kitchens and the smell was marvelous. Seriously, most of the people reading this do know how much I love asian food with all its spices and vedgetables, and the noodle soups that come packaged with dried noodles and all you need to do is fill them up with hot water and wait, and you get a delicious (unhealthy?!?) meal.
However, it was breakfast time and neither wanted I spices and chicken for breakfast, nor was I hungry enough to eat a bowl of noodle soup.
I hit the main road about 5 minutes later and a nice Thai person explained me the way to the river. I followed his instructions but then took a left instead of a right in order to see a little market where they sold coloured balloons, stuffed animals and flowers. The street was a dead-end and ended at a university building. The reason for the little market was a huge graduation ceremony! All these students in their gowns and with medals and golden scarfs. I looked around a little bit, but felt in the wrong place, so I went back to where I came from only to go right this time. I hit the pier after only a couple of minutes and bought a boat ticket to Tha Thien for 22 baht. Which boat I need to take? Well, any boat that drives into this direction (the lady points to the left)... Okay. I wait for a couple of minutes between some more tourists and some Thai commuters. A big boat arrives, it is white and kind of empty. As it hits the pier, the lady who sold me the ticket comes out behind her little table and takes all other tourists on the boat. Not me though. I booked a normal boat, this is a tourist only boat. I wonder why some tourist would buy a tourist only boat ticket, if he could experience real life and while I try to finish this thought the first "normal" boat in the right direction lands on the pier.
The boat has one driver and one person in the bag who gives the directions and ties up the boat. He has a little whistle and depending on the sound he makes, the driver knows what to do. Drive forward, more left, faster, stop, backwards, faster, hold it. People exit and I enter the boat. I chose a spot on the other side where I can stand and easily take pictures. Out of a sudden, the whistle person jumps in front of me and opens the boat right in front of me. I can take a close look at the water and it would probably only need one big wave for me to fall. This time we land on a pier on the other side of the river. I make space for people to exit and enter the boat and get myself a new spot at the back of the boat, where I cannot disturb anyone.
To Tha Thien it is only four or five stops. The pier is filled with little shops and kitchens, and with many tourists. One can see that I am very close to one of the biggest sights in Bankok. The Wat Pho. the largest and oldest Wat in Bangkok.

I go to the ticket both and get myself a ticket for 50 baht. For Thai people, the entrance is free, as this is a place to worship buddha which should be open to the people who want to go there for prayer. The court is filled with little houses and little towers. They sparkle in the sun and look stunning, with all these little stones, these colours and this massive amount of gold.The biggest sight within the grounds of the Wat Pho is a big Buddha statue which lies in the middle of the temple, as if the temple was built around it later on. The reclining is a symbol for the Buddha's last step on its way to Nirvana and the statue is made of wood but has a layer of gold all over it.

I kept walking through the grounds of Wat Pho and then decided to move on to another temple which would close in three hours. It is a temple which lies in the same grounds as the Great Palace, the former residence of the King and the Queen of Thailand. The main "attraction" there is the "Emerald Buddha" which is actually not made of emeralds but carved out of Jade, however, when a monk saw that on the ordinary grey statue of a sitting buddha in his local temple, the stone was falling of its nose a green stone came up. He first tought it was one emerald, sitting in the normal stone mass the buddha seemed to be made of. Only later it was found that the whole buddha was made out of a green jade and that it was covered in grey stone to hide it from robbery.
The buddha is relatively small and sits on something like a high throne. To see it one has to leave the shoes outside and sit down in front of him. I was kneeling between 25 school children to look at buddha and only when I came out I saw the instructions on how to sit (they were placed at the exit... one must not understand...) Luckily, I did everything right, even the "You must not point your feet at buddha" The feet are to be the lowest, in both geographical and hierarchical sense, of our body.
Unfortunately, the Grand Palace itself was closed as there was a ceremony going on and the public had to stay outside. However, I had spend nearly two hours in this temple and so I was not too sad when I moved on. Direction Khao San Road.

I walked along the main road and its markets to reach Khao San Road. In the map it was not really visible that I would have to cross a big road with 2 lanes - stop - 4 lanes - stop - 4 lanes - stop - 2 lanes and no, there are no traffic lights. I stood for nearly five minutes between the first 2 lanes and the coming 4, when I decided that I just had to start walking at one moment...

I kept walking along bigger streets and all 10 to 15 meters I was stopped and asked "TukTuk? You TukTuk?" - "No thanks, I want to walk..." - "Ah walk, no no, TukTuk fast"... I only had a couple of hundreds of meters left to Khao San Road and when I told them they usually understood. :)

Then I hit it. Khao San Road. The Road. The road where all the tourists are, where Bangkok looks like you have expected it. As if they kept it alive for the tourists. Thousands of commercial posters hanging on the street, market stands on the pedestrian walk, Ga Kitchens blocking the street and TukTuks driving around everywhere. The tourists are mainly backpackers, in wide single-coloured cotton pants, tank-tops, flip-flops and messy hair. In pretty much every house there is either a hostel or an internet cafe and a restaurant or bar. Only at more or less the middle of the street is one deserted entrance. It is Nana's Place and Nana's Hostel. The place where mainly men spend their Bangkok holidays to see the beautiful Thais. Apparently, the attached guesthouse is mainly used by exactly those pretty Thai girls. It is weird to see how people enter it with their head held low. Nobody stops in front of it or looks around. I was curious to take a step into the terrace to take a look, but then again I didn't dare, and seeing two or three rather strange looking men walking in was enough.

I walked on until I hit the end of the street, to take a sharp left and to enter the street my hostel is on. Right at the corner I saw a huge Ga-Kitchen with 3 huge soup pots and about 9 different types of meat or fish to chose from. It looked very yummy and so I decided to give it a try. I didn't really trust the fish, and so I asked her for chicken and chose one. She told me to chose another one, and I wondered. I wanted this one... I had to chose two, she said, because it is two for 30 baht (which is less than 1 Euro). So I asked her for the other chicken. "Oooh, but this spicy." - "Great, I like spicy! I will take it" - "No no, really spicy, is hot." - "That's good, I like hot." So she brought me a plate with a mount of rice and the two types of chicken I chose. It was really spicy. Honestly ;)... But it was sooooooooo good, it was really really yummy! She looked at me, and I think she wondered a little, that I liked the spice so much as most tourists, she said, don't ever eat it.

I walked on and stopped at an internet cafe to see if my bag was found. Apparently not. Great. I went to my room to take a little nap. When I had just fallen asleep, the phone rank. "Hello? Helloooooooo? Uhm, hello?" Nothing. I tried to call the reception back, but I couldn't hear a ring. I think my phone was broken. So I walked down to the reception and searched for someone who knew why I was called. The airline had called and they had found my bag. Apparently they wanted to bring it later tonight. Now I really took my nap and decided to wait for my bag. It must have been something like 18h when I started and at 22:30h, finally, the phone rang. "Hello? Hellooooo?", oh right, it was broken. I went downstairs and there it was. My bag. Finally. I took it upstairs and never have I been happier to see it. Finally a shower with REAL shampoo and not cheap hostel soap. Lotion for the little sunburn I have. Fresh cloth. And a comb to make my hair look normal... Now I felt ready to go outside again.

I met two Germans who had just arrived and together we walked to a close Ga Kitchen and bought a Phad Thai with Chicken. We sat down on the street, ate, watched people walking by and talked about holidays. It was really nice. We thought about moving on to a bar later, but it was already pretty late and I must admit that the day had been quite exhausting.
I went to my room, read my book and fell asleep.

Yes its been very calm nights in Bangkok, but you know what? That was exactly what I needed after these crazy days in Bilbao and the long trip to Asia.