Eve of day six in Bangkok. Am out of the Rembrant and in a nearby hostel. Still pretty cushty, but instead of a swish LCD display to control aircon, have this old-school handset that for the life of me can't make work. Consequently, am writing this under oppressively hot conditions.
This entry will have to be heavily abridged, and think a summary of the past five days can be succinctly euphemised with, "Bangkok is a city where no man should ever feel unwanted".
Thus endith this entry.
Okay, guess I have to expand, albeit in a tread-careful fashion.
Day two I played tourist, making use of SkyTrain and longboat up the Chao Praya River to visit the Wat Pho Buddist temple complex. Awe-inspiring. Reclining Buddha wins hands down. A new Samsung smart phone had been purchased earlier, pictures were taken, but this extremely tech-naive blogger has yet to work out how to transfer said photos onto this ancient contraption of a laptop, indeed he's not even been able to activate his sim (think I know how to now though, and have managed to get online successfully, said blog standing testament to this lame achievement).
After Wat Pho it was the legendary Khao San Road. Hostels ubiquitous, market stalls a dime a dozen, bars always in sight, but after couple of crafty, unshakable tuk tuk drivers (agree on a fare beforehand, Bill!) and one pickpocket attempt, this backpacker haven began to instill in me a nascent sense of paranoia. Quickly hightailed home. Used a metered taxi. Only use them now; despite one having since tried to take me to a massage parlour, they generally don't have an ulterior motive and you don't have to haggle vis-a-vis tuk tuk drivers.
Paranoia was soon dispelled, ironically, after being dropped off outside a bar I didn't recognise instead of my hotel. The reason: I met a very friendly, bubbly Thai girl called Oy inside, and my hotel, as she soon informed me, was in fact only across the street.
Long story short: took Oy out for a couple of dates over the next few days - food, disco, pool (she was fairly competent at the last two) - and everything (aside from my bank balance and sobriety) was looking on the up and up.
At this juncture, attention should be drawn to my initial comment: "Bangkok is a city where no man should ever feel unwanted". This statement only holds true if said man has fairly loose purse strings, and if behind said purse strings there are lots of bits paper with "1000 baht" printed next to King Bhumibol's face. Maybe that's being a bit a harsh to Thai women, but when you meet them in a bar on Sukhumvit Road, which I've been calling home for the past five days, it is widely considered fact. A Mancunian (the first Brit I've met over here) called Tony, who's been living in Bangkok for eight years exporting Thai goods, was quite blunt on the matter. He told me classic stories of impecunious disaster resulting from such relationships, and I thought it wise to heed his advice.
Spent a day detoxing after calling time on the budding (though unequivocally fallacious) romance, a path down which Bangkok would've surely chewed me up and spat me out, sending me scuttling back to England with my tail between my legs.
Sobered up. Tried to find myself again.
Have a nice cheap hostel in Khao San sorted to move into tomorrow (have since returned to Backpacker Haven; was a lot more inviting second time round) and first port of call will be making inquiries at local language schools. The reason I'm here, after all, is to teach English.
Last five days have been epic. Been to some awesome places, met some really nice people, but must now turn away from the bright lights and focus on reality.
With the window open, my room's sultry as a sauna, and have Bangkok cacophony drumming through my temples. Time to go downstairs and find out how this bloody aircon works!