27 Hours in Bangkok

Bangkok is a short hour plane ride from Phnom Penh. But Ethan and I did not fly there. Instead, we took an overnight bus from Phnom Penh to Bangkok, which departed on the riverside on Friday evening, at 9:00pm. We arrived in Bangkok the following day, late in the morning, a little bleary-eyed and in desperate need of coffee.

There was no temple hopping this time around, no tourist sights to be seen. Instead, after checking into a guesthouse on Silom Road, we walked, walked past and into food vendors that reminded me how good and ubquituous street food is in Thailand (and how cheap, too!) and around and in shiny light-filled malls, where I perused clothing and makeup offerings among lovely powdered lady-boys. In the afternoon, we let ourselves get lost at Chatuchak Market, the weekend market where you can find nearly everything, and where I picked up a restructured plaid dress. We people-watched and then watched a movie in a proper cinema. We stayed out late into the night, bearing witness to the seedy evening movement.

And we were in awe of sidewalks, freeways, the skytrain, the subway, women wearing makeup and short skirts, of order -- things that, for the most part, if not in whole, are absent from daily life in Cambodia.

Then, we hopped on a plane back to Phnom Penh.