Thailand, pt.3: A Revolutionary day!

Chumpon up to Bangkok, by bus/train
Bangkok

so, boarded the ferry to go back from Koh Tao back to the mainland; specifically, the town of Chumpon. While on the ferry, approaching the shore, i realized we should be outside on the bow enjoyin the evening breeze and the setting sun--but it turned out we enjoyed a lot more than that, as we ran into a ska band that had played the previous evening on Koh Tao and was headed back as well, enjoying the evening sun with beer and cigarettes and the appropriate ukelele. so, after playing one of their songs--they got the whole front deck to sing along!--it was 'sell out' by reel big fish, a crowd favorite! (if by crowd you actually mean me; i wouldve preferred 'beer', which would have been more appropriate considering me and cookie went and bought them all beers, but hell ill take any RBF song to be honest with ya!) then i asked them if they liked other ska bands, like dropkick murphys or streetlight..being true ska musicians, of course they were fans! i was pretty stoked...we even got a cd for free (considered it fair trade for the 30 bucks' worth of beer! ;P) well, all good things must come to an end, and we eventually got kicked off the front end of the boat for causing a disturbance--and cuz we were almost to shore. probably the only time ive ever been kicked off a part of a boat and banished to another part. (oh, what rebels!)
so then we arrived at the pier
...
except it was really about a 250 foot long rickety ass pier made out of driftwood..no kidding when we really reached the beach the people getting off the boat looked like ants!
well, then it was on board the bus to Chumpon in order to get on our train to Bangkok..except me and Cookie got put on the immigrant bus, basically, and got to the train station way before everyone (their bus broke down.. nanny nanny boo boo! haha nah im just glad everyone made it OK) and so we went and grabbed cold coffee from the cafe across the street (where the shopgirls were watching true blood in thai subtitles! interestin...) saw a blinged out ghetto sports car, and got to eat some crepes, fried rice, and other thai street food for dinner. Finally, they showed up and we went to wait for the train... and the Oriental Express, complete with butlers and waiters clad in tuxedos in the chandelier-hung dining car, showed up (!) classiest thing I've ever seen on tracks! Finally our, um, not so classy train showed up, and we bunked up and tucked in for the night...
...aboard the demon train, which seeemed at times to fly over the tracks more than, um, ride them. Cookie poked his head up in the morning like...'so was that the scariest train ride you've ever been on?' and i was like 'um yeah i was thinking the same thing thanks' haha. oh, boy.
then it was arriving at the station, and everyone splitting to go their own separate ways, all sleepy-eyed and half awake. our separate way just happened to be *clears throat* the Grand Hyatt Erawan, in the shopping and business hub of Bangkok's Central Square area (which has been since taken over by the red shirt revolutionaries calling for a repeal to the current government. bit of a messy situation!) but, at the time it was still live and bustling... we pulled up and got checked in in the lovely spacious chandelier heavy, poshly decorated and spacious lobby (hey, it's the nicest place I've ever stayed let me get a little excited about it!) and then went up to our room with a view over the city on the 24th floor, hallways dripping with contemporary artworks by Thai artists (whoever curated these walls gets my stamp of approval!) then it was a short nap and setting out on our day trek across the city! It got started on a good note, as neighboring Erawan Shrine, for which the hotel is named, was playing host to a party of religious dancers doing a worship dance in full costume. Very graceful and dripping with golden ornaments, and the headresses! Those things must be heavy... then it was off to the monorail like train system that runs through central, business Bangkok... up to the Victory Monument, another huge roundabout just like the Democracy monument, then a hot, sunny walk over to near the current King's Palace, and although you could only see the tops of buildings from outside the palace walls, we got to take pictures with some cute mural animals near the zoo and encountered lots of troops resting and preparing for the ever greater swarms of protestors that kept infiltrating different key areas of the city trying to cripple the government (we walked along the road with all the major government buildings--the Dusit Throne Hall, which we wanted to see, was closed because of all the commotion going on, they were serious about keeping things on lock!) so then it was back to meet up with Matti, my friend Nancy Marie from college, who is currently in the Peace Corps north of Bangkok teaching English. she showed us around the major shopping centres, and we even got to spy on how new Audis and Porsches on the 4th floor (!) of the shopping complex. Pretty snazzy! Then it was back to the hotel to primp and prep for our wonderful evening dinner on a rooftop restuarant near the river. And. although we left an hour earlier than intended, it turned out being just the right time, as it took us almost an hour to go what amounted to less than 10 miles by taxi. Oh, Bangkok traffic! The protests didn't help, of course, but on that note our taxi driver was more than happy to share his opinion: 'the guy in power now is driving us out business-the taxes have become so high I can't afford to be a taxi driver anymore and have to move back home. thaksin was a much better man to have in power, thats why i'm a red shirt. he at least kept things reasonable.' he made being a red shirt sound so rational, it's hard to reconcile his mild mannered comments and recollections of his kids and family back home with the violent attitudes and extremism that is being repressed by the government now in Thailand. Interesting bit of civics for me, that day. Finally we arrived at Sirocco's, the rooftop restuarant on the, ahem, 64th floor of a hotel near the river, complete with nearby Sky Bar. We were all dressed up, and the walk down a curved staircase to the restaurant overlooking the entire city made you feel like royalty! It was simply incredible, the food, the wine, everything. The service was impeccable, unlike anything I've ever encountered, and the food was pretty good as well! We spent 2 hours just dining, talking and enjoying the view, eventually after dinner sidling over to the Sky bar to get a better view towards the river. Time was winding down, however--we had to make it back to the Hyatt in order to savor an experience at the basement floor cigar bar. And enjoy we did, a Macanudo and single-malt scotch whiskey each (i did the Glenlivet, myself) later, it was reveling-in-the-glories-of-our-trip heaven. We were on top of the world!




Well, that was the end of our trip.. the next morning was our flights back to Japan, then off to our own respective countries *tear!* Can't wait to go back to Thailand, but hopefully the country will calm down and recover from the violence and turmoil it's experiencing right now. I echo the words of a Bangkok resident when I say 'Thailand is the land of smiles, and I can't wait for all the turmoil to subside so people can go back to being their happy, laid-back selves.'