The Rationalist Manifesto

After a very difficult and emotional farewell at the airport, we boarded flight LY081 from Tel Aviv to Bangkok. After a long night for Shelly and a sleepy one for me (as usual on flights) we landed in Suvarnabhumi Airport around 2pm local time. The baggage claim and passport control process were very easy and much more welcoming than in Israel.

We took a metered taxi to Khaosan road, which is the center for backpackers in Bangkok, on the way there Bangkok managed to surprise me, as I expected a 3rd world city and instead encountered one which at least in the modern parts is much more organized and well managed than Tel Aviv. The roads are bigger and more modern, cars on them are new and only the public buses reveal to the observer that this is not a western city. Even the traffic lights have countdown displays that let you know how long before the next light change.
After settling in at the D&D Inn guest-house as recommended by Yossi, Shelly went to rest her weary body for an hour and I started to tour around the Khaosan area. The first thing that amused me is that it was similar the boardwalks in Sinai except modern and hyper-accelerated to super-speed. Everything is for sale, and you’ll have to bargain if you want the respect of the locals. I tried some 20 Baht (~2 NIS) Patai noodles and they were nice.

When Shelly woke up we went touring again and had a great Coconut Shake. It was quite good — the tropical fruit here are delicious. Other things we did today — dinner at a seafood restaurant near the Sea Food Market which was really good, a ’sex show’ at the Phat Pong area which was more a freak show with boobs and a ride on a giant ferris wheel that looms over Bangkok.

On the way back we had a bad experience with a taxi driver which had no idea where he was, where he needed to go to, spoke no English and drove us around Bangkok for three quarters of an hour for no good reason before we finally gave up and had him stop. Luckily (!) it was a five minute walk from our guest house.

The bottom line is that we’re exhausted but we had a lot of fun on the first half-day of travel. More to come…

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