Once more unto the breach

Now Playing: "Night of Wine and Roses" by Japandroids

It's 3:30 a.m. and I can't sleep. I'm sitting in the dark and empty restaurant underneath my hostel, staring out into the street that continues to hum with motorbikes and taxi cabs.

Today was a fitting mix of everything I wanted and didn't want for this trip. I woke early for breakfast and hung around the restaurant for Youngblood to wake up (his name is Alex, but he really likes the nickname). We got moving around 11 a.m. set on seeing what we could of the city. We downed some water and coffee and found a tuk-tuk driver named Moon outside the hostel. He promised us a day's tour for a cheap rate and we hopped in, racing off into the Bangkok morning.

The city was waking as we sped off toward the floating market outside the city. Gradually, the urban landscape faded off to dirt and gravel and townspeople who waved at the sight of us. We parked under a canopy of trees and walked over to the riverside marketplace, teeming and steaming with fried foods, chopped fruits and vegetables, and the murmured shouts of townspeople. The river was full of leaping catfish and slender boats sliced through them, wet tails slapping against the wood. Moon directed us to the boat of a friend of his and the four of us pedaled off through the quiet canals. We passed riverside homes, saw television sets propped up under canopies on the canal's edge. We ate lotus flowers from the water. Mansions stood alongside huts on the canal's edge, but all was beautiful.

We docked after an hour and ate a fried egg, shrimp, and bean sprout meal in the market. We walked through the shops, saw local children feeding long strands of grass to buffalo, saw dogs running through the aisles, and saw a very obese cat being gently fanned by his owner as he sat atop a pile of linens.

We drove onward, off to Wat Pho, the home of the reclining Buddha statue, and walked among the temple grounds for a good deal of time. I paid 20 baht for a handful of coins and dropped one in each of a long line of buckets along the Buddha's rear side, each clink of brass bringing a sense of ease and relaxation.

We drove on to a few more wats until it was late afternoon and Moon dropped us off at our hostel. After a bit of rest, we ate at a local shop and took a tuk-tuk to China Town, just to walk among the local side streets and take in the sounds and smells.

We returned to Khao San Road after about an hour and wandered to an outdoor bar for a few drinks. Youngblood (let's call him Alex from now on) was quiet, and as he stared off in a blank gaze I remembered what a confusing time it was to be 18 and in a strange place. For me, it was Baltimore. I couldn't imagine what was going through his mind and didn't get the chance as he left shortly to return to the hostel and call his parents.

I chatted up a group of three Irish girls for about an hour before he returned in better spirits and we made an evening of it. The five of us all drank too much and lost ourselves in the touristy mayhem of Khao San Road for a night, and although it was fun, it was a type of fun I could have found many other places in the world. We listened to bad acoustic guitar in the street. We made up backstories for the more creepy tourists we saw passing by. I lost a game of thumb war to a seven-year old Thai child and was forced to buy five roses which one of the girls fixed in her hair. It made me ready to leave Bangkok and eager to make the trip to Chiang Mai (which I guess begins in a mere seven hours).

It was a fun night, but it wasn't why I came here. I'm hoping to find something more meaningful than a party, and from all I've read of Chiang Mai, I might find it there.