Khao San Road

Same Same but Different (part II)

So let’s hope you’ve read part I and I’ll jump right back into part II. We met a couple musicians at a bar with live acts and we were able to find a guitarist and singer who we got to record the following days, so the video and audio material is really coming together.

The floods of course are pretty bad for many of the Bangkok inhabitants and most people have moved their cars and other belongings to higher grounds. This also means that the shoulders of all highways are completely packed with parked cars. Luckily, it seems like the floods are going back a little. Usually you see sand bags and other protective measures, but no water. At least in downtown BKK. And we haven’t had rain in weeks.

Regretfully, we had to spend a couple hours at different police stations, since our main full HD Nikon Camera was stolen from our guest house. We did get CCTV footage of the possible thieves, but there’s no clear evidence, so I guess that was that.

Recording with Manis.
Recording with Manis.

Even though Hannes backs up data about twice daily, we still lost some important footage … but we’re happy nothing else was taken. Luckily we went out and recorded another musician, Manis, just before leaving Bangkok, which let us forget about the whole camera thing for a bit.

Here a nice picture of the Khao San Road, which is THE place to go for shopping, socializing, partying, and of course, music. Well actually, the live music is mainly on a parallel street to this one, the street where we had our hotel room.

Khao San Road
Khao San Road
Just chillin with family and friends of Mr. Phorn (Owner of Boworn Tailor Company)
Just chillin with family and friends of Mr. Phorn (Owner of Boworn Tailor Company)

So being in Bangkok for a while, we became friends with the Tailors who I told you about in the last report. They offered to take us down to Hua Hin (2 hours south of Bangkok), where the boat is located. Of course, we accepted their kind offer, drove down to Hua Hin with them and on the way down stopped at a beach where we hung out with them and their family, ate delicious sea food, and got to go tubing.

Tubing
Tubing

Now back at the boat, we have a lot to do … from scrubbing shells off the boat all the way to sewing some of the sails, repairing the motor, and fixing the autopilot. Not to mention measuring the sails, ordering new sails etc.

The boat itself is fine and we could set sails, however the trip to Cambodia or Vietnam might be a little more comfortable with all these things working properly. So as you can see, the Sailing Conductors have loads to do. Apart from keeping the boat running and recording people, the Conductors also have to edit the material, contact sponsors, reply to emails, organize the trips/harbours, partake in interviews, keep the blog and facebook up to date. Which is all fun but it’s still work. Especially at ~35°C (~95°F) … nobody really wants to work at these temperatures. And communication and finding places can be a little difficult when the taxi driver does not speak a word of english. Even pointing to the right can apparently sometimes be understood as wanting to take a left ;). But hey, it’s cheap!

The biggest difficulty is communicating more sophisticated topics … such as a fuel pump repair on the boat motor. And the constant little fear of getting ripped off as a foreigner. In the sense of paying too much for whatever it is that you’re buying. Which is not too bad but can be a little stressful.

Our beautiful little yellow scooter will help us in running errands, commuting between the harbor and the hardware store etc.

Our little baby. Floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee!
Our little baby. Floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee!

The three of us can easily fit, including a backpack and some shopping and today we saw that it is also possible to fit 4 grown men on one of these! What’s great about traffic here is that nobody cares about rules and laws … they ride however they like. If you want to ride on the wrong side of the street for a while, that’s fine. If you want to pass someone even though you would be heading straight for oncoming traffic … that’s also absolutely fine … oncoming traffic will just move to the shoulder. And nobody honks here. It seems hectic but it’s actually pretty relaxed.

Let's get the sails ordered! Thanks to the kickstarter people!!
Let's get the sails ordered! Thanks to the kickstarter people!!

Since I wrote up this report we actually went back up to Bangkok again to buy a new camera and enjoy the big city life for one more night!

So in summary the past 2 weeks have been a blast for me and I’m excited for the upcoming adventures. Stay tuned …

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