I had to leave Tomi’s house today as he would be having a friend over, but he agreed to let me keep my backpack at his house during the day while I roamed the city. No points for guessing that the first thing I did was to go the closest mall to look for some free wifi. The mall was called Times Square and I hit pay dirt over there right away as it had a stable connection with really amazing speed. I decided to make the most of it by staying there for a long time and finishing most of my online work. A brown guy sitting on a bench with a laptop for so long must have looked very suspicious, because soon there appeared a security guy walking around my bench trying hard to get a look into my screen to see what I was up to. I pretended not to notice him and went about my business. Without having any valid reason to question me, he gave up after a while and walked away.

Times Square mall - great internet connection, but otherwise utterly average

From there, I went looking for the Mexican embassy, which I found rather easily. Having travelled around Bangkok these past few days, I have become quite an expert at getting around the city using the BTS (skytrain) and the MRT (subway). But there was disappointment in store for me at the embassy. The consulate officer took my passport and visa application and disappeared inside. When she returned, she told me that since I was just a tourist, she couldn’t accept my visa application. She told me that I needed to apply for a visa to Mexico in my home country itself, and there was nothing more she could help me with. I’m considering trying again at the Mexican embassies in Vietnam or perhaps the US, but frankly, in my heart I have the feeling that I’m not going to Mexico anytime soon :(

The colourful taxis add a lot of vibrance to the Bangkok traffic

Metro stations are deep underground, which means long escalator rides

Accidentally falling onto the tracks is out of the question as the doors open only when a metro arrives.
Also note the helpful yellow arrows

With nothing else to do, I walked the streets randomly and came across a market filled with locals. I went inside to try my luck finding a comb. People in the market couldn’t understand a word of what I was saying, but I managed to mime what I wanted, and successfully procured a nice little comb for myself.

At the market there was a lady selling fried fish, which she had packed neatly in groups of four. She held up 5 fingers when I asked the price of one of the packets. I couldn’t believe my luck. I was getting 4 fried fish for 5 Baht… incredible, right?

Wrong.

When I took the packet and gave her 5 Baht, she looked at me as if she was looking at a lunatic. It didn’t take me too long to figure out that each of her fingers stood for 10 bahts, and it took me even lesser time to drop the fish and get the hell out of there.

Right now, I’m sitting at one of the “posher” eating joints in town, contemplating my next move. Now that I’ve hit a blank wall with the visa process, there’s no point in me spending any more time in Bangkok. I’m going to look for another host for tonight, and if I’m unable to find anybody, I’m going to just make my way towards Cambodia right away.

All my belongings during my trip have to fit into those two bags