Bangkok IX

It's my second last day in Bangkok. Up until today, what touristy activities so common on the Bangkok tourist's checklist have I crossed on this trip? To the me from neighbouring Malaysia, I don't see the need to dress in a singlet and loose elephant-print trousers when I come to Thailand. But, I have of course gone to markets, and massage parlours.

People might say that Thailand is cheap, but with the economy as it is, Malaysia is in actuality cheaper than Thailand now. While they celebrate this haven for shoppers with its tempting prices, they leave out the fact that Bangkok is a city where one will undoubtedly overspend. I see myself holding a papercup, squatting by the street in disheveled hair and smelling of piss.

Indeed, the only touristy activity I've busied myself with in these 3 days is overspending. Just now, I bought some soap at Terminal 21 from a cute Thai man more perfect than the member of a K-pop group. Whenever I scrub my dead skin, I shall nourish the lather with the tears I shed for my fate that has been written without pretty boys. Perhaps when the matchmaking diety was scripting my path of love, pretty boys had not yet existed.

As a boring person whose only excitement stem from unrequited love, my day alone was spent browsing the shelves of secondhand book stores and reading Korean Manhwa while waiting for the rain to quiet down.

Bangkok is a cauldron of melted culture. There are street vendors, and hipster cafés, exuberant malls and dirt cheap markets, but the one place where all traces of identity are wiped clean is a secondhand bookstore. The doors aren't just ordinary doors, but ones to a different dimension.

English books, Japanese books, German books, French books, Scandinavian books...!? With English songs playing on the speakers, I had to wonder if I was really still in Bangkok. The traffic outside remain unchanged, and the honks indicated reality.

If like me, you are a worm, intolerable and likes to be holded up, I suggest you visit Dasa Book Café when you're in Bangkok. The closest BTS station is Phromg Phong, but Google Maps will lead you straight to it. An old wonder of creaking floorboards and 3 floors worth of books, one can easily spend half a day there. To complement the cozy experience, they serve coffee and tea, since they are after all a café. The third floor, which holds the foreign and horror sections, is painted purple, and the most quiet floor with the least visitors.

For Japanese books, go to Sun Books. It's unassuming entrance made me walk past it, but I reconsidered and turned back. This was one of my best decisions since coming to Bangkok, as I found several Ogawa Yoko novels. For those of you who don't know, Ogawa is the first Japanese author whose book I came across, and who opened up the world of Japanese literature to me.

A quiet day well spent, I am now back under the blankets; content, but starving.