All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

I arrived in Bangkok about 5 hours before Tyler and Glen would. After checking in at the hostel, I went out to get a bite to eat (I had, after all, been travelling for about 19 hours). As I wandered around the streets next to my hostel, a scene from Blade Runner unfolded. Street vendors and hookers lined the road, all but blocking the various shops that were lit in gaudy neon lights as high as I could strain my neck. About three stories up, the metro roared by, temporarily drowning out the constant hustling on ground level. A consistent wave of "hello friend, you need belt?" or "i give you good bargain" was almost too cliche for me. One very ambitious lady of the night was so bold as to even attack me when I rejected her offer to go into a club (surprisingly, that's the first time I've ever been slapped by a prostitute). Here's a pretty close depiction to what happened (I'm, of course, Harrison Ford, and the prostitute may or may not have been a man, I really don't know...)

After that, I ate some tasty street soup, and went back to the hostel to wait for Tyler and Glen to get there/cry in the shower.