On the Banks of the River Kwai

As I write this, I have arrived in Kanchanaburi town, which is about two hours out of BKK by bus. Looking forward to touring about tomorrow. I delayed my departure by a couple of days as I have not been feeling that well, and I thought a day or so to rest would be useful, and it was. So here I am, looking forward to getting up to the fabled Three Pagodas Pass in a couple days' time. It looks renting a motorcycle may be the only way to get there. Considering I've never driven a motorcycle in my life, nor have I driven in a country like Thailand where traffic moves on the left, this could be interesting....
Last week I met a friend of some of my friends who has lived in Bangkok for seven years now. We met in the Nana area, which I've talked a bit about in previous posts, to have some Indian food and a few brews. Nana is an intersting little neighborhood, which you can say about a lot of places in BKK, but I would say Nana is above and beyond. As I stated before, it's a hub for sex tourism, with one or two sois lined with brothels and go-go bars. Also, paradoxically, it is home to what may be considered the "Little Arabia" section of our fair city. So you see women in full Burkhas, which are the robes some Muslim women wear that reveal their eyes and nothing else, you see men in full-length white robes with the piece of cloth on their heads and the cord around it, much like you see the royalty of the Gulf States wearing when they're on the news. Meanwhile, they're brushing shoulders with transgendered hookers, sleazy European tourists looking for some "fun," and loads of other tourists, workers, and so on. It's the type of scene you can only see in Bangkok.
Other than that, looking forward to cruising around Kanjanaburi. Hail progress!