Bangkok Day One


I left off on the last blog with Dave upstairs at our Guest House charging a couple of things... well, when I got upstairs he had made friends with a woman across the hall named Carmen. Really nice lady from Germany who had taken a year off from teaching to do some traveling. 50 years old and traveling the world by herself. Impressive. After hanging our for a bit while things charged .... (side note: it just started pissing rain) ... the three of us decided to go visit a temple called Wat Pho which is the home of the huge Reclining Buddha. Quite a large temple complex with smaller temples and places to pray. The roofs of the temple are almost all gold coloured with the entrance archways on each entirely covered with small pieces of mostly gold and multicoloured pieces of glass. Absolutely beautiful. We wandered the grounds for a while taking pictures and then decided to go for a traditional Thai massage. Within the temple grounds itself is an old Thai Massage School where the students give massages to the visitors. The three of us got a 30 minute massage each for 220 baht ($8). Besides the immensely awkward feeling of having a man above me pushing my face into a pillow it was really nice. Painful at points but soothing and I think I'll even steal a few of the techniques for myself.







We left the temple grounds and wandered around a bit, had some great soup from a cart on the side of the road and then headed back towards Kao San Rd. Carmen and I both had books that we wanted to look for so Dave headed for the Guest House while we searched. No luck on the books for us so we headed for the Guest House too. There we found Dave at the computer typing away. While he did that I said goodbye to Carmen for the day and headed to the room for a shower.

On our first full day in Bangkok with the wandering around and sight seeing done we got down to the drinking and carousing part of our stay. We started at a place called the Sawadee Guest House with a few San Miguel's. Ok a lot of San Muguel's. We got rained on once which wasn't so bad and continued to drink and play pool. Eventually we decided that it was time to head to the more seedy part of Bangkok called Patpong. The red light district and all around area of debauchery. Dave and I hopped on a Tuk Tuk and made our way through the city. As soon as we got there it began to rain again and then unfortunately for me I pissed away most of my money on a pair sun glasses. So we got to Patpong, bought sunglasses and then with only a little money left just decided to sit for a beer and listen to a live band. Almost as soon as we got our beers a large black woman decided it was time to strip down to her panties and dance in the rain shaking her breasts at everyone. Once the laughter and the novelty wore off an old guy from the bar we were at came out and chased her off with a sling shot. After a few songs from a band that was pretty damn good we finished our beers and decided to head back to Kao San Rd. We really were on our way out of Patpong when Dave decided he had to take a piss, not a pee but a really bad piss before we left. So with that we made our way into one of the "establishments". The ladies will have to forgive the rest of this but it is typical Patpong. The bar is usually a long stage with stripper poles surrounded by a bar with seats lining the walls on both sides. There are usually about 10 girls up there dancing (kinda) around in bikinis looking bored. While Dave headed for the bathroom I took a seat and ordered myself a beer and tried to explain a Mojito for Dave to the Mama San. Within literally 3 minutes there was two girls from the stage on either side of me. Dave got back from the washroom and although the girls were cute they were young enough to make us feel uncomfortable. When we went into the bar it was with the understanding that we would have a drink so Dave could use the washroom and then back to Kao San. Well the usual way these things work is that if you want girls to sit with you you buy drinks for the girls and they charge an arm and a leg for them. We didn't ask for the girls and we didn't ask for the drinks for them so within a few minutes the girls were there and so were their drinks. Dave and I didn't have enough cash with us for the situation we were now in. We explained to the Mama San but she wasn't happy with us. Dave slammed back his drink, I grabbed my beer, we gave Mama San the money we had minus the Tuk Tuk fee and with a pinch on the ass from one of the girls we headed for the door. An thus ended out first excursion into the infamous Patpong. We hired a Tuk Tuk and made our way back to Kao San where we made a quick stop back at our Guest House to get more money and then headed back out again. By now it was about 2 - 2:30am. At the head of Kao San Rd. is a place called Gulliver Travels. Great place with a Tuk Tuk hanging under the sign and music pounding out the door. We went in got drinks and mingled for awhile before heading upstairs to play some pool. We played for a while but it was not that much fun getting schooled by some Thai girls who had no problem taking our money. This is where I lost Dave for the rest of that night. By 4am the bar was closing and while Dave was chatting up a Thai girl I headed out to the street for some late night Pad Thai from one of the street vendors. Nothing better after a night of drinking. Don't remember a whole lot after that but I did meet an English bloke named Dave and we drank and bullshitted some more while getting foot massages and talking about Hockey. His step mom is Canadian. We went from the foot massages to a 24 hr bar and continues to drink until about 8:30am. He was fighting with his bird and didn't much feel like going back to his room so I left him there with plans to meet up at the Full Moon Party on the 23rd and headed home. I wondered where Dave got too since I had the room key but was too drunk and having too much fun to really give a shit. LOL I figured he would just pass out on one of the beds in the lobby of our Guest House. At least that's what I would have done. Well when I finally stumbled my drunk ass home at 9am he was passed out on his bed with the door open a crack. I closed the door, went to bed and that was the end of our first night in Bangkok.

I'll pick up the story of our second day when I can find the time to get to the computer again. For now the adventure continues...

Oh yeah, we just moved to the Karma Villa resort in preparation for Marcos wedding. It is the nicest place I've ever stayed at... Fucking incredible.
www.karmasamui.com