Touristy Bangkok - Day 1
I woke up early in the afternoon and gradually stumbled across to a pharmacy to try and sort out my predicament. I came back to the hotel and took the motion sickness tablets as well as the stuff for my tummy and went back to bed. I woke up a couple of hours later feeling much better. I decided to be brave and eat my first meal of the day. I setlled on a local restuarant close to the hotel. While eating there I looked up to see Lance being driven around in a car - obviously by Tai's mum and the expression on his face was that of a man trapped. It was an amusing but surreal moment. After finishing lunch, I walked back to the hotel and bumped into Lance's girlfriend in the hotel lobby and I liked her as she seemed to be pretty down to earth.Later I asked Lance about his facial expression in the car and he was surprised that I picked it up. He went onto explain the clash of cultures (and generations) which arose from Lance holding Tai's hand in front of her mother. The whole thing got resolved in the car later on where there were apologies all around but it just shows how different people and culture really are. East will always be different to West - no matter how hard people try to merge the 2 worlds.
In the evening it was our first team meeting for the intrepid journey that I was doing in Thailand and it was exciting meeting new people that I would be spending the next week with. There are 8 of us in the group - 6 of them from UK - Dan, Alan, Joy, Kelly and the old couple - John & Sylvia while Amanda {from Canada} and me {from NZ} were the 2 who weren't from the UK. After the introductions - all of us went our seperate ways since it was our free evening.
I went to Khao San road with Lance. Khao San road is very touristy and it is full of road side stalls and pubs and eating joints and hotels while being over run by foreigners. It is surreal because it almost feels like you could be anywhere in the world but Thailand. We sat down and took it all in - the smells, the vibrancy, the people, the tuk-tuk drivers wanting to take you to sex massage places or ping-pong shows. All of it had a huge impact on Lance since he decided to take up a room in one of the hotels on Khao San road.
Khao San Road
Patapong Night Market
After spending some time there, we decided to go to Patapong night market and it turned out to be an interesting experience. We kept getting hassled by loads of guys to check out the sex shows or ping pong shows and no matter how much you refused they still wouldn't take no for an answer. Technically prostitution is illegal in Thailand but that doesn't stop anyone from selling those services - right from tuk-tuk drivers to taxi drivers to all kinds of middle men wanting to earn commission from one of the those places by delivering you to one of the many massage places or ping pong shows. The whole vibe of selling the flesh trade so blatantly was sickening to say the least, so Lance and me stepped away from it all and decided to grab a bite to eat. We ended up in a local KFC joint and had to try the local fried chicken. I have to say KFC in Thailand tastes way better than the KFC in NZ and to top it off their menu has also has items like rice and noodles to go along with the usual items.
After dinner curiosity got the better of us and we decided to check out a ping pong show - more so because our french/thai flatmates had told us that we had to check it out if we were in Bangkok. It turned out to be a bad decision as both of us got ripped off to the tune of a 1000 baht each - converting that into NZ dollars it only amounts to about $50, so it wasn't too bad monetarily.What was bad was the feeling of being cheated. The way the scam works is that the guys on the street (or the tuk-tuk drivers) lure you into the bar by saying that it only costs 100 baht. Once you get into the place, their job is done. The house manager then comes to you and gets you to buy a drink and then leaves you to watch the show for maybe 10 minutes before returning to demand something exhorbitant like 3000 baht or something. When you protest and tell them that was not what the guy downstairs told you - they just try to verbally bully you and also bring out their own rate cards with different prices written on it. If you are brave enough and hassle them back for 5 minutes or so the price comes down a tad and at that point the best option is to pay that amount and leave. It is not worth getting into unnecessary trouble for that small an amount. As for the show itself - the first 2 minutes or so are mildly amusing but after that it is just plain disgusting - more so because people smoke in the enclosed space. Anyway - as Lance and me walked out of the place - a portugese couple who had seen the whole incident followed us out and apparently they went through the same thing but not for as much amount. So that's a lesson learnt and shared.
The incident left a little bit of sour taste in our mouths and the plan was to just return to our hotel and see if we were still in a mood to go out to the bar. As soon as we got into a tuk-tuk we started an un-intentional race with a couple in another tuk-tuk. So there we were in 2 tuk-tuks that were screaming through the maddening Bangkok traffic trying to win the race while holding onto our dear lives. The race was thrilling and not a bad one to loose. It turned out that the couple were from the UK and they enjoyed the impromptu race as much as we did. The whole thing put us into a better frame of mind and we decided to go back to last night's bar.
The regulars were hanging out at the bar and I was surprised that Tuan was pleased to see us back there. She stayed with us through the night and we had a really good chat. The night at the bar started off uncomfortably as there was this random guy who was continuously staring at Tuan – he seemed stoned and drunk and was giving out a very weird vibe. It took a good hour before the guy decided to leave the bar and as soon as he left we cracked up laughing on how weird he was behaving. As the night progressed Tuan and me really hit it off and she even promised to come to a movie with Lance and me and also have lunch the next day with us. Lance took her number and email and then promptly passed it onto me. So we left the bar around 4 AM and needless to say I was excited and happy and went to bed on an emotional high. I was too exhausted to dream about the whole thing. Now eagerly waiting for tomorrow.
Amit
posted by Amit @ 3:30 PM
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