Conclusion in Bangkok

I still had a few days left in Bangkok. After the Royal Palace and the ping pong shows, I wasn’t sure exactly what there was left for me to do. Like I do in most cities when I visit, I could walk around a lot, and I did, and stop in little restaurants for local food and beer, and I did, but I wasn’t sure if there was anything else that I wanted to see.

A friend from the tour wanted to go see some Thai boxing, which is always a draw for tourists in Bangkok. It didn’t work out, though, because the only day we could end up doing it was Saturday night and by the time we touched base, the show had already started. That and the cost involved with getting a ticket prevented me from going.

On Friday, I did go to the Victory Monument. It sounded like a cool thing to see in Bangkok, and I guess it was, but there wasn’t much to it. I took some pictures and strolled around the neighborhood for a while, but I wasn’t really enthralled by this particular area. Later, I jumped back on the sky train – the Bangkok Sky Train is quick and easy to use, by the way – and went to some other neighborhoods. Ultimately, I found a little restaurant and had some chicken with dried chilis and cashew nuts and called it a night.

On Saturday, I went to the only other Bangkok sight of which I was aware that didn’t require me to go down the muddy river. (There are many temples and Buddhas and stuff on down the river to see if you like, but I was a little templed out at this point and didn’t feel the inclination to take a day trip to see more temples.) That sight was the Chatuchak Weekend Market. With over 15,000 stalls, this market is touted as the world’s largest market of its kind. I’ve seen a lot of markets in southeast Asia and I’m inclined to believe it. They say that no matter what you’re looking for, you can find it at Chatuchak, including endangered species of animals, but it turned out that finding a shot glass for my sister was damn near impossible. I did buy some knickknacks and some t-shirts and stuff at the market. It was a little more expensive than the Russian Market in Phnom Penh, but still more than reasonable. I also got some food from one of the hawker stations at the market. It’s hard to beat fresh, authentic Thai food.

The big event for me on Sunday was meeting up with an old friend of mine and his wife who were arriving on my last full day in Bangkok. They arrived pretty late and were surprisingly difficult to find after arrival considering they were staying in the hotel next door to mine, but eventually we were able to get together. We walked around the neighborhood for a little while and then stopped off at a little outdoor street bar for a few local beers. They had come from India and, as it turned out, the talk in India was about ping pong shows just as it had been for me in Vietnam. Since we were close by to Soi Cowboy, and even though I was pretty sure I had had my fill of the ping pong show entertainment, we went back to the bar I had visited a few days earlier so they could get the full Bangkok experience. I had a great time and it was fantastic to meet up with friends in a far-off, exotic location. I had an afternoon flight to Malaysia the next day, so it wasn’t too late a night and that pretty much concluded my visit to Bangkok. We’ll be back with more Asia in the next entry.

Putting the Bang in Bangkok

Ever since we were in China, there was talk of the ping pong shows in Thailand. Once we got to Vietnam, and the new group started with us in Hanoi, the talk of the shows started to escalate; and when we discovered that the end of the tour occurred on Thanksgiving Day in the United States, we determined to celebrate the holiday in traditional Thai fashion – by going to a ping pong show. Okay, technically, that’s not how American Thanksgiving is traditionally celebrated in Thailand yet, but we decided to start a new tradition.

I noticed on the internet that Soi Cowboy was close to my new hotel. Soi Cowboy is a red-light district in Bangkok known for its bars and strip clubs. Since it was close by, I was meeting my friends at my hotel for the Thanksgiving festivities. While I waited, I went by and scouted out Soi Cowboy. When I returned to my hotel, my friends had just arrived. They asked what Soi Cowboy looked like. Two words – Slut Vegas.

Soi Cowboy was just a few blocks away. When you walk down a large side street from the main road, you continue about two blocks when, to the right of Soi 21, you see a festival of neon lights belonging to strip clubs and bars all up and down Soi Cowboy. Soi Cowboy isn’t very long, maybe half a kilometer, but there isn’t a centimeter on either side of the street that isn’t used for quality Thai entertainment.

Our group began by walking down the street and absorbing the atmosphere. As we walked by, we were solicited by scantily clad, let’s call them dancers, at virtually every club extolling the virtues of their respective clubs. We soaked in the culture until we reached the very end of Soi Cowboy. At that end, there was an Irish pub and we decided to stop for a few beers before continuing on to the performances.

After a few drinks, we returned to Soi Cowboy where we went looking for a ping pong show. Now, Soi Cowboy isn’t really the home of ping pong shows in Bangkok – that would probably be Patpong – but we figured we’d be able to find one.

We stopped in a few places after asking if there would be ping pong shows inside. After being assured that we could find one, we entered into these places only to find that there was no place for the five of us to sit once we entered because they were all pretty full. Finally, we reached a place – I forget its name but it’s something like Long Gun – that had seats at the dance floor for all five of us. After some basic strip club preliminaries, we were privileged to witness the main attraction. I won’t go into great detail, this is a family blog after all, but we witnessed smoking, the playing of a recorder, the blowing up of balloons with a dart gun, and yes, the moving of ping pong balls into a beer glass all performed by a very talented woman who was able to perform these feats in a non-traditional manner – at least a non-traditional manner outside of Bangkok. I’m not sure if the show quite lived up to expectations, but I think that we were all glad we went because it would have been a shame to visit Bangkok and not see one of its main claims to fame.

At the end of the show, we went back to my hotel and all said our goodbyes. As it turned out, this was the last time that I saw anybody from the group and it turned out to be the last unofficial group event. I have to say that it was fun while it lasted. From here on out, I was running solo, though there would be plenty of opportunities to see old friends.

Leaving the Group in Bangkok

We had to check out of our hotel by noon and this would officially close out my fifty-six days of group travel, which started out unfavorably but eventually turned out to be the most fun I’ve ever had traveling with a group. I still had another four days in Bangkok and I was switching to another hotel. Many others were also staying around for a few days, so the group adventure wasn’t quite over yet.

A few in our group were remaining in the same hotel, so when I checked out, I just left my bags in another person’s room and, since I had a couple of hours to kill until I could check into my new hotel, I went sightseeing with a few others.

We hopped into a tuk-tuk and took the 20-minute drive over to the Royal Palace and Pagoda of the Emerald Buddha. The complex was beautiful, with many of the buildings painted in gold (I assume it was gold paint) and included several murals conveying stories of Thai legend. The most impressive part had to be the Pagoda of the Emerald Buddha, although I think the Buddha actually was made of jade. I assume that a lot of the gold within this particular building actually was gold, but we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside so you’ll have to go on your own time and judge for yourself. Or read a book; I guess one of those could tell you too.

After the Royal Palace, we stopped off at an Au Bon Pain across the street for a chocolaty-icy drink and then we hopped in another tuk-tuk to the hotel. I had the tuk-tuk wait for me while I got my stuff, because the first hotel was nearly five kilometers from either the subway or the sky-train, and I took the tuk-tuk to my new hotel. Thanks to ungodly traffic, the trip took nearly an hour.

My new hotel was the Kingston Suites Hotel. Let me digress and say a few words about this hotel. I loved it. I really loved it. The room was huge, with a king-size bed. The television was a 32-inch plasma deal. The bathroom was ginormous and had the best shower ever, with a shower head the size of the full moon raining down hot water with the water pressure of Niagara Falls. Breakfast was free and it was one of the best hotel breakfast buffets I’ve ever experienced, complete with an omelet bar and, yes, real bacon. The location was fantastic, less than a five-minute walk to both the subway and sky train, near a ton of restaurants and close to a few famous Thai red-light districts; you know, interesting from a cultural perspective. Okay, that’s enough about my hotel.

I was supposed to meet people from my group for dinner and some traditional Thai entertainment. Wires were crossed, though, and dinner ended up being close to my original hotel, so I ended up eating at McDonald’s while the others ate and waited for those who were interested in the entertainment portion of the evening to come to my neighborhood. For the record, I had a Samurai Pork Burger at McDonald’s because I didn’t think I’d ever have another chance to have a Samurai Pork Burger at McDonald’s. I think I made the right choice.

My friends showed up and we went looking for Thai entertainment. We found it. I guess that will be the tease until the next entry.

One Night in Bangkok

The next day was our final full day as a group. It started with us getting up early and jumping on a bus out of Siem Reap to the border town in which we were crossing from Cambodia into Thailand. I don’t recall the name of the border town, but it looked like pretty much every other border town as far as I could tell, with some casinos on the Cambodia side, just like when we entered Cambodia from Vietnam.

The crossing seemed to be a little more hectic than usual, especially on the Cambodian side, but after all this time, I’ve seen worse so it didn’t bother me too much. After getting through, we hopped onto a different private bus for the four-or-so hour drive to Bangkok. At least in this second bus, we had a DVD player and a television. To celebrate, I whipped out the Big Bang Theory DVDs that I had purchased in Phnom Penh and we were treated to a Sheldon Marathon for the entire length of the trip. I was even able to learn about Thai culture while watching one of the episodes. Is there any problem that a sitcom can’t solve?

By the time we arrived in Bangkok, it was starting to get late, or at least dark. We threw our things down and went out to get some dinner. On the menu at our restaurant, there was fried ostrich on the menu. I hadn’t had ostrich since my local Fuddruckers stopped selling it, so I indulged. It was good, but nothing special. (By the way, I have no more relevant pictures of the evening, so I'm just starting to post random photos from my first day in Thailand.)

After dinner, everybody went out for drinks since it was our final night together. Unfortunately, somebody decided that we should go to an Irish pub. I don’t particularly like Irish pubs. I stayed around for a beer, but then went Darkman and escaped back to the hotel.

I was able to go to sleep pretty quickly but not long as I woke up for some reason around 1:00 am. Shortly afterwards, my roommate showed up rather intoxicated. Okay, he was very fucking drunk. He wasn’t sure how he had gotten back to the hotel. A few minutes after he arrived, he said he had to spew and walked to the closet. Fortunately for everyone, once he opened the closet door, he realized it wasn’t the bathroom and asked for directions to the proper spewing room. I pointed him in the right direction and about five minutes later he was back in bed, passed out and snoring like the proverbial rusty chain saw. Good times, good times.

The next morning, I was feeling pretty good. Obviously, that wasn’t the case with all of the revelers, so I got up early and started walking around the part of Bangkok in which our hotel was located. It was near the river and wasn’t the most interesting part of town, but there was a little restaurant that was a few doors down from the hotel that served an American breakfast. (Breakfast being the one meal of the day in which I usually go western. Usually.)

The high point of the breakfast was the bacon. Now, everywhere in the world that I’ve travelled generally has something that they call “bacon.” Almost always, it’s some form or cut of ham that no self-respecting American would ever call bacon. The bacon in this restaurant, however, was the real deal. I decided, as soon as I took my first bite, that I was going to enjoy Bangkok.