Business Class to Kuala Lumpur

On Monday, it was time for me to finally get out of town. My flight wasn’t until 4:20 pm, so I had time to enjoy another wonderful buffet breakfast in my hotel in Bangkok and to walk around the city for some last minute Thai food and atmosphere.

Around noon, I checked out of my hotel and hopped in a cab to the airport. This was the first time that I had flown from one foreign airport to another, not counting connection flights, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. I was flying Lufthansa Airlines, which also was new to me. I got to the airport early and the Lufthansa station wasn’t set up yet, so I sat around in the back and waited. When it did get set up, it was completely chaotic, not exactly what I was expecting from a German airline, and I got in line at the back of something that appeared to be a line to one of the agents. After about two minutes of standing there, I was pulled out of line by an airline employee who told me that I could move to a different line, which only had two people in it. Beautiful. And it turned out that it was the business class line and when I got to the counter, I was upgraded to business class. Beautiful. It was only a two-hour flight, but I still enjoyed it. It was kind of odd being an American on a flight from Thailand to Malaysia and being spoken to by the flight attendants in German, but, you know, whatever.

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur at around nine and hopped on the train that leads from the airport to the main train station in the city. That took a little under a half hour and from there I took a cab to my hotel. I walked around the area a bit and got some dinner at an Italian restaurant next to the hotel and called it a night.

I only had two full days in Kuala Lumpur and the only thing I knew that I wanted to do was to go up the Petronas Towers and the KL Tower. I was told that the trip up the KL Tower was better, but I’ve been a fan of the Petronas Towers for a decade and really wanted to do that trip, so that was what took up most of my first day.

To go up the Petronas Towers, you need to get in line early in the morning to get tickets. They start selling tickets at around 9:00 am and I arrived at the towers at 8:20 am. It was good that I arrived when I did because by 8:40 am, they had stopped letting people in line because they had already reached capacity. I didn’t get my ticket until around 10:30 am, so it was a long time in line, and when I did I had a choice for the 3RM ticket to the sky bridge or the 30RM (about US$10) for the trip to the sky bridge on the 41^st floor and the observation deck on the 86^th floor. (I also had an option of paying about 300RM for a trip to the sky bridge, the observation deck, and dinner on the 87^th floor, but I wasn’t paying an extra US$90 for dinner, especially in a town as cheap as Kuala Lumpur.) My ticket didn’t allow me entry until 5:00 pm, so I still had some time to kill in KL We’ll get to that and the trip to the top of the world in the next entry.

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.

Cooking in Cambodia

We still had another full day in Siem Reap, which was really our last free day together as a group. Most of us had been travelling together since Hanoi, three weeks earlier, and the end was near.

I got up around nine o’clock and my roommate told me that the cooking class had been moved up from eleven to ten o’clock. This left me time to either shower or get some breakfast. I went with the breakfast option because coffee sounded like it would cause me more good than the smells emanating from me would cause harm. I think I made the right decision.

All of us who were taking the cooking class, seven in all, gradually found each other in a restaurant across the street from where the cooking class was taking place. The meal was okay and the coffee was sufficient. We wandered across the street to the restaurant in which the class was taking place and we were handed menus. We were instructed to pick an appetizer and a main course in which to cook. Going along with what had been working for me in Cambodia thus far, I went with fresh shrimp spring rolls and fish amok.

Like the other cooking classes that I took in Asia, there was a lot of chopping. I’m starting to get the hang of it, though I can’t cut a tomato into a rose to save my life. We rolled up the spring rolls, made the sauce, and then it was time for the main courses. As I mentioned, mine was the fish amok. Unlike the class in Vietnam, we actually got to cook our meals in this class. The hot plates came out and we went to work.

When I took the cooking class in China, the meal I had was one of the better meals that I had the entire time I was in China. I’m sure that was due in large part to the ingredients and my instructor. I can’t say that this was the case in Cambodia. I’ll put all of the blame on myself, but I can easily say that I had had much better fish amok during my time in Cambodia. The spring rolls were good, though. And the dessert – sticky rice with coconut and mango – kicked some serious butt. I still don’t have the recipes for what I cooked, but they are supposed to be e-mailed to me. At this point, I’m doubting if that will happen.

After class, I returned to my hotel room and this time I think I actually got to take a little nap. Afterwards, I went walking around the small, touristy town for a final look. I went to the local market, but I had bought pretty much all of the Cambodian souvenirs that I wanted at the Russian Market in Phnom Penh, so I didn’t get anything.

At night, we had time for one final meal in Cambodia. Coming to the realization that if I chose Cambodian food for my final meal, I likely was going to get something that I had already tried at this point, I joined some friends at a Mexican restaurant for some chimichangas and margaritas. It wasn’t the best Mexican food I had ever had, but it was the first I had eaten in quite a while, and it was good enough for me.

It turned out to be an early night because some of us were still a little hungover and we had an early-morning bus – our last one for the trip – to Bangkok in the morning. We’ll turn to the commute in the next entry.

Absinthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

Well, we returned to Siem Reap after a long day at Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom and the other temples and it was still only around four in the afternoon. The next day was fairly open until a cooking class at around ten o’clock, so the plan was to take a little nap and then go out and have a night on the town.

Unfortunately, the nap part didn’t work out. I tried and tried but sleep didn’t come. For the most part I just laid in the semi-dark and/or watched television while my roommate was on the computer. Obviously, this was going to make the night out on the town a little more difficult, but it couldn’t be avoided.

At dinnertime, we met to go to a restaurant/bar called the Temple Club. One of the draws of the place was a local dance show that would be performed while we ate. The other draw is that if you drank a bucket of some mixed drink, you were awarded a t-shirt. As it turned out, the show wasn’t particularly entertaining and the t-shirt was a little bit too small, but the bucket of vodka and red bull was just what the doctor ordered. (Coincidentally, it also was just what I ordered.)

After dinner, and feeling pretty good at this point, we went across the street to another bar. This other bar was called Angkor What? and also gave away t-shirts with buckets of drinks. Unwilling to drink another bucket, I opted to purchase of t-shirt from this establishment for $5, but at least this one fit. Even though I wasn’t prepared to drink another bucket of liquor, I wasn’t quite finished drinking yet. I ordered a beer and then another beer and then it seemed like a good idea to do a shot of absinthe. I had never had the legendary liquor before and now, with friends and already drunk, it seemed like a good time to experiment with the Green Fairy. It didn’t taste all that good, but it wasn’t too bad either. It warmed me up a little bit and made the beer taste better. Now that we were getting good and, let’s say comfortable, my friends wanted to do a shot of Jager. I wasn’t in the mood for Jager, I’ve never been a big fan, so I opted for another shot of absinthe. I distinctly remember this shot of absinthe because I also distinctly remember being in the bathroom about 45-seconds later vomiting it into a urinal. Good times, good times.

Having recognized that I had been beaten, I decided to walk back to the hotel. It was only a few blocks across the river and I figured I was in decent enough shape to get back on my own. I was right. Thanks to all of the Red Bull, though, sleep didn’t come immediately. That might have been good because I got a text from my roommate that he was lost. He followed that up with a message saying that he didn’t know idea where he was – okay, that was pretty close to the first one. I tried to give directions, but since he didn’t know where he was, they weren’t very helpful. I then received a text message saying, and I quote, “I’m near the river and the prostitutes are after me.” I received no other texts from him, but he was back in the room within ten minutes, so I am pretty certain that he escaped the prostitutes unscathed.

After he returned, others also returned to the hotel and I suppose we were a little loud because there were a few half-hearted complaints in the morning, but nothing too big and it was all good fun. The next day was the aforementioned cooking class and I’ll get to that in the next post.