So where was I? Oh, Bangkok. OHHHHHH, Bangkok.
Just after I got settled into my dorm room I went out for dinner with a couple of the girls staying with me. One English girl just out of uni and loving the world and another English girl who works all over the world with limosine services or something also loving the world. We ate at Cabbages and Condoms. This is a really good restaurant for food quality and atmosphere actually and part of its proceeds go towards sex education especially in more remote areas of Thailand. They have a gift shop with all sorts of fun t-shirts and postcards as well as nice handicraft tourist things. There were mannequins whose attire was made entirely of multicoloured condoms and contraceptive pills. They give you a condom in lieu of an after dinner mint.
So then we went to Khao San Rd. Yep.
Alright alright, Khao San road is a sort of infamous backbacker party area. It's excellent for people watching. You may find vendors of fried insects, Ko Pha Ngan full moon party t-shirts, people to dread or braid your hair, tons of clothes and DVDs and knicknacks and what have you. There was a man with a young crazed-eyed elephant and his shtick is that you pay for some food to feed the elephant. Something completely fucked about this elephant in the middle of Bangkok like that. I saw another one on Silom Rd. You'll also find touts to take you to a ping pong show, usually in the Patpong area.
So we went to a ping pong show. Um, maybe you should just look that one up. What happens is they don't charge cover but you have to buy an outrageously expensive drink. We understood this but had been quoted a different price by our tout than the matron wanted. She got quite upset. We left after having paid the price we were originally told though. I don't think I'd encourage anyone to go see one of these shows. I didn't exactly know what I was getting into. Live and learn.
Patpong and Silom Rd. were interesting areas for observing the sex trade in action. You have your ping pong shows but also live sex shows and bars geared towards selling the girls or boys. I read a memoire called "Bangkok Boy" and really got the nitty gritty details. Just incredible.
I can't remember all the order of everything for the rest of the time I was there. I spent 5 days or so. I didn't get to Katchanaburi (Kwai River and all that) just because it was inconvenient from where I was staying. I did do a day trip to Ayutthaya, though. This was a former royal capital, 1351 to 1767. The Burmese invaded on several occasions and fianlly dismantled the city. The new (the present) Thai dynasty was later established at Thonburi/Bangkok. So Ayutthaya in a UNESCO World Heritage site. It has some ruined temples and bits of wall and palace. You know I love that stuff. A lot of it has been stuck together again with kind of unsightly concrete or something. The overall effect is lovely though.
The train up to Ayutthaya is 3rd class. Hard benches, open windows, ceiling fans, people in every square inch of space sitting, standing, squatting, hanging out the open train doors. Food and drink vendors squeezing along the aisles yelling out what they have. A real milk run.
I took the river taxi half often. It's so much nicer than sucking in retarded amounts of exhaust at face-level in a tuk-tuk. A tuk-tuk is a motorbike rigged with a place for passengers at the back. Even though there's a roof (which usually impedes your view) it's open to all the city's elements. The river taxi is cheaper, too. And you don't have to haggle. (200 baht! Oh it's very far! I went there for 80 last night! 100. Ugh, fine.)
My first day of proper site-seeing I met a nice handsome Danish guy, Klaus Andersen (oh yes, how Danish!) at the pier. We went around the Royal Palace and it's adjoining temple. You've heard about the King of Thailand? How he's pretty much venerated more than the Buddha? I had to rent a sarong to go around the palace because my three-quarter pants weren't decent enough. More like a hobble skirt. And yet never in mosques in Malaysia or Singapore was I asked to change my attire (I did have the sense to wear long-sleeves though...even in the Bangkok Palace too!). The palaces and temples of Bangkok are outta control! So much colour and glitter and mirrors and embellishments. It's really amazing to look at and be around, just mind-boggling. In one temple, Wat Pho, they have a HUGE reclining bronze Buddha: 46 meters long and 15 meters high.
Klaus travels differently than I do. He stays in nicer hotels, won't eat stall food. But we had a good chat about European and dogme films (kudos to Matt Sheedy for my education). We went to a nice jazz bar too, with Platoon playing on silently behind the bar. I've never heard Ella Fiztgerald kinda singing emenating from an Asian face. She was excellent.
There's a lot I didn't see and do in Bangkok. I'd visit again for sure. But what a job it does on you lungs! When you hear about Bangkok traffic being outrageous, it's true. It really is the cock of the block, though. I'm a long way from Bangkok physically and emotionally. I'm writing this bit from Luang Prabang, Laos.
More to come eventually!
