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Published: January 7th 2006
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On the longboat round town
Cindy and Alex and Alex's Mum and Dad at the back. Well glad I went on this trip, it was quality and I never would've thought of doing it myself to be honest Exactly how Lonely Planet puts it and to be fair it's absolutely bang on with that! Anyway, on the plane over I met a sound Aussie lad called Erik who's working in Hong Kong teaching English and had a few days off so fancied a trip down to Thailand for a change. Was chatting on to him on the plane then we wandered round the airport trying to sort our visa's but us being dozy gits, we went and queued in the bit for Eastern European and Middle Eastern people to get a visa which wasted over an hour whereas we could've just wandered straight through the main bloody gate - doh! Luckily both our bags were sat on the floor waiting for us in the collection bit so it was all good. I went off to ring my mate Alex who was already in Bangkok but couldn't get through no matter what so gave it up as a bad job and got a taxi to Khao San Road which is backpacker central in Bangkok pretty much.
When I got to Khao San I decided to give Alex's number to one of the guys in the phone shop there to see
The "snake charming"
Which consisted of wobbling his leg or whacking them with a stick, I was well wanting him to get bit! if I was doing something wrong and lo and behold, I'd not added the 0 when I took the country code off, what a bloody muppet eh?! lol. It turned out that I was actually stood directly in front of Alex's hotel (Khao San Palace Hotel), already by complete fluke so 5 minutes later we were off to sort me a room there and straight to the pub across the road to get some scran and a few bevvies down us.
That night we went to met his Mum and Dad over the other side of the town at the Shangrila Hotel as they were in Bangkok for 3 days or so and all. The hotel was proper deluxe; I asked if they wanted to swap their room for mine but they weren't having none of it. Funny that really coz I even had a telly and air-con! We went off to have some food at some bar in Patpong but my stomach wasn't having any of it so only managed a few mouthfuls. I dunno why but whenever I go anywhere hot I can never eat properly, I can munch my way through stupid amounts back home though so
Me and a monkey at the snake farm
Still a bit tight but I couldn't resist getting a photo it's well annoying! Patpong is the area of Bangkok where you get all the ping ping shows and that and although I was tempted (for the sake of curiosity of course), I didn't think it'd be quite right dragging Alex's parents in really. lol.
After we got back to the Shangrila we said bye and caught a tuk tuk back to Khao San. A tuk tuk is a little 3 wheeled trike jobbie with what sounds like a big bore exhaust on - those things are the dogs danglies I tell ya! We were having races with people, cutting up traffic, nearly hitting pedestrians and I was buzzing to f*ck off it!
When we got back to Khao San we gladly paid the fee then went off to meet Cindy's (Alex's Thai girlfriend), mates in Gullivers Bar at the end of the road. Quite a nice bar really but they play r'n'b shite so that was a bit bobbins. Won't go into details of the rest of the night like but it all ended well... lol
Next morning I decided to clear my bag out of all the stuff I no longer need such as my China LP book, souvenirs,
Before I got whacked
The Shamrock.It was all going so well and all until the bouncers gave me a few slaps - bastards... warm clothes and just general shite and get it posted to my mate Gaz so I can pick it up when I get over there. To send a 3.5kg parcel by slow air mail only cost me 15 quid so I was well happy! Got some breakfast then we set off to Shangrila again to meet Alex's Mum and Dad again. When we got there we headed straight out the back of the place and onto the river to catch a longboat and have a look round the city using the canals and stuff. Halfway through the trip we stopped off at a snake farm where the guys would be in a ring "snake charming", for want of a better word, various different snakes in turn while another bloke did commentary. Personally I thought it was tight as f*ck even though it was interesting but that's just my opinion really. Far worse than that was the tiny little cages some of the other animals were in though, especially the monkey and crocodiles - it was well cruel! One thing that I did like was the little pet monkey the owner was wandering round with, it was well cute! I thought dressing it up in clothes was a bit much but I couldn't help but get a picture of me holding it though. lol.
When we got off the boat we headed back to Khao San for a bit of BBQ seafood and a few Singha's. Met some proper mad Aussie hippy who was born in Kent while having our meal, turned out he was sound as f*ck when we started chatting to him though so fair play. From there we headed on over to The Shamrock opposite our hotel where there was a live band doing covers of Western songs so we decided to get straight on the Sang Som buckets of whiskey with Red Bull to get us well on the way - that sh*t's rocket fuel I tell ya! Al's Mum and Dad came and met us in there and it was all going nicely until about 2 or 3 buckets in I decide to go for a slash but a girl followed me in for no reason so next thing I know I'm being dragged out of the bogs by 3 pretty pissed off looking bouncers! Could've been one of them's missus for all I know but when I tried to argue the toss and explain I wasn't the instigator one of them just chinned me. "What the f*ck's that for?!". Bang. "For f*ck's sake!". Bang. "Right, f*ck this for a game of soldiers", I think as wander down the stairs seething. Went downstairs for a few beers and waited for them lot to meet me there which thankfully they did then carried on drinking to god knows when but I can't remember much of it so must've been pretty late.
"F*cking hell, my jaw's wrecking!", I think next morning. Bastards! Didn't do a lot that day apart from buy a few fake CD's and wander round aimlessly for a bit. At about 5ish Alex and Cindy went off to bed for a siesta so I went back down to Gullivers for a few beers. Got them up around 8ish then set off to Ratchadamnoen Stadium to watch a bit of Thai boxing.The Thai champion was on when we were there but he was being far too cocky and the other guy wanted it more so he lost on points - serves you bloody right pal, just look what happened Prince Naseem eh? There was only one KO in the entire bit I saw though which I was a bit gutted about but the guy who did get KO'd had to actually be stretchered off so at least he did a proper job. Got another tuk tuk back to Khao San after that, this driver wasn't having it on the racing front so wasn't nearly as much fun.
Back on Khao San Road we headed over to a bar that Cindy's mate Bee worked at, she's proper cute and all so I wasn't complaining plus they did buckets and all so jobsa good'un! Once she finished work we headed down to Silk Bar where me and Al sank another 5 or 6 buckets each and played pool till 6am with all of Cindy's mates. There's a lot more happened later on but my Mum will be reading this so it wouldn't be right saying I don't reckon. lol.
"Where the f*ck am I? Oh yeah..." Got home about 4ish and after getting shouted at by Cindy we checked out and went for a wander. This is probably the most hungover I've been since Christmas Day so I was in a well bad mood! Got a bit of stuff done anyway but before I knew it we were getting on the bus to take us down to Koh Phangan. 10 hour bus journey and a 2 hour boat journey with the mother of all hangovers; just what I bloody well need eh kids...
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Northsman
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Great blog BobFred! Sounds like an excitine journey. How much that long boat ride cost you?