Representin’ BKK to the Fullest

Not much to talk about the day as we slept in recovering from NYE, but we were going at about 9:30. We were all Wat-ted out and it was out last day in Bangkok before departing for Chiang Mai in the northeast of Thailand. After breakfast, dragging our feet and moving slow, we headed back to Siam Square to do a little shopping. As my favorite nieces (Charlotte Rose & Veronica Marie) in the world like to say, “SHOPPPPPPING.” So I’ll provide some random observations to ya along with some details on our day.

I think I mentioned this in a previous posting, but I swear Bangkok may as well be known as the land of 7-11’s. There are 7-11’s (sevey’s for the kids) everywhere, like 2 a block. You wanna talk about convenience stores….

You who share my love for Dunkin Donuts will be glad to learn they are here too. We stopped in to one to try a donut and some ice coffee. The donuts are a little different, as in they have different toppings, but same basic principle of fried dough with sugary coating. The coffee was good but the taste was slightly off from what I’m used to and a little sweater. My first couple of sips I got the taste of fish, I think. I get that with everything here and it makes me paranoid since I hate fish, generally speaking. But I think that is just the taste and smell of Asia no matter where you turn. I also think the coffee was laced the methamphetamines since I was wired after finishing and ready to start jogging around Siam. I instead talked Heather’s ear off.

In Thailand, and I think Asia at large, paper towels are a rare find. Instead they use tissue paper, which is not as effective in drying wet hands because it sticks to your hand and shreds easily. Maybe I’m just hard on my hands when I dry them (I usually use 120 fine grit sandpaper), but I don’t think I’m wrong on this point. Cherish it if you come upon paper towels in your travels.

To solve Asia’s paper towel dilemma, I’m considering throwing myself at the problem. As Jim Thompson was to silk, I could be with paper towels and introduce Thailand and Asia to the wonders and value of a beautiful piece of Bounty.

We found some good finds shopping as we both found some cool new clothes… the designer stuff is a little bit cheaper here. For example, I found a great zip-up sweater at Lacoste for at least 30-40 dollars cheaper, but the polo shirts were comparable in price, maybe a few dollars less.

One of the malls seemed like it was dedicated solely to knock-offs. It was especially odd since the designer stores are literally in the same area, neighborhood, block. It was blatant too. They carried the exact logo’s and had the tags you’d find on the clothes from the designer as you normally would when you purchase them from a Macy’s of Bloomingdales. Polo (maybe represented more then anyone), Lacoste, Mac (I’m pretty sure - at least the accessories), Diesel, Abercrombie, Puma, Converse, a lot of the skate & surf brands (DC, Element, Quicksilver, etc), name a manufacturer of jeans - they were there, and even Sears clothing had representation among the myriad of stalls selling sneakers, shoes and an array of clothing. Trust me you could tell it wasn’t real stuff, since the quality in fabric and manufacturing just wasn’t there. Now I know what Nike and the rest are complaining about when they talk about rip-offs. But maybe they reap what they sow - I mean, for the most part there wares are made in this area for sale in the West, so the designs for the stuff are here. I’m glad NASA and the military don’t make there stuff here for pennies on the dollar. We’d be in even more trouble.

For the evening we headed out to Khao San Road, a real happenin’ place. This street is like a mixture of New Orlean’s Bourbon Street and San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury feel, but distinctly Bangkok. We wanted to walk end-to-end before deciding on a place to sit and enjoy the local delicacies and beverages. It was neat to long along Khao San, taking in the sights, sounds and smells. There were folks that would try to get you to go into their bar offering different deals on drinks. One insistent gentleman was trying to get us to walk into his establishment and after a bit of badgering I told him I had a drinking problem. He said, “No problem, we’ve got water,” which made me laugh heartily out loud. Good come back.

So far we haven’t fallen for any scams. But it’s amazing the ingenious ways the Thai have come-up with taking little pieces of colorful paper with pictures of the King on it away from you. And everything is negotiable.

There were also these sidewalk bars - literally a bar rolled out on to the sidewalk with some folding chairs and/or little plastic stools to sit on. Since drinking on the streets is generally frowned on (at least my conclusion), patrons of these sidewalk bars would need to hang out here and finish there drink before moving. Just a little odd, that’s all.

I knew about the sex tourism before coming to Thailand, but I didn’t think it would bother much. Which I guess it doesn’t, but his crept in my mind enough and triggered my thinking about it. It’s sooo obvious too and as blatant as they knock-off clothes. When you see a Western dude walking around with a Thai girl, 98% of the time what you’re thinking is likely accurate. And it’s everywhere. We saw it shopping, walking around at night, at nice restaurants and holes in the wall. But that’s the thing - it’s not like it’s a 30-30 minute thing, it’s a commitment. They shop with them and buy them stuff (I wonder if they have dinner with the fam and having to meet the parents for the first time? Awwwwkwwwward). I thought the whole point was to pay them to leave when you’re done? Seems like a bad deal anyway you slice it.

Back to Khao San. It was a cool mix of people from all over the world - Euros, Aussies, Kiwis, Asians, Africans and ‘Mericans - hippies and Rastafarians, drunks and backpackers, beggers and crazies, tough guys and cats, hipsters and mods and boppers… and us. All trying to have a good time drinkin’ and eating and soaking it in. Vendors sold booze and food, tattoos, hats, and an assortment of crap. We had some delicious cheap eats and drinks as we sat at an open café with a sidewalk view and enjoyed the commotion.

I could only imagine what this place must have been like in the late 60’s and early 70’s with navy, army, marine’s on-leave from Vietnam for a week or two.

The last bar we went to was fantastic. We were lured into it by the sounds of live guitar driven rock music playing The Beatles, While My Guitar Gently Weeps. This cover band kicked ass and rocked our socks off. We have some video we’re going to try to upload to give you just a taste of the metal, we’ll see if it works (nope it doesn't). The drums were on point, the vocals had the lyrics and notes, and the guitar nailed the solos with great use of the whammy.

We sat next to some Danes who were having a great time drinkin’ and listening to the band play. They spoke English very well, with what sounded like an English accent, but they were way too friendly and outgoing to be British. They were nice enough to take a few pictures of us at our table. They knew I was an American, it's that obvious (not a bad thing), but that didn't think Heather was.

They rocked Sabbath, Deep Purple (Smoke on the Water), ZZ Top, the Doors (Roadhouse Blues), Zepplin (Whole Lotta Love into Rock and Roll into the opening riff of No Quarter into Stairway), Jimmie, G’n’R (awesomeness) and Halen (Eruption into Got Me Going into Ain’t Talkin ‘bout Love). As you can tell, they rocked and were definitely one of the best cover bands I’d ever seen (and I hang out on the Jersey Shore). Seriously, this band rocked with a full metal salute (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Rock+salute). After the band left the stage for the night, the bar put on Queen’s Greatest Hits.

The evening came to a close with a tuk-tuk ride back to the hotel. On to Chang Mai.

In the famed wise words of your friend and mine, Homer Simpson, “Hello, Thailand? How's everything on your end? Uh, huh. That's some language you got there. And you talk like that 24/7, huh?” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mansion_Family)

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