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Published: July 11th 2008
RAIN ON SAMUI
CHAWENG BEACH ROADekk was thankfully certified tb free a few days after my last blog, and the certificate has to be used for entry into the uk before december 12th 2008. getting a uk settlement visa will take 3 months, and cost about 500quid!
immediately after the last blog, i spent a week on koh samui, while ekk was faffing about in bangkok with the tb results. had a great time there again, even though it was my fourth visit since february! the first few nights i spent on lamai beach, far from the "hurdy gurdy" of chaweng beach!! though i then spent the next 5 days on chaweng... after samui, i took the seatran express boat to chumphon, spent one night there, before taking a bus to hua hin. the bus frustratingly dropped me on the distant hua hin bypass, so ekk had to rescue me by motorbike, a 40 km round trip. after collecting all the stuff i had been storing at his sisters house in hua hin for safe keeping, we took an evening bus to bangkok. we arrived in the middle of a huge thunderstorm. this was made worse that the bus arrival area at the bus station
in bangkok was suffering from overflooded sewerage, so not good!
we made our way by taxi to the sathorn inn on silom soi 9 (800baht a night). we had planned to get an apartment in bangkok, but after a couple of fiascos revolving around the fact that the places didn't like gays (due i think to the landladies previous bad experiences with all night parties, one of which i think i attended in 2006!), we decided against it. instead we moved to a cheaper, rather grotty place to stay for 400b a night. after much heckling from me, ekk went and got himself a job in bangkok at the city's top live jazz venue, albeit in the kitchen. like many jobs in thailand it was poorly paid, just 160baht a day plus about 75-100baht a day in tips. he lasted about 10 days before jacking it in, after getting his first pay pittance. i don't blame him, the hours were long and on split shifts: 10am-1pm, and 5pm to 1am, 7 days a week. if he wanted a a day off, he could have one, but no pay for it... the advertisement in the window said "women only" (there
SATHORN INN
CHONG NONSI BTS, BANGKOK are no sex discrimination laws here), but they took on ekk, as he was like one!!!
the day before ekk started his job we went to wat arun, on the thonburi side of the river in bangkok, a great place to go for views of the city...
while ekk was working, my friend, andy murphy, from scotland, came to visit bangkok, en route to a holiday in vietnam. he was with his 2 daughters, lorna and caitlin, aged 11 and 8. ekk knows them as well as we spent nearly a month living with them in 2004 while i was in the process buying a flat in dundee. ekk and i entertained the kids the first night by taking them to MBK, while andy indulged in some longed for "r & r" with some local ladies..... the next day we all went to siam ocean world, one of the world's largest aquariums. it was all very impressive, though having seen most of the species on their own terms in the open sea, i felt rather sorry for the fish.... that 2nd night, ekk was working, so andy and i toured around silom and patpong. i took andy to
VIEW FROM BALCONY OF OUR ROOM
SILOM SOI 9. OLD, NEW AND YET TO BE... a rather risque gay street, which i think was an eye opener for him. after which i let him loose to go and explore on his own.... the 3rd night all five of us, ie me, ekk, andy, lorna and caitlin went for a meal at ekk and i's favourite chinese restaurant. it was then time to do some shopping in silom night market, after which we all went to the gay telephone bar in silom soi 4, for drinks and deserts. ekk was getting quite drunk this night, so it was inevitable it would probably end messily. ekk and i ended up at DJSTATION, the main gay disco/pickup joint in bangkok. though ekk doesnt remember actually being there....
the morning after, ekk stayed in bangkok, as one of his 4 sisters was seriously ill. sadly she died on 7th july from hepatitis after being ill with it for quite a while. she was 43. ekk is now staying with his mother for a while. im back in bangkok for a few days after taking the overnight train back from solo travels in north eastern thailand (ISAAN).
speak again soonish
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Muk
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Need help
Do you happened to have the street photo in front of Sathorn Inn? As i'm in the middle of asking them to expand the street back where it used to b