First day in Bangkok!

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Arrived in Bangkok at about 3am, picked up by a random thai man who spoke very little english but got me to the hotel safe which is all i really cared about at that stage. Had a little trouble understanding the thick accents of the people at reception through my sleepy haze, but evntaully made it to bed at around 4- very nice to be in my own room, and i even had a double bed!
Got woken up by a text from laura at about 11, one of the girls who had also arrived in thailand early, and we wandered around kaoh san road, the main backpackers road for a while before meeting up with gina, another realgap girl. We then decided to go exploring, and got a tuk tuk (crazy 3 wheeled motorbike/ taxi thingys) round the city, going to a few temples and sites. it soon became clear however that the tuk tuk drivers all get commission for taKING you to certain places, which became rather annoying after a while as we had to keep telling him that no, we did not want to go and buy some beautiful jewelery/ souveniers/ suits etc.
That evening the three of us took a tuk tuk to the red light district, and grabbed a meal there. We then wandered round in search for a bar and stumbled across what could only be the gay street, as all the bars were called things such as "hot male" and "dream boy". We walked into one to find a very odd sight... simply 10 men in trainers and boxers standing on stage with numbers attatched to their boxers, doing nothing at all. After about 10 minutes of this they all left the stage and 3 men in speedo type pants and boots/ chains/ heels came on and danced exactly like women. Meanwhile the men who had just come off stage came up to me laura and gina and started talking to us, ignoring all the men in there, the ones who we assumed they would want to chat up as they were their potential clients. we dont know whether they thought we were ladyboys or what, but there was definite flirting and knee touching - something we definitely didnt expect from men working in a gay bar... so we left swiftly and went to find a ping pong show.
The show was.. interesting. Most of the time it was simply topless women dancing on stage, but every so often one would come on and do a trick. Once we got over the initial shock and disgust it became quite funny though, as the women were all interacting with the crowd, trying to hit people in the front row with bananas and such... one of the oddest things ive ever seen in my life.
We then headed back to kao san road for some clubbing, but the place we were in closed after about half an hour so we went to a rooftop garden of a guy we had been talking to most of the night, and sat there for a while before heading back to the hotel at about 5am.

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