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After clearing customs and collecting our backpacks, we came upon an Irish couple (Keeran and Marie) at baggage reclaim that asked where we were heading. ‘Khaosan Road”. And so we shared the cab in from the aiport… Result!
Despite ALL of us knowing full well that we were supposed to ensure that we took a metered cab, we somehow ended up doing what every tourist does when arriving in a new country and accepted a taxi at 500 baht… upon arrival, they taxi driver not only didn’t know where the hotel was, but also reckoned that he agreed to 700 baht. Marie wasn’t having any and so the argument in the street began. (Over the next couple of days we would bear witness to a few similar arguments in the street) Anyway, 500 was what he begrudgingly accepted in the end and took off and a huff leaving us to stroll around in the tropical heat looking for our hotel in the hustle and bustle of one of the busiest roads in Bangkok. Not quite sure how we missed it. Massive sign reading Viengtai Hotel. As Marie had the only 500 baht note between us, she paid for the cab
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Keeran and Marie our Irish friends that shared the cab ride in to bangkokin full and so we arranged to meet them for a drink after they had sourced some accommodation and we had checked in (and most importantly showered)
The Sawasdee inn would be the meeting point (and was also to become our local haunt for the following three days) a Pad Thai (basic noodle dish in Thailand) and a few Singha’s later, Keeran and Marie joined us and the Singha’s continued to flow. I think Ernst and both knew subconsciously that we were sitting with 2 formidable drinking partners. After tiring of the Sawasdee, it was time to explore what else Khoasan had to offer. Next stop, the Irish pub, where else :P. We discovered that you could order 4 litres of beer that came in a giant ice cooled tower with a tap at the base. This pleased us all very much! Whilst making steady progress through our portable keg we were approached by young Thai girl selling roses (the street vendors, whilst not as imposing as they are in Stone Town, are still an unavoidable pain). When we declared that we had no use for her roses she promptly challenged us to a thumb war… don’t worry, you
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The Irish certainly now how to drink!! read that right. The stakes were 100 baht… She firmly slapped down a 100 on the table. Keeran wasn’t having any of it, but I couldn’t resist. When someone slaps down cash with that kind of confidence and reckons she can beat me at thumb war with hands have the size of mine, I fancy my chances. I’m gonna make a quick 100 bucks. How so very wrong I was. There was good reason for her unwavering confidence. Within seconds, my thumb was pinned and there was no way out. Slightly drunk and confused I handed over the 100 baht that she won fair and square. She then very kindly gave us a rose anyway (I think you can all see that she had no intention of selling any roses, they were just a consellation prize for getting thrashed at thumb war by a little girl). This fact was confirmed by the fact that she promptly moved to the table of rowdy English lads next to us and proceeded to beat each and every one of them. Best street vendor ever!!
After finishing our mini keg, we proceeded further down Khoasan Road to the next bar. Another mini keg
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This girl is the queen of Thumbwar!!!! is ordered. At this point I was starting to wonder what we had let ourselves in for. Still, we pressed on. There was a Danish musician playing in the bar who we later discovered had been living and working his way around the bars in Thailand for quite some time. He had himself an Asian girlfriend and was quite upset that he would have to leave in the next week to pursue his music back in Denmark. Excellent musician and made for a great atmosphere. I can’t move on to the next step of the night without mentioning the killer rat that had taken up residence in the trash cans near the toilet. There was a cat sitting on the other side of the corridor, fully aware that there was natural prey just feet away from him. Apparently though this cat had a shred of sense… that rat would have had him for breakfast. In fact, when Marie first noticed it, she saw the cat and actually confused the rat for a second cat!! Seriously, this was a teenage mutant ninja rat. Needless to say, we didn’t eat there.
At this stage of the evening it was getting late
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Khaosan Road... the very same as made famous by "The Beach" and the main bars were starting to close up so we thought we would head back to Keeran and Marie’s hotel for a night cap (like we needed one). En route however, we were dragged into a heaving night club. My head was screaming noooooooo!!! But the beer in our bellys was saying…. Why not?! So in we went. A bucket of Vodka Redbull was quickly dispatched and I felt the urge to dance!! Fortunately the place had a great dancing stage that seemed at the time like it was built for me. I darted straight for it and proceeded to flail around like a complete drunken idiot! Seeing as I was a complete drunken idiot at the time, I was completely at peace with it. Somehow an array of glow bangles made their way on to my arms and on I danced. Ernst eventually joined me on the stage and proceeded to follow suit. The others chose to do their dancing from a more discreet location at ground level. This carried on until our new friends decided that they would call it a night. Whilst still standing on the stage in amidst the blaring techno and strobe lights I
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Our very first "bucket" in Thailand attempted to scrawl my email address on to a piece of paper and hand it to Keeran. Fortunately we met up with them the following day because I don’t think anyone could have deciphered what I wrote on that piece of paper.
If you think the night ended there, it didn’t. After loosing our Irish companions, I promptly made friends with a crowd of French backpackers. I’m not sure how the conversation started, but I’m pretty sure it revolved around Zidane and the infamous head butting of an Italian footballer at the Soccer world cup. We reached some kind of agreement over the matter and for the rest of the night at random intervals they would shout ITALIA to me, to which I would respond FRANCAIS!!! It’s amazing what a bit of booze and random shouting can accomplish in the way of making friends! This club was now closing and it was really really getting late. Julian and his crew however were not done yet. This was there last night in Thailand and they weren’t going down that easy. So we grabbed 2 TukTuks and all bundled in to the next location. This was my first experience of a
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Acting the fool Tuk Tuk and it was epic. A race developed and the two rickety looking half motorbike, half car contraptions proceeded to pull wheelies and dice through the streets of Bangkok… Big fun!!
Finally, the final stop of the night. I don’t remember the name of it, but I do know that it too had a dancing stage, so back up I went. It’s probably worth mentioning at this stage that our new friends had promptly placed a full bottle of Whiskey on the table complete with glasses, ice and Coca Cola. This behaviour continued for a while before I reached my breaking point. It was time to go home. Ernst being the machine that he is, stayed… This would later prove to be a mistake of epic proportions. I hopped into a taxi and made my way back to the hotel relatively trouble free. Only to wake up later that morning to find that Ernst had not returned…..
As the day rolled on, I became increasingly worried about my partner in crime. All manner of horrible thoughts were rushing through my mind. I eventually decided that it was getting too late to just wait around and spoke to
reception explaining to them what had happened. They recommended that I file a missing persons case with the police…. * gulp * . I decided that I would give it another hour and then go to speak with the police. 5 mins after getting back up to the room, the phone rings, not expecting the call, I jump violently. Pick it up… Ernst’s voice. DUDE!!! Massive sigh of relief. He is back in the hotel but has no money for the taxi that returned him there. I run down stairs to be greated by the hotel staff all looking equally as relieved as I was to see that my friend had returned. It turns out that after partying into the daylight hours with our French drinking partners, Ernst finally decided to head home. Just one problem, he could only remember the name of the Road that our hotel was on (Rambrutti). This unfortunately was not a name the driver was familiar with. Telling him to go to Khaosan Road would definitely have solved the problem, however Ernst couldn’t remember it. He did manage to remember the name Pattaya. Assuming that it was a location in Bangkok, Ernst blindly asked the
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Dancing on stage... because I could!! driver to take him there. 150kms and an hour or two later, Ernst arrived in Pattaya. Please keep in mind that he had no passport, no money and no phone. Once they arrived in Pattaya, they then proceeded to speak to local taxi drivers to try and ascertain where Rambrutti Road was. Fortunately one of them started naming famous roads and when he said Khaosan Road, it all came flooding back to Ernst. “That’s the one!”. They explained that it was in Bangkok, to which Ernst responded: “This isn’t Bangkok?”
Another 150kms and 1800 baht later Ernst arrived at the hotel. Fortunately I was there to pay the bill, because that could have been a very uncomfortable situation to deal with in the hotel entrance hall. Anyway, Ernst and the driver had a good chuckle about the incident and so ended our first night in Bangkok!!
Not sure how we are going to top this, but we certainly will try ☺
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