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Published: August 14th 2006
Bangkok Nights
A little blurry, but its the skytrain tracks. Looks like something from the future. Leaving London for good was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Who would have thought that when I left home over two years ago I'd find a second home in London. I came to London with nothing, and in my time there I found an amazing job, some amazing friends (who will always have a place in my heart and a bed in Melbourne if you feel like visiting!), and a great house to live in, with the best landlords ever! But I knew my time had to come to an end. After countless leaving parties and many shed tears I kissed London goodbye ready to start a new chapter in my life.
Thailand was my next destination, with my best bud Luke from Melbourne. I was really unsure about meeting up with Luke coz although we had spoken nearly every week while I was in London I was worried that things had changed. We met at the airport, gave each other a big hug and then it was as if no time had passed at all. It was great! Checked into our hostel and then headed out to the big shopping complex, MBK, to work
out how this dam currency works. Okay that’s a lie; I just wanted to buy cheap DVDs and fisherman pants! Had some cocktails and a quick bite to eat at the Outback Steakhouse (pathetic I know) and then went to browse the shops. We were in the shopping centre for 10 minutes and disaster strikes! I injured myself! Yes that’s right, my first day in Bangkok and I have to do something stupid. It’s silly really. We were walking around the shopping centre and came to an escalator. I was in the middle of telling Luke a very fascinating and engrossing story, and when I stepped onto the escalator my foot missed the step and I sliced a big chunk off the bottom of my big toe. (I was wearing flip-flops). Thought it was just a scratch, then looked down and saw the blood begin to flow. Great! So I hobble to the toilet, as my white flip-flop becomes more and more stained with blood, while Luke scurries off to find me a Band-Aid. What seemed like 20 minutes later Luke returns and I patch up the damage. Stupid dumb manchild, strunzo, whatever you want to call me, that’s what
Outback Steakhouse
Me and Luke after our first catch-up-cocktail I was! I just thought it was funny that I injured myself on my last day in Italy and this time it’s my first night in Thailand. And what’s even funnier is that the splinters that were left in my finger when the urchin stabbed me in Italy, is still there!!
So we decided that this little mishap wouldn't ruin our night and heading out into town for some drinks. Jumped on a tuk tuk, which is like a rickshaw but with a motor and whizzed through the hot bangkok night. Spent the whole night in a bar catching up with Luke which was really great, and before you know it we had downed about 5 beers each and we're in desperate need to get to a bed (or toilet!). Stubbed my damaged toe a few more times, it swore a bit and managed to stumble home, my toe bleeding everywhere. Thank god for an airconditioned room, and although we tried desperately hard not to disturb the other guy in our dorm, its really difficult when you're so drunk you can barely stand up. C'mon you've all been there before! I dont think he was very happy with us.
Disaster Strikes
My bloody toe..... Next day went to the Chatuchak Market which is a massive market that has everything you could possibly want. From thai clothes, thai books and pirate dvds, to fighting cocks, fighting fish and fluffy puppies! I really wanted to buy a cock, but Luke said I didn't need one, hmmmm. So instead we spent the whole day walking around testing our bartering skills and buying fishermens pants! I love those pants, although I dont really think I'll be wearing them on the streets of Frankston when I get home.
Patong Road is famous for the ping-pong shows and live sex shows, so being us, we couldn't resist checking it out. I mean its just one of those things that you have to do when you're in Bangkok. Took a tuk tuk down there and as soon as we got off the tuk tuk, we had people offering us thing:
"Ping-pong, you wanna see ping-pong?"
We tried to wave them away with a simple "No thanks"
"What about lady, you wan lady"
Again we said "No thanks"
"What about lady-boy, you like lady-boy?"
At this point we just both burst out laughing and realised that
if we were going to enjoy ourselves we just had to be open minded! As we walked down the street I noticed all the touts were holding small white cards with writing on them. I looked closer and realised that it detailed all the 'acts' the ping-pong ladies would be performing. And wow, what an impressive list, these women are multi-talented! So we decided when in bangkok.....go and see a sex show. So we did, and it was.....hmmmm.....interesting and at the same time incredibly awkward. We stayed for one overpriced beer and then got the hell out of there. Thought we should try one more bar called Kangaroo Bar. Can't be that bad, probably full of loads of Aussie and Kiwis. Wrong! We were the only westerners in there, and the rest were thai women. And by women, I mean prostitutes! So we thought, we'd give it a go, and have one drink. These poor woman had no one in their bar and we felt sorry for them. Well as soon as we sat down, they were all over us! We just kept looking at each other and laughing a nervous laugh. They kept offering us a variety of things,
Bangkok
Our cute little hostel, Suk 11 and none of these were drinks! I started chatting to my girls, and they all seemed very nice but I was obviously showing no interest so after 10 minutes of trying to get something out of us, they let us be. Thank god, we sculled our drinks and scurried home with our tails between our legs.
Feeling cheap and nasty from the night before we decided to head to the temples to the next morning. Bangkok has three main temples and they were all amazing. The architecture is brilliant and the detail they put in all the works in incredible. Went into the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which is still used as a temple nowadays. The tourists can go in and sit and reflect (no photos or shoes though) and they have a seperate section for the monks to go and pray. The Emerald Buddha (actually made out of jade and only 75cm big) is the temples primary attration and sits atop a huge elevated altar. The gold decorations around it are so elaborate, and every season the king himself goes through a ceremony where he changes the robes on the statue. So the Emerald Buddha has his
MBK Shopping Centre
This was out hang out in Bangkok for a few days. So much shopping and it was so cheap! winter and summer wardrobe, sort of like Barbie! Sat there for a while and just took it all, it was really calming actually.
Finsihed up with temples, collected our stuff and made our way to the train station to get our train to Surat Thani in the south east of Thailand. From there we would get a ferry to Ko Samui to begin our island hoping adventure. Was a total drama even getting to the station. None of the taxi drivers would take us because we insisted they put the meter on and not rip us off by charging a flat fare. We finally found one, then he kicked us out coz there was too much traffic (what the? you're a taxi driver, deal with it!) so after walking a bit, we found a nice driver who happily put the meter on for us.
Waited in the station for an hour and boarded our train. I was a little unsure about the train to begin with. It was an overnight train that went for 9 hours, sounded like it could be fun, and before we booked the tickets we were shown pictures of the sleeping facilities. But of
Bangkok
Dinner at Cabbages and Condoms, strange name but the food was fantastic! course when we got on the train, it was nothing like that at all. The seats were okay but the carriage was cramped and cluttered and dont get me started on that toilet! But they did serve beer on the train so that got our spirits up!
Met two English backpackers (Ed and Xanna) and as everybody started hitting the sack we located a dinning carriage where we promptly ordered another round of beers with our new found friends. This carriage was very quickly nicknamed the "party carriage" and pretty soon it was packed with westerners drinking the night away and dancing in the aisles. Apparently I stood up on my chair and did the Macarena and the YMCA but I have no recolection of this sorry, I think they made it up. It was in the "party carriage" that we decided to go to Ko Pha-Ngan instead of Ko Samui as we heard that in a few days time there was to be full moon beach party. Woo hoo! We would get there just in time for what is known to be an amazing party!
Got a few hours sleep, then woke at 5am to the sounds
Bangkok
Inside Cabages and Condoms of our train pulling into Surat Thani. 200 Baht later and we exchanged our tickets to Ko Pha-Ngan. Said a quick goodbye to Ed and Xanna and we were on our way. Beautiful beaches here we come, but god I was so hungover and my toe is killing me....
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kate
non-member comment
kingadinga! i hope you had a Flamin' Onion for old time's sake. i love you my sweet, silly, dumb manchild. p.s. Luke's flava-saver is getting bigger and bigger every time i see him. i wonder if it will be covering his entire face when next we meet. i secretly hope so.