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Korean BBQ
Natasha, Jib and Matt I arrived at the Bangkok airport around 7:30 pm on Thursday, May 10. My friend Matt was waiting for me, it was nice to have someone at the airport. First thing first, he handed me a beer. “You mean I can drink this right here right now?” “Yup you’re in Thailand baby.” So we crack our beers and wonder down to the taxi stand to get a taxi, beers still in hand. We hop into this bright pink one. The driver seems a little off but whatever. We start given’r down the road. This guy is driving like a maniac, full speed ahead and weaving in and out of traffic. A little scary but the beer is helping to keep me calm. Matt and I chatter on. The taxi driver decides to take the freeway and Matt looks pissed off. “There is no need to take the freeway at this time of day and it costs extra.” Matt rambles some stuff off in Thai and the two exchange some words. We continue talking and the driver is driving faster and becoming a little more scarier. Then the driver turns to us and starts to complain. He thinks we are talking
Soi Cowboy
Anyone need a lady friend for the night? about him. Matt and him exchange more words and before you know it he is telling us to get out of his taxi. So we hop out on the side of the road. I wonder what we are going to do now. Matt says not to worry “this is the land of taxi’s.” Sure enough within in 5 seconds there was another one there to scoop us up. Matt is right there are taxi’s everywhere!
We get to Matt’s place and say hi to Jib and I get to meet their little girl, Natasha. She is so cute, all smiles. We drop my things off and Matt takes me for a night on the town, no time to waste. With more drinks in hand (bought at 7-11) we hop into another taxi to our first bar, well that was just the beginning of a long night catching up and bar hopping. We end up at a karaoke bar. The place looks closed from the front but that is just a ploy so the cops don’t think it is open. We go in through the back door. Matt belts out a few songs and we chat with some people. Next
thing we know the lights come on and the cops are there, busted! We sit there for a bit and wonder what we should do? Matt doesn’t have his passport on him, but I do. We figure they are going to ask us because we are in an area not frequented by travelers. We decide to just walk out, so we do, funny they just give us a smile and we go on our way. We hit up one more karaoke bar before calling it a night at 4:00 am.
Matt said that in all his years living here that was only the 3rd time he had a problem with a cab driver and has never been in a karaoke bar that had been busted. What a great introduction to Bangkok!
The next day was pretty much a write off. I lazed around and chatted with Jib and played with Natasha. When Matt got home from work the 4 of us went out to a Korean BBQ, buffet style. That was really neat. The little BBQ is placed on your table and you cook everything on it. You go up to the buffet and choose what you want.
Eel soup anyone?
Live eels in a bucket. They have everything, meats, fish, seafood, veggies, soups, curries, rice, all this for only 98B (around $3.20) a person. Matt then took me around to see some of the crazy night life. Soi Cowboy, which is full of Go-Go Girl bars. We wondered around and one of the street vendors was selling crispy lizards, fried grasshoppers, beetles and worms to eat. I never had any but I will have to try some of them before I leave here.
The next day I ventured out on my own going to Chatuchak Market. Chatuchak is a huge market on the weekends. They have everything there from clothes, food, household items, monkeys, live snakes, almost everything you can imagine and not. I didn’t make it out of the clothes section, so I have to go back to check out the rest of the market. I then hopped on the sky train to meet Matt after his teaching class. He took me around to some shopping centres. It was a bizarre day. We were looking at stores like Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana and really expensive jewelry shops that have pens for $5,000, then later that night we were sitting in some bar,
tuk tuk
Always negotiate your fare before getting in, otherwise they will rip you off or take you some place you don't want to go. which was just tables and some refrigeration coolers full of booze at the back of a market with rats that would run between our feet. We didn’t have any rats between our legs. We took a ferry ride on the river which was really neat. It is the start of the rainy season so the river is quite high already. We hopped into a tuk tuk, the motorized three wheel carts that you always see pictures of to the infamous Khao San Road. This is where most backpackers/travelers come to stay. The Thanon (street) is littered with hostels, bars and a market. We hit up a few more places around town before calling it a night.
Sunday, my birthday, the big 30! OMG where has the time gone??? Jib, Natasha and I ventured out to the mall. I thought I might by myself something for my birthday. The mall is packed with people, I think everyone decided to go that day. The only thing I did end up getting was a new battery for my camera. We met Matt later on, Jib went to visit a friend and Matt took me out. We had probably the best cheese burger
in Bangkok in the Nana area (another area of Go-Go Bars) and a beer. Matt then wanted to show me the Go-Go Boy bars, yup they have them too, but we were there a little early. So we headed over to The Oriental Bangkok in the Emporium for a piece of cake. A super ritzy mall with more major labels such as Armani, Gucci and Prada. The cake was so delicious, I have never had such a rich piece of chocolate cake before, I can still taste it. We then wondered through the gourmet market do to some tastings of cheeses, meats, baked goods. Continuing on our journey around town we hit up some different bars. One had a live band that sang Happy Birthday, the other was a dance club with house music and the last place was a British Pub. It was a bar hopping/city hopping night.
Everything seems so surreal here. I can’t believe I am in Bangkok, Thailand. I really dig this place. I love how one minute you are looking at pens or watches worth $6,000 and the next you are in some bar at the back of a market drinking a 50B beer
Soi (side street)
Can you see why it is so hard to walk on the sidewalk? ($1.60) hoping a rat doesn’t naw at your ankle. One extreme to the next and everything in the middle.
I don’t think most people buy food in a supermarket here. There are vendors on the street everywhere and it is so cheap. You can have a good hot meal for 50B even cheaper. And why own a car? You can take a bus (around 7B), tuk tuk, taxi, motorcycle almost anywhere you want to go for less then $2.00 most of the time. If you want to drink there is no shortage of bars or pubs. And drinks are usually under 100B ($3.34). You can live pretty cheap in Bangkok. I haven’t noticed too many smells of anything yet. Every once in a while you get a wif of something that stinks but it doesn’t last long. And I have only seen about three cockroaches since being in Bangkok. The sidewalks are a bit hard to walk on at times because it is packed with people selling food, clothes, cds, whatever and sometimes there is a big hole in the sidewalk or it is really uneven, you even have to be careful there is not a motorbike coming down
the sidewalk. And yes it is true, if you want to cross the street you just go for it because otherwise you wait for ages and you would never get anywhere. Cars will go around you or just stop for you.
The weather has been fairly rainy, but that was a given since I have come at the beginning of their rainy season, however it is still really warm. It usually only rains for a few minutes and then stops but it could be on and off all day. Last night it was 28 degrees around 11:00 pm. It is the humidity that gets you but I am getting used to it.
Bangkok rules. I don’t know why most people hate it, maybe it is because they end up staying on Khao San. I think I wouldn’t think to highly of Bangkok if I had to stay there as well, it is just tourists and party life. Matt and Jib have been so good to me, I have been really fortunate to stay with them and have them take me around and teach me some Thai. Natasha is such a doll, she is the happiest baby I have every seen, did I mention how cute she is?
Friday I am off to Phuket for at least a week. Phuket is in the south. I have enrolled myself in a Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) for a week, I stay right in camp. I am ready to kick some ass, or rather kick my own into shape!
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Betty
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Happy Belated Birthday
Keep on enjoying every minute. You will love Asia.