Bangkok 4

Around Bangkok

After breakfast, we took bus 44 from Kao San to the Weekend Market – Chatukchuk Market. A taxi would’ve been the easy way to do it. But the city bus ride experience was fun. An old woman hobbles around the bus with a basket collection everyone’s change and shouting out the stops. It took about 50 minutes to reach the market.

The market is the largest I’ve ever seen. They sell a whole lot of everything. Souvenirs, brand name rip-offs. It’s a maze you can get lost in and spend half the afternoon just trying to find the way out.

Bought fresh Mangostine – the "king of fruit". Small once you open it, but tasty. Also bought a fridge magnet with two elephants on it.

In the afternoon, we bought day passes on the skytrain and rode it to Silom, Soi Cowboy and Nana Station, Sukhumvit. These were definitely red light districts. There were strips of go-go bars, old white men with sunburns and cute young girls, one on each arm.

Because of the weekend election, all sales of alcohol were banned for both Saturday and Sunday night. Bars were open and serving soft drinks. It was far from business as usual.

We took the Skytrain again to Sala Daeng Station. It’s more upscale Bangkok. Seems like a business district. There’s a strip of Japanese bars and plenty of the signs of globalization going on. McDonald’s, Starbucks, and trendy cafes that seem totally out of place in Bangkok.

I bought 4 cans of beer Chang at the 7-11. I’ll put them in the fridge at the hotel to prepare for the dry spell that will come tonight. 6pm is the official cut-off point for alcohol sales. It could be a wild Saturday in Bangkok, but it probably won’t be.

We stopped into an Irish pub – the only pub we could find in this area of town. We were desperate for a place to sit down. It was happy hour at O’Reilly’s. There are hookers and hostesses sitting around on the second level where the pool tables are.

This is also an upscale Thai foot massage district. They must service the “overworked” company man clientele.

So we rested our aching feet and had a pint, last minute, before the election ban started. And I’ve still got the four in my bag to “beat the system”. The “I’m not voting. Why should this affect me?” attitude was fairly obvious in Silom and Nana. White guys complaining to 7-11 clerks in English.

Had dinner at Sampoon Seafood. A trendy joint. We’d been eating so much street food, we decided to go to a nice place for dinner. Ironically, Sera was throwing up all night and I had the runs from about 5am on. I was a bit nervous getting on the bus the next morning for the two hour ride. I was nervous being anywhere more than a ten second run from a toilet, let alone trapped on a bus.

In the lounge area of our hotel, travelers were drinking pints of whiskey they’d bought earlier. I had my can of Beer Chang. I felt like the only guy walking Kao San Road with a beer. The streets were dry. Pubs were serving coke. No debauchery.

We went for a Thai Massage on Kao San.
Excellent, but a couple of things she did were painful.