Friday in Bangkok – The best bar ever
So we managed to get out of the hotel and head to the old town of Bangkok with the aim of seeing the stuff going on there. We were lucky that Pezza’s hangover cleared when it did because we got there for about 2.30pm and the thing shuts at 3.30pm. We pulled up at the Grand Palace which is the way you’d want your palace to be if you were a King – absolutely everything is audacious and made of gold.
After pulling up we got offered the usual scams of “It’s closed today because it’s ‘Buddha Day’ come and see the ‘Lucky Buddha’ – my friend, he take you there.” All utter rubbish. So we went in and it’s a mixture of tourists like us, tourists who are genuinely interested in this sort of stuff and Thais who go to worship the Emerald Buddha which is an eerie room with a huge alter type arrangement with a little green man sat at the top of it. I couldn’t get a picture of the little green man himself but I did get a picture of the sign saying I couldn’t take a picture, talk or point the soles of my feet at the Buddha – this is the equivalent of us doing the ‘V’ sign to the statues of Jesus in churches (then why are there no signs saying No V Signs or perhaps No Mooning at the Son of God.
We stayed for a bit, got a load of pictures and left. We got a tuk tuk back to our hotel where we had another little doze before heading back to Khao San Road. The porter at the hotel said, “Why you go there? There is nothing there. You go to Patpong for ping-pong show!” We ignored him and gambled on turning up at a deserted Khao San Road.
We got there and it was really busy. Much more busy than the night before – not sure whether that’s because it’s Friday or because we’re a little earlier than last night. We passed the bar we landed in last night for a stroll down the road, there were travellers everywhere with very accommodating bars & restaurants so we settle for something to eat. We then found the greatest bar I have ever been in. It’s easy to forget what England is like but I do know that in order to run a bar you need some vital things: Firstly some premises where you research the area to see if people will come and what the competition is like etc etc and then you need staff, licence to sell booze and preferably a good relationship with the local police. What we have here is a few women who own a cart, some booze, a few signs saying Buckets 300 Baht and another trolley of little stools and a cd player. They wheel along until they find somewhere busy and just set up there and then in the middle of the road. When the bobbies come along we are all told to stand up, move off the road and pretend we’re just walking on the pavement.
They go past and we we make ourselves comfy again. Excellent idea that I can’t see taking off on Deansgate as it would be full of tramps and get robbed. It was genuinely fascinating and we bumped in to a bloke who is the absolute spitting image of Will Macdonald.
A couple of buckets later it was time to head home. We persuaded a tuk tuk driver to take us all the way and he didn’t hold back (I’m drafting this on the plane from Krabi back to Bangkok – hopefully by the time I upload it I can put some video of the journey on here). The tuk tuks are mega as they give you a real street eye view of the roads of Bangkok – we just missed out on the best picture ever – a family of 4 all on one scooter; Dad driving with one kid on the handlebars, mum at the back with the other kid sandwiched between the two! Great Stuff.
Just getting into Bangkok now. You know the jetties at most airports are sponsored by HSBC? Not in Thailand! They have pictures of the King, all serious looking with “LONG LIVE THE KING” plastered on them. You are left in no doubt who’s in charge in Thailand.
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