The best laid plans…
They say that the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha are some awe inspiring sights that are a genuine ‘must see’ when in Bangkok; that is why we booked a morning tour of these magnificent structures and other places of interest in Bangkok’s Old Town. That is where we should be right now but instead Pezza is in the bathroom being very sick and I’m blogging away.
We got here yesterday after an annoying but uneventful flight. Annoying because it’s a 7 hour journey at night but it drops down in Mumbai on the way so you can’t really get a good night’s kip but we checked in, had an hour here and then wandered into the city. It’s a genuine assault on the senses with so much going on everywhere – not even just street corners but all along the street as well!
View of the Chao Phraya river from our hotel
We did the tourist thing and took the tuk-tuk around town for a bit and had a stroll – we stumbled across a random ‘International Balloon Festival’ which was quite funky, there were huge and elaborate kites, hot air balloons, political rallies etc all with the backdrop of a temple gently lighting up in the evening sky.
We soon established that we were nowhere near where we wanted to be for the evening and got on a river taxi to an area called Sukhumvit. The river taxi is a bargain at 12 Bahts, especially when you consider it includes free ‘certain death’. Sukhumvit is where there are markets, bars and restaurants where we had our first taste of the local cuisine which was delicious but needless to say visits to the toilet are currently being met with a bit of a sting. Fantastic atmosphere and food, all for under a tenner for the two of us.
It was then to Patpong for the markets and the ‘other side’ of Bangkok’s culture. We found a bar that we assumed was a brothel but after a couple of beers in there and close observation it was just a bar that blokes go in for the privilege of buying the women in there a drink for a bit of company, it was a bit dingy so we moved to another bar that was open air with a live band on. Safe, we thought. But this bar was exactly the same and some bird (Number 55, as she was called) came up to us and started chatting. She was lovely with a big bruise on her arm and the side of her face that she got from, she says, a fight with a crazy lady. Her colleagues were approaching us and apologising that we seemed to get the mental one. 
I bribed her with a drink and we promptly left for the hospitality of an Irish bar. En route, however, we must have been approached by a dozen blokes offering us a ‘ping-pong’ show. This is not, repeat NOT, a table tennis tournament. It is accompanied with a ‘banana show’ and a ’smoking cigarette show’. We didn’t go in as we were nowhere near drunk enough and the constant badgering was beginning to get us down.
I bribed her with a drink and we promptly left for the hospitality of an Irish bar. En route, however, we must have been approached by a dozen blokes offering us a ‘ping-pong’ show. This is not, repeat NOT, a table tennis tournament. It is accompanied with a ‘banana show’ and a ’smoking cigarette show’. We didn’t go in as we were nowhere near drunk enough and the constant badgering was beginning to get us down. We therefore headed to Khao San Road which is a haven for travellers.
This was much more like it with live bands, cheap beer and Sambuca. The place was full of travelling westerners and all the blokes (me included) were dressed exactly the same in our t-shirts, baggy shorts and flip-flops.
It was here that the route of Pezza’s current condition can be traced back to (we think) as we drank for a few hours and enjoyed some pad Thai from one of the street vendors. Not a ping pong ball in sight!
It was here that the route of Pezza’s current condition can be traced back to (we think) as we drank for a few hours and enjoyed some pad Thai from one of the street vendors. Not a ping pong ball in sight!
She seems to have pulled herself together now so we’re getting ready and will head back out.
Andy
Oh, one more thing – there was some silly bitch in Dubai whinging that the standards of the Jumeirah Beach Hotel had gone downhill. Her reasoning for this was that there were only 4 complimentary apples in her room each day instead of the usual 5. Well, check out the standard of the Shangri-La in Bangkok! 
Only 3 apples but 2 bananas and a plate with cutlery AND a flower! Wow – that’s what you pay the money for!
