Bangkok

After so much worrying and feelings of dread, it came as a bit of a shock that this time around we loved Bangkok. Maybe the first time we'd had a bad day, or maybe we just didn't have our travelling legs at the time, but this time we were pleasantly surprised. Getting around was especially easier, as most of the taxis were now metered. You still got the occasional refusal from the drivers, and it was pretty hard to get them to turn on the meters at night or during rush hour, but then again, one time we had one guy who let us cram six people in his cab and use the meter at 11:00pm! We also had a lot of really friendly, chatty drivers - one offered to get us some opium between talking about his family! That was a little too friendly... There were company taxis and family run taxis - the latter coloured orange and green, which tended to be a little more willing to use their meters and chat about Thai politics. When I asked one younger driver (he looked 14 but was 26) if drivers made good money he said "not really mister... lots and lots of cheap charlies...they pay 300 Bhat for girl, no problem, but they only pay me 100 Baht, I don't understand" - I didn't either...

Khao San Road, the backpacker's haven, wasn't as noisy and busy as I'd expected. We found our hotel, New Joe House, on a small alley parallel to Khao San Road. It was slightly upscale for us as far as price, but had pretty good security, free access to email, laserdisc (yes, laserdisc) movies playing non-stop on a big screen TV at night, laundry facilities and the best restaurant for breakfast and lunch. Beth and I would lounge around there almost every morning reading the excellent Bangkok Post.

We took our time, partly because we weren't in any rush, but mostly because we were at a point of impasse - do we go to Cambodia? Since the bloody coup on July 5th and 6th, I'd read anything I could get my hands on about Cambodia. It looked as if things in the capital had settled down, but some papers reported fighting "near the temple area of Angkor Wat..." - I was skeptical. Beth did not want to go at all, and I did my best to ignore my intense urge to go - but that lasted about five hours.

Chad had given us his Fielding’s Guidebook - covering Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar since we had pretty much given up on Lonely Planet at that point. After walking thirty minutes to an STA Travel branch in Bangkok and seeing a sign that said "sorry, we moved in 1995" (our book was printed in 1997 - obviously tons of people had come there) I vowed to never again buy a Lonely Planet publication. Yes, they were the most popular for backpackers, and yes they may have been the best choice in some countries, but too many mistakes were inexcusable - how hard was it to phone STA once a year and check if all their branches were still open??? We'd heard too many stories of LP writers sitting around their hotels getting second hand information off of backpackers instead of doing the legwork themselves. The mistakes we noticed in the Southeast Asia guide and the individual Indonesia, Malaysia/Singapore and Thailand guides were numerous and easy to correct if "honest" research had been done. Instead, they did half-assed research and covered their asses with the blanket statement found at the front of every book "Things change....". They had gotten too big for their own good and they were beginning to lose sight of their "grass roots" beginnings. Enough on that topic....

There were movies being played at almost every restaurant in the Khao San Road area, and it was easy to pass the day away watching them. The restaurant we most often went to was "Royal India" – an awesome place with - if you can believe it - Thai, Indian, Mexican and great Middle Eastern chicken kabobs! We ended up meeting a British couple, Kirsty and Jason, that we'd met at the Cameronian Inn in Malaysia. We were glad, as we were thinking of going to the infamous red light district, Pat Pong, that night and we didn't exactly feel like going alone.

As it turned out, Pat Pong rivals Khao San Road for cheap shopping, although it was only set up at night and it got quite crowded. After a brief look, we set our sights on finding a club that wouldn't rip us off. We'd heard and read lots of stories of people being charged hundreds of dollars for a couple of beers or having to pay a hidden cover or "show" charge before being allowed to leave. Armed with our trusty new Fielding’s Guidebook which had an excellent write up on the sex industry in Thailand, we went searching for a club. Every once in a while, Jason or I would get separated from Beth and Kirsty and the touts would grab us and entice us with a printed "menu":

girl with ping pong ball....
girl with bowling ball......…
girl with horn..............……
girl with candles...........….

etc…

We'd read that any place associated with the "King's Group" was safe, so we went into a place called "Super-Queen" (we naively didn't even get the obvious meaning of the name until much later...) that promised "Classy Decoration" and "Tempting Atmosphere". The tout outside was so eager for us to trust him that the place was legit, he gave me his ID badge to take in with us. The first thing we heard when we were seated at the table was the squeaking of horns. I looked up at the stage, and the horns were... being.... played.... We endured about an hour of watching young girls and transsexuals doing lame shows, but mostly trying to get a "date" with some single males (mostly Japanese at that club) seated around the place. It was a pretty sad, disturbing experience. The show was an afterthought – it was actually quite sad – the obvious focus was on the sex trade and not on the “shows” - you could see it in the faces of the girls and customers alike. We finished our 80 Baht beers and got out with our wallets intact.

The next day, we met up with Kylie and Andrew for the 4th time since Bali! The six of us went to Saturday night kickboxing at Lumphini Kickboxing Stadium. Kickboxing can get really exciting, but the most interesting part for me was to watch and listen to the crowds. The hand gestures they used to bet with people were impossible to decipher, and all they had to do was make eye contact with someone across the stadium and the betting began. There were three different ticket prices - 880 Baht for front row (literally 1-3 meters away), 440 Baht for the lower pit section (3-15 meters away) and the upper pit for 220 Baht (15-35 meters away) - which is what we bought. We arrived at just before 9pm and were able to lean on the fence right behind the lower pit section. The place rapidly filled up until some Thai guys handed me a note "please move, this is betting area" - I didn't bite, but four Japanese guys next to me apologized and left to the delight of the Thai men. Later, the Thai guy laughed at me and shrugged like "I tried!" - I would too if six huge foreigners were blocking the view up front I guess... The fights themselves were pretty good and the sound effects by the supporters of each fighter when they kneed their opponents in the side enhanced the excitement. We left at about 10:30, when the action was just getting really good, but we had an appointment with Mr. Vanita.

Since Beth and I would be setting up shop when we got back to Toronto around Christmas, we both knew we'd need to spend a few thousand dollars on clothes if we had any hope of working some day. We'd heard that you could get stuff made relatively cheaply in Bangkok, and we were hoping to go a little less than dirt-cheap and get some good quality affordable suits. The first place that caught our eye was at the end of our little alleyway, next to a Fuji Film store, and we (almost) immediately trusted the Indian proprietor (Mr. Vanita) from the get-go. He - was - good. He could sell mirage branded bottled water to an Egyptian. After ordering, fitting and trying on our first batch of suits, he had us ordering more, and more, and more! Cheap? You could definitely get stuff cheap if you wanted - cashmere 3 piece suits for $70.00... OK, I didn't go that cheap, but there were plenty of pictures of foreigners in cheesy 3 piece pin-striped cashmere suits. I got a 100% wool, double-breasted suit for $120USD, and it was nice. Beth was in 7th heaven, getting suits and dresses made of silk or cashmere for what she said was a pretty low price (what did I know?). All told I ordered two suits, one blazer, two pairs of pants, four shirts and he threw in six silk ties. Beth got even more! We were a little apprehensive about him shipping the stuff to Canada for us, but we trusted him. He said Canadian customs was the worst and he would make it look like they were used clothes so they would not suspect anything. He even packed in souvenirs that we had bought and sent everything together. They arrived about a month later, slightly wrinkled, and after a little dry cleaning we had a brand new wardrobe!