A New Leaf

After my last note, Greg and I tried taking a taxi back to our hotel… unsuccessfully. Greg almost blew a gasket as we sat waiting for a red light to change – we got out of the car at the 25 minute mark and started walking.

Downtown Bangkok is not really pedestrian-friendly, and the smog from all those cars makes strolling around a bit of an effort. Add to that the 95-degree heat, and the fact that it looked like it was about to rain on us at any moment.  I’ll skip the rest – we finally made it back after a 2-hour trek.

A disco nap, then we were off to Bed Supperclub. This place is unlike any restaurant I’ve ever been to. The building itself is like some kind of spaceship – an elliptical cylinder (follow the link to see pictures). For weekend nights, they give you a carefully choreographed “experience” – at precisely 9 pm, following a pre-dinner drink, the meal starts. It is a “surprise” menu, which means they give you the course then tell what it is after you’ve eaten it. During each of these courses, they have [a] massage ladies (each wearing t-shirts labeled “Madame Relax”), [b] a tarot card reader, and [c] a mini-Broadway show. Bizarre and wonderful.

After dinner we hopped a cab to Patpong, the (in)famous red-light district. Another bizarre place, perhaps not so wonderful. I couldn’t take two steps without being accosted by some skeezey guy asking if I wanted to see a “ping pong show”. We passed a bit of time people-watching from an out-door table at a bar along one of these streets.

Today, we’re hanging around the air-conditioned mall. This afternoon we’re heading to the train station to see about getting an over-night train to Chiang Mai, where we’ve booked a few nights at the “Montrara Happy House” (a hotel recommended by Matt Flanzer). The hotel has free wireless internet, so I’ll be able to post some pictures tomorrow.