Bangkok

Groove Shack 2

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Arrived early morning and slept (nothing new there!), woke up and went for a wander to familiarise myself with the area again. 

The last time I was in the khao san area was a couple of years ago and I noticed enough changes then but this time I saw even more, the place is expanding quicker and quicker.

 My first time in Bangkok was back in 2002 with Zac and as usual we scouted the whole area for the best value accomodation (ok, the cheapest accomodation!) and found a quiet street a couple of minutes walk from the Khao San road which had a few hotels and a bar or two accomodating the overspill from it's more famous sister.

Four years on and that road is rapidly catching up. All down the street are guesthouses, internet cafes, bars, restaurants and street food stalls. At night when some of the stalls pack up, the space is quickly taken with tables and chairs or rugs laid out for the night time revellers. It's down this street I came accross the Groove Shack 2.

I walked into the back of a tailors shop and through a door with a sign saying 'climb the stairway to music heaven'. Once on the second level I saw me mate Daryl sitting behind the counter beaming and we caught up on the last 6 weeks or so since he'd been in Naam. I would usually give you a little decription of the shop but the beauty of this website is I can just upload a picture and save myself a thousand words so let me just go and take one.

Ok done.  Daryls desk is to the right, four computers down the left that make up the internet cafe section and the beginnings of the Ja Bar at the back. Ja (the girl in the photo) is a friend of Daryls who is a big help in understanding and finding things for the business in this big frantic jumble of a city. You might be thinking that it doesn't look much like a music shop and to be fair your right. The reason is that Daryl has dispensed with selling CD's (too much competition here anyway) like GS1 does and is just doing MP3 transfers as well as the bar and i/net cafe interests.

Although it's not furnished properly yet the bar opened  about a week ago and needless to say, me Barry and Mark (Nha Trang) are it's best customers.  

Although in the past I have been to Bangkok many times It's always out of necessity rather than choice and I escape at the first opportunity. Apart from catching up with Daryl, Barry and Mark another reason i'll be sticking around for a couple of weeks this time is to experience Songkran which is the Thai New Year and will be my third one in 2006! I wonder how many times it is possible to celebrate the different New Years around the world?

Part of Songkrans traditional celebrations used to include people sprinkling a small amount of scented water on someones shoulder and wishing them a Happy New Year. This has developed over the years into a full scale water fight and the Khao San area is a focal point for it in Bangkok. I've already bought a water pistol and the Ja bar is going to have a street stall outside stacked with Singha and Chang beer.  Sorted.