one night in bangkok

excitement factor 1000!
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A bus, three flights, and a taxi later we finally pulled up to Khao San Road, the crossroads for backpackers across all off South East Asia. We wandered the streets a little before we found ‘Thai Cozy House’, where we had our reservation for the night. Bags were dumped, tops changed, jandals put on, and then the five of us (Karen, Lisa, Matt, Sarah, and I) took to the streets in search of some food, some ‘buckets’, and some fun!

Taking in the smells, sounds and sights of Bangkok again was awesome; I couldn’t believe it had been over a year already since Karen and I were there last. We quickly found ourselves an establishment and immediately went about ordering a couple of buckets. At a price of just 170 Baht (about $7 US) the buckets are a bargain, a sure fire way to kick start a good night quickly. The menu had us all smiling from ear to ear, oh bless you Thai food!! However, I made the mistake of hitting up a green curry – note to self, green equals very hot!

ping pong balls, darts, long string with silk flowers, a coke bottle, a cigarette, razor blades

good call from the taxi man
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We enjoyed the food and the company. It was the first time Karen, Lisa and I had met Matt’s girl friend, Sarah, and since we were parting ways for the holiday after this night we made the most of our short time with her to get to know her a little and just had fun hanging out.

After we had eaten enough, and drunk a little bit more, we started to wander around the many stalls and shops. However, we hadn’t gone more than a step or two when the heavens opened up on us and the streets cleared faster than had someone pulled a gun and shouted “I’m from America!”. We slowly weaved our way along one side of the road, under cover, before we decided that shopping on the first night wasn’t really the best idea anyway as we would be back in Bangkok after a week.

Kaz and Lisa suck back on a bucket
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So, with no shopping to be done and the bars emptying as the rain continued to fall heavier and heavier, we decided to go somewhere none of us had ever been before, and experience something… well, something rather “unique” to Thailand… we made our way to Patpong for a world famous ‘Ping Pong’ show!!

We grabbed a couple of tuk-tuks and raced our wet way across the city. For Matt, Sarah and Lisa, it was their first ride in a tuk-tuk, and I have to say it was a beauty! Our drivers were really going for it in the wet, dark conditions, red lining their way down the straights and almost popping onto two wheels round the bends.

a reunited Matt and Sarah share one of soon to be many buckets
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Luckily, we made it in one piece, even if we did have a little wet patch around the crotch area!  We walked into the dodgy “bar”, in the dodgy back alley street, and paid our 500 Baht apiece (expensive, but needed to be done just once!). Then we rounded the corner and walked into the main room.

The first thing we did was order our “free” drinks, and then followed a lady to our seats. The room was set up so that there were rows of seats, surrounding and facing a small middle stage about 3m wide and 5m long. Our seats turned out to be front row, yikes! We stayed watching the “performances” for about a half hour in which time we saw some very strange stuff that at times impressed us, but most of the time disturbed the hell out of us! I will save you the gory details and instead list some items and you can use your own imagination; ping pong balls, darts, long string with silk flowers, a coke bottle, a cigarette, razor blades, a pen, a man and a woman!  The whole show was just as it had been described to me “strange and completely lacking in any sort of ‘sexual’ vibe”. The performers all had totally blank faces as they came out, did their thing, and then left to get ready for their next act. The music throughout was very cheesy and out of place and most of the people in the crowd just looked more awkward at being there than actually having a good time. Overall I think it’s definitely a once off kind of thing, and there is definitely no way I will be heading back to Patpong for a round two. Round one has already scarred the lot of us for life!