Friday, December 2, 2022
Welcome to the Land of Smiles.
The prostitutes block your path in neat formations like rows of tiny stilettoed linebackers. The one who grabbed my crotch had implausibly strong hands.
We were on our way from one fancy beer bar to another, and our route brought us through a red-light district.
As it was my birthday, I stated my preference that there would be no girlie bars on the night's crawl, nor go-go dancers, unsolicited solicitations, kickbacks from the bartender, or where are you from. Massage? A bar nearby is called "Friendship Bar." A Google review claims "nice girls, no pressure." Well that doesn't sound so bad. Nice girls, no pressure. Who doesn't like friendship?
We ate at the first pub, a sleepy spot practically devoid of humans and featuring a pool table and a dart board, and a full kitchen. The portions were small, so we ordered two entrees each. The cook would even make things off the menu by request. Pretty cool for a sports dive. We ended up there at the late end of a subsequent night, just the two of us playing pool while the staff patiently waited for us to leave.
Then it was off to an English themed pub. Here we discovered Beerlao Dark as recommended by Uncle Charlie, and watched some of whatever soccer game was on. We returned there briefly some days later but had to leave in a hurry to find relief from the earwax-melting pop duo who were saturating the airwaves with renditions of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" and Radiohead's "Creep" while shitfaced regulars howled the lyrics in discordant unison. In all fairness, the duo was quite good, but too fucking loud.
Then it was time to up the ante and head to a semi-outdoor beer extravaganza, also with a full kitchen and World Cup soccer. There are many places to drink in this part of Bangkok. All expats and tourists. It took some getting used to coming from Vietnam — the block we're on more closely resembles the apartments across the street from Costco than it does the center of the capital of Thailand. Except for all the hookers.
South Korea versus Ghana was a pretty exciting soccer game. For example, the score was not 0-0. Ghana, coming in widely outranked by Korea, scored two goals right off the bat, or whatever the analogy is in soccer. Then Korea managed to tie it up. Ghana scored again, and there just wasn't enough time for Korea to take it back. If I were judging based solely on the reactions of the Korean fans, I'd say the world had truly ended.
There are other things to see and do in Bangkok.
I didn't get a good shot of it, but that park was infested with dog-sized monitor lizards, or I think that's what they are. Godzilla.
Wednesday we saw the sights, including the palace and the reclining Buddha.
Peekaboo!
The interior walls of one of the buildings was covered in "Where's Waldo?" style murals depicting warring peoples, apes, demons, gods, and all sorts of wild stuff.
I'm getting better at aiming the discolored dollops of glue that I expel from my nose in the shower every morning. Straight for the drain, it's a mess to clean off the tile.
In Vietnam I could attempt to pronounce the writing. In Thailand there's no chance. Here's a sample of the script:
Yesterday we took the underground out to the Chinese part of town. Here things were much more like the rest of the region: narrow alley markets, fish everywhere, skinny buildings, temples, schools, and Asian people.
We passed through a neighborhood where nearly everybody must be a machinist or a motorbike mechanic.
I didn't take many pictures in Chinatown, which is a shame because it's a nice area.
I did take pictures of the river and of the golden Buddha.
Our last find in Chinatown was a church that you can only access by walking through a school playground. In the corner was a narrow spiral staircase that led up to a balcony in the rear of the church. There were instruments and mics set up for the band, and behind that was a small music room where the carillon was controlled. You could even climb a ladder up the the bells themselves, if you dared.
After a little rest by the river, we walked just shy of an hour as the sun set, headed for the party street where we had dinner and partied.
Today we slept way in and then ran some errands. Tonight we might revisit a park.
Tomorrow Pasha heads back to Pattaya and I head over the Pacific.
ลา.