Friday, July 26 2013

We took it easy on Wednesday, hung out at the condo, played a game of Upword…I won… then, ate dinner at one of the little restaurants near the house . The food here is unbelievably cheap. You can get a really filling meal and a drink for under $4.

Fully rested, we were geared up for a big day in town. It took a while but we, now, have the transportation system wired…from the tuk tuks, taxis, mini vans, skybridge, skytrain, regular buses and subways, also unbelievably cheap. It costs $1 a person to go from our neighborhood to downtown Bangkok, about a 20 – 30 minute trip, depending on the traffic.

 First stop, lunch downtown then off to the train station to make our travel arrangements for Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The train station is on the rim of Chinatown. All within a few blocks, we found, again, gritty buildings, construction everywhere, huge billboards, as well as beautiful contemporary buildings, high rise hotels and a canal running through the neighborhood bordered by twisted trees and shanty like wooden structures. And, of course, the constant congestion of cars, buses, taxis, tuk tuks and humanity .

We wanted to see the "Golden Buddha," but the temple was closed by the time we got there. We'll go next week. This Buddha is solid gold and weighs 5 ½ tons and Bill estimates that it’s worth 132 million dollars. Look for photos later on.

Our main destination this evening was Patpong, a few neighborhoods over from Chinatown. Things don’t really come alive here until 8 p.m. or later so, we stopped for another cheap dinner before immersing ourselves in the chaos of Patpong. Well, imagine Las Vegas, Tijuana and Amsterdam all on steroids and that would be Patpong. It’s located on the streets below the Skytrain and, although it isn’t a hugh area, the density is huge. Vendors, selling everything imaginable, line the streets and behind the vendors, on one of the streets, we found club after club of men hawking their famous “Ping Pong” shows. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” you’ll know what this is, except, I don’t think the woman in that movie was naked . Although we decided to pass on attending one of these strange exhibitions of women ejecting pingpong balls from various parts of their body, we did stop for a drink on the next street over that is home to a succession of gay bars and restaurants that was a real circus of humanity.

Exhausted from the sensory overload and miles of walking, we headed home around 10 p.m. Our plan for Saturday was to head back into Bangkok for the weekend Market….one of our favorite things to do.

One more thing….in addition to getting the transportation wired, I’ve managed to perfect one very important phrase in Thai. Khob Khun Ka, if you’re a woman and Khob Khun Krab, in you’re a man. This, accompanied by a slight bend with your hands in a prayer position means, thank you. The Thai people, like people from other countries, seem to really appreciate foreigners who attempt to communicate with them using the Thai language and it has been great fun to see how responsive these people have been to my paltry effort at communicating…Buenas Noches