Visas, Islands, and Ping Pong

Trip Start Dec 26, 2007
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Trip End Ongoing


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Thursday, June 5, 2008

I had found a good flight deal from Hanoi to Bangkok for only about 100 dollars. That seemed a lot better deal than 3 days on a bus for maybe 20 dollars less. I had gotten my visa to Vietnam at the Vietnamese Embassy in the Philippines. For some reason, when they gave me the visa, they put it the system with the code that the visa was for the purpose of visiting family members in Vietnam. I didn't realize this until halfway through my trip and I wanted to get the visa extended. They informed me that I was unable to extend the visa because it wasn't a normal tourist visa. I didn't want to have to leave the country and come back in and decided to "cross that bridge" when it came time. The time came when I finally showed up at the airport to leave Vietnam. I knew that I would have to go through customs and had already prepared my plan of attack. As I approached the customs counter, I pulled a 20 dollar bill out of my pocket and slid it into the page in my passport where my Vietnam visa was. I handed the customs officer my passport and boarding ticket. After looking at my passport, he held it up to me and told me that my visa has already expired and I have overstayed. I gave him a confused look and asked him to check again. We locked eyes for a moment and then he fumbled through some more papers, stamped my passport and told me to have a nice day. Andrew Jackson was no longer in my passport. He's a pretty good negotiator when he needs to be.

Back in Bangkok, I found a guesthouse to stay in just off of Khao San Road. Bangkok street
Bangkok street
 Most of my time in Bangkok was spent communicating with the university that I had worked at in South Korea this last winter trying to hammer out details of me going back early to help with their summer English Camp. I was constantly going out to the Korean embassy trying to get my visa to go back and work in Korea. On one of my trips to the embassy, I was riding in a taxi and we got pulled to the side of the road by a policeman. The policeman was standing by the road pulling over all of the cars whose drivers weren't wearing a seatbelt and issuing tickets. The fine for not wearing your seatbelt in Bangkok is 500 baht (16 dollars). When the taxi driver realized that he was busted. He began pleading the officer to not give him a ticket. Once he saw this wasn't going to work, he started shaking the policeman's hand. It wasn't just an ordinary handshake, this time he had put 200 baht in his hand that the policeman slyly put away in his pocket. This convinced the cop to leave the cab driver not with a ticket but rather only with a stern warning not to forget his seatbelt. Obviously Andrew Jackson isn't the only convincing person in the world. The Thai King is pretty good himself.

(The following passage is Rated R - Parental Guidance Suggested) Determined not to leave Thailand without having first seen one of the infamous "Ping Pong shows", I finally made it to one. I didn't want to go alone into the heart of darkness so I convinced my friend Peach, who I went to university with in Tennessee and who is from Bangkok, that she should check it out with me since she had never seen one either. me at the Grand Palace
me at the Grand Palace
 We caught a cab to the red light district of Patpong to begin our mission. Walking through Patpong, people can see stalls lined up from one end of the street to the other selling cheesy souvenirs and foreigners are constantly heckled by people selling things. Through the bar doors you can see dozens of Thai girls dancing on neon lit stages to the beat of hip hop music and wearing only bikini bottoms, and heels. A lot of the bars were advertising that they had a ping pong show so we finally settled on one that had "100 baht beers and no cover charge." In case you don't already know, a ping pong show is where girls put on a performance of these outrageous talents that they have discovered they have and can make money from. Originally, the shows started out just doing ping pong shows where a girl would put a ping pong ball inside of her and shoot it out either at a target or an unsuspecting patron at the bar. Over time, the shows because more aggressive and girls started discovering new talents to attract more people. Some bars have girls shooting darts at balloons, writing someone's name on a sheet of paper with a marker, blowing out candles on a birthday cake or opening beer bottles. All of this sounds easy but keep in mind it is all done with their vaginas. Not the kind of girl you would take home to introduce to the grandparents. After 2 beers each, we decided that we had seen enough. A total of 4 beers at 100 baht a beer and no cover charge is an easy calculation of 400 baht (13 dollars) total for everything, right? Apparently not. Grand Palace
Grand Palace
 When we got our check, the bill said that we owed an outrageous amount of 1,800 baht (60 dollars), more than 4 times what it should have been! I told the girl that was outrageous and that we were only paying for the 4 drinks that we ordered. The mama san (boss or manager) of the club came over and starting telling us about all of the extra charges that we had to pay for. (Ex. Cover charge, sitting fee, table fee, etc.) I told her she was crazy and that we were only paying the 400 baht for the drinks. I wasn't too worried about it because I knew it was just a scam to rip people off. Peach was really getting upset though and scared that we were going to have to pay all of that money. After about 10 minutes and the lady coming down on the bill by about 200 baht ever 4 minutes or so another guy came to take her place in the negotiations. He kept knocking the price down more and more and I kept insisting that we weren't paying anymore than what we should. Peach was ready to go and really upset so we ended up handing them 600 to just stop arguing and get out of there. Definitely quite an experience.

Once I got my Korean visa situation taken care of, I decided to head south to some islands and beach time for a couple of days before jetting back to South Korea for the summer. I caught an overnight bus and ferry to the island of Koh Phangan in the Gulf of Thailand. If anyone has ever read the book or seen the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, The Beach, this is one of the islands that are mentioned. On the southern tip of the island is a beach called Haad Rin. One night in 1987, a group of people got together on the beach and threw a big party during a full moon. It went so well that they decided to do it again during the next full moon and it just started growing exponentially from there. Now there are an estimated 7-10,000 people there for every full moon party. The entire beach is packed with people drinking whisky buckets, twirling fire, and loving life. In order to keep people coming all the time and not just during the full moon, they started having half moon, new moon, quarter moon, and three quarter moon parties as well. Basically, every night of the week is a party on Koh Phangan.

Other the drinking and late night festivities, the beach is really nice during the day. The water in the cove is really calm and clear, the white sand is spotted with sunbathers and topless women, and people throw Frisbees or play volleyball. After a couple days of madness it was time for me to get back to Bangkok and catch my flight out of Thailand.
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