BTCs, Handopolis and ladyboys, Oh My!
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2007
1
55
81
Trip End
Oct 01, 2008
Bangkok,
Thailand
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
First off, Bangkok. The seven-letter capitol of Thailand says it all. This marvelous metropolis is constantly humming with the sounds of Thai culture and life. Early morning prayer music blasts from god knows where, taxis and tuk-tuks speed down the jam-packed roadways outside your hotel window and the Thai people are using every inch of space on every sidewalk, corner and alley for commerce, commerce, commerce. Truly, this city never sleeps.
During our first few days in Bangkok we stayed in the northeastern section of the city and relaxed in a beautifully air conditioned hotel room watching movie after movie. Our laziness has its reasons, but for blog's sake I'll leave the description to our soon to be posted photos. In addition, site seeing was off limits because a couple of nerds from Rory's college days, Max and JT, were coming to leave their mark with us and I'm pretty sure that one day at Wat (temple) Smash Ass is all I could handle.
Before the boys arrived, we spent a few days on Th. Sukhumvit. This area is bustling with bars, restaurants, clubs and street vendors, but most importantly Nana Plaza, the ex-pats dream. Nana Plaza houses many of the Go-go bars in Bangkok and is the place to be if you want to pay for a hot little Thai arm candy (or more). To my surprise, it is mainly old fat men lining the walls of these bars and not young male tourists, but I suppose that makes sense. Rory and I did not spend anytime in Nana Plaza. I figured I would let him venture over there with the boys for a more memorable experience. It did not take long for this to happen.
The boys arrived early on a Saturday morning. Ubber early to be exact - 3:00 a.m. Of course, this meant that we needed to stay up all night and wait for them and due to poor planning by the pair, they had no room to crash in and had to share our two twin bed box. JT got to sleep with Max's feet and vise versa, but comfort was not the only thing preventing sleep that night. Turns out, it was Thai New Year that weekend. The Thai people traditionally would pour scented water on the Buddha statues to cleanse them for the New Year, but things have spiraled out of control and now it's an all out water fight. Songkran is the name of the festival and nothing could have been more entertaining.
Our hotel, The Buddy Hotel, was on the main backpacker street called Kho San Rd. This was also the most crowded water fight area so it was virtually impossible to leave our hotel without getting completely soaked and covered in this weird clay type substance. On Saturday night, we decided to head out for a nice dinner and some cocktails at Vertigo. This restaurant/bar sits on top of the Banyan Tree Hotel on Th. Sathon Tai, 59 floors up. And yes, I do mean quite literally on top of the hotel. There are only small railings on all sides and nothing but sky above your head. The views of Bangkok are incredible and the cuisine is delectable. As it turns out, Vertigo is probably the most expensive restaurant in Bangkok but luckily, Max had already decided to fork out for the bill before we had a chance to look at the menu. Max-a-million! After satisfyingly stuffing ourselves and polishing off a few bottles of their finest Pinot Grigio, we hopped in a cab back to the Buddy and turned in for the night in preparation for the long day ahead.
The morning sun was already baking the water soaked street along with the thousands of Thai Songkran celebrants as we bared our not-for-long dry bodies out into the mayhem. It was a sightseeing day for us, but not without complications. We headed for the river to check out the Wats and hopefully hire a boat to take us through some of the waterways. At the Grand Palace we made a quick stop to pat ourselves dry and change into rented pants, shirts and a skirt for me. I guess Buddha and the King don't appreciate daisy dukes like American boys do. I also found out that public displays of affection like pinching your husbands nipples is a big No-No while visiting the reclining Buddha. That security guard looked like he wanted to take my head off with his nightstick. Oopsies. It's not my fault I was drunk. Before entering the Wat with the reclining Buddha we hired a long boat for the 4 of us and brought a case of beer along for the ride. Definitely worth it. It made the massive attack from Songkran celebrating locals bearable. They had hoses, buckets, water guns and splashing hands ready at ever turn and of course, the boat driver would always slow down for full soaking potential. River water is not fun when your mouth is open.
After a full day of Wat strolling, we went back into the watery mess and hit the piss-warm pool for a while. That night I honestly cannot remember what we did, but I'm sure it involved Chang beer and street food. The next couple of days are a blur as well. I do know that at one point the boys took to the street for drinking and victimized soaking while I watched movies in the room and another day the 3 of them went to Th. Sukhumvit to visit Nana Plaza and get a "traditional Thai massage" that turned out to be a total bust. Apparently, there are actual massage parlors in Bangkok where all you get is a massage. On the fourth and final day of Songkran, when we were all getting a bit tired of being totally soaked, we decided to get revenge and bought water guns. Why we had not done this earlier is beyond us all. Squirting some unsuspecting traveler with ice cold water is incredibly liberating and screaming fun. We also pummeled a pack of ladyboys who stopped to give us a show, one of them drawing an air heart and pointing to JT. Aw, wub at first sight.
With Songkran finally over and the opportunity to take on the town dry, we took an hour taxi North to the ancient city of Ayuthatta to see some spectacular ruins. Unfortunately for us, it was one of the hottest days we had experienced and by high noon we were begging to be taken to the nearest water fight, of which there were none. On the bright side, the ruins were amazing. Our trip home was less than amazing on the hottest bus ever, but we were already drenched in sweat so who cares. Well, the girl next to Rory cared and handed out some gum for the both of us. Lovely. By the time we reached the Buddy Hotel we were all whipped out and ready to move on. We packed our bags and scheduled our airport shuttle and slipped off into a dreamy sleep full of ladyboys and BTCs (an acronym for one of those had-to-be-there inside jokes) in preparation for our adventures to come.
