Bangkok take 2

Okay, so, after not liking Bangkok all that much the last time, James wanted to go there to shop, h ang out etc. Itt (another friend from Uni) lives there, so we ended up staying with him for the few days, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Getting into the city from the new airport was a bit rought, but once we got to Itt's place we were off for some fun. Note below how happy james looks for us to be going onthe skytrain



Since this was Itt enjoying the ol' hometown again too, we went to the Siam Paragon to meet up with some of his friends. There's one on Orcahrd Road back in Singapore too, but this one looks nicer to me



And of course, James and I hit the palace to get the touristy kick out of the way. The only difference from pre-coup to post-coup I saw was that they no longer give out free pants, so we were forced to buy some stylish thai pants across the road. Good thing James is a bastard and can bargain well :)



Ooooh,aaaah (it was pretty cool that it was free that day, as it was the king's birthday. Pretty spiffy time to come to Bangkok)





And James showing off his tres fashionable thai pants



And yes, be ever vigilant for each temple's rules. The foot thing is pretty universal though.



And, remember how back in the Philippines I mentioned the hordes of Korean tourists in matching shirts? FOUND 'EM! Only this time in Bangkok. They do like their tour groups they do. And these guys are pretty tame in terms of shirts, they were just the most easily stalkable...not that I'm a creeper or anything. Is it a blasphemy to stalk people in a temple?



I declined having pictures taken with the model of Angkor Wat (it's cool and all, but I can snootily say I've been there, done that. And besides, James looks good as a giant)



And there is a large number of chicken/human hybrid themed statuary around too... I think I'm getting hungry at this point.



oooh, above just a shot of palacial temples etc. Below, james at Wat Pho (with the giant reclining Buddha) eating some sour mango with salt. Mmmm. He also got a cool painting while we were there too





Oooh, more toursity temple times



And of course, Wat Pho is famous for it's massage school. I think we were both extremely happy about this. Thai massages = touristy and awesome in the extreme



And some night shots outside of the palace while we're looking for a taxi to get us over to Lumpini night market to meet up with Itt. We got dinner roadside (the large abundance of green curry also makes me happy) and then went off






Which is where several hours later, we get colin sitting and waiting for the boys to finish trying on more of their clothes *rolls eyes* silly boys. But hey, even I went shopping in Bangkok, it's rather hard not too



After that, catching the subway to Silom area for a ping pong show. No pictures of that here though, go ask your parents when you're older about it.



And the gay bar district, as we are celebrating the "anything goes" attitude of Bangkok (this also pertains to health regulations though, so checking to make sure a place is kinda clean is important too). That and the return of a place with cheap drinks, it makes sitting in a bar to chat about the day a nice experience. Being a white guy in a bar in thailand is also an experience...especially the only whitey under 50. Oy vey



And Itt is applying himself to our breakfast the next day (we're eating outside on his street down from his condo) before heading out for the day. Did I mention how much I love the food in Thailand?



And this is the giant mall thing that is famous for electronics, movies, music, etc. It's pretty spectacular to see, and I'm glad I took a shot before noticing the "no pictures' sign. This is probably due to the massive amount of pirated software around (full versions in the tens of thousands of computer programs, movies, mp3 cd's with hundreds of hours of music, full karoke collections, etc), not to mention the fellas outside every store and stall soliciting "hey mister, sexy movie? you want sexy movie?". Strangely enough, they mostly ingnored Itt and I and went for James all the time... he must be a giant perv ;)



And clothes shopping again... I stuck around for a while,then went to get food while they finished. Makes all of us more sane :) I like the food more than anything else anyway



The little soi (side street) by Itt's place, full of all the wonderful food items and stalls. Cheaper to buy every meal than to cook in Bangkok, so we got dinner out all the time. Rock on!



And going out to the clubs between my matching asian studs... did I mention being a white man in Thailand is interesting? Even with my "boys" I got a lot of attention from the ladies and gentlemen of negotiable virtue, above and beyond most people except for the old guys tossing around TONS of money (sure money and geezerdom trumps potential money and youth). They offered Itt a bunch of stuff later too, and as he's darker than Itt, James was always assumed to be the local guide, so he got spoken to in Thai a lot... though only Itt speaks it. Oh, interesting times



The phone and the nubmer below is for a bar called "telephone". The gimmick is that you can call someone you think is cute to buy them a drink etc. (I'm not really a booze hound, honestly. I finished finals the day before the trip however, so have to go out and have a fun time while you can. blowing off steam after hordes of tests helps a lot)





Below is Itt's swingin' pad. It's a really nice place over by the Victory monument. Easy to catch the skytrain from there. Did I mention it has a pool we liked too?





After this we went to meet Caro outside Wat Chana Songkram over by Th.Khao San. While waiting for her, we took some pictures.



And as James wanted to take a tuk tuk at least once while in Thailand, we did on our way from there to the river to catch a boat.





Oooh, pretty river shot. Local boat down Bangkok : 13 baht. What they try to scam tourists for if you're not careful : 600 baht (as was told to me by a nice Norwegian girl in my cognitive class we ran into. Part of the fun of a trip is avoiding being screwed. It feels VERY good when you avoid 'em)



This picture needs to be enlarged to get it, but there's a space for monks on every boat. There was a sea of orange here before, but if you click it, you can read the "space for monks" sign clearly. We found it rather amusing.





And Wat Arun, temple of the dawn. This is the sucker made out of crushed porcelain tiles, though more than that, ask Helen and Chris, since I'm going fuzzy.



Flower market and Indian market over by memorial bridge



A few hours of wandering town and a massage later, we tried to get to see a Muay Thai match. however, they've now introduced a "foreigners" and "thai" line system. We were told to pay 3 times more what the locals paid at the ticket office... a sum too large for our meagre budget. So, we ended up going up a ferris wheel for a while before heading to the bar to meet up with Itt and a few other folk.





yay ferris wheel! cool view of the city from there



And after all of this debauthcery and shopping, we stop for a roadside meal and end up with a nice group shot. Good last night in bangkok!



Caro went off to join her Mum on a tour, and Itt went about his life, so James and I went to the weekend market, which is GIANT by the way, jsut to check it out for a while. ended up with a few more things, and pictures of PUPPIES! This is definitely a place to get a lot of neat stuff, you'd like some of the fish dad. It was a scorcher that day though.





Okay, see below? All around us is white clouds and sunshine...except when you look back at Bangkok. Note that grey smear? yup, that's it. No wonder people get sick there a lot. Avoided it this time, but there's a definite difference in air quality between Bangkok and Singapore



I'm trying to use up the rest of my battery here, as it claims to be dying at this point. This was also a big trip since James is on his way home now (only here for one semester) so this was our big hurrah trip. We ended up going out again that night when we went back to Singapore, so a good thing that we got some sleep on the plane. Fun trip!



now, off to kill a few more hours before Peter gets to Singapore and another round of adventures can start up! Take care all!