Thursday, August 11, 2005

Around town

Well this past weekend ended up being needed relaxation. On Friday night, I met up with Hannah and Kirk over by Lumpini night bazaar to check out Thai boxing - Muay Thai. Unfortunately, once we found the stadium we also found out they have a double pricing standard for foreigners. Voted too expensive by our group we headed over to the beer/food garden (described in an earlier post) phad thai and fruit shakes later we decided to see what adventures we could find wandering around town. Stopped on the way out of the night bazaar to pick up round 2 of Chang beers and walked along the park edge. Sat around drinking in the park till it closed and then headed to the busy/infamous Patpong area. The place was packed - up and down the street with vendors of all sorts and attacks from all sides from sleazy men asking us if we wanted to go see the ping pong show. By the way, I may not have mentioned that earlier but it is a common question from tuktuk drivers, etc - has become a running joke amongst us americans... After walking for a while and stopping at the ubiquitous 7-11 to try random thai energy drinks (apparently some are illegal in the US! so we thought it worthy entertainmetn) we headed back towards MBK and ended up seeing 'Land of the Dead' An absolutely horrible movie! Even our tolerant bunch couldn't stand it... Wandered back to the dorms, ran into Doug and Elliott and ended up staying up late chatting.

Saturday was glorious as it began with.... sleeping in!!! the first time in weeks! Hannah and I decided to have a girls day around town since everyone else was off on their own personal missions. Finally headed out around noon and walked over to China town - found the untoursity part of town and got catcalls half way there! At any rate it's a very interesting section... definitely a taste of China with the crowded streets and vendors selling everything from bandsaws to grapes to cigarettes they found in the trash - pretty authentic from what I'd say! We occupied ourselves for quite a while exploring before heading back to the dorm. On the return trip we found a street lined with coffin stores... plus one in the middle selling only ducks... We reconvened back at our rooms and headed to Pontip which is the electronics sales area of town. A crazy several story floor where you can buy mp3s pirated DVDs or a computer. Deals weren't as good as in China though so after browsing we headed south to Banyan tower - one of the tallest buildings in Bangkok. They have the tallest rooftop restaurant where we sat and sipped expensive drinks overlooking the city. A pleasant way to kill a couple of hours! Back home for a nap and when Kirk and Elliott got back all four of us headed to Khao San Road for an evening out. The place is crazy and entertaining but I'm very glad we can leave when we get tired of it!

Sunday I slept in again when Hannah went with Kirk to church. Our original plan called for us and Elliot to go to the ancient capitol of Ayuthatya in the afternoon. However when those two came back around noon we found out that both Hannah and I had to change rooms and move in together by 4pm! So that killed time and by the time we were finished it was a bit late for the 1 hr train ride each way. As substitute we headed over to the middle eastern section of the city by Nana skytrain stop. Different from any other part I've seen - signs in arabic, english, and thai. Had some great indian/pakistani food and when it started pouring we moved across the street to smoke a hookah for awhile. Got back kindof late and didn't end up doing much the rest of the evening.

Monday went with Doug and Elliott back to Khao San and their favorite vegetarian restaurant - I think they're converting me... that or the sketchy Thai meat. Tuesday was just gym, MBK, home, hall party and room shuffle as Doug and Elliott moved in together so that Hannah and I could have our own rooms (she gets up way too early! and the boys are just nice!) Then last night back to the vegetarian restuarant Mai Kaidee's to celebrate Doug's 22nd bday in style.

Well I'm feeling it's definitely time to get out of the city and tonight I'm headed north with Travis and Hannah to Chiang Mai! Be back on Monday...

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