Saturday, January 13, 2007

bar hopping Bangkok style

The last two days were spent in Bangkok...flew in from Nepal with my friend Andy (met on the trek), since he was only going to be in bangkok for 13 hours we hit up khao san road (backpacker ghetto...not excatly the best introduction to bangkok, but the only thing open at night). it was pretty painful to be back in such a place, especially since nepal was so peaceful, but at least i got my touristy food fix (thai pancake = nutella and bananas on friend crepes; pineapple on a stick; iced coffee; lemon shake...mmm). i stayed in a "dorm room" that night, which consisted of three mattresses on the ground pushed together to form one big bed. there wasn't even a place to put my bag (it ended up sleeping on my feet), but it was late so i assumed that no one else was going to move in that night..thankfully i was right, or i would've woken up on top of some random person...i love meeting people, but i feel as though that's just no the best way to go about it.
the next morning i happened to ask some guys if they knew of a good place to stay and they said "Big John's Guesthouse"...so, i promptly hopped into a taxi, and off i went, to Big John's. It was a fabulous place - the dorm rooms were cheap..and air conditioned!! a luxury i hadn't had in a long time...and there were towels, and REAL BEDS. the mattresses were hard, but the pillows were heavenly...most places have rock pillows, which means that you wake up with a really sore ear (weird, i know; it took me a couple weeks to figure out why my ear always hurt in the morning). anyways, this place was amazing - i instantly met everyone in my dorm, and then everyone else in the place and we ended up spending the night out. i was out with 8 guys and another girl (who had never been to a bar before!!), so of course one bar turned into two bars turned into three bars...which ended up in a 7am return to the guesthouse followed by a morning beer. at bars here you can buy BOTTLES of liquor for super cheap (red label whiskey for 10 dollars)...isn't that just ridiculous? anyways, it was a good night had by all...the highlight was when we all stood around observing one of the guys in our group hitting on what we think may have been a thai lady boy (aka really hot girl who in reality is a guy) for a while. anyways, this is why laid back laos is a god-send...and i can start up my antibiotics again, cause i got giardia last week (see next post)...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

YOU GOT GIARDIA????? AHHHH awww I hope you are doing ok, I haven't even read the other post yet I just saw that at the end and was oh dear. Ok so I have learned every detail about that issue and I even have a stuffed giardia doll...yes I know that sounds weird but they make giant lifesize microbes. It was a dorky med school gift. :) I hope you are staying hydrated.

chemchad said...

Kim knows all about those microbes.. She once gave me an overlarged bed bug. At first, I thought it was good fun and games. . . . until it started biting me. Then things got a little rough, and i had to sit kimmer down for a few words ;)