It was a long flight, but after almost 20 hrs and two flights we made it safely into Bangkok at 10:50 pm. Between the great selection of free movies, decent airplane food and the nicest Korean flight attendants ever, the journey was actually pretty enjoyable. We landed and got a cab to our friend Olivia's apartment, who we'd be staying with for our time in Bangkok. We were met with a warm embrace and two large bottles of Leo beer, by Olivia and her British friend Rob. It was great to finally be "home". We sat and talked and drank for a while, and because i hadn't really slept much on the plane I was struggling to keep it together. Between my buzzed, sleep deprived state and Rob's strong English accent, I think I was more confused by our conversation than anything, and found myself just nodding my head a lot for fear of saying something blatantly off topic. All the while feeling like I was giving him the strangest looks because my eyes felt like they were sagging half way down my face. But I managed to get through with out him thinking I'm a total ra-tard (or at least I think), and after a while they took off to stay at his place, and Brooke and I popped an Ambien to ensure some well needed rest. I awoke at 7am, walked out on the balcony to look out over a land soon to be explored, conquered, surely loathed, and couldn't help but to think to myself……..fuck yah.
The next morning we walked down to the streets to find the thing that was driving about 75% of my desire to go on this trip, a substance that can bring so much joy and happiness to life, food. I never imagined eating to be such a difficult task, but when there are SO many different options that look absolutely amazing, I just about freak out in trying to decide what to actually go for. I finally found a little restaurant front that looked pretty good so I decided to pull the trigger. Often times when figuring out customs of a new country it can render you feeling pretty dumb, and as I stood in front of these little Thai ladies, waiting for something to happen, I was passed up by three different people who got their food in a snap. I finally grabbed one of the cook ladies and pointed to what the lady before me had gotten and said, "that! give me that!". Before I knew it I had a glorious looking plate of rice with crispy fried chicken covered in fresh basil, lemongrass, green onion, egg, cucumber, crushed peanuts and sweet smoked sausage. I sat down, threw some fish sauce with diced thai chilies on it, and was in food bliss. Perfection.
Later that day we met up with our friends Bill and Meghan who happened to end up traveling to Thailand the same time we were. The plan was to go to the Mandarin Oriental hotel to get a drink so we hopped in boat, traveled up the river and got dropped off on some seedy looking dock. Contrary to popular belief, Bangkok actually has standards, and me looking like a bum in a tank top and board shorts, got turned away at the doors of the hotel. "You have wear pant", said the man at the door. "Shit", said the bum in a tank top. Now, I've been turned away from some clubs and restaurants in my day, but I never would have imagined I would be given the cold shoulder any where in Bangkok. So we hopped in a Tuk Tuk to find another means of consumption.
It was hot as hell, and we were thirsty. "Take us to a bar!", we yelled at the tuk tuk driver.
"what kine bar you wan?"
"anything with cold beer"
"You rike music?"
"Heck yes we like music!"
"Ok, I take you good prace"
"Sweet, let's roll"
Again, it was hot as hell and we were thirsty, crammed four deep into a tuk tuk fit for two thai lady boys and stopped in bumper to bumper Bangkok traffic huffing the sweet fumes of diesel fuel. We were like this for a half hour before finally arriving at his "bar". We got dropped off, and were instantly welcomed by the three lovely women in skanky dresses standing outside the bar, went inside to find a place that looked like it was strait out of a 1970's porn scene. We sat down in the red suede booth we were shown to, and were greeted by our waiter who looked and acted like he had just come out of a three hour session in the opium den out back. "Four Singhas please"….."Four Singha, ok". No more than 30 seconds after we had ordered, Meghan looks down at a sign in the middle of the table saying, "All beer 200 Baht each", which comes out to about $6. Yes, that isn't very much, but in Thailand, you don't pay $6 for a fricken beer, especially in a place where you fear that at any second a lady boy may be rubbin up against you trying to solicit their services. I stood up, caught the bar tender right after she had opened the first beer, tried to bargain, failed, we ended up sharing one beer between the four of us, leaving, only to walk a hundred yards down the street to find a solid bar doing a happy hour, buy one get one free beers for 120 Baht. Thanks for the solid recommendation tuk tuk driver, next time I'll find the bar on my own.
We spent the next couple days visiting temples, sampling as much street food as possible, and letting Olivia be our tour guide and take us to some awesome bars and restaurants. Bangkok is really cool, really safe, and parts of it actually remind me of aspects of NYC. The small hidden watering holes with tons of character, the local restaurants with incredibly good food, and the cool thing is, everybody is super nice and quick to smile. Feeling welcome in foreign city of seven million people is a pretty good feeling.
Tonight we hop on a southbound train headed for Koh Phi Phi and will eventually get over to Koh Samui where we meet up with a certain Matt Budd-Thanos, Benjamin Shapero and Sarah Adelars. Let the games begin……
The next morning we walked down to the streets to find the thing that was driving about 75% of my desire to go on this trip, a substance that can bring so much joy and happiness to life, food. I never imagined eating to be such a difficult task, but when there are SO many different options that look absolutely amazing, I just about freak out in trying to decide what to actually go for. I finally found a little restaurant front that looked pretty good so I decided to pull the trigger. Often times when figuring out customs of a new country it can render you feeling pretty dumb, and as I stood in front of these little Thai ladies, waiting for something to happen, I was passed up by three different people who got their food in a snap. I finally grabbed one of the cook ladies and pointed to what the lady before me had gotten and said, "that! give me that!". Before I knew it I had a glorious looking plate of rice with crispy fried chicken covered in fresh basil, lemongrass, green onion, egg, cucumber, crushed peanuts and sweet smoked sausage. I sat down, threw some fish sauce with diced thai chilies on it, and was in food bliss. Perfection.
Later that day we met up with our friends Bill and Meghan who happened to end up traveling to Thailand the same time we were. The plan was to go to the Mandarin Oriental hotel to get a drink so we hopped in boat, traveled up the river and got dropped off on some seedy looking dock. Contrary to popular belief, Bangkok actually has standards, and me looking like a bum in a tank top and board shorts, got turned away at the doors of the hotel. "You have wear pant", said the man at the door. "Shit", said the bum in a tank top. Now, I've been turned away from some clubs and restaurants in my day, but I never would have imagined I would be given the cold shoulder any where in Bangkok. So we hopped in a Tuk Tuk to find another means of consumption.
It was hot as hell, and we were thirsty. "Take us to a bar!", we yelled at the tuk tuk driver.
"what kine bar you wan?"
"anything with cold beer"
"You rike music?"
"Heck yes we like music!"
"Ok, I take you good prace"
"Sweet, let's roll"
Again, it was hot as hell and we were thirsty, crammed four deep into a tuk tuk fit for two thai lady boys and stopped in bumper to bumper Bangkok traffic huffing the sweet fumes of diesel fuel. We were like this for a half hour before finally arriving at his "bar". We got dropped off, and were instantly welcomed by the three lovely women in skanky dresses standing outside the bar, went inside to find a place that looked like it was strait out of a 1970's porn scene. We sat down in the red suede booth we were shown to, and were greeted by our waiter who looked and acted like he had just come out of a three hour session in the opium den out back. "Four Singhas please"….."Four Singha, ok". No more than 30 seconds after we had ordered, Meghan looks down at a sign in the middle of the table saying, "All beer 200 Baht each", which comes out to about $6. Yes, that isn't very much, but in Thailand, you don't pay $6 for a fricken beer, especially in a place where you fear that at any second a lady boy may be rubbin up against you trying to solicit their services. I stood up, caught the bar tender right after she had opened the first beer, tried to bargain, failed, we ended up sharing one beer between the four of us, leaving, only to walk a hundred yards down the street to find a solid bar doing a happy hour, buy one get one free beers for 120 Baht. Thanks for the solid recommendation tuk tuk driver, next time I'll find the bar on my own.
We spent the next couple days visiting temples, sampling as much street food as possible, and letting Olivia be our tour guide and take us to some awesome bars and restaurants. Bangkok is really cool, really safe, and parts of it actually remind me of aspects of NYC. The small hidden watering holes with tons of character, the local restaurants with incredibly good food, and the cool thing is, everybody is super nice and quick to smile. Feeling welcome in foreign city of seven million people is a pretty good feeling.
Tonight we hop on a southbound train headed for Koh Phi Phi and will eventually get over to Koh Samui where we meet up with a certain Matt Budd-Thanos, Benjamin Shapero and Sarah Adelars. Let the games begin……
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