Day 2: Intro to Bangkok
/Abu Dhabi to Bangkok 6 hrs
I'm learning. You better sleep so you can be awake when you want to be. How do you prepare for 11 hours time difference? Sleep on the way, even if you have to take a sleeping pill.
We arrived about 8 am and killed some time in the airport eating and planning our time before cabbing to the boutique hotel we booked online. Lovely place called the Star of Sathorn. And the most accommodating helpful proprietors K.L . and Jucy.
Once settled, we headed out for dinner at a seafood place where Thai people go. Thought it was a good idea at the time, get some authentic local food. But no one could speak our tongue and "not too spicy" apparently translates to "burn the upper palate". And a grilled crab that looked like it was passed through a blender after we had extracted all the edible meat (and some of the shell).
Along the way, there was a spa (one of hundreds) with an interesting feature. It offered a foot bath of tiny fish that gently eat the dead skin from your feet. Cost 100 bhat (= $4.50). Did it hurt? no, it tickled. Did it eat the dead skin? who cares; who else can say they have had a fish massage?
The greater delights lay ahead, as we meandered toward the "market" where we shopped sunglasses, tshirts, knick knacks, etc. There are the stalls with goods, and then there are the hucksters trying to get you into a girlie bar. But Katy wanted to see a LadyBoy Show, and when we mentioned that, we were escorted up a threadbare carpeted stairs and seated, served and watched the non-ladyboy girls do things with ping pong balls that Lady Boys only wished they could do. It was the Odyssey of Orifices. But it was not at all what we were looking for, especially when the bill included a "show charge" of 1000 Bhat, or =$43 CAD. Pissed me off, and then the girls come up as I'm leaving begging for tips. Bleccch!
Found a stray ping pong the next day in one of her shopping bags, still wet with god knows what...
Leaving that shithole, we walked 20 yards to a bar where a live band was playing Eagles, Santana, Little River Band, and I'm thinking "all right now!" Katy endured one drink's worth of songs before we ambled up the backstreet to the techno bar that was playing the kind of music you hear as the wrestlers enter the ring for WWF. Her face lit up, we got some drinks and she began to writhe and flutter her way to the dance area, whereupon she was hauled onto the stage with other 'selected' dancers gyrating to the primal sounds.
3 am, heading home. Why not take a Tuk Tuk, the little three wheel shuttle vehicle? Do you know where the Star of Sathorn is? Yes, yes, I take you there. OK, let's go.
The ten minute ride turned into 30 or so, but we finally pulled in at 330 am. And then slept till noon of Day 3