Thailand – What to do?

I got to Thailand on the 16th and saw Sup waiting at the airport. It was such a rush of excitement to see a friend. I have been without any of my close friends for too many days. So much had happened in my life leading up to the few days before I left that I was just bursting to share with Sup. We take a cab ride back to her place. She is staying in a serviced apartment in Silom. As soon as we get in, she pulls out a pack of smokes and a bottle of red wine and we sit down to chat. Hours pass by and we realize that we should go out for dinner before it’s too late. So we head out into heart of Silom. It is known for its red light district and bars and neon lights with “shows”. We walk and dodge through stalls of goods to buy – dresses, t-shirts, shoes, watches, lamps….you name it and its being sold at the footpath. And of course, the men pushing their bar “menus” in our faces to entice us to catch a “show”. We get to an outdoor bar called Beer Garden and as soon as we sit down, the DJ starts playing Bhangra music….Sup is ecstatic, she has been staying here almost 2 months and hadn’t heard desi music outside her apartment! So we enjoy the bhangra, order some stir fried something or other, another bottle of wine and we eat, drink and converse till we finish it all off. Most amusing – two Chinese travelers tried to pick us up at the bar. That was fun – we had never had an East Asian man try and pick us up!

Next morning we headed for a weekend at the beach to Pattaya. Its about 2 hours from Bangkok. We stayed at Jomtein beach. Since we were staying for one night and it was only 3 of us (Sup’s co-worker joined us), we stayed at a hostel type place. Now, I know what u are thinking but this place was not an European hostel. It was clean, with a pool and they had rooms with own bathrooms. Sup and I took a room with a private bath and two beds…it was very big, with a TV, hot water and a balcony that at one time looked out to the beach (building went up in front). Alma got a room with a shared bathroom but the room was a very decent size! Cost wise it was only like $12 each for the rooms.

We immediately headed to the beach and lay in the sun till the sun went down. I am so dark!! The water was really too dirty to go for a swim in but the beach was just fine to lay in. Food was no issue, we had service on the beach…it was a locals beach rather than a tourist so it was great to have some local food. We finally headed out and hunted a place to have dinner. We ended up at a nice big outdoor restaurant with live entertainment of traditional thai music and dance. I ordered a beef salad and sup ordered chicken green curry. When in Thailand, order cautiously! The salad was so spicy – the food is doused with the hottest red chili – that my mouth went numb with fire! A very unsatisfying meal! We headed back to Jomtein and stopped at a French Euro restaurant for some crepes and ice cream…that eased our very unsatisfied palates. Next day we woke up late and had some American burgers and headed to beach…we beach bummed till it got dark and grabbed a taxi to bring us back to Silom – it was a very quiet (restful) 2 hour car ride!

I didn’t do much in Thailand. I went to see some temples, saw the significant Buddhas in Bangkok and mostly indulged in thai massages at every chance. Bangkok is THE place to shop. There are tailors on the footpath sewing these fabulous dresses and putting them on the racks and passersby just grabbing them up at 200-300 Bakhts ($1 = 32 Bkts) each. But women there are like size 0 to -2! So, I didn’t end up buying anything. Just a lot of walking around and soaking in the culture. I couldn’t make much head or tails of the language with the exception of “Hello” and “Thank you”.

Sup and I did have a fun evening worth mentioning. It was a Tuesday night. We headed out to Sukhumvit to eat dinner at a very touristy thai restaurant called “Cabbages and Condoms”. It was an indoor/outdoor family restaurant wonderful ambience and décor…very natural. What was charming and amusing was that…every so often you notice the lamps and lights and see that its entirely covered with condoms. We were seated at an outdoor table and our table top was all condoms. White condoms and red condoms forming a big heart! (yes, we have pics =) the food was very very mediocre thai but u go for the novelty of the place. Men are even handed condoms with their bills. After dinner we headed out to a club. It was club BED. Just like in NYC. Except this one was like a huge spaceship from the outside and inside was 3 levels. We seated ourselves on a cozy bed on the top floor. It was hip hop night so we chilled and enjoyed the music, crowd and eventually got up to bust a move. The place closed down about 2am. The drinks were great, ambience was fun. But be warned…it a lot of European men in the place and full of Thai women. These women don’t always join you for free…

I stayed there for a total of 12 days and it was the most relaxing and enjoyable stay. I have feeling I will be back in Thailand.