After a long, hot day of touring around the city, my dad and I arrived back at our guesthouse around 7:00p to “chill” before going out to dinner later. I turned on my iPod, had a couple sips of Thai beer and lay down to relax. The next thing I know, I wake up and check my watch…its almost 1am. I swear they put something in that beer because every time I have some I pass out (or maybe I’m just a super light weight). Freshly energized, I decided to check out the nighttime scene around the area we are staying – The Sukhumvit.
I walked out onto the main street that was buzzing with people. There were just as many people outside during the day as there were now except some of the food carts had been replaced by booze carts (I’m pretty sure that’s not what they are called) – small stands that act as a bar on wheels. As I continued to look around I came across a small side street that was brightly lit up by neon sings. I could hear music coming from down the street so I decided to check it out.
As I walked down this narrow side street some very “friendly” Thai women greeted me. Groups of them were standing outside massage parlors, bars, and restaurants. They winked at me, said things to me that I couldn’t understand, grabbed at my shirt, and literally stood in front of me so that I couldn’t even walk with out interacting with them (and that’s just the pg-13 list). I must have been looking and smelling good tonight! But seriously, Thai prostitutes were attacking me. After eluding these women I made my way to “Bangkok Beat”, a bar that had a lot of people inside and was blasting American music.
Inside was a very interesting scene. Most of the men were white and European/American, and all of the women were Thai. I got a beer at the bar and did some serious people watching. There was a Thai cover band playing popular American songs on a stage towards the entrance of the bar. All around me were older white men, men who I pictured as English businessmen, or German doctors on vacation, drinking, and flirting with these younger Thai women. The men were definitely super drunk, but I guess both parties seemed like they were having fun. I walked around and got some serious stares from Thai women at the bar. Although it was not the kind of stare that if someone stared at me like that back home I would have thought to myself “I should go talk to her”, it was more a kind of stare that conveyed “give me all your money and we can have sex.” No thanks! I did not stay at that bar very long and decided to leave and walk around town some more.
I cruised around the local markets for a bit longer, bought a couple t-shirts. You have to bargain with everyone around here. My dad and I went into a local sports store earlier in the day and wanted to buy a basketball. They had a decent Wilson, leather, indoor/outdoor ball for sale. The asking price: 2,200 Baht (roughly $67!). We negotiated our way down to 800 baht, but I still didn’t feel right about paying 25 bucks for this ball. Anyways, I saw a lot more white men walking the streets with Thai women. I witnessed two English men walking down the street with a Thai woman. One guy said to his friend, “She wants a grand each. Were going for it.” Who knows what exactly they were going for, but each of them was going paying about 30 American dollars to get it. I grabbed some spring rolls at a local restaurant (nothing to write home about) and called it a night. I haven’t been brave enough to try the local street food yet, even though it looks really good. If anyone has been to Thailand and knows whether it is a good idea to eat or not please e-mail me: taub.samuel@gmail.com or msg me on facebook. I’m sure most of it is ok, but the toilet situation in Bangkok isn’t great and any stomach “issues” would be devastating. That’s all for now.
-Sam