Chris Hansen’s blog

Well, we got back from Bangkok yesterday night. I was last there 9 years ago, so I was prepared for some change, but what change! There is now a functioning underground system as well as two skytrain lines. Public transport is now an option; 9 years ago tuk-tuks and cabs that might or might not be metred were the sole options other than by foot.

We stayed at the Pinnacle Hotel in Lumphini (they spell it Lumpinee in the hotel’s publicity; That transliteration is not exact). I travelled with my host. BK, and his friends Andrew and Edwin. We spread ourselves across three rooms (1003, 1005, and 1007).

Thursday night was dinner at Anna’s, a Western/Thai fusion place near the hotel. Then we went to a downtown shopping mall and wandered; I didn’t buy anything but Edwin, the shopping queen, bought lots. We ended up in the food court eating fruit and critiquing the men walking by, discovering in the process that we had violently different tastes.

First full day (Friday) was for sightseeing; we went to the Grand Palace and took lots of photos. I shall be posting some when I get back to London. The most offputting thing about the Grand Palace is the tourist glut. The holiest temple in Thailand is located in the Palace grounds, but people were milling about, climbing on the decorations so that they could get better pictures, and generally being disrespectful of the place. We then went to the “Backpacker’s area” (can’t remember the name), where we walked up and down the street while BK bought CDs, Andrew bought books, and I bought a pair of sandals after failing to find the proper size at another stall.

I had some difficulties in measuring the proper (ie, pound sterling) price of goods there. The baht is fairly low-worth in comparison to the pound. Today’s exchange rate is about 39 baht to the pound and about 26 baht to SGD. So my travelling companions only had one conversion to make in their heads (baht to SGD) whereas I had to make two (baht to SGD to GBP). Confusion reigned. So 400 baht is about 10 pounds. The largest note is 1000 baht, the smallest is 20 baht (about fifty pence), and there are lots of 10, 5, and 1 baht coins. Prices are very competitive, however.

Along the way Andrew, BK, and I went to the river ferry for a quick voyage down the river to our next stop: reflexology. On the way I saw a street vendor with an original product: he makes figures out of twisted rope. He had a really cute squirrel that I fell in love with and knew that HWMBO would like. I bought it and didn’t even haggle over the price. This made the afternoon trip worthwhile. We stopped in a restaurant with cute but sullen waiters and I had a beer while the others ate.

Update, much later: HWMBO hated the squirrel. So much for knowing your spouse.

We went to Healthland for reflexology. That wasn’t the original plan, but their other masseurs were engaged already. I’d never had foot reflexology before; it was an eye-opener. I was a bit fearful for my feet, as being a diabetic lots of the sensation in my feet has been lost. They found it, all right. Andrew thought that my masseur was hot looking; I was too busy wincing from the pain to notice much. He poked, prodded, and punched my feet until I was certain they were a bleeding mass of pulp. However, they certainly did feel much better afterwards.

Friday night I had dinner with Bom, our former flatmate. He is a real sweetheart, and is now a lecturer at Thammasat University, and an associate dean. However, he hasn’t changed one bit, and is still the fun-loving handsome young man I remember. He has a car so the transport part was easy, although a bit confusing for me. We went to a restaurant where Bom did the ordering and forgot that I don’t eat a lot of seafood. He ordered mussels, seafood soup, fishcakes (which were excellent), and rice. I asked for green chicken curry, very sheepishly. We made plans to meet on Sunday, and then I went home, while the other three went off to DJ Station, the most crowded gay disco in Bangkok. I gave it a miss because of cigarette smoke and crowding, but at least one of our travelling party met a friend there that night…

Saturday started off with taking the underground to go to a vegetarian restaurant discovered by BK. We got lost, and found no one who spoke English or Mandarin. It’s a wonder we ever found it, as it was really tucked away. But find it we did, and it was really good. I had (surprised, surprise) green curry which was very good. We then went shopping in the Weekend Market. It’s a huge warren of corridors flanked by stalls selling all sorts of things. We were sure to be split up, so we made plans to meet by the clocktower at 4:30. I wandered around, but only bought one pair of shorts. There was a lot of trash, lots of shoes and sandals. We indeed met at the clock tower, although how I found it is a mystery, and how we then found our way out is an even bigger mystery.

We then went to a gay sauna, Chakran, to begin the evening (although it ended mine). It’s quite elaborate, as saunas there tend to be, but as I was only there for the scenery, that was enough. It has a gym (and quite an elaborate one at that), jacuzzi (which helped my back), steam rooms and saunas, a restaurant and bar, and a cold pool in which no one was indulging. There was a small area for sexual encounters called “Heart to Heart” (although no one was doing anything up there as far as I could tell and, had they been, I don’t think that it would have been their hearts touching). After a crackdown by the police, some of the saunas have removed the doors of the private cabins. Certainly would have cooled my ardour.

After a misunderstanding, BK ate dinner there while Edwin, Andrew, and I set out for a restaurant. It had a strange decor (clear plastic placemats with feathers embedded in them, for example), but the (guess what!) green chicken curry was very chilli-hot and good. Edwin and I went for a massage afterwards…very therapeutic, but not really Thai massage; that would come later. Back to the hotel and bed for me; DJ Station for everyone else.

Sunday was my day with Bom. We went to a Chinese restaurant for dim sum. The dish I remember best was Chinese buns filled not with barbecued pork, but with egg custard. I’ve never had such a good bun before in my life. I wish I could remember what they were called so I could have some again back in London.

Bom asked if I wanted a traditional Thai massage. Well, he knew of a place downtown that was very good. We went there and, boy, was it good! They punch, poke, prod, and stand on you to get results. You wear a kind of smock and baggy trousers during the massage, but Bom had warned me that some of the masseurs did extra services. I think that mine might have done, except that when he massaged around my crotch and discovered my PA, he was so bemused that he stopped.

Therapeutically, this was the best massage I’ve ever had. Afterwards, my scoliosis had been completely reversed! I stood up straight for the first time in years. I will look for traditional Thai masseurs in London, but fear they’ll cost more than the pounds or so equivalent this one cost.

Then we went shopping in the Central Department Store. Because of purchases, I needed a new bag to go back to Singapore with; we found one and, to our surprise, discovered that we were eligible for a premium from the service desk downstairs because of the amount of our purchase. We ended up with three money-off coupons and some commemorative coins. So back for more shopping to use up the coupons. I bought a pair of Fila trainers, a luggage tag for my new bag, and a key case for WL. Bom bought a stepladder for his new house and some tops (of which I bought two as well). Back to the hotel, and then Bom dropped me off to meet the others at Babylon for Foam Night.

I wasn’t too impressed with foam night (basically they have a foam “generator” pouring out foam on the dancers on the dance floors), but the new Babylon is quite impressive. It was mobbed for Foam Night; however, again, I just observed. I find it confusing to find my way around these places and am a little insecure about getting around. They are all rabbit warrens. Lots of cute men, though. The restaurant was quite good, if the menu was anything to go by, and there was no smoking except in the open area near the bar (easily avoided). I left BK, Andrew, and Edwin there and went home to bed.

Monday was about packing and getting ready to come back to Singapore. I was ready early, after the breakfast buffet (which was quite good, with American bacon as a specialty!), but the rest weren’t ready to go until a bit later. Edwin was staying on my my room for two days for some laser whitening of his teeth, so we left our bags in 1003 and went off to Healthland again. I discovered that it’s not a good idea to have two Thai massages in a row (twice a week is the usual standard), so I went off and investigated the transport system. I took the Sky Train to the end of the line, and then changed to the Underground system, and rose that to the end of its line. Very Singaporean in design (large island platforms, mostly, with doors on the platform edges). The ticket was a relatively large round black token that was encoded with the fare I paid, and dispensed from a machine. When I get back, I’ll edit this entry and put all the relevant pictures in, including the one I took of this token. Emerged at the end of the line, looked around (nothing of interest), and popped back in to go to Si Lom, which was one stop away from the hotel. Walked (at 2 pm) from Si Lom to Lamphini and took a few pics. Had lunch at an A&W Rootbeer restaurant (HWMBO doesn’t like them but I guess that I wanted to slum a bit) of a burger, curly fries, and a rootbeer. Back to the hotel and then taxi to the airport and home.

Oh, and budget airlines suck, big time. We were scheduled to leave from Gate 71, but it was changed at the very last minute to Gate 26, at the other end of the airport. What a pain! It was also “festival” seating, which meant that by the time we got there we were almost strapped to seats on the wing.

At Changi, the wait for the taxi homw was marred by two boorish American queuejumpers, who separated me from BK and Andrew. I was livid. I made a very loud remark as we went for the taxicab (long queue because of Chinese New Year) mentioning “rude American queuejumpers” but, as usual with American ang mohs, they weren’t in the mood to listen to anyone.

So, I enjoyed Bangkok very much. I hope that HWMBO and I can make the trip later this year or next year and stay with Bom at his new home. I can have another traditional Thai massage for GBP 5 again!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2006 at 11:40 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.