I had a lot of apprehension going to Bangkok. For
Christy and I, it wasn't just a trip for pleasure. There were personal reasons for us going there. The kids didn't go with us. Instead, they stayed back in Taiwan with their grandma. Under normal circumstances, the grandma would not want to be left with two kids to watch by herself. But these were not really normal circumstances.
We spent four nights in Bangkok, and I insisted that Christy and I travel as lightly as possible. Just one suitcase or backpack each, so we could always keep an eye on our belongings. Perhaps I had just seen too many movies, but the idea of someone sticking drugs into our suitcase was never far from my mind. If I ever were to leave my backpack unattended in the hotel room, or with the bellboy, I would always check it again when I came back. Ok, call me paranoid, but I've learned a little about Thailand prisons (more on that later), and it's somewhere I don't want to go.
For the most part, though, everything went pretty smoothly. Bangkok is a crazy, crowded, dirty, sleazy city. You can get pretty much anything you want for a very low price. I almost bought a Rolex watch for about US $30, but decided against it. Yeah, obviously it was a fake, although it looked quite real. I'm not a Rolex kind of person anyway. I'm quite content with my $80 Seiko Solar watch (although I did buy a $3 pair of Birkenstock sandals, probably also fake.)
We juggled most of our time between sightseeing and personal business (again, more on that story later.) We saw the famous "Reclining Buddha" (Wat Pho), the Grand Palace, and numerous temples along the Chao Phraya river. As Thailand is famous for its massage parlors, we had three different types of massages while we were there: the foot massage, the full body oil massage, and the traditional Thai massage (I recommend the first two.)
Our hotel was located in what is probably one of the most crowded streets in Bagkok, "Surawong." It was right across the street from the "Patpong Night Market", which Christy and I quickly dubbed the "Ping Pong Night Market." Every time we walked out of our hotel, numerous people would walk up to us and say "Ping Pong show?" I already knew what the Ping Pong show was, but Christy didn't. I think she felt I would be disappointed if we didn't see the famous Ping Pong show, so we saved it for our last night there.
A guy who seemed a bit mentally ill informed us that we could see the "Ping Pong Show" for 100 Baht a piece (a hundred baht is about US $3). His little flyer said "No Cover Charge", so we figured we check it out. We walked upstairs into a bar with loud music and naked girls dancing on a stage. The girls however, were hideous, which explained why the place was empty. There was only one other couple in the entire bar. We stayed for less than ten minutes, then decided to leave. Before we left, though, the waitress gives us a bill for 2,600 Baht. Christy and I naturally flipped out. As this was our last night, we didn't even have that much money left. I proceeded to give the waitress 200 Baht and then headed for the door. At this point, a bunch of burly Thai guys locked the door and blocked our exit, demanding that we pay for the show because we "looked."
"No fucking way." I told these dudes "The guy told us 200 Baht, and that was all. I'll tell the police."
These Thai dudes didn't seem to care about my warning. I'm sure the police are all in on the scam anyway. Then Christy started shouting at them as well. She got them to renegotiate their price, and we ended up paying them 420 Baht instead of 200. I guess we were lucky, as I would later find out that most of these places are owned by the Thai mafia.
So, for the most part it was a fairly nice trip, but for a place known for its "happy endings", our ending in Bangkok wasn't all that happy.
