First Arrival in Thailand

The ever busy Khao San rd.

Five hours from Delhi to Bangkok and we’re finally here. Let me point out that we have very high hopes/expectations of excitement, adventure and joy, so we are feeling pretty high on life right now. We pretty much went straight to NapPark hostel but we walked along a couple streets near Khao San road and got a pretty decent understanding of what we would be dealing with in Bangkok. And we liked what we saw.

The next four days were same same, but different. Get up, go to Khao San road, shop in the day, drink at night, pass out, repeat.

Things I’d like to Mention:

1. The clothes here are cheap and awesome. With the weirdest designs on them:

• Babies drinking beer,
• Naked chicks,
• Drug use,
• Fast-food logos,
• Artistic decapitations

…Things like that.

And of course everyone’s wearing the same stuff, cause every shop sells the same stuff. What really strikes me as odd, is the number of people who got 7-11 t-shirts and tanks. They’re neither funny, nor interesting, nor unusual; so why the hell are so many people wearing them?

1. The locals all know pretty good English.
2. If you travel away from Khao San road, the prices go down, but you can’t find the same stuff so I ended buying stuff on Khao San anyways.
3. On the third night, we went clubbing and we were hammered. Russia and Ryker had disappeared so I ended up stumbling home alone, with Russia’s camera bag on my back. The guys got home after I had already passed right out, and Russia, naturally, was wondering where his camera bag was, because it contained many dollars’ worth of equipment in it, and it wasn’t on the floor by our beds. Apperantly he tried pretty hard to wake me up but I was out cold. Next morning my head was kinda bumpin’ and when Russia woke up, asked me (again) where his bag was, I froze. I literally had no idea where it could be, or how I could’ve lost it. We checked the pictures from his camera, and I was definitely wearing it at the club. And although I don’t remember walking home, I know that I went straight home. So where the fuck could it have gone between the club and NapPark? When I went and asked Um (that’s the receptionist lady), she pulls the bag out from under the counter. So relieved! I grabbed her and hugged her and ran back upstairs to give Russia his bag. To this day, I still have no clue how or why I would have taken the bag off in the lobby.

Ping Pong (graphic)

I made Ryker and Russia promise we wouldn’t go on the first night (technically we didn’t, 1:30am is considered day 2). Rush wanted some decent sleep, so he packed ‘er in pretty early, while Ryker and I hit Khao San road for some drinks. Thanks to my P90X shirt, we met a couple cute Canadian girls, they were finishing their big South East Asia trip, so they gave us some pointers and somehow convinced us to go check out a ping pong show with them… 

There were only two other guys there, and we five, so unfortunately we got all the attention. First trick: the lady asks my name (I say Ryker) and she sticks a sharpie up her cooter and writes: ‘Welcome to Thailand Ryker’. A different chick transferred a drink from one bottle into her beaver, then made me hold the next bottle while she filled it back up. So f***ing gross! One lady blew out candles, another lady pulled a string of razorblades out of her clam, and another actually shot ping pong balls at us, while we returned fire with our paddles.  Oh yeah! One woman opened a beer bottle with her puss, and the last one only half worked and it looked like it might have hurt her. F***ed. But the worst were the darts. This lady rams a blowgun in her snatch, Ryker and I get onstage with balloons between our legs, standing in spoon position, and she blasts 2-inch needle darts at our crotches. They take money or Tequila (from the bar) as tip, and if you don’t tip enough, she gets mad and shoots darts between your legs in the crowd! Needless-to-say I’ll never return.

Getting Suited Up

We had heard from everybody that Thailand is the place to get cheap suits made, and we couldn’t really help but notice the 42 different shops on Khao San road. Plus the guys outside them are very loud and intrusive. We were going to get suits made regardless so we picked our favourite dude, and went for a fitting. Keep in mind, all the suit shops are about the same, it just depends on your bargaining skills and the malleability of the shop worker. The fitting didn’t take very long, and only a few days later, our suits were ready for pick up. Ryker wanted to keep bargaining down, and we probably could have, but Russia and I were fine to pay $300 for 2 suits (w/ vests), 2 dress shirts and a couple of ties. We also didn’t want to carry them around with us the entire trip, so we shipped them home. It was a nice gift to return home to.

Bussed out of BKK

We hadn’t booked our train tickets online (internet problems) so we tried our luck at the station.

Good news: they had spots on the train for a good price.

Bad news: It was third class, no sleeper seats.

So we took the bus because it was faster and comfier. A tiny bit more expensive, maybe a thousand Baht ($30). Anyways the bus ride was long and shitty, but definitely a better crew on board going to the Thai Islands compared to the holy, spiritual town of Dharamsala. I got a couple hours rest. They played some Vin Diesel movie, but it was in Portuguese… no idea… so I didn’t watch. At dawn, we arrived at a midway point to swap buses. After about 75 minutes our new bus arrived. We crashed briefly on that bus too. Next stop: ferry terminal, we’re going to Koh Tao!