up and in in bangkok

For the purpose of context, after leaving Mae Sot, we went to Sukothai, an ancient capital where we met up with our friends Hana and Jake. Sukothai is dusty and boring for the most part, which makes for a good venue to catch up with old friends. The next three days were spent wandering around aimlessly mostly focused on chatting, riding bikes to the ancient ruins, playing guitars (Jake had a classic $12 Bangkok mini-guitar named "Plum Blossoms"), drinking beer in the park and smoking joints along the river watching the bats skim mosquitoes off of the surface. More friends than Thailand.

We sent Hana and Jake on their way north, and headed on our way south straight to Bangkok. Here, we met up with another friend-couple who shot us directly into the lap of luxury. These guys were spending their last night in southeast Asia staying at the 23rd floor apartment suite of the guy's friend's parents. It was stunning, but a little awkward to stay there because the people who lived there weren't even home. I know Taylor didn't dig the vibe, but the stunning views and deliciousness for me outweighed the oddness that these strangers' maid was cooking us dinner. As if the awkward meter needed to be tested to its furthest limit, there were also a friend of the couple's oldest son and his two friends staying at the apartment as well. Luckily before dinner, Shawn and I had gone into the local super-mega-market to pick up some beer and had been treated to sample scotch and sodas. Grocery shopping with a free cocktail in your hand feels so classy.

After dinner, the only reasonable activity seemed to be heading down to Patpong. Ironically enough, the name of this area resembles what has become the main attraction: ping pong shows. An area that was once a seedy gogo club and brothel area has now become a spectacle for tourists to come gawk at the seedy gogo club and brothel scene. There is a full night market stocked with the ordinary crap, fringed by dozens of clubs that range from an Elvis cover band bar to straight up girls in underwear dancing on the bar bar to the plethora of ping pong shows. While we didn't check out any of these shows, guys on the street were constantly tempting us into places with names like "Super Pussy" or "Pussy Collection" with a list of shows that could range from the tame ping pong to "pussy smoke cigarette" to "pussy chopsticks" to "man and woman make love" to the unfortunate "pussy razor blade show".

A scene that you know once drew the sleaziest out of a town known for lusty sinful recreation now seems to be overrun with normal people who are just edgy enough to view the sleaze but not take part. Of course that group includes me, but I was a little disappointed. We ended up at an overpriced bar with a marginal cover band (the only thing worthwhile was that they went straight from playing "Jump Around" by House of Pain to "Jump" by Van Halen). The night ended with me classily sleeping on the floor of some rich people's house while they were out of town, and I kind of felt like I was in high school again.