Sunday 25th May – Bangkok
Eventually I finally managed to meet up with Nikhil. I say eventuallly as, following meeting him in the guesthouse in Siem Reap we had email contact when I finally grew a braincell and realised he was also in Bangkok. We then exchanged emails, none of which detailed anything helpful like where we were actually staying. So, I decided that the only thing for it was to send him an email suggesting we meet at the biggest landmark in Thailand’s capital city, McDonalds! After I super-sized myself we went for a wander. I showed Nikhil a Muay Thai training gym which Rene had showed me earlier in the week. I was damn surprised I actually managed to find it again in all fainress as you had to go through an Israeli restaurant to reach the back-street it was in from the main street.
In the evening I took Nikhil to see Elvis and Tom Jones. Unfortunately they weren’t there (and hardly any other people were) however there was a very good local band. We then went to this hip hop bar/ club. We sat outside and watched everyone. The place seemed to draw a massively black crowd and a few of the guys were teaching a local kid moves which he was surprisingly good at. There was one woman who fascinated both me and Nikhil alike. She looked local and was standing in the street with no shoes on dancing by herself. Okay so not that weird in itself but she was there literally all night and she looked so angry. I’m not talking sultry, sexy pout here either. You know the, "I’m so cool I don’t need to smile, I take this dancing shit seriously you know and besides I’m HOT" one. This was like the girl actually wanted to kill someone. She was actually sneering a lot of the time, almost growling like a dog. I thought I’d see all the weirdos in Khao San Road – and believe me they congregate there. One night, well morning really I guess, one of the various casualties on the kerbside was this Western guy with the reddest eyes I think I have ever seen. I looked over at him and saw he had playing cards in his hand. When I looked again he was examining one card very carefully as if he couldn’t figure out what it was. It transpired he couldn’t as he put it in his mouth, chewed for a while and swallowed it. I had previously considered going over to see if he was okay but, after the third card disappeared down his throat, I decided that a playing card eating man was beyond rescuing, even by me! Besides, I wasn’t holding a bucket-full of gin and tonic!