Day 56: More boxes ticked
Trip Start
Nov 11, 2009
1
72
273
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Paul's Gaff - Sukumvit
Bangkok, Thailand
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Rose again about 9 and got ready with a shower (which was counteracted by the heat almost as soon as I got out - it is really humid here!). Also, Paul introduced us to his girlfriend Poi who was understandably a bit bashful being in full morning regalia; it was probably small consolation but I was caught a little on the hop myself as I don't usually meet people in their own homes wearing nothing but my shorts!
Paul headed off to work and we were out of the door shortly after at about 10 (Poi hadn't, resurfaced I hope she wasn't hovering in the bedroom waiting for us to leave) Our first destination (on the recommendation of a friend via facebook (Cheers Carly!) was Chatachuk weekend market for which we had to take a sky train to Mo Chit. The skytrain (BTS) network is a very efficient overground metro-style system which is not very extensive but very handy and it has AIR CON TRAINS - XD (London take note please)
Chatachuk market is a massive covered warren of stalls laced with a few external streets and they sell just about anything imaginable: Tourist tat, ornaments, furniture, food stuffs, clothes - you nam it! There was an extensive animal section where baskets of puppies were waiting to be snapped up by new owners (I am not sure about their conditions from a western animal rights perspective but I wasn't about to make a cultural faux pas by getting all righteous about it). We missed the exotic animals but we did see in one stall what appeared to be a tame squirrel scampering up and down the shelves on a lead. I also liked the art stalls which somehow managed to get the spartan feel of an art gallery out of a space the sise of 3 toilet cubicles.
After Chatachuk we were heading to Khao San Road (which is the backpackers mecca) for a lunchtime RV with Douglas. What I didn't realise was that in order to do this we had to take BTS back to SIam square and then back out to another terminal station before taking a 30 minute boat ride down the river (which was quite pleasant) and walk 15 minutes to KSR. By the time we got there it was 1300 and we were due to be back at Paul's to get ready by 6. It was good to see Douglas again and we went to a place he knew in nearby Rambuttri for lunch and a couple of cold ones (Fried rice with pork and pineapple for me) while we caught up.
About 1500 Dave and I caught a taxi back to Siam Square where he wanted to do a spot of shopping. It took almost an hour to get through the traffic and I was feeling pretty bad as my lunch date had seriously eaten into any shopping time that we had left - especially since Douglas is actually coming back up to Loei with us on Sunday which I should have thought about but didn't clock in my haste to make a meeting (I also wasn't aware quite how far out of the way KSR was). I believe the word is 'D'oh' but there was little to be done about it now.
We checked out the various malls around Siam Square and Dave got some new shorts and did some scoping for trainers. We also checked out USB drives as we both need more storage space but made no purchases today. About 1720 we headed back to Asok BTS and walked back down to Paul's where we got ready for our big night out.
Our host returned from Salsa class about 1830 and we were joind shortly afterwards by Poi and then our other Appleby ex-pat Tony (Atkinson) and his Fiance Chalor (no accents available); he has also been out here for some 5 years and is getting married in March (Tony works for the St. John's organisation and he clued Dave into the voluntary opportunity in Thabom). We sat around chatting for a bit and Paul and Tony gave me a few pointers on teaching in Thailand (including where and which qualifications to do - hmmmm). We also went into more mundane subjects like Tony's new curtains (even he didn't seem too riveted).
We headed out to a Sushi restaurant down the way for a very nice (albeit VERY expensive) meal and then said goodbye to Tony and Chalor before we headed down to the venue.
The "Culture One, Bangkok International Dance music festival" was in a big exhibition centre on the outskirts of town. We rocked up at about 2130 and immedaitely bumped into a couple of English girls, Arabella and Emma, that Paul knew as we sat drinking outside before heading in about 2200. The place was a mass of light and sound with 2 outside stages and 3 interior auditoriums. We had a mooch around and bought a few drinks (of which the cheapest were Singha lights which was a blessing for me as it is only 3.5% and hence I could drink it without getting totally twatted!) before settling on one of the outside stages as our primary haunt for the early part of the night. There was a significant amount of high energy 'Trancing' despite the heat that left me sweating like the the proverbial <insert highly un-p.c. but deeply amusing simile of your choice here>
About 2330 I picked up a snack from the food stalls (rice, pork, half an egg and spring onions for a quid - tell me where you could get that at any festival in the UK!) and about 0000 we headed back into the main auditorium. This pleased me as Sven Vath was playing there at 0100 and he is a frankly awesome purveyor of finest German techno and I had been hoping that I could catch him all night. Sadly after about 30 minutes we were leaving again (I was tempted to stay but as the only person without a key to Paul's my wings were a little clipped) we went to another auditorium for a while and Dave took a phone call. Meanwhile Paul came back from the Bar to say that the music in the 3td Auditorium was awesome (these were the other headliners) and we should maybe move there once Dave returned. I said that would be OK but S.V. was just coming on back in the main tent. Paul seemed enticed by the prospect and he asked me what I wanted to do, "Well, if you are going to give me the choice I recommend Sven!"
We sent Dave a text and headed back to stage 1. After about 10 minutes Paul came over to me, "Good choice!" he said. The next 90 minutes were a blur of awsome beats and bustin moves (what everyone else thought of the moves I don't know - and care less). Dave found us about 0130 and Pauil and Poi left about 2 as he was workin tomorrow. About this time I started to become aware that it was quite a long time until Sven finished his set at 4; I had already done quite a lot of walking/dancing today and the humidity compounded this; but I also knew that his finale would be killer and I was quite prepared to get there on willpower alone if Dave was up for it!
About 0230 Dave said he was ready to go and (ignoring the plaintive cries of the techno loon within) I put on my sensible head and agreed. We went back out of the auditorium (stopping to say goodbye to Arabella and Emma with whom Dave had been having a basketball dance off) and into the parking lot where we jumped straight into a taxi that was just unloading some latecomers.
Back at Sukumvit there was a brief detour to McDonalds (memories of NYE in Pattaya) for Big Mac-age) and then back to Paul's where we crept silently in and quickly made ready to crash. As I went to turn out the light I looked at my watch - Sven was just finishing his set and although it was a shame to have not seen that finale it would have been a real trial to be just leaving the auditorium now - along with every other bastard and his wife! We had made the right choice!
