Bangkok DAY 1
I remember looking at my phone and seeing 4:5- and wondering if I would feel regret when I wake up.
Regret is a strong word, but I am TIRED.
LODGING @ GALLERIA 12
This place feels like a palace compared to the other hotels and hostels we’ve been at. I intend to let the doorman open the door for me every time, and the blast of AC will billow through my hair, and I will feel like a Cover Girl for one second before my sweaty self comes back to my senses.
But, enough, we have places to be.
EXPLORING
I use that term loosely. Joel is here frequently enough on business to know a few local things, so we’re gonna follow him like chicks following their mama hen. And when we get to Pe Aor, I am sure happy that he and Qol are our mama hen.
▾ Play video
And what better way to walk off an amazing breakfast than for mama hen Qol to show us where the markets and shopping are done.
Sadly, I am managing my luggage allowance very poorly, so I am making a mental checklist of everything I’ll have to get when we come back in the fall (for another wedding). I love weddings.
Oh, but I did buy a sheet of penguin stickers. PENGUINS - how could I not. And yes, I will use them, and if you ask me what I need them for, I will stick one on your forehead.
▾ These were a little bit easier to say no to, but not for lack of entertainment.
▾ Qol and I totally had a nerd moment here. Sailor Moon props. And they look just like they did in the anime. Well they’re not props, they’re make-up, but we would only use them for one purpose - as props.
And we did pose and take a photo with our props. We’re not weird, we’re in Asia. But Qol hasn’t shared the photo, so we must not be as cute as we feel.
This little walk way probably looks even cuter at night when it’s all lit up.
▾ Play video
And the boys are soul-less zombies from following us around, so we search for a nice spot to grab some beers. More HP’s for everyone.
We are at Kenshin Izakaya, and we might as well be anime characters! Good thing we practiced earlier. There are some super tasty girly sounding, but again tasty, beers - mango, tomato, and passion fruit, and the sizes that all draft beers are available in are M, L, and XL. Seriously, the largest was like 1.3 L.
I left the group to take care of some beauty appointments. Don’t judge. Tomorrow is the wedding and we’ve been sweating our way around Cambodia and Laos and I need help remembering how to be a girl.
And of course I’ve planned well so I’m right in time for dinner at Apinara! The group has gotten a little larger with more arrivals - Hannie, Shirley & Akai, and some new faces are at the table.
And we’re ready for drinks again. When are we not.
Tuk-tuk to our next destination! By the way, traffic here is BLEH. More specifically, if you get caught at a light, you are caught for like seven minutes. Normally, when I see aggressive drivers on the road, I laugh at them and think, you’re not buying much more time.
Not here. We should have paid our driver to race our friends.
SOI COWBOY
I guess we can’t not go. If you don’t know, this is the strip of bars with girls and lady boys. If we play a game of word association, there’s also poles and ping pong balls and darts.
The guy friends were doing a lot of catching up, and naturally walking closely together as a group. The working women (or lady boys) would just reach out and touch chests or tweak nipples, and the guys would sometimes scurry to their girlfriends to telegraph that they’re not into it.
I laughed. You don’t like being catcalled or touched “harmlessly”? Welcome to a woman’s world. Can you handle it? Do you get it?
It was also comical to see some of these guys having their reunion, some after more than seven years, in front of strippers.
There was also one spot where one of the girls had her eye on Stefan. She went after him to everyone’s amusement, except him.
And how could I forget to mention that Jiyoon was the most popular! She was such a good sport and so innocent 😂. She had boobs all up in her face and butts in her lap and chest, and she woo’d and had fun, and intermittently she would put her hands and arms up in defense against flying boobs, but then she’d be right back to wooing and fist pumping.
Somehow, we didn’t have enough talk or drink, so we had a few more at the first chill place still serving drinks off of Soi Cowboy.
It was a fun night. When is it not with good company and drinks? But given the opportunity, I won’t go back to this street. I’m not a prude, and I wasn’t offended by anything, it was just weird. Anytime we were inside one of the bars, I’d look around at the other customers, and almost nobody wanted to look directly at the girls on stage. And when the ping pong balls came out, the clapping and the cheering made the audience look like seals to me. Ask me if you want to hear more, otherwise I’ll spare you the stream of consciousness.
Anyways, it is late, and we all have a wedding to get to, so we start splitting up as we get to our hotels.
But first, Guido, Stefan, and I duck into a 7/11 because how many drunk nights can I have without capping it off with some good old instant ramen?
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#travel #holiday #southeaseasia #asia #thailand #bangkok #wedding #bar #karaoke #ktv
