where cider meets condensed milk: "We'll be saying BKK the rest of our lives, like some demented airline employees..."

where cider meets condensed milk

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

"We'll be saying BKK the rest of our lives, like some demented airline employees..."

I suspect I'm bad luck when it comes to international travel, but my sister says just lucky. This Thailand trip didn't coincide with anything tsunami-scale, but my flight from Phnom Penh to Bangkok arrived a few hours before another discount airliner crashed and burst into flames after touchdown in Phuket. It was pouring rain on my bus-ride into the city, with thunder and lightning as I was running to find a decent guesthouse. Funny how my only thought was annoyance about my lack of raincoat, whereas that's right about the time 88 Thais and foreign flyers perished. I've done the Phuket-BKK route 4 times, but not on 1-2 -Crash. Fingers crossed that Airasia keeps its planes in better shape and doesn't try to fly in such dodgy weather.

For now I'm reluctantly in Bangkok. Did one night on Khao San Road for convenience and then headed to more relaxed Siam area. Khao San is as bright and tacky as ever. The tiny charms dissipate more quickly each visit, and are fully replaced with exasperations. Tourists dressed the same, in cornrows and clothes inappropriate for weather and body-type. Bored, apathetic shop employees. Creepy tuktuk drivers. Tailor-shop men that block your path in alleyways and then glare and say muttered things in English and Arabic if you don't stop to talk and get a suit made. (Although, they may just be talking about the weather or football in angry tones.) Each time I had to walk away from those headbanded "hill tribe" ladies, I felt a little more dead inside. They grab your arm with a pitiful look in their eye, and that mournful crickety-crack of the wooden spine of their frog toys haunts me.

Siam is the mega-shopping area that I usually avoid for lack of funds/shopping-desire. I've now spent 2 full days walking and shopping around here, for lack of other sightseeing to do. After 2 months of wearing backpacker clothes that were either closer to jammies or sewn by street children, it's exciting to have new things, and even some grown-up work clothes! Met up with Bec for day one of the shopping attempts, and then we joined Steve for Egyptian food and sky-high drinks on the 60th floor of a hotel. The rooftop bar was more classy before the men with their hookers show up, but you can't avoid that here. We had to change into our new clothes in the bathroom and hide our flip-flopped feet just to get inside, but apparently wearing a skirt so short that you can't walk up stairs properly helps keep up hotel appearances. Overheard:

Lady of the night: (shriek) Oh my gaaaaawd! Beautiful view!
Drunk 'n' Dirty Old Farang: And what a beautiful You!! Beeeautiful you!

I hope you're paying her well to put up with that level of slurred pun, old man.

posted by Raychaa @ 12:20 AM

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