Bangkok'ing

On February 20th, me and a whole bunch of Russians boarded a plane out of Phuket and into Bangkok. My flight out of Bangkok was the next morning so, once again, I had one night in Bangkok (this would be the fourth time I've Bangkok'd en route elsewhere). After the poolside room I'd enjoyed in Phuket, my accommodations in Bangkok proved to have more personality as the view from my window can attest.

 There was even a TOP SECRET bar just next door.

After dinner at a nearby hole-in-the-wall restaurant which came recommended as authentic but was, frankly, mediocre I headed to Soi Cowboy- a place I'd visited once before.

February 2, 2008

February 20, 2012

In the photo above, you can see a club that was used in The Hangover 2; the Tilac Club is just over my shoulder. Soi Cowboy is infamous and well known but it's just one block. The streets adjacent and parallel are normal and dark then, bam! Soi Cowboy as bright as the Vegas strip.

Owing to the fact that I was in a somewhat foul mood, I decided I needed a diversion and what better way than having a drink in the Cockatoo Club which, as you can see in the picture below, is a ladyboy (aka katoi) club. The ladies on display along the street wear robes but inside they wear skimpy bikinis. Not typical of girly clubs, all the 'merchandise' has on bikini tops as well- likely owing to the scars I saw briefly exposed. I had one drink there. I ordered the "alcopop" which I thought would be an alcoholic popsicle of some sort (forget that I lacked logic in the "freezing" and "alcohol" concept) but was, sadly, a Bacardi Breezer. I'm sure a few are curious as to how 'ladyboy' these ladyboys were. Well, most of them appeared to be "in tact" but one came up to my table and showed me, without any prompting on my part or expressed interest that she had the same parts as me. I just nodded and took a sip of my Bacardi Breezer.

So it was about one and time to head back to my hotel but, first, I stopped at a streetside bar stand (shown below) to have a G&T. The bottle showed Tanqueray but who the heck knows.

I left Bangkok the next morning at 8:30, to Tokyo, to Seattle, to Denver, to Wyoming where the interstate beyond the airport road exit was closed due to high winds. Ah, home.

Aaah, Noosa Heads

I tried to check in to the nice hostel. The one that's in the historic building. I did. I really did.

But the only room they had was a double and it was 80 bucks. And, frankly, that's outta my (self imposed) budget. So I went to the other hostel. The dodgy one. The party hostel. The one that makes you want to holler "SPRING BREAK, WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" And it's attached to the "hottest club in Noosa Heads." Greeeeeat.

Oh, yes, my hostel has a wet t-shirt contest AND a wet jock contest. Alas, that's on Monday and I won't be here, or I would sooooo be there. (Observer, folks.)

To top it off, I did not realize that my 8-man dorm room was coed until I walked in to find a shirtless, vagabondish German manboy texting his chicas while his hot water swilling countryladies took leisurely 30 minute showers thus denying me the chance to see the town's Christmas tree lighting.

But here's the tree. A normal deciduous tree in drag as an evergreen.

Personally, I prefer the routine palm tree decoration.

But the night was young and I headed 'downtown' which meant at the second or third roundabout. I went into a jazzy, breezy, Hawaii-ish resto called Rococo's. I sat down, ordered a gin and tonic and went to pay when the gentleman next to me told the bartender, by name, that my drink was on him. Nice! A distinguished Scottish man, eerily reminiscent of a paunchy Tommy Lee Jones but one who speaks in a dialect I cannot understand. He proceeded to order a couple of bottles of champagne. Long story short, this man was obliterated, told me AT LEAST 115 times that he was "very real" and proceeded to shake my hand a lot, turning into kissing my hand, and eventually licking my knuckles. When he licked my ear, I decided it was best that I skidaddle.

So now I am back at SPRING BREAK WOOOOOO hostel and loving their unlimited wifi. I hope there are no weird German shenanigans in the room tonight.

EDIT (26NOV): The two German girls left. The German manboy is actually Swiss. There are two Canadian brothers, and two Brit girls. There is no air conditioning. But no German shenanigans so all is good.