Man who walk through airport door sideways...

Dates of travel: 28 February 2015 - 01 March 2015

... is going to Bangkok!

What can I say? I may be 31, but sometimes I just feel like being immature. :-)

After I finished up with my job in Saraburi, I travelled down to Bangkok for one night before flying out. Before leaving, though, my customer offered to take me out to dinner. We went to a local restaurant called Dairy Home. As far as I can tell, it's associated with a nearby dairy farm, because one of the big draw cards appears to be that they make their own ice cream.

Always trying to experience each country in the most authentic way I can, I opted to have a "steak with Thai sauce" for dinner. This place is not exactly known for its non-Western food, you see! To the left is what I got, and it was quite adequate. The steak was a little fatty for me, and the "Thai sauce" was really just oil, chilli and garlic. But still wasn't too bad, and it hit the spot. I probably would have preferred a nice curry or Pad Thai or something, though!

These are the guys from my customer company. Who'd have thought a group of skinny Asian blokes could eat so much? I kid you not, each of these guys had at least two mains - typically one steak and one pork chop/salmon/pasta. Hence, all the plates on the table. But the good thing about this place is everything is quite cheap, so you can do that and still not be paying out the nose when the bill comes around. Plus, they had a company credit card at their disposal, so I think that helped them eat their fill.

As I mentioned, this restaurant is known for its home-made ice cream, which I, of course, sampled. You get two scoops in a little hand-decorated mug; I went with Cappuccino Rum (seen on top) and Red Bull Sorbet. Hey, it's Thailand, they invented the stuff! It was very tasty ice cream, and I could definitely taste the coffee and Red Bull flavour. Once you are finished and paid the bill, you take your little cup up to the counter and can swap it out for an unused one to take home. There are half-a-dozen or so different decorations available. They aren't works of art, but hey, it's free!

So, anyway... this post is supposed to be about Bangkok, so let's get on to that.

On Saturday 28th February, my driver brought me down to the big smoke, arriving around lunch time. I checked into my room at Arnoma Hotel, which sits basically smack in what is recognised as the centre of Bangkok, right across from Central World shopping mall. The room was very comfortable and service on arrival at the hotel was good.

I had made plans to meet up with a friend who lives in Bangkok, and he had given me a couple of ideas for places to check out during the day. However, most of them were essentially western-style shopping districts. I am not much of a shopper. I was happy to just chill in the room, relax and catch up on some emails, so I opted for that. It had been a busy 3 weeks on the job in Saraburi, so I was just happy for a bit of down time!

At around 4pm, I left the hotel to go meet my friend. The first thing that struck me about Bangkok was the smell... it wasn't a pleasant smelling afternoon! I assume it comes from litter in the streets and the heat and humidity of the area. It did seem to improve as I walked, but maybe I just got used to it. I walked up Ratchaprarop road for about 10 minutes until I reached Soi 8 ("soi" just refers to a small side street off of a main street).

I met with my friend at his local bar, called Sweet Home. It's run by an Australian guy, so there are a few internationals that appear to be regulars. The main draw, for me, was that it was removed from Ratchaprarop by 100m or so, so the traffic was a little less. Other than that, it was essentially just a bar!

After a few drinks, we went next door to a little restaurant called Thong Chai. We indulged in a couple of different dishes, one of which is shown here. I caught this guy myself with a net in the tank. I was actually aiming for another one, but he was smart enough to duck out of the way; this one just sat there, looking oblivious, so I grabbed him instead! I don't remember what style/flavour the topping was called, but it was quite good and hit the spot nicely. If you are in this area of Bangkok, definitely stop in for a bite. Apparently it is often packed out, with both foreign and Thai customers. It's a pleasant, open-air eating experience that I do recommend.

After dinner, we set off to experience a bit of the night-life of Bangkok, so we grabbed a taxi and headed for the infamous Nana Plaza. We grabbed a couple of beers and sat to watch the people walking by, and of course, do a bit of ladyboy spotting. I haven't spent enough time in Bangkok, so my skills are not so great. Some of them are ridiculously convincing! But in any case, I wasn't on the lookout for a companion; I am very happily attached (hi, babe!).

But, for anyone who might be into that kind of thing, Nana Plaza certainly does spoil you for choice. These girls might look like they are just out for a night on the town. But I'm informed they are actually hooking. To be honest, it is a little bit sad that so many resort to this as a profession. I'm told that, for a lot of them, it's a choice between working on the family farm for their whole life and making not a lot of income... or move into Bangkok and do this for a living. But it's supply and demand - and that's the other thing about Bangkok. The whole place (and especially Nana Plaza) is littered with older Western men who are really only there for one reason.

So, that was my experience of the Bangkok nightlife. We went out, I had a few too many beers, and then back to the hotel to sleep it off. The next day, I met up with the same friend to go for a bit of lunch. We just went for a simple food court feed next to my hotel and then had a bit of a walk through Central World.

Out the front of Central World, there was some kind of market stall setup of all kinds of small shops. My girlfriend had been adamant that I had to try this Bangkok street food of a banana pancake. My friend was entirely sure where they might be around the area, but amongst this market stall, we found a La Creperie that was making them. Yes, it was made by a couple of French guys, but I'm told its essentially the same as the street food style. They made a nice, thin crepe, dolloped on some mushy banana and drizzled over some chocolate sauce. Then, folded it up and drizzled some more sauce, and what you see here was the finished product. It was tasty... but nothing out of this world. Maybe that's what I get for having the French style and not the real Thai style!

Well, that's about it. On the afternoon of Sunday 1st March, I headed for the airport. I had a long couple of days ahead of me: flying that night to Sydney (9 hours), then a couple of hours transit before spending Monday 2nd flying 14 hours to Johannesburg. And as I sit here in Johannesburg at just before 6am (and I've been typing now for maybe 1.5 hours), I guess it goes to show that jet lag can come in handy!