Back to the big city
got the bus to bangkok, no drama, went the dentist, had a great indonesian
meal at the central mall. Expensive, but nice. Booked into a crappy room in
Khao San and by then it was the evening. We went to check out a few bars
down on Soi Cowboy, which was an eye opener. Five star bar had a great band
and they even let tourist up to play a few numbers, a couple of old english
guys were pretty good. they got someone to sing ‘hey joe’ which was
interesting as every time they tried to wind teh song down he started
singing again. Must have gone on for 20 minutes!! Everything closes in
bangkok at 1am these days (or earlier) so we went home. We declined an
invitation from Bandys new mate ”rick’ to go play pool in some dodgy bar.
Got trapped on the street mat bars again though, prettty sure that was
‘party dog’ night, torturing poor animals with balloons :p
Lets get wasted!
Next day was more of the same, bandy recovering from his poorly stomach
(and getting up at 7am to find his watch, to no avail). I’ve felt fine pretty
much the whole time, had a sore throat in bangkok but that gave our kid a
chance to oggle the attractive pharmacist in boots when I bought strepsils.
Theres not a lot to do, swim, play guitar, banana pancakes, etc etc. Great
weather, occasional showers, steady 28 degrees the whole time I reckon. Got
a bit of a tan now, nothing serious, no burns like a usually do. Can see
the white bits on my feet from my sandals nicely. I like that 
Ran into Tom the next night again and he”s been drinking since the
afternoon and was well on the way to getting completely hammered. We’d been
given flyers for toks again, free bucket of sang som which is a huge lethal
drink! The flyer said ‘lets get f**king wasted’ which is a nice thought. He
was with his ex-girlfriend, which was kinda freaky (for him). Bandy went
early and I consoled poor Tom as his ex went off with some bloke she’d met
on the ferry. Nice girl, aussie. We even got accosted by a random french
bloke on the beach who reckonned we were going to win the world cup with
‘rouuunay’ or someone. Was nice to hear someone have some faith! I had the
scary jungle trek on my own and we had arranged to leave the next day for
the trap that is bangkok. Any chance of leaving the day after…..?
hmmmmm…..
Karaoke Madness (again)
next day we woke bright and early to take advantage of another day and
another beach. We had ended up on one of the more remote beaches so getting
to where the majority of the action was entailed a trek through the jungle.
I kinda like ko samet, lots of thai tourists, enough bankpackers, not too
rowdy, not too quiet. We had a boring day, swimming, listening to Jack
Johnson (again!), eating banana pancakes, drinking shakes. We had a great
afternoon jamming away on the guitars too, until some random thai woman
opened our door and yelled “excuse me!” I think she didn’t like the sweet
music we were playing, Bandy thought she’d just got the wrong room. She
looked pissed off to me! That night we went out in search of action, but
there wasn’t much to be had. Met a english guy called Tom and took him off
to the local karaoke bar. Quite a good selection, and we broke the rules by
getting 4 songs in a row instead of the usual 2 per group. I belted out a
great ‘band on the run’, bandy muddled through àwill survive and tom make
a massive mistake with coldplays yellow because he forgot about the high
bits which he couldn’t sing due to laughing too much. The crowd was going
wild when we lauched into ‘bohemian rhapsody’, we were building up to a big
rock out climax, and just at the point of beeelzeebub having a devil set
aside for me, for meeee, for mmmeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEE!! the computer crashed
and the song ended. I guess you had to be there, but I was so I dont care.
We wandered back to Toks huts and spent the rest of the night chatting to 2
danish girls who I insulted by asking if they were swedish. I dont know who
suggested the skinny dipping, but I dont really care. Although technically
it was only the boys as the girls were much more modest. Bandy lost his
watch, and now I torment him by constantly asking the time. Shame 
Jungle
treks while drunk and soaked are best avoided.
Stop the bus I want a wee wee!
next day we got up far too late to manage getting a flight back to bangkok.
Not very organised you see, we were on the ferry just before it was going
to leave and it ended up being full anyway. Bandy say feeling ill while I
asked just about everyone on the ferry if they were drivig to bangkok and if we
could pay for a lift so I could make it to the dentist for 5pm. No chance.
We ended up taking a tourist bus to pattaya which was closer and had the
possiblity of flying to bangkok. The bus took ages, and after Bandy threw
up at the food stop we ended up jumping off at the pier to Ko Samet, another
island which we both knew pretty well from before. 40 mins ferry later and
15 mins on the back of a pickup we were happily established in a air con
room with fridge, thai TV and hot shower. Early night for the boys I hate
to say, but we were both whacked and Bandy wasn’t his best.
Tequila and Tabasco
Had another quiet day on Ko Chang, cruised around on the hired motorbike
exploring, ate at random places, back the porns for an afternoon swim and
relaxtion session. Next night I wasn’t the designated driver so Bandy took
great pleasure in getting me completely hammered. Tequila and Tabasco isn’t
the best combination at the best of times, combined with a red curry
earlier in the day, I was up for trouble in the morning. We even sang some more
karaoke before we got too drunk, i think I murdered “the boxer”.
Lazy Beach Day
After the unfortunate incident of nearly being lynched in the bar we had a quiet day. Wake up, eat a bit of breaky
by the sea, take a dip, play a few songs on the veranda, cruise around the
island avoiding the occasional showers, went to some waterfall, criticize
each others driving before heading home for a swim and sunset beer. good times.
I went back out later but poor bandy stayed in to complete his hangover cure.
Practiced my swedish a bit, got invited to tony’s bar the next night.
Tags: sea, laziness, invitation, cruise, Travel, bandy, sunset, beaches, beers, waterfalls, waterfallSawadee
may as well start this mail as I wait for Bandy to get back from buying
his guitar, I think I’ll be regretting not getting one in about an hour. He’s
bought exactly the same one that Qatar Airways broke on my last trip to
Bangkok so he really knows how to annoy me!
Well I’m here, I think I’m not jet lagged, after getting up at 2pm and
working all night Sunday and then getting 2 hours sleep on the plane I didn’t sleep
last night until 2am, and I had to practically drag Bandy back out when we
somehow ended up back at the hotel at 11pm. The guy has no stamina! so
Sunday 2pm to Wednesday 2am on 2 hours sleep is pretty good :p
Yesterday was mad, got in at 7am and took a nice convoluted tour to Khoa
San Road. I was planning on ambushing bandy as I said I would be there at 11pm,
as it was he had booked the room in the place I wanted, but put it in his
name! SO the very helpful receptionist wouldn’t let me have it. Probably
just as well as I would only sleep and i needed to stay up and beat the jet
lag. After 1/2 of checking other hostels for my missing travel companion I
stagger back to the ‘New Siam’ and he turns up 10 minutes later just as I
persuade her to give me the key. Its 9am by then and the earliest he’s been
up!
Khao san hasn’t changed much since June, we have a wander, get some food at
the best Thai veggie place I know then set off looking for guitars. I knew
vaguely where it was and its nice to get away from all the tourists and
hassle of backpacker central. Of course, as soon as I told Bandy this ‘no
one speaks English round here’, the words had barely left my lips before
someone asked where we were going and what country we came from :p bloody
touts! Somehow bandy just attracts them like flies, I’m surprised he managed
to make it to the city. He got an unmarked ‘taxi‘ with 1 guy, who was
joined by 2 others. They wanted 3,000 Baht, thats 45 quid!! I got my taxi on the
meter and it was 200B and I felt ripped off cos its usually 150! He got
away with paying 1000, I would have ran to the tourist police….. scratch that,
I wouldn’t have gotten in the car!!
Still, its nice to have a friend in a strange city, or it would be if he
wanted to go out. He stayed out a bit longer than me last night and now
he’s sworn off beer….. we’ll see.
We checked out the guitar shops and carried on through Chinatown, wandering
randomly, working up a sweat, but not too much as its rather mild. About 25
degrees or so. I might have to buy some long trousers! Eventually it was a
bit too tiring and we jumped in a taxi to legendary MBK shopping mall. We
even spent some money!! 8 nice new shirts, since i deliberately came with
one t-shirt so I would have to buy some. They have glass booths up on the 6th
floor, which are supposedly sound proof, you put it your money, grab a mic
and karaoke to your hearts content. I insisted we get the outer one, and
some western guys were killing themselves walking past as I was doing my best
wacko jacko impression while singing thriller. All the locals enjoyed the
show too.
Then we went bowling, and its not exaggeration to say I kicked bandy‘s arse.
Strike on the first ball, and it was all over from then, I rattled him too
much We looked great in those white socks and blue shoes, while sipping
strawberry daquaris from martini glassed. Super!
More food at a great Tappanyaki bar up in the food court, god knows what
bandy ordered, ‘aki steak’ but I think it was squid… could have been
tripe…. oops! This trip should be much more interesting since i stopped
being vegetarian, I can stop being quite so afraid to experiment. Bit more
shopping, got sucked into the fourth floor which is a mistake, its
completely devoted to mobile phones, but I’ll be down there selling mine so
we needed to do some research.
Back on khao san its more of the same, cocktails, curry, pineapple off the
street and avoiding the lady boys. Wasn’t the best idea to try to make it a
big night after so little sleep but I had to try. Gulliver’s just didn’t
seem the same after my adventures last June, we found a nice bar with cute staff
to entertain us and hung out there until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. When
I say bar I mean a load of tables and chairs on the street, the toilet is
down an alley and go right, left, left, right, left and left, you can’t
miss it :p Come twelve o’clock because of Bangkok‘s crack down on late night
drinking they remove the tables and get the mats out, but you still keep
drinking. I had a banana daquiri and a pink pussy, it was quite good!! God
knows what Bandy was drinking, I think he was trying to impress the cute
owner with his constitution (and wallet :p).
No reason not to drink tonight though. Wtf is he?? I leave him for 10 mins
and I’ll never see him again! Surely he’s still not testing his guitar!
I’ll have to get up early and get one tomorrow. Looks like we’re flying down to
trat so we can get the ferry to the Island of Ko Chang. Should be good,
I’ve never been. Then back to BKK on Sunday and off to Cambodia, I guess, who
knows….
So much for just starting this mail, I’ve finished it!! I better go look
for him, plonker sold his mobile, looks like I might have to give him a spare
so I don’t lose him all the time.