It is an odd feeling to have a sense of “homecoming” in a city so entirely different from home. It is equally weird to have familiar haunts: the same hotel on Khao San road, going out to a bar I’ve been to before, a distinct memory of the smells, the sounds, and the energy. I was happy to see that five weeks later, Bangkok held the same magic for me that it did when I first arrived in January.
In typical Thai fashion, the size of our group meant we were unable to check into our hotel because the rooms weren’t ready. Instead, a few of us went to Pratunam Market, a sprawling outdoor shopping area known for excellent knock-offs opposite the equally massive and sprawling Platinum Mall. Shopping in Thailand is overwhelming at best due to the sheer amount of same, same but different stores crammed full of same, same but different stuff, and frustrating at worst. Pratunam proved to be on the frustrating end of the spectrum because nobody was allowed to try anything on, and the salespeople were exceptionally unhelpful and difficult to bargain with.
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A few unfruitful hours and some excellent Indian food later, we made it back to our hotel in time to get ready for our “last” supper at the Bangkok Sky Restaurant, the highest restaurant in Bangkok, at the top of Baiyoke Sky Hotel.
As fate would have it, we arrived in Bangkok on Big Buddha day, a national holiday that forbids the purchase and sale of liquor. This seemed to be a tragedy of gargantuan proportions for almost every tourist in Bangkok. Sad Western faces moped around Khao San road and dejectedly inquired at numerous 7/11s. Luckily for us, the all you can eat dinner buffet at Sky was excellent, featuring international cuisine and they served alcohol. I stuffed my face full of salmon sashimi, shrimp shumai and roasted red pork steam buns. The views from the revolving observatory were excellent as well.
The night only got more interesting after that. Part of it was spent with 70 per cent of the group not being allowed into a penthouse suite that some LBWers had purchased for the night, another part of it was spent drinking Thai beer out of paper cups at a random restaurant and then subsequently fighting with the restaurant owners after the police fined them and they decided to turn the tables and demand money from us for the law they had happily broken only an hour before. (Myself and a few others had left as soon as the trouble began, but before the police arrived).
After that fun exercise in Thai logic, we went to The Club, which I had remembered as excellent previously, but found rather too full of the bad kind of European this time around. At 4 am I headed home, while other LBWers went to a Ping Pong show (no, not the table tennis game).
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Starbung coffee in Old Bangkok
The following day (the last day in Bangkok for the majority of us) I spent walking around Old Bangkok, eating as much street food as possible, packing, and shopping on Khao San. That night 11 of us set out for the airport. It was a bittersweet farewell and I definitely could have stayed in this beautiful, fascinating, enticing country much longer.
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
