We chose a bar that advertised live boxing shows and, when we peeked in, was in the midst of setting up the ring. It was a Muay Thai match; the combatants looked fierce. One of them looked exactly like Sagat from Street Fighter 2, except he had a full head of hair. The other guy was a lot smaller and didn't look to have a chance. The match started off strong. They were so quick their kicks struck like bolts of lighting. Finally in the second round the Sagat guy took it and was ringed out Virtua Fighter style. He slammed his head on the floor where there was no safety mat and got knocked out. Finally he got up and they called the fight. Then afterwards both fighters walked around the bar to collect tips. The Sagat guy had a huge welt on his face and would probably look more like Sloth from Goonies in a few hours. He had an expression that made you feel like you owed him money for having the privilege to see him get beat up. We left quickly.
Instead of finding another beer bar we got dragged back into a Go-Go club by some girls at the entrance. It's not that we were completely taken against our will, but it was difficult to say no. We did the same routine over again--got some beers and pretended to be gay. This club seemed to be more premiere, or higher class. It also had more attitude. The girls were meaner to us when we told them we wouldn't be purchasing them. I bought another girl a drink because she had cool shoes. Then she came over and sat with us but we couldn't really understand her so we cheersed and elevatored for a while. Then when she left she demanded a 15 dollar tip. Luke and I exhaled so hard we created a low pressure system in the bar. That was ridiculous. We soon realzied that this bar was super touristy and their staff would squeeze as much money out of you as they could. Even the bathroom attendant was looking for tips. So we left. We went to a few more bars that night then took a cab home. Luke was not so drunk this time so we didn't have to walk. I was still sore from the last walk.
The next night we went skipped Patpong and went to the Soi's. I think Soi means alley, because all the Sois branch off the main road, Rama IV. I kept thinking of the anime Ranma 1/2 when I saw the street signs for it. The Soi's were all numbered and they counted up as you went East. We had read about a good Hostel on Soi 4, so we first checked it out; It was a small place run by some Australian guys. You could tell they were having a good time because people were still passed out on the couch from the night before when we walked in at 5PM. Everyone was friendly, but still the price was so much higher than the prices on Khaosan road, so we didn't take it. After the hostel we walked over to Soi 7 to check out a famous Beer Garden called, The Beer Garden. It wasn't so much a Beer Garden in terms of the selection of beer, which was small, but it was massive, like a Beer Cafeteria. The tables were the elevated type that are long and thin, like a bar. If you looked at the layout from above it would look like a maze. This was probably to make it an easy environment to mingle with the numerous prostitutes working there. This way, a man can just go sit kinda near a hooker instead of having to actually invite her to his table. It is probably less awkward. The problem was that there weren't many empty seats so Luke and I had to sit next to some hookers; I chatted one up-- I can't help but not be friendly despite not being interested. It just seems so rude to completely ignore someone sitting next to you, but I guess thats how the pro's do it. She was really friendly and spoke good English. I explained I wasn't interested in taking her home with me, which she said was ok, so we shared some drinks and hung out for a while. After about an hour Luke and I got ansty for our next destination and asked our new friend if she knew anything about a club that was recommended to us, called Climax. She said she went there a lot, and that it was real close, and then she offered to lead us there.
It was a quick walk to the club, which was snuggled underneath a hotel on Soi 11. You had to walk through the parking garage to get to it. Our prostitute friend went back to the bar, but said she might "drop in" on us later. It was just past 10:30 when we got there. There was no entry fee so we walked in, but it was deserted. We walked back out to ask the bouncer what time it usually gets busy; he said not until midnigt. So we went to get a snack. We had a hard time finding anything so we defaulted it with McDonalds. It was my first Thai McDonalds. The menu was pretty close to the American one--they had a few different sandwiches, mostly chicken. We just got a Big Mac each. It was so good, so we got both got another sandwich--some spicy chicken deal that was even better. The atmosphere of this McDonalds was more like a McDonalds in the US; it wasn't that clean and 50 percent of the customers are wearing clothing they probably sleep in. Not that it bothered us, but most all the other McDonalds I've seen outside of America feel higher end than the originals. After our snack it was late enough to go back to the club.
It was a little after midnight when we got there and we could hear a band playing inside. Unfortunately the entry fee starts after midnight, so we had to pay 6 dollars to get in, but that included one drink. We went inside. It was a bit grungy and a bit ravey. It was super crowded around the stage but fell off as you got near the bar. There were a lot of small tables scattered throughout the floor, and then larger tables hugging the walls. The way people were dressed seemed to be dependant on their gender. Most guys were in tshirts and jeans and most girls were dressed up. Luke and I were tshirting it, but we had an excuse, being travelers. We got our free drink and found a table to hang out at. The band was doing lots of popular rock music--Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Rianna. They were really good, though, so I appreciated it. There were about seven members and they would all take turns doing vocals. One of the girls had to do the Justin Bieber song; it sounded just like him. Eventually they started to play older stuff, like Stone Temple Pilots, Cranberries, Rage Against the Machine, and Creed. We had a lot of fun in this club. The vibe was really awesome and the people were incredibly friendly. A lot of the girls there were "working", but that didn't seem to stop them from having fun.
Luke usually doesn't like to dance, but I got him drunk enough to get him out there dancing. We had a lot of fun. We made friends with another Lex Luthor looking high roller, escorted by 2 super young Thais. He bought us drinks and kept trying to offer one of his girls up to us. Eventually the night wore on and I lost Luke. He got pretty drunk. At one point it looked like he almost got in a fight, but things calmed over. Then I went to the bathroom and came out and couldn't find him. I wasn't worried--he was drunk, but not out of control. I looked for a bit and never saw him, so I headed out to get a cab myself. It was about 5 AM. On my way back I made friends with a Ladyboy that was wearing a turquoise scarf to hide her Adam's Apple and asked her about good hotels in the area; I was starting to get tired of having to trek it back to Khaosan road every night and thought maybe a local could point out a deal. This local delivered. She showed me a hotel that she said is only 800 Baht a night. That is only 300 more than I was paying on Khaosan, but of much higher quality, and in a better area. So I decided I would move down here tomorrow. I thanked the ladyboy, who then invited me up to her place. I think it is terrible how badly people look down on the Ladyboys, so I am at least nice to them, but generally they are so persistent that I can now understand why people are mean to them. I took a cab back to Khaosan and walked to the Pad Thai street vendor from the other night, thinking Luke might be there--he wasn't, but it smelled so good, so I had a round. Finally I walked back to my abode and went to bed.
I had to get up and be packed before 11 if I wanted to move hostels, but that would be difficult without an alarm. For the past days Luke and I had been waking up past the checkout time, so we would have to stumble down to the front desk around noon and hand them some money for another night. I was determined to get out of this cycle, but I didn't have an alarm; I could use my computer, but it didn't have enough of a charge, so I relied on the quartz floating around my body. I pulled myself out of a sleep coma around 9AM, quickly packed, and checked out. I took a cab to Soi 4 and checked into the hotel recommended by the Ladyboy. It was as nice as any other hotel I've stayed in, except maybe the Taj in India. It was easily the nicest place I've stayed in since Hue Vietnam. I emailed Luke to let him know where I was, then took a nap.
I woke up and checked my email--Luke was going to need a night off tonight (I had taken a night off a few nights before so he needed one. Our adventures have been mightily heroic and can not be sustained for long without a break for rest). I didn't want to go too cray without my Bangkok brother, so I decided to get a dinner and relax at a bar. I chose a bar that was replaying one of the NFL playoff games: Packers versus Bears. I knew it was replay but I didn't know the outcome, so it was as if I was watching it live, but it was even better because the station it was on cut out all the long timeouts, halftime, and other periods of inaction. I made friends with the guy sitting next to me at the bar. His name was Jeff and he was an architect originally from Canada but now living in Phuket. We chatted for a bit and then I suggested we change bars. Jeff wasn't seasoned in the nightlife in this area, so I suggested the Beer Garden. We hung out at the beer garden for a few hours drinking Maple flavored Tiger Beers and talking about how we could make a building that looked like a Tyranosaurus driving a Cadillac.
I was up pretty early the next day and arranged to meet Luke at the Green cafe on Khaosan road. He told me that Joe and Maria would be back a bit earlier than they had originally planned for. This made me happy, as I missed seeing them. It was great having some man time with Luke but it would be nice have the team reunited. They would be back tomorrow. I can't really remember what Luke and I did this day though. I definitely remember attempting to go to this Japanese burger place at Saigon Paragon and pissing a bunch of people off because I didn't see there was a queue. To be fair, the queue was like 30 feet away, and I entered the seating section from the opposite site and never saw it. I played it off by pretending I was hard of seeing and was just reading the menu. The burgers looked good; they probably were, as the line was super long. We probably went to another bar that night. We definitely walked through Soi Cowboy one night, which is the most famous Red Light District of Bangkok. It was super flashy and had an awesome neon cowboy sign, but it wasn't very big. The clubs there were also more themed; some of them scared us, like the one with the spanking theme.
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