The Marco Polo hotel had the cheapest single rooms on Khaosan Road. There were 3 tiers: no bathroom or window, no window, and deluxe. That they called a room with a bathroom and a window a deluxes is laughable, but I guess it is relative to what else they offer, which is practically medievel. I went with the room with the bathroom but no window. Since my sleeping times were skewed it was probably better that I didn't have one, and the street can be noisy. The room was simply a room and a bed with a closet that had a shower head. There were no electrical outlets, mirrors, or sinks. And I think the bed was an air mattress. But it wasn't so bad, considering the price; I'm a backpacker after all, and I should be used to living without convenience. It was not having a power outlet that I had the most difficulty dealing with, because I like to charge my netbook. The reception people were accomodating to that--they had a massive powerstrip in the lobby that was like a momma cow, nursing precious wattage to the baby netbooks of all the travelers.
It had been a few days since I had gotten to Bangkok and I hadn't ridden the Skytrain yet. Luke and I kept talking about switching to a hostel closer to the Skytrain because Khaosan road was so far, so we finally got it togethor and treked over there. It was a late start, naturally, but it wasn't a problem. We decided to take the ferry again to the central pier, which is connected to a Skytrain station. Our walk was more of a wander in the general direction, until we reached the water. The pier wasn't well marked so we had to inquire with the locals. The first local that we attempted this with was very much a Non Englisher. I tried to mime sailing in a boat, but he just laughed--obviously not the best choice. I should have mimed paddling, which I thought of not 10 seconds after we walked away. The next person we found knew what we wanted, and pointed us the right way. And yes, the ferry building looked more like a Cowboy Saloon, with dark teak colored wood and a low roof. The only signifier was a clump of colored flags which tell you which ferry lines service this station.
Not that we felt particularly retarded that day, but we were having issues managing. Our next debacle found us standing on the wrong pier, which was more raftlike, as it bobbed so ferociously that you wouldn't find it odd if they offered you a climbing harness. We stood on this floating pier and observed that the only boats coming to it were going to the dock on the other side of the river, and back. We slinked back into the station, showed the ticket guy our tickets and pleaded to be allowed to change to the other platform. There was no punishment for our ignorance, thankfully.
We got on the next boat and road to the last stop, which was Central Pier. It was pretty quick. I have been impressed with the frequency and speed of water public transportation in Asia and wonder why we don't have it at home. San Francisco has a few ferries, but they are so infrequent and have very few stops. In Bangkok the ferry system is more like a bus, with stops ever couple of minutes, and it services all parts of the city that border water.
We got off at Central and walked over to the Skytrain. Luke had been before so he more or less took the lead. It was pretty simple--you puit in your destination and pop in the amount of money it wants. It wasn't too pricey--the cheapers ride being about 75 cents, but that really isn't much better than a taxi. We got off at Patpong, which is just south of the city center--or where the Shopping Citadel is. Luke had stayed in this area when he and Jo passed through Bangkok a month prior. We walked over to 2 hostels and checked out the prices and availabilities. Both hostels barely had any availability and they were both more expensive for dorms than what we were paying for a single on Khaosan road. It just didn't make sense to switch. A taxi ride from Patpong to our hostel was still less than the diference in price. The hostels did look a lot cleaner and better equipped, and they are probably better places to meet travelers, but Luke and I were content with our no frills accomodation and weren't looking for new friends. After abandoning a hostel search Luke took me to an indoor food market a few blocks away. He knew the general area it was in but not the exact location, so we had a bit of a wander, and accidentally found ourselves wandering through a block with specialty boy bars. With names like "Boy Palace" and "Stud Lounge", it was pretty obvious. It was too early for nightlife and noone was around to solicit us, thankfully. We found the food market and only a few of the vendors were open, but any food was fine by us, so I had some seafood soup and Luke got some stir fried rice. It was fantastic.
After food we stopped by a streetside bar that was armored in bamboo plate mail. We got some drinks and talked more about videogames. We talked so much that a nerd cone developed around us, keeping non nerds at bay. It was ok--it was still early. Before we left we started playing some connect four, which Luke said I should practice, because it is a popular bar game in Thailand, and if you are good you can get a lot of free drinks. I was a bit rusty, but slowly got my groove on, but Luke was pretty sharp, and tough to beat. There was a ladyboy server that kept trying to tell me where to play my move. I should have listened, because I kept losing.
Finally we left the bar and walked over to the heart of the Redlight district known as Paptpong. Luke really wanted to see a "ping pong" show, which I'll admit, I was curious too. We found a bunch of people on the street that would try and take you up dimly lit staircase for "pingpong" show, but refused, as they all seemed like scames. The general rule we followed was that we wouldn't go inside any location you can't see inside of from the street. We had heard too many stories of people going upstairs to see a show and then getting charged hundreds of bucks for a single drink and the doors being locked and guarded by numerous large men until the tab was paid. Aside from the easily avoidable scams Patpong was not as seedy as I expected. There was a mix of beer bars, go-go clubs, and streetside merchants selling anything from sex toys to tourist trinkets. Most of the people walking around were guys, but there were a fair share of couples and even a few families. You could peak into the Go-Go clubs and see tons of women in bikinis dancing on a stage with numbers on them--basically they were on display for purchase. Probably not these women's first choice of careers, but it seemed to be a lot better than if it was illegal. The bars were all very nice, well decorated, and clean. They weren't seedy--nobody was trying to drag you in. Since they are all public businesses they have to follow the law. It is probably unlikely that the girls would rob their customers, since they (the girls) are employed by the bars, meaning they work there and depend on the bar to keep them employed . It's not likely to be their first choice of jobs, but it seems to pay well. Luke and I decided that since we were there we had to at least go into one of them, so we went into one called King's Camelot. As long as you kept buying drinks the bars don't care if you just sit there and 'watch'; they primarily make money off of alcohol. The girls are paid a small salary each month, but they get majority of their money for their services. To get out of having to explain ourselves, Luke and I just pretended that we were gay. I don't really think they bought it, but they stopped pressuring us after that. Overall we had a lot of fun there. We even made friends with the "Mamasan" and got her to join us for some drinks. We tried another bar after this and made friends with a Japanese guy who kept screaming at the girls for being Ladyboys. They really didn't look like Ladyboys to us, which began to freak us out a bit.
We were ready to head home around 3:30AM. I was going to flag down a cab when Luke stopped me, "Mate," he said, "I can't take a cab because I get motion sick if I've been drinking". He was intent on getting a hotel in Patpong for the night. That didn't make sense to me, since he had a room back in Khaosan road. I told him we could go get some food until he was sober, but he refused, saying he probably wouldn't be sober for a while. "Screw it", I said, "we can walk. I have a map". Luke wasn't sure about it. I was insistent. I love walking--it would be fun. But we weren't sure of the way--and our previous taxi rides down here have taken 20-30 minutes. I reminded Luke of my awesome compass watch, which had already proven itself in his presence. He trusted it. He trusted me. "Ok, Let's do it". The walk took about two and a half hours, and we made it. We basically looked on our map and found that there was a system of canals running through the city--we could walk due west to one, then due north to another, then we should be close enough to Khaosan road that we should recognize the way. The only worry I had was if the canals were underground in parts and we would miss them--still it wouldnt be too bad because if we walked too far west we would just hit the river, which would get us back home also, but it would just be a lot further. We celebrated wildly when we saw the Death Star Canon monument from a few days before. Luke practically bowed down before the power of my wristwatch--you go Casio. Now it was almost 6 AM, so we had a breakfast of roadside Pad Thai and watched the sun climb up a starry ladder. Finally we escaped to our beds.
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