Since I've returned from Vietnam I've been spending a lot of time downtown getting to know what is largely considered to be one of the best cities on earth. There are so many cool neighborhoods, interesting people and most importantly, delicious foodstuffs around... I could spend days just wandering from eatery to shoppery to eatery.
Finals are over and we've all kind of been cramming in our last attempts to "live it up" in Bangkok. One night we went to a place with a Thai indie hipster band that played exclusively Kings of Leon covers and knew probably an 8th of the lyrics to any given song. Another night we went to a club called "Spicy" where the girls are (aptly), hot and easy. It's pretty much just a racket for Thai prostitution and is frequented by sleazy foreigners and drunkies like me who can't stand up to their peers when being pressured to "get a true Thai experience."
I also made a new batch of hilarious Thai friends that go to school here. The two funniest ones are named Ice and Leo. They're both huge potheads who only smoke out of a water bottle with a metal pipe stuck through it... only. Also, once they're high they completely forget how to speak the little English they knew before and it makes all communication thoroughly laughable. I also met the hottest Thai girl ever who has awesome dreads and a two month old adorable baby. I have a huge crush on her... she doesn't speak English but she put her finger on my nose and said "I like!" Score.
Last night was perhaps one of the better "going-out" experiences I've ever had. The group flight to the states left this morning, so a lot of people were going out in Bangkok for the last time. I discovered this restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms that was started by a former senator in an effort to raise money and awareness for AIDS and safe sex. It's a very classy, upscale place that happens to be contraceptively themed. Instead of mints with your check, they give you condoms. There's a Captain Condoms lounge upstairs with drinks named things like "The Blue Rubber." All over the walls are various condom themed art or jokes and there were mannequins lining the pathway to the restaurant dressed in all condom clothing. It was really affordable, like $4.00 for a meal and was the best Thai food I've had since being here.
After we ate we got back on the Skytrain and went to the State Tower in another part of downtown. On the 64th floor of the building is one of the most famous bars in Bangkok called Distil. You can see every inch of the city and Bangkok has incredibly weird and awesome architecture and lighting that is best appreciated from ridiculous heights. Drinks at this bar cost upwards of $15.00 each... which sucked extra for me as given my passover diet was restricted to a "Nada Colada" for $17.o0. The price of a drink was really worthwhile to see the view though and I'm sure we sufficiently pissed off all of the wealthy European clientele by taking lots of pictures and gushing about how much we'll all miss each other. I was sufficiently pissed off anyway...
On the way home in a taxi we passed by a red shirt protest and was able to see a solid amount of it due to stagnant traffic along the road blocks. This protest in particular was supposed to have been violent and international folk were warned from going downtown at all. It it weren't for public transportation options like the Skytrain we would have been stuck in traffic all night. It's a pretty ridiculous situation because the Thai government just allows silly little factions of students who don't know what they're protesting shut down entire areas of the city. It's extra ridiculous because the red shirts are protesting the new Prime Minister who was put in place after Thaksin was forced to resign and they want to bring Thaksin "Raper of the Thai Economy" Shinawatra back into power. It's all very Thai.
In other news, monsoon season is upon us and while it's sometimes annoying to get caught in the epic floods on my way back to my apartment, it's actually a step up from the sweltering hot season that preceded it. Don't get me wrong, it's still balls hot- but now, for like half an hour every day it cools down to livable temperatures. The thunder and lighting is also out of this world... The loudest, longest most awesome thunder I've ever head in my life by far. Ill.
Less awesomely, Passover here sucks and I have nothing to do or eat.
Happy various holidays to the rest of you,
X
esti
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