While You Were Sleeping

While you were sleeping Katie and I were spending Saturday, our first full day in Bangkok, exploring as much as we could.  We decided to eat breakfast somewhere in town vs at the hotel.  Little did we know our choices for the first two miles of walking would only be street side mystery meat.  Eventually we came to a nice little coffee shop which worked out perfectly.

After a quick breakfast we jumped in a Tuk Tuk and went to the Dusit Zoo.  My research ahead of time suggested Dusit Zoo is the only place around that has a Panda Bear.  I promised Hailey I would do my best to take a picture of a Panda Bear so that was our mission.  After 45 minutes in the Tuk Tuk (traffic really sucks around here) we made it to the zoo.  We spent about an hour walking around the zoo only to find there is no Panda.  The closest Panda Bear is about 4 hours from here,,, I was bummed.  It was interesting to see how poorly this zoo treated their animals.  I hope nobody complains about Busch Gardens,,, compared to this zoo Busch Gardens is a 5 star resort for animals.

Once our zoo escapade was over we jumped in a taxi to enjoy some AC for our ride back.  We learned a new trick in Bangkok, make sure your taxi is a metered taxi.  He turned the meter on, 45 minutes later we were back at the hotel for only 75 Baht.  I gave him 100 ($3 US) and we were back on our feet again.  Katie and I continued exploring more of the shops near our hotel.  We decided we would have dinner one night at one of the most popular restaurants in Bangkok.  This restaurant is a few blocks from our hotel atop one of the taller buildings downtown.  To eat there I needed to have long pants but unfortunately I had already shipped back all of my long pants thinking shorts would be fine for the remainder of the trip.  We found a nice tailor who was able to bang out a pair of pants within a few hours,,,, perfect.  We also found some nice brown shoes,,,, I was all set.

We made it back to the room early in the afternoon for a few hours of sleep before heading out to dinner and a night on the town.  We stopped at the concierge on our way back to the room to book dinner.  The restaurant was sold out for Saturday night so we made reservations for the following evening.  The concierge suggested a cabaret show so we booked it and headed up to the room for some rest.  Back at the room we found rest to be harder then planned.  The unmistakable sound of a hammer drill was pounding away in a nearby room.  After a few calls to the management we couldn't get it stopped.  To the Oriental Hotel's credit (including help from Adventure Asia and Admiral Travel) they offered us another room.  We had to decline, after a month of packing, unpacking, packing, unpacking, etc - we didn't want to move.  They then offered a one night refund which we graciously accepted.

Around 7 we left the hotel for the 30 minute ride to the Asia Hotel which hosted the cabaret show.  The Asia Hotel sounded grand but we were very unimpressed with the lobby and restaurant choices.  We sat at the lobby bar and ordered fried calamari, pad thai and a few drinks.  We enjoyed sitting there watching the crowd roll in for the show.  It was a definitely a mixing pot of people; young, old, kids, parents, male, female, Asian, non-Asian, etc.  At 8 we left the bar and headed down the stairs to the show.  The theater was small but they still managed to fit a few hundred people in the tiny area.  We had 3rd row center tickets which we thought were good but,,, no.  There were only 6 rows and each row had two rows of people in groups of 6.  Each group of 6 shared a very small table for overpriced drinks.  Each group of 6 was pushed up against another group of 6 on either side of them.  We felt like sardines.

Around 8:30 the lights dimmed and the "lady boy" show started.  This area is full of "lady boys" - it turns out a sex change is a very popular thing to have in this town.  These girls (guys) started running around singing and dancing.  It was funny and sad at the same time.  It wasn't a great show but we stuck it out the full 50 minutes.     At one point during the show Katie offered some picture taking advice to the guy in front of us.  (side note: by in front of us I mean on our lap).  He was trying to take pictures with his flash on and they weren't coming out.  She suggested turning the flash off (accurate suggestion).  He spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out how to do that before just giving up.  I mentioned this because it was one of the funnier parts of the show (for us).  During the bows and thank-yous Katie and I darted out of the theater to continue exploring the town.

The rest of the night we walked through a few markets and did some bar hopping.  The nightlife around here is interesting to say the least.  There are kids running around by themselves begging for money.  There were mothers carrying their kids around asking for money.  On one small side street (it looked like a mini-Vegas with bars, etc), we saw a one-legged guy dragging himself up the middle of the road.  He would push his money dish forward then pull himself up to the dish.  He did this over and over again as he slowly made his way up the street.  The whole time his head was never more than 1 inch from the ground.  We headed back around midnight and called it a night.  Only 1 night left,,, I can't believe it.  I miss everyone (my daughters especially),,, we'll be home soon.   More to come....