Spent what turned out to be a ridiculous evening that all started on Khao San Road, Bangkok. Khao San Road is a tourist mecca inside a tourist mecca. People from all over the world just “living their lives” and having a good time. It is a tourist trap though regarding prices which I will get too later. The night started there and ended there, madness of mammoth momentum ensued.

We (myself and my new friend from the US) started out on Khao San Road and decided, “who cares if it’s double or triple the price of other places, lets meet some people and have fun”. I’m proud to report, that’s exactly what we did. We met 2 guys and a girl from Canada, Romania and Israel and began drinking dramatically overpriced beers that were still only $3-5 each and almost a litre in size.

From Khao San Road, we took a tuk tuk to the “night market”, which is basically a massive market that sells all things fake. From shoes, purses, shirts, pace makers(j/k) and everything in between. From Khao San Road they wanted 250 baht, we told them we wouldn’t pay a baht over 120, done deal and 50% price cut. The stuff was cheap compared to the real stuff but I still had no desire to purchase anything. It was more a tourist trap then anything where people sold you Polo, Burberry, Lacoste collared shirts for $15-$30US despite probably paying $3-5US for each. Fabric is cheap and if you’re paying $100+ for a polo so you can help further Ralph Lauren’s bottom line… Check yourself, I had to.

The tuktuk drivers are absolutely mental, especially ours.  We were in traffic, doing a cat-walk with 3 people in the back, he went so far back one time, the entire back end was dragging on the concrete with a bus behind us. I am pleased to report, no beer was split while cat-walking. You can drink anywhere in Bangkok, similar to Vegas. Definitely sketchy, definitely fun,  if one were so inclined.

It’s crazy how “Frugal Frank” that I mentioned to you yesterday was quickly made submissive to “Hank the Tank” that comes out after several 1L beers. Despite being somewhere that guest rooms cost $15 (500 baht for high end, ~200 for most) and beer costs 1-4$ (35-200 baht), I managed to drop ~3,000 baht last night. That’s ~$100US for those of you who failed grade 3 math. I do have some things to show though, like a lock and eye drops, ha. In perspective, you can rent a decent place for a month for 15,000 baht.

After the night market, things got weird and after that we got into another tuk tuk back to Khao San Road before eating a mountain of pad thai that only cost ~60 baht (~$2). Basically this place is kinda like Vegas… It’s mental, you can stay cheap and the only place you really start dropping dinero is if you go nuts partying. It’s also crazy how I  felt “ripped off” paying $4 for a litre of beer at a bar when only 72 hours ago I was paying $14 for a vodka water in Vegas.

Having left Vegas on little sleep and spending 19 hours flying from LA -> Bangkok, I had no clue what happened last night would transpire. Now that it’s out of my system, I’m going to go check some other things and see if I want to get settled here or just move on. I know there is lots to do but trust me, we went all over last night and saw all sorts of things. I truly feel I’ve “done the Bangkok experience” if I had to leave and could never return. Maybe time to check out the rest of the country?  Either way, I’m buying a mobile phone today and just switching sim cards every city I go to. No phone = no friends.

Time to let “Hank the Tank” get some rest while “Frugal Frank” does his thing, haggling street vendors over dollar bills and bahts while looking for cheap thrills for the sake of cheap thrills. On that note, the people we met were super cool and seasoned. I now know the “going rates” for most things.

Stay tuned,

P.S I heard the reason they wear masks but not helmets is this. People die all the time in motor vehicles so it’s considered “normal”. If you catch / die of swine flu it’s viewed as pay back for something bad in a previous life. I don’t buy into it but that’s some of the rational.

P.P.S Connection here is sooooo slow, videos on hold for a while.

Khao San Road – During the Day – Still crazy and definitely worth a visit.