6:00am, 4:15am, 7:00am … I was in need of a lie in. So I got up at 10:30. Not a problem, I’ve already got Bangkok done and dusted from a previous trip, so I didn’t have anything I desperately needed to see. Apparently there’s a new metro system, but I was willing to bet it was pretty much the same as every other new metro system in the world.
In fact my task list for the day included only some shopping, laundry and getting a massage. Not having had an authentic Thai massage for 3 years, that one was high on the list, but first I dropped off my laundry and headed for Siam Square, the main shopping district in the city. I covered the essential items, and then did a sweep of some clothing stores. Designer shirts for £3 are too tempting to turn down, and I ended up spending most of my cash.
Siam Square is also the hub for Bangkok’s skytrain, which is modern, fast, comfortable, cheap, clean, quiet, spacious and air conditioned. It therefore differs from the tube in London in eight respects. I decided to use it for a quick jolly uptown, to the victory monument, which commemorates Thailand’s losses in various skirmishes with Indochina (the former French colony now divided into Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos). It’s not much visited, but a striking piece of sculpture nonetheless.
Back on the Khao San Road, I found a massage place that I hadn’t tried before, and ordered a 1 hour full body massage.
Thai massage is quite a unique experience, and with a practiced masseuse feels at times like a cross between a wrestling match and a physical assault, but leaves you feeling a good 2 inches taller. It starts with my legs: pressure is applied brief pulses all the way up one leg, then the other, followed by the feet, arms, neck. When they run out of limbs, that’s when the fun bit starts – I was manoeuvred into various yoga-like positions, and felt every bone in my body crack as it was gently persuaded to adopt positions with which it was wholly unfamiliar. The end brings the moment of greatest contentment, not because the ordeal is over, but because it allows you a moment to lie in the cool dimness, completely relaxed, and prepare yourself to take on the city once again. I almost forgot to pay, although at £3/hour doing a runner was hardly necessary.
Back at the guesthouse, Emily and Liz were already back. Liz was packing, and about to get on a bus, then a boat, to Ko Pan Yang. After the events of the previous day, I would happily never set foot in a bus again, so she obviously has more patience for budget travel than I have. Ko Pan Yang is a party island in the southern Gulf of Thailand, and would take about 15 hours to reach by bus and boat.
Emily and I were also leaving, but not until the following day. That evening we met up in the Silk Bar on the Khao San Road to wait for Palm and Wee, the girls I met on my last trip to Thailand. They looked exactly the same, but so much had changed. Palm had graduated, and was working for the university’s international exchange programme. Wee was still studying, but would graduate soon. Their English was pretty good when I came before, but now it was fluent, albeit with a distinct American flavour! It was amazing to see them again, and hear about what they had been doing for the last three years. When we finally left Emily seemed to be impressed.
“Andrew, they were SO lovely. Where did you find them?”
I had actually found them (Wee, specifically) online, just before I went to Thailand before. I had thought it would be good to find someone to show me around. And they did a very good job of it.
Emily persuaded me to go to a night market. Bit reluctant. To buy shoes. Suddenly very reluctant. Fortunately it turned out to be quite entertaining – it was in the middle of the red light district, and the doormen of various clubs seemed to think Emily would be interested in their shows. They even had diagrams. Anyway, we got the shoes – in the end they came from a sports store, after some fierce bartering over some very dodgy ones on a market stall came nowhere near a sensible price.