Newbie in 1999 - with Farang girlfriend (part 5/5)

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[sorry guys, but I'm going to finish recounting my miserable odyssey... ]

 

 

 

So Pattaya was behind, and we had two nights in Bangkok ahead of us. We checked in to the hotel chosen by the travel agency. It was Narai on Silom Road. We were not impressed - the room was really cramped. There are definitely better options available in the same price range.

 

 

 

We arrived around noon. My European girlfriend wanted to take a nap, but I was not feeling too sleepy. In any case, I had to go to the airline office to get a replacement for her ticket which she had thrown away as 'useless'. Fortunately the office was fairly close on Silom Road, so I did not even feel the need to take a taxi. The Indian temple was quite interesting, but I must say that the noise and stink from the traffic was really overpowering. I basically hated Bangkok at that point. Funny how your opinions change - now I think that it is a really nice place.

 

 

 

In the early evening when the girlfriend had recovered a bit we went to have a seafood dinner in the open air seafood market across the road quite near the Narai Hotel. (I must have mentioned that the girlfriend loved seafood.) The cats hanging around the place were quite charming. There was one surviving kittens and it was amazing to see how good care the mother cat (by the looks and confirmed by the restaurant staff) took of it. She begged for our scraps and then carried them to this kitten, although she herself was looking like a starving wreck...

 

 

 

Later we of course went to see Patpong. I found it somehow amusing that McDonalds had a big outlet facing the entrance to this den of sin. The crowded night market and the pushy touts were kind of overpowering, and I was not enjoying myself that much. We peeked into a couple of gogos, but there was not much difference to Pattaya. We did not bother with an upstairs place, because we already had seen the shows in Pattaya, too.

 

 

 

The girlfriend insisted on going to the local boy bars (Patpong 3). First we hit some kind of gay disco where they had a drag show going. The drinks were outrageously expensive at 200 Baht. The place was quite crowded and I barely could contain myself when some gay started rubbing my back. There was not much to do than to squeeze even closer to the girlfriend to show that I was taken, and to be even more insistent that we should switch venues. Fortunately the show finished soon and she was not keen to pay sky high prices for the drink, either. We looked around a bit and found a couple of places

 

advertising shows. However, it was getting late and we decided to skip further adventures, because we had booked a guided tour for next morning.

 

 

 

We had booked a morning tour from the hotel. It included a car, a driver and a female English-speaking guide. The sights were the mandatory wats with the Golden Buddha and the Reclining Buddha, the Grand Palace, and the equally mandatory rip-off jewelry factory.

 

 

 

The tour was okay, except that we were not smart enough to bail out before the jewelry factory. There was no risk of succumbing to bad purchases, since I'm not into jewelry and the girlfriend really knows that stuff. She had already haggled a decent price for a custom-made heavy gold cross in Pattaya, so there was no urge to do any further shopping.

 

 

 

A quite interesting experience during the tour was the attitude of the female tour guide. This was the first time I had had any prolonged contact with locals, and it turned out that I really rub them the wrong way. In the beginning the guide was smiling a lot and was fairly talkative, but as the tour progressed she became grimmer and grimmer and in the end she hardly uttered a word. I could not understand what was going on - I thought that I was being quite a normal and polite tourist who was interested in the sights and asked relevant questions. I was definitely not trying to paw her or anything like that. The girlfriend could not imagine what had been the problem, either.

 

 

 

Unfortunately this experience was merely a foretaste of the future. Even when I'm traveling on my own, the locals (well, the girls, since I almost never end up talking with the guys clearly don't like me. I have found this very baffling in a country which has the reputationg that even the most disgusting creeps can find adoring girlfriends who take wonderfully good care of them (at least for a short time). That has not been my experience...

 

 

 

In the afternoon we walked around on the Silom Road and went down to the riverfront to see, if there was anything interesting. The Mandarin Oriental turned out to be the most impressive sight. It was a pity that the Skytrain was not yet operational, although you could see the rails in place. It would have been much easier to visit the other parts of the city.

 

 

 

On the way back we fell for one of the traditional scams. While walking on the street we ran across this well-dressed, English-speaking helpful fellow who gave us a bit of advice and assisted us to a nearby tuk-tuk. Well, actually the resulting ride around the town with stops in a tailor shop and a jewelry store was rather interesting. I found it actually quite amusing, when I realised what was going on. The girlfriend had a shorter fuse, which probably was a good thing, since otherwise the ride might have lasted an even longer time.

 

 

 

In the evening we had first seafood (again!) and then returned to Patpong 3 where we had spotted some show clubs. As it turned out, this was going to be my first opportunity to see a live sex show. I would have never imagined that it would be with guys taking it up the ass. They were very athletic, but I could not really get excited with the "fucking show"; the girlfriend was thrilled. She got even more excited with the next number: about twenty guys jerking off on stage in formation and coming pretty much in unison. I think she was pretty much wetting her pants at that point; I was trying to decide whether to gag or not.

 

 

 

After that she insisted in inviting a couple of the boys to our table for drinks. At that point I told that her that I was really not enjoying myself and was going to leave. She preferred to stay, so I agreed to come and collect her later in the evening. I went prowling on Patpong 1. I was definitely not in the right mood for having fun, especially since taking a lady for the night was not an option. I was still in love, and the hotel did not seem like a guest-friendly place, either. I returned at the agreed time to find her outside the bar stinking drunk and necking with one of the boys.

 

 

 

The next day we slep late and then it was time to check out. Our flight was pretty late in the evening, so we spent some time walking around on Silom Road. We visited the Silom Village, but unfortunately it was too early for the dance shows. We ended up enjoying a couple of drinks and watching the sunset from the bar on the top floor of one of the Silom Road hotels. Too bad the name escapes me, it was a quite nice experience.

 

 

 

Then it was off to the airport. I did not expect to return soon, but actually I was going to be again in Thailand after only ten months.

 

 

 

It had definitely been an experience. I guess nobody is surprised that I and the girlfriend split up pretty much immediately after returning home...

 

 

 

Wagner