One Night in Bangkok

First off, pictures here, descriptions will follow.

As I'm writing this I'm listening to some right-on Thai Hard-Core music. A comp CD I picked up for cheap near the fine arts university. I haven't really listened to stuff like this in a while but I have to say they nailed the sound and I feel like I'm being taken back a few years. I have mixed feelings about Bangkok. In many ways I feel like I'm back in Las Vegas multiplied by 100. There are lots of beautiful things about this place, but there is also a lot of desperation even if it doesn't show through so easily on all the sunned and smiling faces. God, I've only been here a little over a day and I feel like I need to get away. While I was picking up my baggage at the airport I noticed another foreigner looking desperately for his luggage which had not appeared. I asked him where he was staying thinking he might be going to the same place and we could share a cab. Turns out this Brit had just ran away from an unhappy job in Korea and had come over here to relax and look for some temporary work. Well, he hadn't decided where he was going to stay yet and decided to go with me after we located his bags. He had been here before so that made me feel a bit more comfortable going into this all alone. This would be the beginning of a long and unexpected day and night.

The hostel turned out to be fine. I have a small private room but I think I liked the one in Tokyo a bit more if only because the atmosphere was a bit better. I think this is as much a result of the type of people Thailand attracts as opposed to a place like Japan. I also can't bring in my own drinks here like the other place which sort of sucks but I guess I understand since he's trying to run a restaurant out of here as well. Anyway, onto the other stuff.

So we checked in and got cleaned up. The first priority was to find some Thai food which we did and shared a couple glasses of beer and talked about our similar situations and current events involving our two countries and Europe. This guy, Peter, is 30 but looks a bit younger minus his receding hairline. Well, after we ate he thought we should go down to Khaou San Road which is one of the main tourist streets, it also tuns out to be one of the big red light districts as well. I wanted to go down to check out the shops and pick up a pair of flip-flops since my cat had successfully destroyed my last pair. Anyway, I didn't have any objections and having not researched this part of my trip at all had nothing else to offer. It was great getting down there. We first flagged down one of the local buses (for this type there are not bus stops) and jumped on, it was moving before I had a even fully jumped up and there was a kid of about 15 who was half hanging out of the bus the entire time who was in charge of collecting the 4 Baht (@ 11 cents) to get us down to the boat taxis. For lack of a better name, the boat taxis were really interesting. We were both pretty much just playing it by ear and jumped down with all the other commuters. There are plastic sheets hooked up to pull ropes that the nearest passenger pulls on to raise up and block the thoroughly foul water from splashing aboard. The entire time there are 2 or 3 workers standing on the ledge of the boat to help people on and off and collect fare (9 Baht). This is entirely a no frills business and it would be very easy to miss the dock or the boat if you're not careful (I almost did). We transferred once but it was a fun experience, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But, it works, there are several rivers in the city and the boats of whatever sort act as good methods of transportation.

We got off and had to ask around for directions but our path took us past the Democracy monument and some monolithic and busy streets teeming with several types of transportation and hundreds of people. We eventually made it to the street, which I felt sort of mixed about. This was the big street for foreigners, particularly the younger ones. There were bars set up on the street, tons of food stands and lots of flip-flops, just none in my size. Peter stopped for a drink, I wandered a bit. There were bars and restaurants everywhere, some of them looked quite nice. I was entirely confused by the prices coming from three different currencies in the last 72 hours. Before the night was over I'd be a bit more drunk than I was planning on and had spent more than I would have liked without realizing. We bounced around from place to place, trying to hit cheap drinks and eating in between. We finally happened across a small little local bar, meaning that we were the only foreigners there, that attracted me because I heard some rock music blaring inside. Turns out one of the guys hanging out there, a university student studying cinematography, spoke a bit of English. Peter is a very forward fellow and jumped at the opportunity and pretty much invited us to their table. very nice guys though and it definitely turned into the highlight of the evening. We shared some beer (which some Thais drink with ice) and talked about things, Top (his nickname) being pretty critical of his own country. My cowboy hat was a big hit and passed from head to head in out small group. Lots of pictures were taken, many cigarettes smoked and a few stories told. It was a good time and we left feeling a bit high from such a good random experience. Honestly, we should have called it a night there, but feeling freshly invigorated we stopped by a couple more places socializing this time with a couple brits, swedes and Aussies. It was also about this time that I realized Peter had the British affinity of being a bit of an ass when he was drunk, but many people here are so I didn't let it bother me and just gave him shit when I could.

When we left the final bar, I began to see the dirty truth of this place beginning to rear it's head. I mean, the whole night, everyplace on the street, is all about vice, mainly drinking. But it is later in the evening that the sex and desperation starts to wander through the streets from the eyes of the locals and foreigners. Men, many younger than me, walking through the streets shirtless, tanned, overly drunk, looking for their next drink and a girl, usually both. Then, all these beautiful young women who are waiting for them. I still not sure how I feel about it all. On the one hand, prostitution has always existed and probably always will, but the sex industry is probably about as important as all the other tourist industries here and it's not very pretty. While sitting down for a beer on a bench I ended up talking to one who approached me. She was very cute and said she was 21. I told her I wasn't interested but if she had time we could talk. I felt weird interviewing her in a way, but I just wanted to know a bit. Before she left I got a little information, that she was in fact 21, came from a small town a couple hours south of here and was a finance student in university. Her English was not bad but very limited. I gathered that she had initially come up here for school but was trying to make money to help her mother who she seemed to worship. She had older syblings but they had their own families and didn't seem to be able to help. She clammed up when I inquired about her father so I didn't press her on it. I really wanted to know how she ended up doing what she was doing but I felt awkward going into that and how she felt about it. She ended up having to leave but I couldn't stop thinking about her situation and feeling for her. All the restaurants here have many people working, often too many and all the food and drink is cheap so I can't imagine that these people see very much of the money, in fact I know they don't. I know cost of living here is very low, but it's obvious that these people can't make very much money to lift them out of their situations. With that consideration, it is easy to see how women fall into that life where they can likely make several hundred percent more than with other type of employment. But god it's sad. Like I said, it's not that I think prostitution in itself is evil, it's not good but it will always exist and it might even serve a purpose in that it allows some men to have a release sexually. But, it shouldn't be the only option. It's depressing to see all these kids on holiday here in this adult amusement park choosing to ignore its realities in place of their desires. I just couldn't separate the two as I walked through the streets thinking of how I was going to get back to my hostel. It seemed to me like a very simple and beginning solution could be for all the restaurants and bars to band together and raise their prices a slight bit. It would still be incredibly cheap comparably, but possibly make those kind of jobs more desirable. At the same time, they might not be able to afford to take on any more workers as most already created additional jobs, like the guy at one place whose entire duty was to track the sign up sheet for the pool table and let people know when it was their turn.

I don't know, I have to think about it more. I'm hoping to get out of here tomorrow at some point and make it down to an island for some long wanted privacy and swimming. I'll be digesting this place for quite a while to come, and I'm sure that I'll write more about it.