One night in Bangkok

Anke had a friend coming down fom China to visit for about 10 days and so, in looking for something to do on the weekend, booked us on a one night trip to Bangkok. About a week out though, her friend slipped a disc in his back and so cancelled the trip to Singapore. Not to worry, Anke and I would still go. But then, two days out, Anke came down with a dreadful flu (awww) and so the trip was off for her as well! As it happened, a friend of ours, Craig, was heading to Bangkok that same weekend. And so I decided to go anyway and catch up with him. Very fortuitously, Craig's friend in Bangkok, Tony, is a travel agent and is also starting up a tour service and so I was to get a personalised tour!

I was on a 4.00pm flight out of Singapore and landed in Bangkok at 5.20 (BKK is one hour behind SG). Tony met me at the airport and took me into the hotel, where I freshened up and then met Craig. We went for a fantastic Korean BBQ dinner: less than 5 SGD for all the meat and vegies you care to pick out from the buffet which you then cook yourself on a little BBQ on your table.

After dinner we headed across the road to the Asia Hotel and the Calypso cabaret. It was a fantastic show - all ladyboys of course. Lots of colour, dancing and lipsynching. Didn't take my camera with me, unfortunately, so no pics of this I'm afraid. After the show Tony headed home and Craig and I proceeded on a bar crawl around Pat Pong - a few G&Ts and a couple of "lesser" drag shows, but lots of fun. Got back to the hotel around 3.30am.

Up early the next morning and had breakfast in the hotel, then Craig & Tony picked me up about 8.30am to head to the floating markets. The floating markets are about 90km out of town, so a bit of a trip. The markets were incredible - lots and lots of colour and action. I took a boat with Tony for a ride that lasted about 1 hour.

Tony and Craig

I didn't eat any of the meat!

I bought a silly hat off this woman

Snake man!

From the floating markets, we then drove back towards Bangkok and the Samphran Elephant Ground & Zoo. We had a buffet lunch there (which worked out at 50 Baht, or less then 2.50 SGD!!)

As we walked in, there was a sign: "Your photo with tigers within minute. 100 Baht". this was too good to pass up and so I jumped in. They were gorgeous.

We then went to the elephant show, where they tell a story of the elephant in Thai history.

And then we quickly raced over to the crocodile show where these two mad guys somehow manage to keep their limbs intact despite giving the crocs every chance to bite them off.

Back into the car and back towards town. Experienced some famous BKK traffic on the way, so it was a slow journey. But I was in time to go to this huge massage centre where I was luckily able to get straight in for a 1.5 hour oil massage (it's a very nice and reputable place - no happy endings!).

From the massage to the airport. The new BKK airport is huge and very nice, but I am not sure if they really got the functionality quite right. It is a long and circuitous route to get to the gate.

After I passed through immigration I wen to reach for my wallet and found it wasn't in my pocket where it should be. Of course I immediately felt sick, thinking that I may have been pickpocketed. But I rang Craig and discovered that I had left it in Tony's car, so whew! Craig brought it back to Sing with him on the Tuesday.

For a boy from Australia, there is something deliciously decadent about being able to just pop up to Bangkok for 24 hours. Thanks to Craig & Tony I was able to pack a huge amount in.