Tales From Thailand But Written In England

Hotels in Chaiyaphum more info

It was the start of my fist ever trip to Thailand. There was four of us, all lads aged between 21 and 28. We would spend 4 nights in Bangkok, 4 nights in Phuket and then 4 nights in Phi Phi. This is more or less a travel journal on what we got up to and my experiences and thoughts while there. Some of the names have been changed.

Bangkok Day 1

The journey started at Manchester airport, and we arrived about 4.30am on Sunday 25th August. The place was deserted and as we had to wait 3 hours for the flight to London, it gave us all a little time to get to know each other better. I knew Steve and Leigh from work, but didn't know them outside of work and I knew Dave more or less all my life. We found out a little later on that we didn't need to turn up 3 hours before a domestic flight, we only had to turn up at least an hour before…..so there was complaining all round.

We got on the flight to London which took about 35 minutes, but the pilot forgot that he was travelling down the runway at 200mph and hit the brakes, so we ended up skidding on the tarmac for most of the landing. I've still got the marks on my legs where my nails went in to prove it.

We then had to wait a further 4 hours in Terminal 3 at Heathrow for our flight to Bangkok. The airport was packed and the terminal was crap. I don't know if you've ever been to T3 at Heathrow, but it's horrible. We ended up sitting in a bar playing cards for money for most of the 4 hours, but as gambling in airport bars is not allowed, we had to cover up the money every time a waiter / waitress went past.

We finally started to board the massive Thai Airways plane too Bangkok. It was massive, one of those upstairs / downstairs jobs. At the start of the flight we were sitting next to some Canadian guy who was on business, but as me and Dave started to talk, he asked one of the stewards if he could move to another seat, which was fine by us really, as it gave us a little more room to move.

The flight to Bangkok was long, even though it was only 11 hours; to me it felt like 20. There was a guy towards the front of the plane, who looked like Rod Hull, and he had the most beautiful little girl with him, she was about 6 and was half Thai and half English, but she was the cutest little girl I've ever seen. But he kept on walking over to where Dave and I sat. All 4 of us had asked for extra leg room on the plane, and we were seated at the exits in the middle of the plane, just next to the toilets, so half the time we would have quues of people waiting to use the toilets. But this guy was up there with his little girl, every 5 minutes. Not to use the toilets, just to walk around. After about 6 hours of this, Dave and I came up with the theory that he either wanted us to buy his daughter, or he was waiting for us to fall asleep so he could put some heroin in our hand luggage and smuggle it into Bangkok. So we had to stay awake, which was fine by me as I couldn't sleep anyway, even though by this time it would have been about 23 hours since I'd last had any sleep.

We touched down in Bangkok and the first thing me, Dave and Steve wanted to do was have a smoke, and it was the best cigarette I've ever had. Once we'd got our bags and been through security and customs, we found our rep that had a driver waiting to take us to our hotel in Bangkok. It was about 7.30am and when we stepped out into the morning air, the heat hit us. God it was humid and hot. I've never in my life felt weather as humid as that. It was about 85 degrees outside and this was at 7.30am.

In the van to our hotel, there were also 2 Irish lads whom we talked to for a little while, but the most interesting part of the van journey, was the driving. The guy was off his head, weaving in and out of traffic like he was on a death mission. We would have thought he was strange but if you looked out of the window at all the other cars and drivers, they were all doing the exact same thing. It was scary stuff.

We got to the hotel around 8am, and by this time, it was 30 hours since I'd last had sleep. We checked in but felt a little out of place. There was us in this 5 star hotel, with a massive lobby, everyone looking posh and well dressed, and here was us, looking tired and dressed in tracksuit bottoms and trainers. We got asked for a credit card, but none of us had bought any with us, we felt there was no need. The reason why they asked for one was in case we used the phone, or ate/drank something from the mini bar. So we all had to give 1000 baht each (about £16) to cover ourselves.

We got shown to our rooms. I was staying with Dave, and Steve was with Leigh. We knew we had to tip the guy who was bringing up our cases, but we didn't have a clue how much, so Dave and I gave him 500 baht (about £8) between us. His face lit up like a Christmas tree, and he bowed about 30 times before leaving the room. It was only later we read that you should tip about 20 baht. This guy has now probably left his job and taken his family on a 2 week holiday to Vietnam with that money. It was time for sleep, we didn't want to go out and have a look around because we were all very very tired, so we went to bed. It was the start of our first day and night in Bangkok, and oh what fun we had lying ahead of us.

After all the travelling and lack of sleep, I awoke at about 5.30pm. I woke Dave who was still sleeping and asked how he felt, he said he still felt as though it was English time, and was still a little out of sorts with having to get use to being 6 hours ahead. We rang Steve and Leigh’s room and asked if they were up….they weren't but they were now. We decided to knock on their room at 7pm, which gave us all plenty of time for a shower, and to sort ourselves out for the night ahead, our first in Bangkok.

7pm arrived and we went to their room, they still weren't ready, in fact, they had both gone back to sleep after the phone call I’d made to their room. They got up and said to give them 30mins, which we did, so at 8pm, we were on our way, but first, we needed to put our passports somewhere safe. We took them down to reception and asked them for a safety deposit box for us to put them in. We were told that it was just through a small door at the end of reception. Leigh walked in first, and we followed. We were greeted by three wooden doors with little spy holes in each. We all knew that we just had to walk into one of those rooms, except Leigh, who has this idea that we had to knock. So he knocked, but there was no answer, only laughter from the other side. So Dave and I walked into one room, and Leigh and Steve into the other. We put our passports into safety deposit boxes and got the keys for them. We took them back to our rooms and then went to see the holiday rep, to find out about places to go, and things to see.

She told us that if we turned right when we got out of the hotel and to the main road, we would come across a place called Patpong, which just happened to be the sex area of the city. She said that we should stay away from that area and instead, turn left and take a taxi to an area they call the Khao San road, which is a lot safer for tourists. She marked all the areas on the map. We then went downstairs and left our room keys in reception and went out into the night air.

The first thing that hits you, like with the airport, is the heat. It's very hard to describe, but it feels so hot, sticky and heavy, that at first, because you aren't use to it, you find it hard to breathe. We got to the bottom of the street, where there was a group of men waiting. They asked us where we were going, whether we wanted a Thai massage with a nice girl, showed us pictures of half naked ladies and offered to take us. We said no and then turned right, ignoring the holiday reps advice and we headed for Patpong.

The walk seemed to go on forever, we passed so many market stalls, tukuk drivers asking if we wanted a ride, taxi drivers asking the same thing. We said no to all of them, we just wanted to walk, even though after 5 minutes, the sweat just pours of you like a fountain. The traffic was non stop, the cars just seemed to come and go like they were on some production line. But the thing we noticed was the bikes. Motorbikes of every shape and size would zip in and out of the traffic constantly. Some times with a lone driver and sometimes with what seemed like whole families.

Things were getting busier, we were coming across bars and shops and market stalls. The market stalls were selling everything from fake watches, fake clothes and shoes with names like Rolex, Cartier and Nike to Pirate VCD's with all the latest cinema titles. Some of the stalls were also selling porn DVD's and VCD's behind curtains. We came across a bar called O'Reileys, which said it was an Irish pub, so we went inside. We were greeted by smiles from the entire bar staff, who showed us to a table and asked what we wanted to drink. We ordered 4 Heinekens and sat down. The customers were mainly balding 50 year olds with Thai girls of 18 sat down next to them. It was quite funny to see really. You read about this kind of thing, but until you see it, you can never really imagine what it would be like.

We stayed in the bar and had another 3 drinks each, and then decided to venture out into the seedy world of Patpong. Each side street was awash with bright neon signs, loud music and burly blokes asking us to venture in to each bar we came across. Thai girls of all shapes and sizes were in the doorways and out side their bars, waving us over, asking us to come inside. We were just lapping it up. Walking up those streets as though we were in some weird dreamworld where sex is king and everything else has no meaning. The world in what we are used to, thrown out of the window for 60 minutes of pleasure.

As we walked down some side alley, with bars full of girls on stools, literally dragging us into different bars, touching us up and saying "me want you" or "me love you" feeling your arms, feeling your arse, we finally came across a bar that had pool tables, so we went in, only to be greeted by an army of scantily clad Thai girls jumping all over us. We put our names down for pool and sat down on some stools. The music was loud, the girls all over us, but as we looked around, we again saw balding 50 year olds, with money to burn, and girls of no more than 20 sat on their knees and pouring drinks down their throats. In some kind of weird way, it's quite flattering, having these gorgeous girls all over you. Maybe it's a guy thing, well, it is a guy thing, but it's something you just don't get from where I’m from. These girls are just interested in one thing….money. They see us as millionaires, with more money than sense…..if only that were true. But I suppose, to these girls, we do have all that. The way of life and the income in Thailand is next to nothing, it's not a rich country like the UK or USA and maybe some of these girls see us as a ticket out of their country, I don't know.

We had a few games of pool, had more drinks and at 2am, the bar and all the other bars were closing, so it was time to leave. The girls in the bar asked us to come back again, we said our goodbyes and left. On the way home, we thought things might have been winding down, but we were mistaken. Cars and bikes zipped up and down the roads constantly; the streets of Patpong were littered with prostitutes of all shapes and sizes, asking where we were going. Some of them were the dreaded ladyboys I’d heard so much about, but some were gorgeous looking girls that you'd be proud to take home to mother, and here they were, selling themselves on the streets to anything with a wallet. We came across a shop that sold cigarettes, snacks and water. We bought 200 cigs each, except for Leigh as he doesn't smoke and a packet of Pringles each and some water each, when we paid, the people behind the counter bowed, it was really funny to see but also very sweet at the same time. BTW, 200 cigs in Thailand cost £10, in the UK they cost £43….quite a difference, and I was in heaven.

When we got back to the hotel, we were all hungry, and to our surprise, there was a restaurant still open. We sat down and ordered steak, not rice, not noodles with chopsticks, but steak. So much for being cultural and eating the local cuisine I'd heard all about how cheap Thailand was, but when we got the bill, all that I heard flew out of the window. I'd heard that you can survive of £5 a day in Thailand, well, if you eat in your hotel, hearing is not the same as seeing. The bill for each of us was £20…needless to say, that was the first and last time I ate in the hotel in Bangkok.

We got into our rooms about 3.30am and went straight to sleep. Tuesday would be our first day and the first time we would see Bangkok and all it had to offer during the day, and it's a day I’ll never forget.

Bangkok Day 2

I awoke about 12.30pm. It was Tuesday morning and the start of our second day and night in Bangkok. I looked out of the window and was greeted by bright blue skies, oh, and a few tall buildings. Could Tuesday be the day when 4 English lads lost their Casper the friendly ghost looks?

I woke Dave up and then rang Steve and Leigh's room to get them up and asked if they fancied a walk so we could get something to eat. They both said yes, even though Leigh was feeling very rough the night before. We got ready and left around 2pm. I thought the day before was hot, but with the sun shining brightly, that all went out of the window. The air was thick, very thick and as soon as I stepped into the sunlight, I felt a trickle of sweat of my head. I wasn't the only one either.

We started to walk up the road and again, we were greeted by the men at the bottom of the street, asking where we were going and whether we wanted a nice lady. I said I’d rather have a nice meal and a coke; they didn't see the funny side and carried on with their sales pitch. A simple no thanks never seems to work with these people, but they are always pleasant and never get nasty and that's one of the good points about Thai people, whatever the situation, they always have a smile and are always very nice with you.

After walking for what seemed like 6 hours, we came across McDonald’s (so much for a good meal) and decided to go in there for something to eat. As we stepped inside, a cold rush of air hit us, it was like heaven. We were all very hot and sweaty from the walk and we were glad of the air that greeted us. We ordered our meal and sat down to eat. Most Thai people can speak really good English, and to me, that shows us how ignorant we can be. These people learn the Language in school, but most of us feel that we don't really need to speak any other language, why should we? We’re English and we know best. (Where did you go? Thai people speaknig good English….hmmm, you have better luck than me – Stick)

We left McDonald’s and Leigh was feeling worse, so we decided to head back to the hotel, and go to the pool which was on the 6th floor. It was an outside pool which we hadn't seen yet, we’d only seen pictures. As we walked back, the combination of the heat, sunlight and traffic, at times, made it hard for you to breathe, the smog and smell was too much sometimes. You see Bangkok has this weird smell, I couldn't describe it to you, you have to smell it yourself, but always there, no matter what time of day it is, that smell just never seems to go away. It's not a nasty smell, but at the same time, it's not unpleasant either.

When we got back to the hotel, Leigh went back to bed, he wasn't well at all and the three of us grabbed our towels, put on our swim shorts and headed for the pool. It's quite strange seeing an outside pool so high up, but all we saw was cool water and a chance for us to have a swim, and get rid of that hot sticky feel we'd had since leaving the hotel. We swam for about 30 minutes, then got out and had a lie down on the sun lounges and before we knew it, we were asleep. It's lucky that we weren't in direct sunlight as we'd all be spending the rest of our time in Bangkok in the local hospital with sunstroke.

We awoke about 6.30pm and went back to our rooms to get ready for the night ahead. We showered and shaved and got ready and at about 8pm, Dave and I knocked on for Leigh and Steve. Leigh was still too ill and decided he would stay in, so it was just the three of us. The sun was now down, but it was still about 80 outside and with the humidity, it felt a lot worse. That refreshing swim and the shower we'd all just had, was a distant memory now, as the sweat started to pour off us. We went back into O'Reileys for a quick drink, which turned into 4 quick drinks to get us in the right mood for the night ahead. As we left, we went down a side street we hadn't been to before. It was still the sex area of Patpong, but it was a new street all the same. Suddenly we heard a voice shouting "hey English" as we turned we were greeted by a warm Thai smile of a man of about 35. He asked us where we were going, how long we were here for, what we thought of it, and before you knew it, we told him our names, he told us his (C) and we asked him if he fancied a few games of pool with us, he said yes and we were on our way.

When he found out we were from Manchester, the first thing he said was "ah, Manchester United" everyone in Thailand seemed to know the team and loved the team. At 2am, United were going to be on the TV and we wanted to watch the match in a bar somewhere, so we asked C where we could see it, he told us the Pink Panther bar would be playing it, and made sure by taking us there and asking the owner, the owner replied yes so we promised the owner that we would be back to watch it. We carried on walking and then we came across the pool bar that we had been to the night before. We bought C a drink, had a few games of pool and had a good laugh with him, his English was excellent. He told us about his family, his girlfriend, how KFC had only been in Bangkok 3 years and he's put on so much weight by going there most days, telling us that the colonel was the curse of Bangkok.

At around 1am, we left the pool bar and C took us to a small and cheap restaurant where we could fill our stomachs. He just had a beer while we all ordered fried rice with either chicken or pork. The food came and it was gorgeous. I didn't know rice could taste so good. As we were finishing, C told us that it was time for him to leave and that he would go home to his girlfriend and watch the match there. We thanked him for a great night and we hoped to see him again before we left Bangkok in two days time.

We left the restaurant and found the Pink Panther bar. We ordered some beer and waited for the match to start. They were flicking through the channels and had the right one, until some bearded bloke from Germany decided to be a little trigger happy and change the channel. We complained and it got turned back; he gave us a dirty look and then left and went into some go go bar where the young girls were dancing on tables in their bikinis.

A girl who worked in the bar sat down next to me, and started to rub her leg against mine, I looked at her, she winked, played with my baseball cap and moved her head to some hotel. I shook my head, blanked her, she tutted and then left me alone and sat next to someone else. But while all this was going on, a woman had sat down next to Dave and was talking to him, she looked about 30 but it turned out she was 41. Dave being Dave took it as though she liked him, which she did, but all she saw was money. Dave said he would go back to the hotel for more money, and she decided to go with him, much to the delight of Dave whose face lit up like he'd just won the lottery. He left and said slyly "see you later lads, I’ve pulled". Steve and I just looked at each other and laughed.

At about 2am, the match still hadn't started, Dave had been gone about 20 minutes and Steve asked if I thought Dave and that woman had had sex. I told Steve that Dave would be back any second with a story to tell, and it wouldn’t be that he'd just had sex. Low and behold, 2 minutes later Dave turned up, looking slightly confused and with this woman in toe. He sat down and his first words were "help me" me and Steve again looked at each other and laughed. Then all of a sudden, the bar started to close, we asked this woman about the match and she said she would take us to another bar where we could watch it, we said fine. So we left. There was Dave and Steve in front, and I was walking next to this woman, who then decided to link arms with me? Weird, anyway, we go to another bar and sat down. Before we could order any drinks the girls pounced, like lions that had just got their prey and were ready to eat. We ordered drinks and the match started. I was sat next to this woman who was with Dave, then Dave next to me and Steve on the end. Dave looked at me and told me in his quiet voice what had happened when he left with this woman. She flagged down a taxi and they were heading back to our hotel where Dave could get more money. Each temple they passed, the woman would bow her head and mutter a little prayer. She told Dave that to have her, it would cost him 2000 baht, and that would get her all night. Dave who was all excited at the prospect of him pulling this woman suddenly got scared and wanted out, but he couldn't find the right words. He thought he'd be getting it for free, but he was wrong. He then got more money and then they both came back to the bar and now, here we all were us three and tag along prostitute waiting for her money. Dave came up with a super plan, or what he thought was a sure fire way of getting out of paying this woman, he would give his money to us, and say to this woman that he'd dropped his money, and couldn't pay. I simply said that he was talking stupid and should just tell this woman to do one, either that, or when the match finished, just simply get up and walk away without saying anything to her. He said he'd think about it.

We watched the match and as it was coming up to 90 minutes, in the corner of my eye I saw 3 stunning girls. I looked up and across the street were three girls, all waving me over. Prostitutes of course but no matter how hard I tried to look somewhere else, they were always in my view. They seemed to be waiting for us. There was three of them, and three of us, well 4 if you count the tag along pro Dave had managed to get friendly with. The match finished and this would only mean 2 things…

1) Dave would have to leave tag along pro behind

2) We would come face to face with the three girls across the street

I felt trapped; I needed air, air that only the safety of my hotel room would provide. We got up and left, just walked away from the bar without saying anything to tag along pro. We didn't even look at her. So that was one problem out of the way, more so for Mr Stud Dave, next job was the three girls waiting for us. I stayed at the back, trying to keep my head down, but it didn't work, I had to look, I had to see what was going to happen, and sure enough, these three girls stood in our paths. They looked at us, we looked at them, they winked, I put my head down and nodded, they winked again, Dave checked his money, Steve played with his hair and then the ice was broken by one of the girls saying "hey, you want some fun" this was my cue, so I answered back by saying "I've just watched United beat some team 5-1, so I’ve had all the fun I can handle for one night" she looked at me funny and then looked at the other two girls who then spoke in Thai and then all three looked at me funny. We then walked past them, with a spring in our step to the sound of fading music and three Thai girls arguing.

We started walking back to our hotel and I spotted something that I’d only ever seen in a zoo. There were two guys in the middle of the sidewalk with an Elephant, asking for money so you could feed it. We said no of course because it's cruel, but that didn't stop the elephant putting it's trunk up my shorts as I walked past it. It was such a shock, I didn't know what to do, and said the most stupid thing ever, I said to the elephant "ohhh, don't put your trunk there, I’m sensitive"? What the hell? Why on earth would I say something like that, let alone to an elephant? And I swear, as the elephant let go of me, he / she tipped me a wink.

We decided that we'd walked enough and flagged down a taxi to take us back to the hotel. Once in the room, I felt safe, safe from elephants, safe from young Thai prostitutes, safe from old Thai prostitutes and safe in the knowledge that I was going to get in bed, and not have to worry about paying.

It was a long day, very long, and with only 2 more nights left in Bangkok, I couldn't even start to imagine what would lie ahead, but that's the beauty of Bangkok and Thailand, anything could happen, and usually, it does.

Bangkok Day 3

It was day three, and again we awoke to bright sunshine. We realised that we hadn't really seen anything in Bangkok; we hadn't seen the Golden Palace, the floating market or even the place that the holiday rep had said to go to at night. The idea of seeing the palace was tempting, but with the outside topping 100 and the fact that you had to wear trousers and a long sleeved top, we soon went off the idea, so we decided we had to see the floating market.

We left the hotel around 2pm, we got to the bottom of the road and that group of men were there to great us with pictures of girls and offers of a good time. Again we declined their offers and instead of turning right, we turned left. We had no idea where we were going, other than the fact we had to turn left. We crossed the busy main road, went down a few quiet roads and after walking for 20 minutes, a lady turned round to us and asked where we were going. We told her the floating market, to which she answered "that market finishes at 12pm, you've missed it" we couldn't believe it, those late nights in Patpong had turned against us, we were good guys, we stayed away from the seedy red light area, stayed away from the tempting offers of pleasure and for that, we felt we needed some kind of reward, but that reward wouldn't come in the shape of floating boats with fruit and veg on them. So we went back and decided to go to the pool for a swim and to catch a bit of sun.

After a couple of hours, we were all hungry and went for something to eat, this time, we took the familiar route and turned right, to the safe area we had come to know so well, Patpong. We found a BBQ place just above some shops, we ate, we drank cool drinks and then left, tooth picks and Clorets mints in toe. The thought of walking for 30 minutes back to the hotel in the heat was too much, so we decided on a taxi. You should always get a taxi with a meter and always make sure that he turns it on once in the car. We thought we were safe, we thought we had a nice driver who knew we weren't just tourists. But our safe driver turned into a driver from hell. It was like a scene out of Duel, only a truck wasn't chasing us, nothing was, but our driver thought something was chasing us, maybe it was the elephant from last night, wanting money so he could be fed his cheap peanuts. The driver was flying down the road, cutting to the left, cutting to the right, nearly knocking people off their bikes, he didn't seem to have a care in the world, it didn't seem to dawn on him that there was 4 passengers in his cab, desperately holding on for dear life and wishing that the journey would end. We eventually got to the hotel, pale, hot and scared to death. We still tipped the driver and thanked him. I think the thank you was for us still having our lives in tact.

We went back to our rooms and had a little lie down, and after that taxi ride, who could blame us?

We got up a couple of hours later, and decided that we would go to the Khao San Road that our holiday rep had begged us to visit. We got ready and left at around 8.30pm, as usual, the men at the bottom of the street were there and as usual, we turned down their tempting offers. We turned left and walked a little further up the street and hailed yet another cab; luckily it wasn't our friend from earlier on. We told him to take us to the Khao San Road, and to take his time, he just nodded and smiled. After about 20 minutes we arrived, it was another sea of bright neon and loud music, but something was wrong, something was missing from all these bright lights, missing from the doorways to these bars and clubs. There was no half naked girls, no burly men outside, no PR's asking if we wanted a nice girl and a massage. All that was there were travellers, people from all over the world with worn-in tans and backpacks. We found a restaurant and went inside. The music was quite loud but the place was very chilled. Again, people from all over the world were sat down, chatting and laughing, backpacks by their feet, beer and food on their tables, it was good to see, kind of refreshing to see that there was a place in Bangkok, away from half naked girls and massage parlours. We were shown to a table by a young Thai girl, and we ordered our food, we also ordered a beer, and when she brought the beer over, it was my first dip into the pool known as Singa beer.

We ate, we drank, we played some Thai guys at pool and all in all, it was quite enjoyable. After a couple of hours we left, we walked the length of Kao San Road and went down a side street where we found a small, quite and very cosy bar. We ordered drinks and just chilled in the warm evening air. But what was this, coming from the distance like a giant over a hill, but another elephant. Could it be the elephant from the night before that had taken such a shine to me? I wasn't prepared to find out, I made my excuses and went to the bathroom, stayed in there for 5 minutes and came back out as though nothing had happened.

We decided we'd had enough of Khao San Road and got a taxi back to Patpong. Those bright neon signs, those girls, that loud music, those market stalls, we felt….at home. Our first stop was our local, O'Reileys, but as we stepped in we all heard a familiar sound, could that be a Beatles song? A live band singing Beatles songs? It was indeed. This Beatles tribute band looked a little different though, and at closer range, they were different. We all saw it, all laughed but at the same time, all thought how good they were. The Beatles in question were 4 Thai guys with mop head haircuts, belting out 2 minute tunes like their lives depended on it. They were very good I have to say, and I’m sure my father would agree if he'd seen them.

We left O'Reileys and hit a few more bars; we all felt hungry and went into KFC, ordered some food and sat down. I looked up to the counter and saw 2 very pretty Thai girls ordering food. I turned to my own food and started to eat. As I was tucking into a zinger burger, I felt something touch my neck. One of the girls I’d just seen ordering food, had taken in upon herself to move her nails down to back of my neck. I looked up, she smiled, I smiled back and they left. No matter how much you see in Bangkok, there's always something else that happens to you that's never happened before.

We left and went back to the hotel. We got to sleep around 3am. Tomorrow would be our last day and night in Bangkok.

Bangkok Day 4

We got up around 12pm (too late for the floating market again) and went for something to eat. When we arrived back, we went to the pool and we all fell asleep. I then felt a tap on my shoulder, it was Steve and his words to me were "look up” and as I slowly started to turn my head, something didn't feel right. The air didn't feel right, it wasn't cold, it was still as hot as ever, but it was very still, very quiet and as I looked up, the sky was very dark. The wind was picking up as well and swirls of cloud were overlapping each other. We were going to have a storm. I'd heard so much about the rain in Thailand, but as of yet, I hadn't seen any, but I was about to now. Suddenly, the heavens opened, rain came from all angles, heavy, pounding at everything in its sights. We ran back to our rooms and got the camcorder out and filmed the rain from the comfort of our dry, air conditioned room. The lightning lighting up the tall buildings was amazing and we got it all on camera.

We got bored after 10 minutes, plus my arm was hurting from holding the camcorder for so long. We decided to get changed and head out into the night, our last night in Bangkok…

Steve and Leigh wanted to do some shopping, so we spent a good hour looking around all the different stalls. I didn't buy anything, but Steve got something for his girlfriend and Leigh bought a couple of watches, Dave decided to splash out on a silver chain. The main part of the market was down a side street in Patpong, and to the sides were more go go bars. You could see girls dancing on bars and men in their 50's sipping their drinks and looking up at them. After the shopping we stopped in a couple more bars and headed back to the Hotel. We had to be up at 6am, ready to leave for Bangkok airport at 7am. We said our goodbyes to Bangkok that night. It's a city I’ll never forget.

Next stop, Phuket, where my holiday in Thailand really began and nothing could prepare me for what lay ahead.

Stickman says:

Nice. What I like most about this is that you proved that you can have a great time in Thailand without the need to jump into bed with working girls.