Upon our arrival in Bangkok we were instantly hit by the 33 degree heat....let's face it when you come from a country basking in a glorious winter sun that places the surrounding air at a refreshing -3 it's a bit of a shock to the system to land tired and thirsty in the clingy heat of the surrounding Thai terrain.
After being met by Adrian, Clair's older, willowy brother we headed for some food and then seated ourselves and out overly indulgent, heavy cargo to await the arrival of Mrs J. Now we love to people watch but seriously some people are just painful on the eyes and it appears those people are drawn to Bangkok like leeches to a septic wound. The first place crazy was an elderly American gentleman who could only be described as eccentric. There he stood, in Bangkoks airport practising his Tai-Chi moves sporting some equally eccentric clothing (Khaki trousers, open Jesus sandals, flourescent green shirt, black dicky bow, glasses with flip up shades and an a mental hat). He was introduced to a young Thai girl who looked like she had just thrown up in her own mouth (understandably so we felt!!) who then made some excuse and scuttled off. We didn't see that girl return but we watched her presumed intended beau practise yet more Tai-Chi and play his harmonica in a nutty professor way.
Upon the collection of the lovely Mrs J we headed off in our taxi. Now I am not a stickler for rules or regulations, quite the opposite, but sweet jesus who taught these nutters to drive.....the Transporter?!
With seeming no regard for life, limb or livelihood he haired off down the highways and biways og Bangkok until we reached our rather splendid destination.
Our apartment on Sukhumvit road was everything we hoped it would be, cheap, very spacious and very classy. Our illusion, however, did not last long, shattered by our blessing who's knowledge could turn out to be a curse when he delivered the crippling blow that we were around the corner from some pretty extreme red light districts....oh well, we sighed, welcome to Bangkok!!
After a couple of hours to refresh ourselves we headed out to get some dinner at Lemongrass. All I can say is yum!.....excellent, excellent food and plenty of it!!
After gorging ourselves on traditional Thai (Northern Thai) cuisine we dropped Mrs J off, threw on some glad rags and grabbed a cab to meet Adrian for a night on the town. Naively we thought that we would tell the taxi driver where we wanted to go and he would deliver us to our required destination. However it would appear that when you speak none of the countries lingo and they barely speak yours and have no idea where you want to go finding your way is a near impossibility. Finally after three taxi rides we arrived at our chosen party spot, Santika.
Tonights party spot was a club that was a chosen venue amongst the rich and famous Thais, with a 700 TBH entry fee this was no poor mans party spot.
We were however lucky enough to gain free entry and cheap whiskey and coke all night due to Adrians excellent connections. It would appear that the extremely kind Thai lady we were with is a big Bangkok fish (if you pardon the expression) she is the head of entertainment for Bangkokg biggest newspaper and man did people know it.
What ensued was an ecclectic mix of dated dance music, heady house music and a very good dash of rockin' R'N'B.
So here we were in a city thousands of miles from home dancing and drinking Chivas and coke with Hei So (Rich and famous) and having a bloody good time!!
How will tomorrow....I mean today (glancing at the clock to notice the 4am indicator) top this?!
