Road trip or back to Bangkok

"Dewwwd! Trying to col u but can't reach, wat time u arriving? Cuz we're goin on a roadtrip tonight!"

I got that sms message from Jasper as I opened my phone in Bangkok, after a tiring 16 hours on the road all the way from Pai to chiang mai and back to Bangkok. I was sleepy, groggy and smelly, but also excited. Road trip? cool. I don't remember ever being to one.

So I stored my luggage back at the Israeli connection, and I was soon on my way towards Jaspers apartment. after we met happily once again, I cleaned myself up, and set sail towards the Australian embassy, where my Passport was waiting for me. Unfortunately, as I arrived there, I stumbled upon locked doors, due to one "Good-friday" holiday that apparently appears every year on Easter. So I strolled back to Jaspers place, and at about 7 pm, we met with Praw, Fai and Malcolm. I already have met Praw and Fai and it was good to see them again, and Malcolm, the painter, seemed a clever guy, so after quick introduction, we were on our way towards an unknown destination, on our roadtrip.

three and a half hours later (and a lot of silly talk during the ride) we arrived close to the sea shore, south of Bangkok, where we searched for a nice place to stay for the night.

We found a relatively cheap hut, at 1200 baht (35 dollars) which was big enough for the five of us, and the location was beautiful, even during the night. We quickly settled ourselves on the porch where drinks and food appeared out of nowhere, like magic, and for the rest of the night we played drinking games. wisps of smoke coming from the hookah filling up my friends lungs with sweet strawberry flavor while I was teaching them a drinking card game I only recently learned from the Israelis I've been hanging with. And I wish I weren't, since I was the first one to fall due to excessive drinking.

I only remember waking up once at 5 am with a strong burning sensation all over my body, what I figured out the next morning to be coming from too much mosquito bites (some 40 of them). Luckily, I was too drunk and too tired to stay awake and cry like a baby.

The next morning at about 9:00 am, we somehow managed to wake up, almost all of us still half drunk and feeling sick (but happy), and we made it to the car, and drove to a resort hotel, where many activities, such as paintball, bowling, nano-bikes and so on were held. After a single and horrible match of bowling, we went to do the Zorb, only after we found out some of us were too fat to go on the nano-bikes (well.. only me). I didn't do the Zorb ball myself, since I was feeling too sick to even think of spinning carelessly inside a huge ball, but altogether, it was fun and insanely hot at the same time.


After some rest at a fancy restaurant, where I ate an ostrich steak (actually good), we drove back to the edges of Bangkok, the fancy neighborhood of Praw, where we chilled at the local pool.

At about 6:30 pm we settled back at Praws beautiful villa, where I had the chance of meeting her pet, an adorable gliding squirrel. At 7 pm we all drove to the center of town, where we parted for a while, each one going to his own dinner plans and parties. Me and Jasper went to a birthday party of Jaspers friend, where there was good free food and a pleasant company to converse with, all Filipinos But not long after, we were again joining up with Fai, Praw and Malcolm, and we enjoyed the rest of the night together at different pubs and clubs, as a sort of a finale to a fine fun road trip.
The next morning, Jasper and I met with a friend of his, Rea, whom we met the day before at the birthday party. We made her make us lunch at his apartment. At about 5 pm, after a sleepy noon, we went, once again, to meet with Praw and Fai (mainly because I forgot my towel in Praws car). We joined together for a calming afternoon in a park, drinking Malibu and pomegranates, and just talking.

Once again, we parted ways, hopefully not for good, and Jasper and I went to one of the huge theaters at the center of town, where we met Rea and some other friends of Jasper whom I've met before. We watched a horror movie, called shutter (not really recommended), and we concluded the night, and the whole of the weekend.

Monday came, and Japser returned to his work routine, and I was on my way to the Australian embassy, to finally get my passport and visa. After a long 2 hours of waiting in line, I received my Passport back.

Unfortunately, my application was denied.

so, what now?

A slice out of Pai

some of the Israeli Group

I was looking out the window at the scenery passing by, and I couldn't help but comparing it to the nature I found in Okinawa. Something was different. I could envision once again the tamed Okinawan wilderness, as if the trees themselves turned Japanese, next to the protruding Thai jungle, trying to take over whatever form of crude civilization resides there. Moreover, the Lush shades of green in Okinawa seemed a bit boring now, after gazing at the variety of colors the Thai forests has to offer, ranging from Green and yellow wild Banana trees, to a lone white blossoming cherry tree standing out among the red brown falling leaves. It was beautiful. Only the haze covering the whole of the land downsized the excitement, and all you could get was a hint of the beautifully sculpted mountain ranges on the horizon.

The place we stayed at

The ride took the better part of 3 hours, and we finally arrived the tiny town of "Pai", which was recommended almost by every Israeli who has been there. The town itself was comprised out of a few neatly arranged streets crisscrossing one another, and the view of the hazy mountains was apparent from every location. I guess one could describe this town as Shanti, since you soon enough find that there isn't really anything exciting to do in town itself, but along the many different bungalows, huts, apartments and hotels, there were many traveling agencies offering the curious travelers various means of dying, like being trampled to death by raging elephants, drowning in the river with crudely built rafts, or just being eaten alive by blood-thirsty mosquitoes while trekking in the mountains for a couple of days.

Pai in the morning

All of this sounded very alluring to me and my friends, but we decided on renting mo-pads at the silly rate of 5 bucks a day (including insurance), so for the next two days, we became the fearsome Israeli biker gang, terrorizing whatever streets there were in the poor town of Pai.

The Gang

That was during the day. During the evenings, when it became too dark and useless to ride, each one of us retired to his favorite corner in town. For some obscure reason, Pai had a most welcoming attitude that made every traveler passing by to find almost on the spot his favorite food stand or restaurant, his favorite Internet shop and his favorite street dog. Although the town itself was small, It seemed as though each one of us was satisfied.

My Favorite Dog :)

During the nights, the other Israelis would gather and smoke their favorite leaf, while I would prefer to stay outside like a good geek. When they were not inhaling, I would join them for a drink, and we would just pass the time till we would have pass out ourselves.

My Favorite Spot at one of the waterfalls

For me, Although the experience was fun, it was also quite clear that I would prefer to travel by myself, once again. The Israeli group I joined were a bit younger than me, and their interests were different than my own. Moreover, moving as a group was slow, and sometimes bothersome. I wouldn't have pass out an experience like that, but I can now value my own loneliness as a means of getting a clearer view of the world as I see it, as I see fit.

Me trying to look like I have muscles, like Hanan...

I had the luck even to meet couchsurfers over there. Those two I met already in Bangkok in one of the hang-outs, and In Pai we sat down one evening and just chit-chatted about this and that, about couch-surfing, about the only couch-surfer in Pai (their host) and so on.

On the fourth day, I parted ways with the Israeli group, since I've decided that I must go back to Bangkok in order to retrieve my Passport. I doubt that I'll see them again, but I wish them the best of luck.

Overlooking the horizon on the edge of a cliff

Right now, I'm sort of standing at a cross-roads; I still have 10 days or so till my Thai visa expires, so I have 3 options - Either going back north and hanging out there, going to Islands in the south to get some tan, or to go already to Laos and Vietnam and travel there for a while.

One thing is for certain - I'm gonna get a body massage somewhere.

Back to Basics or the Israeli Trip

After some 3 long months of Israeli free environment, I had made first contact once again when I decided to go on a 3 days organized Jeep tour in the north of Thailand, and boy what a contact it was! Now you must understand, I promised myself that I would be joining the Israeli horde with an open mind and a welcoming smile, and though I did succeed in acquiring some new trip partners, the experience in its whole was a bit unnerving, but sadly predictable.

Day 1

mainly day one was comprised out of getting to Chiang Mai, a district close to the Golden Triangle border (Thai, Laos, Burma). The bus left at 18:00 from Bangkok, and arrived Thana hotel at chiang mai at 7:00 the next morning. The trip was long, but I've managed to keep myself entertained with getting to know some other Israelis that were on the same bus. Actually, my main agenda was to make friends with the Japanese people who were on the bus, but I wasn't that successful with that, so mainly I talked with a nice girl from Jerusalem who left her friends at the Islands to the south in order to do a 2 days trek up in the north.

Interesting way of moving furniture

Day 2

Groggy and hungry, like everyone else on the bus, we were dropped in Thana hotel/adventure thingy, and it was soon apparent to me that this is going to be an all Israeli tour. This Thana business is an expert when dealing with Israelis. That's why everybody were talking Hebrew, including the receptionists, guides and some of the street dogs. It didn't take me long to bond with the guys who were on the bus with me, 4 of them were best friends who met up in Thailand, and also a very young couple doing a trip. I liked them, and I guess they liked me, so we paired up. Unfortunately, there wasn't a seat available for me in their Jeep, so I had to join anothers group Jeep. You can imagine what I was thinking the moment I saw my name among other names such as "Biton", "Cohen", and so on. Unfortunately, my prejudiced assumptions were too accurate, and the minute I saw them, I knew this is going to be a loong trip. These guys looked like the type who would shout and yell at 3:00 am in the morning inside an hotel, even though people would beg them to be quite (they did that by the way).

monkey shrine

But, as you remember, I decided on giving it a shot, and at first, I thought I earned their trust, as I played them over the Stereo the only Trance music I got... but soon they were bored with my other songs, and it wasn't long till the "Heavy" Israeli songs were played. Later that trip I was practically scorned at for being the only Ashkenaz in the A'ars-Mobil.

Our first stop was at a snake show farm. Apart from the wrecked snake cages, the only attraction was the show, which was nice, but not exciting. The only thing that was actually fun was the Thai announcer who was speaking funny Hebrew with catchy phrases such as:

אל דאגה. יש ביטוח, אבל לא בטוח

Just two ordinary Cobras :)

Extreme Free (stinky) Hugging

Next stop was at an elephant show, which was actually pretty nice, if they weren't so miserable and poor treated animals. Up came the Elephant ride, but me and others decided on skipping that and have a quiet chat and just relax.

Elephants chained to posts

After a bit of lunch, we drove to the next brilliant attraction, which was, as written on the Tour Pamphlet, "White Water Rafting"...

The water were definitely not white... perhaps toxic green, and there was nothing actually that would even suggest a hint of an adrenaline rush, since the river was cool, calm, shallow and a bit slimy I may say. But, still, it was fun. since most of us were in a good humorous mood.

Later on we finished with an off-road ride, and It was... well... shaky.

At about 20:00, we parked at the Hotel, and after a good dinner and a failed attempt at a Karaoke night (with the same annoying songs I heard in the Jeep), everyone drifted to their beds.

day 3

Morning At the hotel

I guess you could say that day 3 was a bit more adventurous, but commercialized to the fullest. First stop was at the long-neck tribes, which for me was a sad and grim experience. those poor bastards are actually refugees from Burma, for many years now. However, they still haven't got any known recognition from the Thai Government. So the Thai actually isolated them in one location, prohibiting them from leaving, and they are used as a tourist attraction. So they are pretty much stuck in their primitive way of life, and their old traditions are used as a means of income - probably that's why they force the little girls to don the brass, whether they like it or not. You could see the women and young girls, each one sitting on top of a bamboo platform, weaving, or just sitting as a puppet, half smiling, waiting for someone to either buy their goods or take a picture with them. Later I was told that they get money out of the tour guides for every tourist they bring with them.

Long neck beauty

We drove on to the next attraction, the Monkey Shrine.

Next, we went to Golden-Triangle, which is actually the spot where the river acts as a border between Burma, Laos and Thailand. We took a boat ride to a small Island which had a market, not much different from any other markets around (except from the big knives).

After we were lodged in our Hotel, we were all routed to a party in a huge Korean club with some live music. At first we the Israelis were pretty much huddled one to another and, well, for me it was quite lame, but luck served me right. When everyone else went smoking or something, I did a bit of a walk around the club, looking apprehensively at frozen Thai boys and girls, glued to their tables and their drinks. However, suddenly there were 2 guys grabbing my arm and pleading me to join them at the very front of the stage. Soon I was cheering and drinking with 3 extremely generous Thai guy, who luckily weren't gay (I know, I'm experienced already). I also knew that I need to be cautious when offered a drink, so I made sure they were drinking the same thing that they gave to me, and sometime from the same glass as well. The liqueur was flowing into my veins, and I was more than ready to hit the dance floor, but still most of the club was nailed to the floor, and I and the three Thai guys were the only ones "having fun". Luckily, the Cavalry rushed in from nowhere - all of a sudden, instead of me and 3 Thai guys, there were all the other Israelis I went with, some 8 of them, all jumping and shouting and wasted. Soon many of them joined the drinking fest, even without asking, and the poor Thai guys had to just accept the fact that they payed .for a whole bottle of scotch just to dance with crazy foreigners.

After enough drinking, and some good music, some of us, including me, decided that the whole of the club needs to see us, so we went up the stage and danced like crazy... I think I was almost a full hour on the stage, inviting girls and boys to dance, shouting at people who didn't obey my dance orders, and mainly danced with the hot Thai dancers who were put on the lower levels of the stage. I've had a blast, and, from what I was told the next morning, everyone enjoyed that evening.

Kelly and the sling boy

Day 4

I woke up, with a bit of a hangover, but I felt just fine, and the breakfast was filled with talks about last nights events. Once again, we finished breakfast, and hit the road. This time, the first stop was at a national park. We hiked for about an hour till we reached a dazzling waterfall, and I didn't even pause to undress before I jumped into the cool waters, enjoying the slapping rush of the waterfall. It was great! especially after sweating it out all the way to the waterfall.

Bamboo forest

brrr....

On the way back, me and one other guy, Amit by the name, took turns in piggy-bagging a third guy, Assaf, who has sprained his ankle at last nights party (too drunk). The whole of the group had to wait for us for about 40 minutes or so, but it was a fun experience, since these two actually have something to say that's worth hearing.

Next stop was at a beautiful spot up on the mountains, where we ate our lunch. The view in all of Chiang mai is amazing, but due to a permanent haze (from the heat and from supervised fires all over), the horizon was always giving us only hints of its beauty. Taking pictures of the scenery was also difficult thanks to that.

Our last stop for the whole of the trip was at some hot smelly springs, which were, for me, a total insult considering my experience coming from Japan. The only good thing I got out of there was a photo of a sign I saw, which reminded me the good old times of "Engrish" hunting.

So, in conclusion, I guess I've had a nice time. Although the Jeep rides were long, smokey and boring for me, the mingling with the sane people here was worth it. My next stop would be a city called "Pai", which is praised constantly by many travelers, and I still have no clue why is that.

Growing up or love at first sight at the Gay club

"AA Youo HAAY?!" she yelled.

"WHAAAT?!" I couldn't hear her through all the noise and prancing males around me.

"A R E Y O U GAAAYY?!!?" She exploded.

"NOOO!" I shouted back... "A R E YOOOUU GAAY?!?!"

"NOoo!" she laughed.

"Then What are you doing here?"

"I'm with a gay friend!!! What are YOU doing here?!"

"I'm with MY gay friend!!!"

This conversation was held on top of a stage at a gay club in Si-lom, Bangkok. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Sunday morning, after a wonderful week with Jasper and others, I packed my small bag and headed off to meet with my new host, who goes by the name of Markus. We met at one of the malls, and, well, I've noticed that he was gay. now I'm not talking about the kind'a gay we have in Israel... I'm talking about full time gay, one who is not afraid of what the society would think about him. After all, it is very common to see gay, transvestite, transgender, or just feminine men walking all over Bangkok.

Now I had my suspicion, but I wasn't truly sure about him being gay, and at first I thought that it could maybe pose a problem, since I've never had the experience or the knowledge in being comfortable around gay men... you could say that I was terrified. But I decided that it was time for me to grow up a little, especially in this concern, so I've decided of making Markus, my host for the better part of the upcoming week, to be my mentor.

The first experience, for me, was a total flop. I told him I need to go to the Israeli place to get some stuff from my bag and ask some questions about some organized trips. The way over there was nice because he offered me different modes of transportation, such as the boat, which was this sort of one time experience, and also at the back of an open transit. When we got there, I invited him to try the Israeli food. So we sat down on the wooden stools, an obvious Israeli guy with an obvious gay Philippine, while all other Israeli eyes were utterly directed at us. I handled the staring quite well, I thought to myself, but as soon as he began dancing in his seat, I thought I was going to have a stroke. It was a simple example of my social behavior constraints to his free mind, and body. I knew back then that I have a lot to work on, but I also knew that I have to talk to him about it, because I have no desire to offend him in anyway.

We reached his home during the late evening, where his roommates were already asleep, so we watched a bit of TV and headed back to Bed ourselves. Now I've slept with men before in beds, but this was my first time with a gay guy, so I guess my inexperience in handling this situation was making me fear a bit like a big idiot, but I've managed to get a hold on myself in the end.

Eating dinner together - Markus, me, Jojit and Lizza

For the next 2 days, I had the chance of meeting his lovely roommates, Jojit and Lizza a couple, also from the Philippines, and their HUGE drulling san-bernard who is really fond of me. We went together for dinner, and just talked whenever Markus was away at work. They've told me that they would like to visit Israel, since they are 7th day Adventists, which, to my surprise, has very similar beliefs as Judaism, for example, not eating pork, or not working on Sabbath (including electricity!).

Jojit, Lizza and Markus

On Tuesday evening, I pleaded Markus to take me to a drag show, just to experience the scenery, and on our way to Si-lom, one of the prominent places for gay men in Bangkok, I decided to talk to him about my predicament. I've explained that I didn't know from his couchsurfing profile that he was gay (I explained I didn't read through all of it), that In my country I never experienced any close contact with gays, that I feel a bit awkward around them and that I wanna change that.

Eating Mango with rice and coconut

I was glad that he was taking this really well... I felt as though from then on we can be more open with each-other, and I guess it made the Club experience a lot better for my part.

Me and Yuri

After about an hour and a half of talking, we entered the club, which was disappointingly empty. The Drag show was suppose to start at 23:30, and it was 23:20 with almost no one in sight. There were few guys standing at different locations, checking out the fresh meat (probably me) from time to time, but mostly it was quiet, although the music was intense. To my surprise, the place soon was packed with mostly young hot male bodies from all over the world, and the show began. Unfortunately, I was given a hard time when I took out my camera, so I didn't get to film the show itself. But it was really nice... one of the performances was actually quite good, with great lip-sync, and he/she was really hot.

After the drag show, the dance music was played once again, and everyone joined in a sort of a Sodom and Gomorrah recap. I couldn't take pictures, but I managed to take a short video, which I believe manages to convey somewhat of the atmosphere I experienced over there (although youtube made it soo dark!).



For me, it was awesome. Thanks to enough Alcohol in my blood, I wasn't even thinking about the grabbing of my ass from time to time and the suggestions I got from other men... I was just dancing and having fun, pure clean sweaty fun. Well, at least until I saw her.

She was dancing with what appeared to me as her boyfriend. For me it was hard to distinguish between a boyfriend and a boy-friend, but since they were dancing together, I figured that they came to this place just to have fun with the gay community. I was eyeing her for quite a while, and she indeed returned the favor... just to make sure, I asked Markus if he thinks she's a lady-boy and he shouted back that she's a real girl. It went like this for a while, me looking at her, she looking at me from a distance, and Markus Sulking a bit out of jealousy. It wasn't till Markus put me up on the stage with him that I did my move from a far, and hand-signed her to join me on the stage. She complied, and after a bit of dancing, we had that little conversation about who's gay and who's not.
A few more minutes of great dancing with her, and I've noticed that Markus was nowhere to be found... now I knew from before that he was a bit sulky about me hitting on a girl, but disappearing on me was a bit off the edge... but, I came along with Markus, and I'm going back with him, so I bit my lips, helped the beautiful lady down off the stage, and told her that I have to find me friend, and I'm sorry. My real mistake was not taking her phone number, but I guess I'm doing that mistake on a daily basis for the past several months.
I found Markus sitting all alone, sulking. We talked a bit about it, and I could understand his point of view, that I should have at least asked him before I ran away with that girl, since we're suppose to be partners. We patched up things between us, and for me, the whole of the night was a huge big lesson for life... but I guess those of you who actually read this boring blog aren't that interested in that, now are you?

the next day, my last one with Markus and his housemates, we went to this sort of a fancy dance/pub, and after a rough start, we were again dancing like Maniacs. This time however, I got free access to the girls, and it was really fun... Although no numbers, once again, I still enjoyed the part were girls were pushing other shy girls to dance with me... I felt like a true foreigner.

Dancing with a cute girl

I concluded the experience with Markus first thing in the morning after, when he went to work. I was glad to know about myself that I really do like women, and I'm more glad that I've had the chance to grow up a little bit when it comes to interacting with people from the gay community.

damn I write too much.

First impressions

Too long have I been away from a keyboard. But quite a lot has happened, and I've seen and experienced so much that I'm afraid that I won't be able to convey it all in writings, mostly due to lousy memory. But I'll give it a shot anyway.

day 1

my first day, after waking up at 7 am in the morning, was a long one. I woke up to an empty apartment, since Jasper, my first host in Bangkok, left already for work. My plans, after I finger-brushed my teeth, were to head straight to the Australian embassy and apply for the visa, and later on was to stop by at the Kao-san area, where all the Israeli centers such as Habbad and the Israeli connection are stationed, in order to get some info. BUT first things first, and my top-most priority was to buy a deodorant, since my own was in my lost-at-that-time bag.

I took the sky-train, a most convenient way of traveling through the main areas of non-Israeli Bangkok. Its practically a subway, without the sub in it, and same as in Japan, it can have its crowded moments.

Sky train

Anyway, I made it to the embassy and handed in my Passport, so I was officially stuck in Bangkok for the next 10 working days. Finishing that, I decided to do walk all the way to Kao-san, and perhaps get a glimpse of the actual city life. I did. mainly it was hot and sweaty. From time to time I detoured from the main roads just to see the livelihood of those tiny backdoor streets that combine with a puzzling success some of the dirtiest stores, workshops and houses with tiny food stands that offer you every type of food, except the one I actually eat.

Notice the plastic bag drink. very common.

After a good 2 hours of walking, I decided that maybe the map I'm holding in my hand wasn't conveying the true scale of Bangkok, so after some searching and questioning, I hopped to one of the city buses, or the "family bus" (runs by the family), going to Kao-san area. I suggest, if some of you ends up in Bangkok for a couple of days, to try this mode of transportation, since Its dirty cheap, and the traffic is usually bearable enough. It only seems that the traffic is awful, but thats only because the interval of the traffic lights is unusually long. The only risky thing in buses are that some of them don't really stop and wait for you to get on... you just have to jump on them when, IF, they slow down.

half an hour later, I was sitting at the "Israeli connection", one of the many Israeli centres in Kao-san... there is actually a whole street with Hebrew writings. Sitting on the wooden stump chairs, I was surrounded by Israelis talking with their companions about past times and adventures. I guess I couldn't help but feel a bit out of the loop, since I was the only one sitting all by myself, munching my Schnitzel and Hummus, while the hustle and bustle of the restaurant vibed all around me.

Hebrew writings glint in Ka0-San

After my Israeli meal, I walked all the back to one of the Sky-train stations (a 2-3 hours walk), and headed back to Jaspers place. We met there and he offered me to meet up with one of his couch-surfers friend, and I gladly accepted the offer.

Chicken feet.... yumm yumm

We met up with his Thai friend, Shompoo (yes, Shompoo), at a Thai restaurant, and it was an interesting experience, in more than one way. The food itself was not exactly my cup of tea, but I gave it a shot anyway... I could tell you that chicken feet aren't as tasty as they look, and they don't look tasty at all. but most of the food was good, and the conversation was educational.

Jasper and Shompoo

We talked about the phenomenon of lady-boys in Thailand, and we talked about politics, and we talked about the revered king. Especially the part of the king was astounding since I didn't know how much the Thai people really adore him. I thought at first that it was a ordinary sign of Propaganda, just like in other monarchies around the globe, but it seems that, though the king has no political influence whatsoever, he is honored to an extreme. Shompoo told me that one time the king has fallen ill, and in order to cure his spirits, the whole of Thailand wore yellow shirts, the color of the king, to help him recover. They highly rever him for his involvement in humane acts and helping poor families all over Thailand. Moreover, they seem a bit uneasy when it comes to his future successor, the incompetent prince.

We parted from Shompoo, and ended day 1 with a good cold shower.

day 2,3
these two days were mostly dedicated to looking at huge malls in the Siam center of town, such as the MBK mall, which has relatively low prices on everything, and also on arranging the delivery of my now-been-found-bag to the Israeli connection.

MBK - sort of a huge economic bubble

HOWEVER.

day number 3 (Friday) was definitely an interesting day. Jasper and I decided that we wanna go clubbing, so Jasper hooked up with a friend of his that stayed at another friends place, all of them couchsurfers. and they told us to go to their place and join them for dinner, and later we should all go partying together. Jasper himself didn't exactly know where this other girl lives, but we took a cab, which is a good way of traveling, especially if you are in a group, since its cheaper that way.

After a long ride, about an hour from the center, we met these two girls, Fai and Prow, and we all went to prows place, which, to my amazement, was a bloody villa. I wouldn't have guessed that I'd end up in a lavish house in the suburbs of Bangkok, but there I was, sitting with my couch-surfing friends, eating good food in a beautiful apartment, with a big garden and a direct access to the river.

Couch - Surfing... got it?

We decided going to the Kao-san area, where there are some clubs. The place was packed with foreigners, many of them are Israelis, but the music was good and the company was lively and fun.
After a while, we skipped into another place, a little bit more fancy, and the party was hot. Really hot... so hot that I was sweating like a pig, and the shirt Jasper gave me turned into a wet towel... but I didn't care, since I was having a good time.


At 2 o'clock, the Club threw us out... apparently there is a time limit on partying and drinking. So we headed to a place nearby and we sat down with other couch-surfers that joined us at some point. One of them was from Kansas, and the other girl was from Swiss, another one French and some Thai people, and the conversation lasted till 5 in the morning. Actually, the last place we sat together was at the Israeli connection, where I invited them all to have a bite of some middle eastern food, like the Humus and Malawach. Needless to say, I was practically the only one eating.

interesting notion - from 2 am many places won't sell you beer in a bottle, and if they do, then they must pour the bottle into a cup... government orders.
Again, we parted from everybody, and went to bed, satisfied and happy.

day 4

We barely slept 4 hours, but we woke up, all groggy and hungovered from the mixing of the drinks while dancing the previous night, but we decided on resting our souls in the nearby Starbucks. I don't know for how long we've sat there, but it felt like a good rest. We headed afterwards to check out the Weekend market, a huge market filled with every thing you as a tourist desire... for me it was pretty mundane, but I guess it was worth seeing. We already decided on doing the same partying routine, so Jasper tried to contact some people, and we were invited to this sort of a pool party at Shompoos building. Shompoos apartment was small and cozy, but the sight of the pool on top of the roof startled me. The view was magnificent, and the pool area was all ours. Soon, other couch-surfers, both hosts and surfers, joined us and we passed the time talking about different topics.

amazing view of the city

At about 21:30, Jasper and I parted the party, and went back to his place to get some shut eye, and plan the next party to crash. We decided on going to a more fancy sort of club that was in the RCA neighborhood. we got out at 23:00 at arrived to a relatively big club with live music and DJs. The club was designed to look like a church, and crosses were hanged on top of different walls. The place was full to the brim, and the music was seeping to our veins. Soon enough we were joined by Shompoo and another Couch-surfer from Bulgaria, and we danced till we fell. I don't remember a better dancing experience than this one... we found our little place on top of some sort of a balcony overlooking the entire view of the club itself, and we danced like we own the place. Too bad I didn't take my camera this time :) but the memory will remain.

After falling from our feet (and after we were kicked out at closing time) at about 3 am, we ended up in one of the red light districts to have some midnight snack. We sat outside, with a clear view of ladyboys and real girls waiting for customers, and around us were bunch of foreign clients with their Thai girlfriends... one peculiar scene was a mature foreigner that was caressing in a suspicious way a sobbing Thai boy, a young one... after a few minutes they headed off somewhere together.

Once again, we came back to the apartment at about 5 am, and sadly, that was my last night with Jasper. The next morning, I said goodbye and headed off to meet my new host, which would be a story by itself... no doubt, I've learned a lot, and, for my part, gained new friends.