Bangkok Trip Number Two!

As Friday 18th February was a holiday and hence we had no teaching to do, Caitlin and I decided to take the opportunity to head down to Bangkok for the weekend and stay with Pippa who is there studying German. We left at about 6pm from Ban Phon Sanuk. The journey down was good, although usually the seats are made of kind of furry material but this time it was leathery which meant that I kept sliding around when I tried to get comfy! The seats did recline a lot though so it was actually quite comfy. Plus, we were given a full packed of Cream-Os (cheap Oreos) each as a snack which was nice! We arrived in Bangkok at about 6am, got ourselves a taxi and phoned Pippa so that she could tell the driver where to go. Caitlin spoke to her on the phone and said that she sounded really sleepy. When we met her, she told us that she'd only been asleep for half an hour before we phoned and was indeed very sleepy! Where we met her happened to be outside the Hotel Malaysia - the same hotel that we all stayed in when we first arrived in August! Bangkok is HUGE, so how is that for coincedence?? I got to go back into the first ever 7/11 I went into, but I couldn't find the pizza flavoured banana chips that they had last time. When we got back to Pippa's we all went back to bed, and despite Pippa saying that she'd be getting up at 9am, we all slept until about 1pm...

When we were awake and felt human again we made our way out to a small coffee shop that Pippa likes and met one of her friends from her German course. His name is Ton, and he is one of the gayest people you will ever meet! He has a boyfriend in Germany, and is your typical gay guy. I had a cheese toastie and a Watermelon Fruit Shake for breakfast. Although, really I suppose it was lunch... After this we went to a lovely park and had a wander round before sitting down on a bench in the shade and helping Pippa and Ton with their German work. Actually, Caitlin helped them as I have never studied German in my life, but I smiled and nodded a lot :) Caitlin says that this is what she did too, but at least she was able to take educated guesses! We then headed back and went to Hotel Malaysia to get some drinks. Here we met Nat. Now, we thought that Ton was the gayest you could get. We were soon proved wrong when Nat came swaying in in tiny blue short shorts and a tank top. He also had a boyfriend in Germany. Both him and Ton are absolutely lovely! They are good friends of Pippa's, but for some reason in Thailand in a lot of places being gay is frowned upon, but being a lesbian is not. When Pippa told us on the phone that her friends were gay she didn't know how to explain it, so said "same same lesbian... but man!". This strange mentality shows at schools, especially in more rural areas, because in younger years there are a lot of ladyboys (a boy who wants to be a girl), but the older years don't. This is because ladyboys are steriotypically seen as "gay", even though they aren't necessarily. When they get older they realise that they can't continue being a ladyboy without people thinking that they are gay, so they become "normal" again. There are some gay couples in older years, but very few.
We then headed back to Pippa's apartment so I could get my camera, meeting up with more of Pippa'ss friends on the way, before heading to a Thai barbecue buffet. I love these things - it is a bucket fire in the middle of the table, and on top there is a pan/pot that looks a bit like a wok, but with a raised middle. Meat goes on the middle bit and soup goes round the outside with vegetables in it. Everyone goes to the buffet and gets plates of raw meat that are piled on the middle of the pan and shared by everyone. There is fruit and Thai desserts too, and for the whole thing it was only 150 baht each which is brilliant!

When we were done eating we headed back to Pee Dee's room, which is near Pippa's but not in the same apartment block. Pippa quickly went to get her laptop and Caitlin and I chatted to Pee Dee and watched Thai TV. When Pippa came back we played on the computer, helped her with German homework and watched a Thai dubbed horror film. Wasn't entirely sure what was happening, but it was entertaining! Nat came in and out a few times, wearing just the short shorts by now... We headed back to Pippa's and went to sleep at about 2am.

On Saturday morning we got up at about 11am and again went to the coffee shop and met Ton. After this we made our way to the bus station to get our tickets back to Na Kae for the next day, stopping off at a huge market on the way! It genuinely was massive, everywhere you went there was somewhere else to go! There was a pets section of the market which I wasn't a huge fan of. They lovely puppies that were actually in really good condition and seemed well looked after, but other places had kittens and rabbits that again looked far too young to be taken from their mums. They also had squirrels and other rodents on leads on the top of their cages for people to look at, but they all looked miserable. The puppies were absolutely adorable though, but don't worry mum, I haven't bought one. Yet... :P We then got in a taxi to the bus station, and got there after having to take a diversion due to a redshirt march. It was a very peaceful march though, and everything was controlled, so don't worry. After getting our bus tickets Pippa took us to her sister's shop, then to her sister's house. Her sister is either called Ngun or Nung, I can never remember how to pronounce it, and has a 6 month old son called Dono. He is so cute, and huge for such a young boy! Unfortunately Ngun/Nung was at work so we didn't get to see her, but hopefully next time we're passing through Bangkok we'll go and visit her.


We spent about an hour or so at Ngun/Nung's house (two of her friends were there) before heading back out. This time, onto a bus for about an hour to the food market. The bus was brilliant, really rickety but great to see so much of Bangkok! We had to change buses half way because the headlights stopped working. The buses in Thailand are so much better value! It cost us 10 Baht each, which is about 20p, and we were on the bus for over an hour. It costs me almost 4 pounds to get from Kirriemuir to Dundee! At the food market we had Som Tham, sticky rice, Chinese noodles and fish before heading back to Pippa's apartment. Pippa talked to Butschi (her German boyfriend) on skype for a while before we went to bed.


On Sunday morning we got up at... well, actually we didn't... we got up at about midday. Caitlin and I went to the coffee shop without Pippa this time because she wanted to be alone for a bit to study, so we left her to it. She joined us after a while. Caitlin and I shared a pancake with butter, syrup and lime. It was amazing! After this we went for a walk, again without Pippa as she still had work to do and wanted to be alone. We went round a couple of food markets and wandered along some small market roads before wiggling our way back to Hotel Malaysia and back to Pippa's apartment at about 3.30pm. We thought that our bus was at 6.30pm so we got the taxi at 4pm to give us time to find the bus, and sometimes it can take a while to get to the station depending on what the traffic is like. We got to the bus station at about 5pm, checked our tickets and realised that the bus didn't go until 7.15pm. Not much to do except wait, so Caitlin and I played 20 questions which was actually quite fun. The bus journey was much like the journey there but the seats were furry this time. Unfortunately I couldn't out my seat back as much because there was a woman with a baby behind me and they had lots of bags which I didn't want to crush them with. We got back to Na Kae bright and early this morning, had about an hour and a half in bed at the house, then went to teach at St. Joseph Na Kae all bright eyed and bushy tailed...!