Ping Pong...Please Not In My Mouth!

What can be written about Bangkok that hasn’t already been written? Well hopefully this story will keep you entertained. We arrived in the evening, 12 hours after leaving Siem Reap, and met Fel – a good friend from Uni that we haven’t seen for two years. Fel had just arrived in Asia for the first time and so added some much needed enthusiasm to our withered travelling souls. Besides a 12 hour layover in Malaysia, Thailand represents the last country on our 17 month adventure. We met this realisation in a state of general excitement about seeing friends and family, but with an undercurrent of anxiety towards the future and our prospects. Whenever one is excited, anxious, or feeling whatever really, lots of large Chang beers make it all better…Until the next morning.
Crazy long dreads!
With stinking Changovers we tried to survive by getting the essentials – food, water, and a massage of course. We started getting massages in Laos and since then, we’ve had one every few days. They are sublime and silly cheap ($4-$7).

That night we went to the infamous Ping Pong show. It was the second time I had been and I am now very concerned that my mind is significantly more desensitised than 3 years ago. No person should be unphased by what you see but that was the situation for me. Katie, on the other hand was extremely impressed by what she saw, and cheered the girls on if their “tricks” weren’t going to plan.
Five in a tuk-tuk
I would go into specifics about the content of the show, but our parents are loyal readers and I don’t want to creep them out too much. Besides, the excitement of a Ping Pong show is the mystery of the unknown. I will just say that Fel ended up holding 10 meters of damp ribbon at one point. As a side-note, there are two Ping Pong shows in Bangkok, and I’ve been to the same one twice, which is a great shame because otherwise I could have made a SobCoe table to compare them.

Besides that, we also went to Chatuchak Weekend market, which was so large and overwhelming that the experience wasn’t too pleasant - and you know how much we love markets! The size of this market is utterly ridiculous – we walked for hours and saw less than half. No wonder 200,000 people visit each weekend.
Excessive street food
Market!!
Fel and Katie left that night to Chiang Mai because they were Bangkok’d out and wanted to move on. As my life is governed by sporting events, I stayed to watch the Wimbledon Final – great match and I adore the Fed so it was a joy to watch. Being in a bar full of ladyboys on Khao San Road did make the experience a little stranger and certainly more memorable than other Wimbledon finals. The game finished just after midnight and I wandered about using the remainder of the evening to fully review the other Ping Pong show. Stay tuned…
Khao San Road
I didn’t really go but now I wish I had, for journalistic purposes only. I promise.

Costs (per person)
Siem Reap to Bangkok Bus = $9 (£6)
Bangkok Hotel (Lucky Guesthouse) Double AC per room = 450 Baht (£9, $13.50)
Ping Pong show = 400 Baht (£8, $12)
Fel’s ribbon story = Priceless
Bangkok to Chiang Mai Train Seat AC = 700 Baht (£14, $21)