Day 2 - MBK, dodging ladyboys and chinatown

Kicked off the trip with a visit to one of the big shopping malls-MBK. As most of you are aware one of the other options- one world centre has recently been reduced to ashes due to the political riots a few weeks back. I was praying the rioters didn't come back today to clean up the rest of the malls. I was reminded of this when i had to go through a metal detector and bag search at the entrace. Not sure if such measures were in place before the riots, but i was happy to have them there regardless!

Knowing Thailand's certain reputation for a certain tourist industry, i must shamefully admit that i've formulated the following prejudice in thailand :-

(2+) white guys = sex tourists

i know i know it's wrong to do that, but it's been ingrained! or when i see a white guy with a thai local girl i can't help to wonder if she might be a gogo bar girl hepicked up last night and have found true love. anyway i know not every one who fits the profile is like that. who knows what other people are thinking seeing this lone chinaman wondering around all by himself?!

bargaining is done in good spirits here in thailand. as usual you hit back with half the quoted price and work your way up to something btw the two. managed to pick up a backpack that morning. guy seemed to be honest about quality and prices so was happy to give him the business.

After grabbing some roadside snacks it was off to the main train staion to buy advance tickets for chiang mai. At the entrance to the platforms theres a massive portrait of the king of thailand. He's about the age of most of my dad's friends, and because he's asian everytime i see him i can't help but think of him as some uncle. Except this uncle is always serious in his portraits and sports a big sword or grand sceptre. Actually i must be careful what i write here. I've read that the king and religous icons are heavily revered here, and any jokes or slander isn't taken lightly. you can get into big trouble just by accidently stepping on any icon or image of the king that may have fallen onto the floor in front of you! it's gotten me so freaked out that i'm careful not to take too many pics of these portraits, not wanting to portray the king as some sort of tourist attraction.

had lunch there in the food court of the station. seems that all food courts use coupons, where you have to buy coupons first from the cashier and then give these to the food stall attendants. I have noticed all food court stalls provide a multitude of condiments and sacues for patrons to pile on. but there seems to be a lack of serviets!

ordered a 'small' ice coffee but this actually means a large cup with shit-loads more ice filled to the rim. i was freaking out about ice giving me the runs. i only realized after he'd served it up, so ended up taking the risk. anyway since then i've had in practically every drink i've ordered, and happy to report no runs upto now. besides, thailand feels like one big open sauna and ice is a blessing.

made my way to chinatown after that to try some food. although i'm proud of chinese culture heritage, i don't make it a point to goto every chinatown in every foreign city i visit. It's just that Lonely Planet seems to keep making reference to the chinese influence in thai culture esp in bangkok, so had to go check it out. I do enjoy just walking down a random street or alley to soak in the atmosphere, and there were no shortages of dank alley in chinatown. Several times though i think i walked a little too far down a few, especially when stray dogs started tailing and barking at me.

the sidewalks of bangkok already seemed narrow and crammed with street vendors, but it was 10 times tighter in chinatown! so much so the fresh food stalls and eateries and their dining spaces spill out onto the roads. mmmm fresh produce.

theres also no single central paedestrian street mall with the obligatory chinese gates and lions at the front. nope, instead the chinese gates are plonked in the middle of a roundabout. what the?!

following the trusty ole lonely planet i tried to follow the 'food tour'. first stop was a curry rice place along the side of the street. it's easily recognizable by the fact theres no tables, just chairs facing the road. it reminds me of those cafes in europe where all the chairs face outwards, purely for patrons to people watch/perv, except here it's just that the vendor is too stingy to splash out on tables and theres no people to watch, just a brick wall across the road. drinks are complimentary here, as i was handed what i first thought was very very weak chinese tea with ice, since it had a brown tinge to it. after not detecting any hint of tea whatsoever, it slowly dawned on me (with horror), that this might just be 'water' suffice to say i beared the curry without water from that point.

second stop was a bird's nest restaurant. i've had birds nest before, and this stuff tasted the same. there were different grades of birds nest, ranging from 100-1500 baht (4-60 aud). i went with the 800 baht (32 aud) one, just to see if it would be special. it wasn't.

only other point of interest was that the vendor spoke mandarin. boy after struggling with thai and broken english i'd never thought i'd be eager to speak mandarin to someone. it was so much easier compared to my non-existant thai! not that my mandarin is perfect, but we managed to communicate fine.

third and final stop was another road side stall for "pat mee mow", or fried rice noodle with seafood and chilly and basil. it was ok, nothing that blew me away.

that night i was eager to get a massage, since this is thailand. the ones highly recommended by the lonely planet were already closed by 10pm, so the receptionist at the hotel told me the only place i could get one at this time of night was at Nana. I asked her, "how do i know which one is good?", to which she replied "just look for the clean one". i thought that response was a bit odd, but later realized what she meant.

Little did i know, but Nana is like a 'little Patpong", or redlight district. I only realized once we got to the main strip! So there i am, looking like a complete tourist with my lonely planet in hand.

It's actually located within what seemed to be 'little Arabia', cuz i saw alot of arabic writing on the shop signs. That and plenty of kebab shops. *LOL* i thought, the idea of rotating hunks of meat at the kebab shops next to human meat being rotated on the streets was quite the fit. So it was at this point the receptionist's words made sense to me. Cuz in areas like these, "massage", can mean a different thing, or "massage with happy ending".

And if you're wondering, NO, i didn't get sidetracked from my quest for a real massage. I've seen too many images of STD's and dispensed enough valtrex and azithromycin scipts at work to scare me for life. So it as battle trying to dodge all the prostitutes on the streets and not make eye contact with anyone along the street. I think i had it easier, not being as foreign looking as others. However i did have to walk half a meter around one when she tried to block me off three times, and another put her hand on my belly as she walked past. As long as you don't acknowledge or politely shake your hand, you're fine. Several times from out of the corner of my eye i spotted what i thought to be a woman, but then walked past to hear a deep voice. *shiver*

When i did find a place for a massage it turned out to be the legit thing. Had a one hour traditional massage, by a lady who appeared in her mid to late 40's. I didn't choose my masseur, but i consider myself lucky since the older ones are a bit more experiened and good with their hands. When they do the massage their bodies inevitably rub up againt yours at certain stages. My masseur had a bit of a gut which worked well for the massage. I can't help but think how uncomfortable it would be to have skinny and boney masseur having her bones digging into your body.

I don't usually have massages back ion oz, so the feeling of going up to a dimly lit private room with a bed with someone made me feel dirty. not to worry, i'm sure i'll be used to it by the 3rd massage here in thailand :)

I kept my eyes shut for most of the session though, since conversation would've been impossible. That and the fact that looking at my masseur while i had expressions of pleasure all over my face would've been just WRONG. Actually i spent most of that hour thinking about the life of a masseur. I think i'll save it for a later blog though when if i run out of things to talk about.