Boom Boom Bangkok

Although I planned for this weekend to be a Bangkok weekend I wanted to get dinner with Danielle and Melissa in Bang Saen Friday night and go into the city Saturday, so that's exactly what I did! Cortes and I met up outside of Prabhassorn and headed about 15 miles south to the beach and Bang Saen! Our song taew ride there was pretty awful. It is usually only supposed to take 20 minutes and it took us 45. Then the driver was trying to get us to pay him 40 bhat to take us down the road another mile!! Insane! The trip is only supposed to cost 15 each and he wanted 40. Bullllshit. I was pissed and we walked.

The girls met us at the end of the road and we walked along the beach (or the road when the water came in very very quickly) to get to the restaurant. On the way there we saw an old, bright pink, VW van that had been made into a street bar!! WHATTT?! Thailand, you are my hero. So unique and cool. Anyway, we headed towards a seafood restaurant that one of thai teachers at their school had recommended for dinner. It was sooo yummy! We got shrimp flavored cakes, whole fish, seafood green curry, and grilled squid! As well as a multitude of Signa to wash it all down. Aroi mak and it was great to see the girls! We will definitely have to get dinner again soon either at the beach or perhaps at one of the restaurants in Central Plaza since we are so close to them! Yeah Thailand! Off to Bangkok tomorrow!

I am just amazed with Bangkok every time I spend some time there. It has an amazing compilation of old school Thai markets, temples, shacks, etc as well as the biggest mall in Southeast Asia, the sky train, and a wild awesome night life scene. The first weekend of June I came to Bangkok with a bunch of people and we went to RCA which is a club district. Basically, you pay 200 baht, go through a turnstile, receive a 200 baht drink coupon, and have a giant crazy dance party in the street/open bars to both American and Thai hits. It's pretty ridiculous. Also, to ensure that one has a great time, there are Vodka Towers instead of the typical Thai Beer Towers. They make like a citrusy vodka mix and supply you with a number of shot glasses to share in the pleasure with friends or strangers. Needless to say, I had a LOT of fun, and had to be 'guided' back to the hostel at 4am but not without a promise that I would return to this magical international city the next weekend.

The next weekend Barr, Rochelle, Peter and I made a little 'whole foods' picnic at the park by my apartment in Chonburi. We got a WHOLE fish, WHOLE duck, WHOLE fishcake thing, and had WHOLE oranges for dessert. We are pretty creative.... haha. Then we went to The Babe and got a few beer towers and watched the World Cup kick-off against South Africa and Mexico. Getting home was pretty interesting since we were squeezed onto 2 motorbikes between the 4 of us (3 ppl per bike with the driver) and zoomed away to Amata feeling pretty good and slightly more than tipsy. Overall, great little night in the 'Buri.

As i promised, Saturday night I went into Bangkok again. We went to dinner at a Tapas restaurant!! Can you say cheese, artichokes, and prosciutto?? I have never been more pleased. Afterwards we found an American sports bar owned by this old American ex-pat who went to Oregon State. Go Beavers?! The bar's atmosphere was nothing to write home about but we were there for one reason.... WORLD CUP!!!!!! The England-USA game started at 1:30am Thailand time so we got to the bar at 10pm to make sure that we had seats for all of us (about 15-20 at any given point, screaming, loud, drunk, happy Americans... don't worry, we fit right in). The game was fantastic. There were a lot of ugly old English men their with their lame chants and 'dodgy' escapades as they hit on the Thai waitresses but they shut up pretty quick once they realized that they were incapable of repeating their one-hit-wonder goal at the 3 minute mark.

The past two weekends in the city were fantastic but I am in desperate need of a break from the wild/crazy life for a weekend but I will without a doubt be returning to Bangkok again very very soon. PS-- the picture above this blurp is of Central World, the once-largest mall in Southeast Asia that the Red Shirt protestors burned and destroyed. RIP Central World.