Traveling

Well, it had to be done.

Last night, Mike had a great idea.
"Let's go ice skating".
What else do you do on a Sat night in Bangkok, right?
He called the place, the lady said it was open til 11pm- great. We wanted to see the Thais skate.
Got there at 9 and it was closed. Of course it was, why would it actually stay open til 11 like she said?
So we wandered a bit and the Mike decided we should check out Nana district which is a very touristy area with fat white men walking around holding hands with small Thai women (girls?). So walking down from the sky train he points out an elephant. Yup. Walking down a busy Bangkok street. Apparently people buy bags of peanuts and then feed them to the elephant. Don't worry I am sure the elephants are very happy. Ya, Ok.
Got some food and watched the big Western men get chatted up, or chat up Thai women... I'm getting a little more used to it.. I just still don't know how I feel about the whole thing. It seems different here. Like, sex is just a type of release, they aren't uptight like North Americans can be. But the whole sex tourism thing.. men can come here and throw their money around and act like kings. And can be treated like kings. But when they go home they are nothing recluses. It's just too weird.
Anyways, after watching them on the street, we decided to go to the root of it all: the gogo bars. Hell ya.
So there's a type of plaza and about 10 different bars that people are calling you in to. One of them has a midget doorman- it's quite a circus type atmosphere (recalling the elephant from earlier in the evening). We decided on "Skoolgirlz" and step thru the curtain. Seems we fell upon America Night because all the girls are dressed in the stars and stripes. Let me explain: it's not like strip clubs in Montreal where you have one lady dancing on stage stripping. There is no stripping going on. There are about 15 girls standing up on stage around bars, just sortof wiggling a little to the music. Now let me tell you, these girls have the most bored expressions imaginable. They are as close to being naked without being naked, they are up on stage with a bunch of guys looking at them and they are all just bored. EXCEPT when you buy some ping pong balls. (Stop thinking like that!) The pingpong balls are tips that you throw at them. Thing is, if you throw a bunch at a time, they all start to scramble for them... now this is a really cruel thing to do, I know. But Mike thought it was really funny! Anyways, if you sit there with a basket of pingpong balls, you get a lot of attention from the girls on stage. I had one girl who especially liked me, that's all I'll say about that.
So, after having a beer and getting rid of 3 baskets of pingpong balls, we went to play pool. I was a little preoccupied with the tabel next to us where the Thai girls were playing pool but their German guy friends were just watching. I was beginning to think more and more like a guy as the night went on. It was strange. The pool halls are great here. They have attendants that hand you the cheating stick (if one would so be inclined to use it) and rack up the balls the second the 8 ball goes in. This is a very smart thing because you don't have the time to be like, "you want to play another one?" You just keep playing..
So after 2 hrs of pool, it was time to go home. Thing is, I had heard that the last 30 min is qwuite fun in the gogo bars because the women are actually having fun with eachother, because the night is almost over and they know they probably won't be going home with anyone. So I wanted to continue my analysis of the situation. I had to twist Mike's rubber arm.
This time we went to "Rainbows". The place was packed. Oh, I forgot to tell you, all the women on stage and around the bar have numbers on them so you just have to choose a number and tell, well anyone, that you want her and well... you know.
Anyways, this place was playing Thai music, the girls were all dressed the same again (they are everywhere) but this time they were in bras and thongs. They were having much more fun than the other place, just sorta dancing around to the Thai music and singing.. it was cute.
So, I forced Mike to have a drunk discussion with me about sex tourism.. is it ok? but where does it stop? submissive cultures? release? money? conquering...? I don't know. I don't know what i think. I have never been against prostitution, as long as the women really want to be there. But do any of them actaully want to be there? Or is it just about the money? And if it's just about the money, what about business execx who ruin their bodies thru stress and long hours and, just to make money.. I don't know. Just thinking.
So we stumble out onto the street and I almost step on an elephant. It's weird because my brain didn't register what it was right away- you just don't expect to see an elephant being walked down the street by its ear at 1am. I jumped into the street to avoid the big gray thing, but the traffic was coming in the other direction- oh god where am I?
This place is weird, man.

Heading over to Khao San rd. The main backpacker district today. Going to book my ticket and pick up a guide book for India.

Hey, I was looking at Nahida's pictures from New Years and it was so nice to see so many familiar faces- can you guys send me some pics when you have them? It's fun to see what you're all up to..
:)

posted by jjoollee @ 7:41 PM