Thursday, June 12, 2014

Stories Vol 3: Tuk Tuk Selfie


With Sherry gone, I now was on my own for the rest of the day. It was five O'clock and all I really wanted to do was wander back to the hostel. I took a look at a map and found my location and that of the hostel. It didn’t look to be that far. At most an hour walk.

 

Spirits high and feeling a bout of introspection after a packed day with my new friend, I meandered back down the route from which Sherry and I came. It was different now. The tourists had left and in swept the locals heading home from a hard day at work. I watched passively as I walked by groups of people deep in conversation, some with a light hearted tone (from what I could tell at least. You know I don't speak Thai) and others in a very abbreviated/aggressive one.

 

As I walked farther and farther down the road, I found myself following a stream amidst the middle of two roads. The people were quickly setting up shop for a night market that would line the stream for half of a mile. As I walked on and on, I kept getting stares from the different stall workers mid set-up. It was clear I had happened upon this place in a time in which I was not supposed to.  After about 15 minutes of this, I veered off the road and into a park where I heard music.


 

This was by far the best surprise of the day. Unknowingly, I had wandered into a Thai Jazzercise class in the middle of a public park. From the side walk, I watched on in fascination. The class was moving perfectly…. Well…. Almost perfectly in sync with the instructor. I was perplexed. All but the instructor looked like the heat and days work had taken its toll. They lifted each limb in rhythm with the beat but did so in an apathetic manner. As if each limb weighed fifty pounds.  

A video will be inserted here of this once I get decent WiFi


Realizing that the class had started to notice my gaze, I picked up my daypack and exited the park, continuing back down stream. Realizing now that I had walked for around 40 minutes and only gone a mear quarter of the way. I knew I had to adapt my plan and seek a taxi.

 

For a hundred baht I bargained my way into a tuk tuk back to the hostel. The views this driver took me to on our journey home were fantastic. Wizzing through markets, I began to see a new side of Bangkok. All day, I had spent my time amongst tourists, making my through the list of tourist sites. For the first time, I saw a side of Bangkok that seemed real but foreign.

 

Upon returning to the hostel, I was quickly greeted with a shot of Thai Liquor. I tried to say no but the hostel worker was adamant that I needed to try it. I really don't know how to describe it. All I remember is that it tasted boozy with a hint of natural bitters like the ones that you would buy from a homeopathic medicine shop.

 
I was told I needed to try the liquor if I wanted a beer

Having been greeted with a shop, I thought it only proper to sit down and have a bit of conversation. At the communal table sat a german, Chris; a Frenchman, Alex; and the hostel worker, who now I think of it never actually gave me her name, just booze.

 

Alex quickly began to ask the usually questions. I'm not going to lie he had absolutely beautiful eyes. The kind that flicker with an enigmatic glare. There is a reason why the French are strong at wooing. I have yet to meet one that couldn't charm the socks off someone when they wanted to. As we got deeper and deeper into conversation, the more I became fascinated by his story. Like many travelers on their journey alone, Alex was recently single. He had spent the last four years in a relationship with a woman he loved but had outgrown.

 

His Story made me think more and more about something a friend back home had recently expressed to me. My friend Mark and I were walking to lunch on a Saturday afternoon and while talking about friends he said, "you know, I don't think friends are always meant to last forever. Sometimes they are what you need at a moment and then you out grow them. Its not bad, it just is what it is." His words lingered with me as I listened to Alex's story.

 

The more Alex talked, the more shots the hostel worker would pour from a bottle of rum sitting at the table. After about 3 rounds of this I was on my way to being tipsy. After the third shot, out of the corner of my eye, I began to see Chris glance from a packet of paperwork to his hands which gently held the hostel workers left hand. Noticing the look of confusion gracing my face, Chris interrupted our conversation and said, "what? I'm practicing." He went on to explain that his year long travel around the world was now ending and he decided that he wanted to take back something he could give all of his friends, Thai Massages. He was enrolled in a five day, 8hour/day instructional class on how to give a Thai massage. The idea of this struck me as brilliant!
I am horrible at
 

 After about an hour and a half of great conversation, a large group on British students strolled in. They announced that they were going to go get ready and then we were all heading to a Ping Pong show. I perked up at this. An HR Manager at General Mills had actually told me that this was one of the things I needed to see in Thailand. She wouldn't tell me what it was but she did say let's just say the Thai Woman shoot things with incredible accuracy in an unusual manner.

 

With a game plan set, the hostel worker turned to us and said, "if you are going to ping pong show, you need to drink more." Suddenly our deep conversation became a game of never have I ever. Each person got three fingers. If someone says something that they haven't done and you've done it, you put a finger down and drink. Once you're three fingers are down you drink the rest of your drink. She tells me to start. "Never have I ever smoked a cigarette." I say to the group.   One finger from everyone goes down.

 

Her turn is next. "Never have I ever kissed a girl." She says. One of my fingers goes down. The guy sitting next to her then chimes in with "Never have I ever kissed a guy."  And Morgan comes out. Not the worst way to do it, but it would later lead to a long line of questioning (some rather inappropriate and others very naïve) from the British students later in the evening.


With everyone liquored up good and ready we made our way to the tuk tuks. There were twelve of us in total.  Normally you only seat 3 people maybe 4. We crammed in 6 to a tuk tuk. Not my best decision. As the driver hurled us through the neon lit streets of Bangkok towards our ping pong show, a moment a rose in which our carts were side by side. Recognizing the need for a selfie, I handed my phone off to the farthest back corner and instructed him to line the selfie up down the middle of the two carts and snap the photo. I watched nervously as he reached his arm outside our cart into the streets, fumbling about with my phone whilst trying to take the photo. After fifteen seconds, all was well. My phone safely returned in my pocket.

 


 

 
Like most drunken nights in a new city it raged on. We saw a suspect ping pong show…. let's just say the performer missed… A LOT! We saw an Irish bar and then ended up back at the hostel beers in hand bantering about.

 

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