One Night In Bangkok...

In celebration of their first week of speaking English for money coming to an end, Mac and Keeks headed north to the city of Krungtep, or Bangkok for you farang who mai dai pood pasa Thai. They figured out where to catch a bus in Sriracha (the legit bus, not just one flagged down on the main road), which turned out to be more of an icebox on wheels as Thais are notorious for blasting air-con on high- even at night, in the dead of what they call “winter.” Luckily, they each had an extra pair of pants to wear as coats, and were “those tourists” who took pictures of themselves on the bus- with the flash. Soon they found themselves on Soi Rambutri, near Khao San Road, much warmer and with the added company of a friend from Singapore. Once in town, they met up with their Canuk Contingency- an ornithologist and a chef who spend their winters in Thailand and have become quite engaging accomplices and role models for our young duo. The CC had a third friend (also Canadian), visiting Thailand via Afghanistan and on her way to Mexico.
So, what do two women outside of the constraints of the town where they are employed by the country’s largest Catholic school do? They order up some cocktails and meet the people! With Singapore, Canada and the States already representing, the girls quickly added a loud German, a quieter German, a Brit, a Thai lesbian and her South American girlfriend to their posse. As they say at the bowling lanes, “Now we roll…” The evening warranted lipstick and fancy earrings (purchased for 50 cents earlier on Khao San), and the mobile melting pot made their way over to Dong Dea Moon, a Korean restaurant with an upstairs bar that overlooks the action on Soi Rambutri. While Keeks played a game of pool on the less than regulation table (still managing to come just one ball shy of victory, which is especially impressive if you’ve ever seen Keeks play pool), Mac played translator between an American ex-pat and some French guys at the bar. The French guys wanted to know where the “hot spots” were around Bangkok and the American guy wanted to tell them, but it wasn’t happening so he suddenly called out in the bar, “Does anybody here speak French?!?” It wasn’t long before Mac, using her excellent powers of deduction, cut through the formalities and said, “Look, they just want to know where they can go to pick up women.” Information was exchanged and the men left the bar happy, showering Mac with compliments on her proficiency in the language of love- literally.
Most of the daytime was spent by the rooftop pool which came with the 10 USD accommodations (that’s for two nights), and only when the smell of the street-side Pad Thai carts made it’s way up the five stories around lunchtime did the girls… send someone down to get them food. Why walk all that way and lose valuable time in the sun? In retrospect, spending all week in a classroom and then spending ten hours in the sun over two days might be what some people call “excessive.” Luckily, none of those people were present at the time.

Check out our pictures at
http://coloradocollege.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010185&l=c0d24&id=30001168