First time in Bangkok

Ahh first time in Bangkok is still in my memory today and this was almost 10 years ago. This is the effect Thailand and Bangkok can have on you so be careful. Don’t say I didn’t warn you 😉

So I am 20 something kid who grew up in a lower middle class but not really poor single mom family. Never had any money or goals in life until I discovered computers. At first I spent few years playing games which made my mom crazy as my grades went down and I barely passed the 4 years of high school as I found it all so boring and at home I would sit at my brand new 486 DX2-50 and spent all day trying stuff out and mostly playing games.

So fast forward to 3 years into college and I discovered this thing called internet and after surfing all the porn I could find at that time I stumbled upon some sites that said you can make money on the internet. So after a ton of trial and error and lots of unpaid commissions as I used to click my own ads lol I finally started to make some ok money and then a bit later I started to make quite a lot of money outearning my mom by almost 10x. So what should a 20 something year old kid with all this cash and no bills to pay. Travel of course. At first a few around Europe trip to meet my online friends. Few times to Spain and Prague which I loved. Then the big trip to NYC. WOW !!! Spend a long weekend and loved it. Thinking how can I go there more but then one of my online friends tells me he has  stopover in Bangkok (WTH is that place) and we must go there as group as it is the best place ever to party.

So ok I check online for a few days and like what I see. Don’t like the girls much but hey seems like a great place to have fun and party till early in the morning so I say ok lets go next month.

First time such a long trip and I hated the flight to New York in a middle seat so I go all out and after days of thinking about it I book a Business class ticket with Lufthansa and a 5 star hotel Shangri La and off I go meet 4 other friends who all are flying in from different parts of the world. Business class delivered and I am spoiled forever and unable to fly economy again and I arrive at Don Mueang airport after about 22 hours of travel (connections and all) and as soon as I exit the airplane the hot air on the air bridge hits me and I start sweating as I was still in my winter clothes. Luckily I booked a hotel transfer as this place was a mad house and honestly I was terrified as I read so many scam stories so I am lucky after I passed everything and see a guy holding the Shangri La sign.

So the Benz is a nice safe car should get me to the hotel quickly. Well quickly turned into about an hour drive with my eyes wide open as I have never seen anything like this before. The driving, the people, the language, the ugly small houses next to the big buildings and even the small soi to my hotel looks like something from an old Vietnam war movie. I’m shocked and think where the hell am I and how do I get back to the clean and safe Europe. But I arrive safely and the hotel is great, everyone is super friendly and I think to myself: Ok, this is my safe zone 🙂

I meet my friends and the one that has been here before for a night raving on how great this place is and I nod but I’m thinking yeah, right I can’t wait for these 4 days to be over and I get back home and back to work to recover from this trip as it is costing me a fortune.

After a few hours of sleep I check up on work or at least try to but the internet is the worst I have ever experienced so I give up and we head to the hotel Italian place for dinner and my friend can see my initial shock so recommends we order a bottle or two of wine so I can relax a bit which was a good idea as it made me get over the shock and just enjoy the dinner with my friends as we did on our other travels. So dinner comes to the end and he said lets go to Patpong. I have no idea what to expect just that there are some bars there and girls but after 2 bottles of wine I’m ok with it and off we go. We get into the car and I have no idea where is what, how long will it take and how much is it going to cost but ok I have my hotel card with me so hopefully I can make it back alone if I hate it.

As soon as we arrived to Silom and got out of the car in front of Patpong I can feel the heat, the smell, the noise but I’m drunk already and don’t really care lets just see those famous Thai women everyone in the world is talking about. So after some wandering around we go into one bar and sit down. And I guess you know the story. Girls come, sit ask you the same old (Hi, what is your name, where you come from, how long you stay, buy me a drink) questions. All I remember was I got really drunk and went back to the hotel each with a girl and somehow we all squeezed into the taxi and made it back alive and not too late. Still kept drinking in the room and talking for an hour or two and after a while my girl fell asleep as this must have bored her to death and I went to bed also leaving her on the sofa in the living room.

Then in the middle of the night I feel someone getting into bed and luckily it was the girl not one of my friends. She obviously tried to get me to have sex with her but I was so drunk I just turned around and went to sleep. Woke up next morning with the worst headache ever and other then that I had a pretty good night. Paid the “lucky” girl 3k for sleeping over and she left. Yes I know the shock and horror some of you cheap Charlie guys feel right now but I had a great time I didn’t care.

So the next 3 nights were not very different other then we would get some girls at Patpong and then go drinking and partying at Qbar as those were the only two places my friend knew lol

And after 4 days or better said 4 nights in Bangkok I was hooked. As soon as we all arrived back home we started planning our next trip but this time we would stay for a whole week and we invited more friends to come. But that is a totally different story 😀

****So yes before any of you jump on me. I was young and stupid and overspent but I had fun and didn’t care and do not regret a single baht I spent in those 4 days.