We arrive in Bangkok at 1:10 AM local time and proceed through baggage collection and customs without any hassles. The new international airport is massive and it literally takes us 10 mins of walking to get to the taxi rank. After exiting the terminal the first thing that hits us is the heat and humidity. And it is not a gradual temperature change - it is more like a wall of heat, where it goes from a pleasantly airconditioned 21 degrees to a balmy 30+ degrees in a metre of exiting the terminal doors.
We take a taxi to Silom Village Inn, our place of residence for the first few nights in Bangkok. Silom Village Inn is located on Silom Rd, within walking distance of Patpong, the main red light district of Bangkok. A taxi from the new international airport cost us about 400 baht including all tolls, and took about 20 mins. We check-in to Silom Village Inn at approximately 2:00 AM, but not before heading to 7/11 to pick up a few celebratory beers.
As Paul is due to arrive at 6:00 AM and Sao and I have to meet him at the airport, we decide to go to a bar for a nightcap, whilst Ev Mo and Blai watch some soccer, nurse Ev Mo's ankle and spoon. Wandering out to Silom Rd, we ask a taxi driver to take us to a bar for a drink. He drives about 2 blocks down some backalleys and comes to a stop at the end of a dark laneway. Leaning over his seat he says to us "walk down there and through that door", pointing down the dark laneway. We are both highly skeptical of the safety of doing so as it looks like a prime mugging spot where no-one can hear you scream. As we leave the car Sao says, "We're gonna get rolled on our first night."
Being true pioneers, we venture down the dark alley and into the unknown. Indeed, nestled in a small alcove to the side of the dark alley is a Thai man guarding a thick door. When he sees us approaching he opens the door and we are heartened to see and hear the existence of a bar behind the thick exterior. You see, there exists a law prohibiting bars from operating past 2:00 AM in all of Thailand, and so the bars have to go "underground".
Relaxing into the cosy bar with an ice cold Chang beer, we glance around the bar and realise the patronage consists of old European and Japanese men and Thai women ranging in age from 20-35 y.o. and in various stages of soul destruction. There was no denying the fact that we had walked into a certifiable Bangkok Go-Go Bar. What was worth noting was the makeshift grid arrangement on the stage, whereby the girls seemed to be ordered in preferential order, in the hope of attracting the attention of a male patron. If the girls at the front of this so called grid could not get the job done in a suitable amount of time then some sort of rotation policy took place and the girls would rotate forward towards pole position. Needless to say, Sao and I finished our beers and left in quick time.