Pat Pong late night adventures...

Final day in Bangkok today, I'm now sitting in an internet cafe waiting for my bus to Koh Tao - quite excited about going on this diving course! Whilst I'm waiting - here's my LONG update!

25th Sept - Following on from Vicky's arrival in BK, we headed off to Pat Pong in the evening... didn't go well...

Firstly, we got conned by the taxi driver who said he couldn't stop for long at the drop off point so he didn't have time to give us change for the ride.

As soon as we stepped foot into the streets of Pat Pong, we were hounded by touts, wanting us to follow them to see their "shows". Kee had read about the dangers of these touts, earlier on, about how they lead you to the clubs, then bill you for an extortionate amount.... YET, we were dumb enough to follow one tout - he said he'd take us to see "ping pong ladies". After following him several streets down, we finally arrived at a run-down dingey club at the back of an alley. We asked him how much it would cost to go in he said "only 100BT for drink! Come in". I was really sceptical, but Kee assured us saying that this is what the clubs are like (as he's been b4 with a tour group), so we walked in. Admittedly, I was curious, we all were curious about these "ping pong shows". It was nothing like what I imagined - if you've ever been to places like Stringfellows (I'm sure most of us have), the girls are elegant and classy in comparison to these. I felt sorry for these girls, they looked so depressed - they clearly didn't want to be there. They were dressed in bikinis, stomachs hanging over their briefs, standing on the stage, shifting their feet left-to-right to the music. Then there was the woman smoking cigarettes and blowing a trumpet from her private parts... ahem..

Whilst this was going on, we ordered 2 cokes and a beer.. the waitress gave us the bill - 900 Baht!! In a way, I knew this was coming, especially as we had just read about stories of tourists being ripped off at these places, but I really couldn't believe this was actually happening to us. OK - 900BT may seem like nothing (14 quid), but relative to everything else in Bangkok - its like 50 quid in London - put it this way, we got 2 tickets to Koh Toa Island for this money. I was livid! I told her that I refuse to pay that much and that we'd been told it was only going to be 100, she argued that there was entrance fee and all that crap. We argued for some time when this guy came up and demanded we pay up - I refused to give in, even though I knew he could actually do something quite dangerous to us, but my anger took over my fear! I chucked 300 Baht at the woman then pulled Kee and Vicks out, and we just ran! *Sigh* that was our adventure over, luckily, no one followed us and we got home safely (although we did get conned again on the taxi home, but thats another long story..)!

26th Sept - Had a great day walking around Jatujuk market - girls, you'd love it here - this place is 4 times the size of Kingston town centre, with rows of stalls back-to-back selling everything from textiles, clothing and shoes, to household goods, furniture and pets! The clothes are mega cheap - so cheap that in the end we were haggling for tops and skirts which had a starting price of 150BT (2 pounds)....There was so much I wanted to buy, but because I had to limit the amount of stuff I have to carry in my rucksack, I only ended up buying 2 tops and 3 skirts! ...I'll be back...

After shopping we had a relaxing Thai foot massage... one hour of total bliss...Massages and facials are so cheap here, I swear, if I ever retired here or something I'd have have amazing skin and be totally stress free from aches and pains!

Oh, I have to mention this, sorry Kee, hehehe... we went to the cinema last night to watch Wicker Park - a romance movie - at the end of it, Kee was crying! Hahahaha! so sweet really - shows he's a true romantic! :P