vinapu

Day 8 Since we are returning to Bangkok today we raised up early to be first for breakfast and then set to visit few recommended temples in the city core. It was actually S’s idea not to waste time in the morning. At 11 we were back in the hotel , asked them to organize taxi to the airport and when we went down to check out she was already waiting. 200 baht. Upon arrival in Bangkok first thing we noticed was temperature, it was much hotter than in Chiang Rai which really doesn’t come as surprise but still… I feel bit under water with light fever and bit of running nose, thanks god S did not get anything from me. Eh, being young again ! Afternoon spent in the room as I tried to medicate myself to be ready for bar hopping with ichigo tonight and it seemed to work. At 9 pm we met outside of Banana Club , had our drinks and news exchanges and resolved to try Moonlight. At 10 pm on Saturday night it was surprisingly sparsely filled but just before show spectators arrived in masse. I had two boys sitting with me but decided to become celibate tonight so no buy will catch some bug from me from being too close. After midnight , after show they had some singing and it was fun to extend that in fact ichigo and me were last clients to leave the bar at 1.30. I decided to celebrate celibate night with bowl of chicken rice soup at Foodland (62 baht) and then went to hotel where around 2 am I collapsed on the bed and slept without interruption till 10.45. I really caught something somewhere as it’s not like me. ................................................................................................................................................................................ Day 9 I slept only one night at Baan Silom as today I’m trying new hotel Squirrel House in former BBB In n space on Rama IV. Just out of curiosity and for old times sake. In the past BBB Inn was my home away from home in Bangkok. I already posted my impression in that hotels thread. Since waking up that late did not leave me much time to pack up I had my breakfast only after I checked out at noon. Waitress in Foodland did not blink an eye though. Room was not ready so I went to Central Rama IX to kill the time , after 2 hours I was let in the room and spent afternoon inside, still feeling bit sickish. Late lunch / early dinner at G ’Bangkok , today it was first and only time I was not that happy with my meal there. I guess cook fell in love or something but I decided to let it go , told curious waiter that I was not THAT hungry after all . At 9pm again highest level meetup with ichigo at Banana .It was fun people watching so we went to Atlas just when show started. Of course I was immediately attacked by tip seekers but kind of stand my ground , at least initially . Atmosphere was great and show even better with very progressive number by ladyboy performer so we had fun big time. Around midnight as expected 12is12 showed up fresh from airport. He did not have any problem to recognize me and suggested we change scenery for the talk ( it was first time we met ) to a quieter place so we opted for Foodland . Ichigo went to his hotel and two of us spent next 2 hours talking . At 2 we parted ways and I went to my room to celebrate second celibate night. It did not work for me though because I did not sleep well that night

Thank you for thinking about me . Not sure why you weren't invited but their spies likely told them I'm home already

while I agree that this terminal seems bit lunatic , for people arriving at Don Muang it's still better option than catching taxi from DMK to Swamy or Ekkamai bus station and catching Pattaya bound bus from there. Yes , for me too Airport bus to and from Jomtien is bus of choice when getting between Bangkok and Pattaya

sometimes ? I thought it's always

You high class people can have your Singha , we proletarians prefer Chang, lol ( I switched to Chang when I was told it's beer of choice of working class )

+1

+1 not necessarily mass murder but as you say " and the evidence wasn't just beyond reasonable doubt, but completely indisputable " ie. somebody was caught red handed killing somebody else.

Phetboy is by Saphan Kwai BTS station , other four along Sutthisan

yes, tastes and costs the same (128)

Day 7 As I said before I felt we did not have enough time at Golden Triangle so I decided to repeat visit there , specially motivated by the word that there is another Sky Walk there. We decided to take bus to Chiang Saen, city few km downstream from actual Triangle , which seems to act like capital of the border region. It was an idea of mixed brightness because bus departed 1 hr. later than scheduled , we were told they didn’t not have driver available. Oh , well, we are on vacation . While waiting I managed to show finger to farang wandering through bus station and taking pictures of all and sundry without even bothering to ask. Fortunately he got the message and stopped. It took about 1 hr to get to our destination. Finding Sky Walk proved chore , we did not see any advertisements of any kind but after asking few locals we took an advice and took tuk-tuk to the place . It’s few kilometers downstream of Mekong so even further from Triangle. View is precious as walk id high on the mountain. There's temple on road level and they provide free lift up the hill as well as down but for getting down we opted for a nice walk through the jungle . I was not surprised that there were only few visitors on that new shiny sky walk, what one can expect if no information about it , never mind direction where it is was available or at least we did not spot any. It was worth the trouble though as view of area with Mekong prominently bisecting it was great and air up there much fresher than on road level. There was no ready transport from there available , we tried to stop something but traffic was sparse. Passing Thai girl smiled at S and he asked her how we get back to civilization. Ever industrious , she pulled her phone and called her friend to come with tuk-tuk and take us to Sop Ruak. Soon we were on our way , it’s about 10-12 km from walk to actual Triangle. That lift cost 200 baht She dumped us in front of local restaurant so we had our meal there and then walked toward Golden Buddha guarding confluence. Then S spotted that they offer river cruise by the boat including visiting Laos market on other side which can be visited without visa , just for 50 baht admission fee. Boat was 800 including waiting time in the market so of we went. While cruise was worth it market was nothing special but I bought some Laos coffee and super tasty Dark Lao beer to support host country’s economy. After saturating ourselves with triple border area it turned out that getting back to Chiang rai in the afternoon may be bit problematic as there’s no bus in the afternoon from Sop Ruak and we were suggested two options – taxi to either Chaing Saen or Mae Sai and bus from there but we solved it easy way, why not to take taxi to Chiang Rai instead. Again lady from the t-shirt stand where we asked for options had a friend with car and she suggested she will call her and in 15 minutes we will be on the road. Indeed this is what happened and in 55 minutes we were already in our hotel ,my pocket lighter by 1500 baht. After shower S went to the hotels’ gym and I checked my e-mails. There was nasty one from my credit card- somebody from Nigeria charged my card for 300 odd dollars but they stopped it and wanted me to confirm if it was really me. I couldn’t call collect so decided to call regular way, got connection very fast , told them that it was not me as I’m quite far from Nigeria now. As per procedure they cancelled cad immediately and will be issuing new one ( which when I returned home was already waiting for me). But it was not end of my troubles as there were three hotel charges which were supposed to go through that card in coming days but Agoda made it easy to use another card, thank God I had that one. S returned from gym about time I finished sweating card stuff and to went it off I offered to go for banana pancakes for supper while he is taking shower. On my way I was timely cheered up . in one of local restaurants few guys were having a meal and when they saw me approaching one screamed “KFC man” , they laughed and so did I. Goes without saying that S did his best to console me after all that tribulations and enforce what I know already – that he is an excellent travel companion.

your word is my command

indeed middle class is in trouble everywhere owing it to disappearance of good steady jobs and casualization of many positions. It seems that most of the cream is going to top few % which sooner or later will lead to serious disturbances. Behavior of US voters seems to first, for now still weak signal.

that was fast

thanks for good laugh, I run out of 'likes' for today, I owe you one !

sure , it's much easier to hold his hand or place your on his knee in the car than crowded bus. Ichigo is right, bus is much more cost effective and quite fun

welcome where you belong! I will be interested in your comparison of Pattaya charms to Bangkok's . Coming to Pattaya for volleyball sounds extravagant but for sake of world peace lets assume we believe you. 1600 is on higher side , even from Silom but not extravagantly so. Rabbit Resort ! You rich people have it all

as self designated expert on chicken with cashew buts I must say Pattaya is famous for many things but I'd not go there for that particular dish. 7 stars always applies to Unesco acclaimed , world heritage Foodland Patpong. But you are absolutely right about abundance of said accessories !

I'd venture to bet that readers posts are binging much more readership to the forum that your usual venom you are inserting here. Posts are all the same like boys - outstanding gem in one's eyes is at best "also run' in somebody else's. Nobody is forcing anybody to read posts one is not interesting in. Have your fun here and let others to have theirs. Calling 'reader " obese is even more extravagant than calling you polite or me back haired

this is what happens when one posts first and thinks( if at all ) second

as it was explained to me by border official , at the moment only Thais and Myanmarese can cross border there at the moment. Quite possible not even all as he used wording ' only local people are permitted"

Fifth time and you still drink Singha and Tiger obviously you did not discover charms of Chang . Beauty of Bangkok is that one always discovers something new , even on 38th trip.

we are already salivating hoping for nice report from such long trip

like reader said, higher priced places definitely do have both condoms and lube but yes , to make sure bring your own. I even carry small bottle of mouthwash when going for massage, just in case guy is kissable

You are so picky, let him have his fun !

Day 6 After breakfast we are heading to Mae Sai on border with Myanmar , Thailand’s northernmost point. Recently there’s Sky Walk built there which I must to see and S is gladly tagging along. There’s also talk about possibility of crossing for a day into Tachileik - on other side of border without visa but on day pass and 10$. I got conflicting information about whether it’s still possible , no better way than just go and see. We took van there from bus station and in about 1 hr., we were on bus station in Mae Sai from where we took 2 motorsais to the sky walk. Better option than climbing the hill as sky walk is quite high up the hill on the border. It was fairly early and far from crowded. Admission is something like 50 baht . We were given protectors to put over the shoes but I created sensation hiding my sandals in the back pack and putting those on bare feet. Two ladies were so taken by my extravagance that requested their photo with ,me to be taken by the guy they were with. They also made sure to point to everybody present that this farang put protector on bare feet, how brave guy he is ! Weather was ideal and view over to Myanmar nice, although one would be hard pressed to say that Tachileik is memorable sight. beyond the river there's already Myanmar Then we descended to local market and went toward border crossing about 1 km away. Thai official was speaking English and politely explained that owing to situation in Myanmar not only locals can cross on day pass and foreigners must fly over border So we took pictures of Thailand’s northernmost piece of land by the river and resigned to returning to Chiang Rai sooner than expected as apart from that sky walk and market there’s not much to do in Mae Sai. But certainly sky walk is warranting getting there. As a bonus we learned that there’s another sky walk in Chaing Rai area – and exactly where we are heading tomorrow i.e. in Golden Triangle. How it’s possible we did not see it yesterday I wondered but that’s mystery to solve tomorrow. So we took songtaew to bus station and bus back to Chaing Rai . On our way we discussed what to do with newly found free time and we decided to go to Goddess of Mercy on outskirts of the city. In Chiang Rai close to bus station we found restaurant with excellent chicken with cashew nuts , the we went to refresh in the hotel and then took 150 tuk-tuk to the Goddess. Closer to it is , better impression it makes. Statue is enormous and I was glad to see that it’s possible to take elevator to the head and admire view from there. view from the Goddess eyes : Beauty of the place was enhanced by the fast that sunset was approaching . By time our 200 baht tuk-tuk took us to the center it was dark already. S went to the gym and I went to buy banana pancakes to both of us for a supper. Soon after we finished it lights went off but not necessarily we went to sleep right away. Sometimes watching stamp collection in the dark is a lot of fun.