Bangkok hour 10

No train from new airport (but new airport is nice especially the liquer store behind customs so you can sip while you wait on your luggage). Bangkok has the same problem as middle America, it’s poverty is it’s main charm. Walking down the strip tonight two cab drivers asked me if I wanted a beet. Sat around talking to them for about 20 minutes when one of them suggest I go to a girl bar or a boy bar down the street. Head off down the street and folks take me by the arm and ask if I want to a girl show. Their tactics are slightly less forceful than Shanghai’s prostitutes (and here slightly more legit), but pretty much anyone will be asked. Sex on a motorbike is apparently cool. Was hit by a scooter when I first got here, think I hurt them more than me. 
Tales of these regions (especially Cambodia) are well known (one teacher at my academy says a group of canadain dudes paid some prostitutes in cambodia to suck their cocks while they shot rocket launchers etc.) Bangkok in particular is in the midst of a clean up (trains and buses close early), but the city is still sleazy in an entertaining type of way. A man rummaging through garbage sold me a tortoise for 5 baht etc. What’s advertised as possible here is perhaps more mirage than actuality, but the city is permessive much more so than the other tigers that sorround it.

links for 2006-10-06

• What’s a UXO?
  Sheila’s blog curtailing her trip to South East Asia
  (tags: travel)