An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
Finally, a quiet, dark room! We enjoyed the ample breakfast buffet and departed for the airport. After the most boring hour of waiting in various lines, we boarded the Thai Airlines flight to get us the hell out of here! All we can say is, Goodbye, Vietnam!! For the time being, this is a place much better remembered than experienced. There is just no charm here, no pride to be seen in the people in anything except for the monuments and art of antiquity, (as opposed to other third-world places we’ve visited, like Morocco) no personality other than one of incessant dirtiness and begging, and a pronounced lack of respect for human life. We did much enjoy our day in the beach and fishing haven of Nha Trang, and our day in the magical Halong Bay is one we’ll not soon forget (of course, the same goes for the drive to get there).
We arrived back in Bangkok, and mysteriously we zipped through immigration, got our luggage, and were at the hotel all in less than an hour after landing. We settled into our junior suite, and Milton went for a workout while Wendy decompressed in the room. At 6:30, we headed down to the much-anticipated massages we’d booked two weeks ago. We’d received an invitation to have cocktails in the Author’s Lounge (presumeably because we’d used Wendy’s platinum card when booking this time) and when we stopped by it turned out to be cocktails as well as a broad panoply of delectable hors d’ouevres. We circulated to all the tables, enjoying fresh sushi, Thai specialties, dim sum, and wonderful coconut pudding tarts, as well as many of the usual offerings. We then went to the Spa and had another wonderful Oriental experience, finished off with glasses of fresh watermelon juice.
As it was our last night in Bangkok, Milton then taxied over to the famed Pat Pong (much thanks, HF). (When the doorman at the hotel said “Pat Pong” to the taxi driver with such apparent scorn in his voice, I knew it would be worth the trip! Guess he didn’t think a single guy was going there to shop) What a bizarre and entertaining place! A huge, open air (and quite humid air it was) market selling mostly apparel (tee shirts, thai silk clothes) and other shlock, with dozens of, um, adult entertainment clubs lining the sides. While the market attracted many families, including ones with small children, some of the clubs’ doors were open, allowing copious viewing of their copious performers. The clubs were nothing that NYC doesn’t offer, though with a bit more tangible experience and, of course, a pronounced Asian flavor.
After absorbing quite enough, the only shopping was for some cassettes, of which they had an excellent selection at prices ranging from $1 to $2.25, and a pair of cotton elephant-print pants.
Then some bargaining over the taxi fare and a ride home. (got a driver to accept 80 baht ($2) despite its being 60 baht to get here. When asked to turn on the air conditioning, he said “air conditioning? 100 baht!” then laughed and turned it up. The short ride home was accompanied by a radio station playing Frank Sinatra doing an almost comically laconic version of “Killing Me Softly With Her Song”)
Then home to model the elephant pants and turn in for the evening, in preparation for tomorrow’s trip to Java, Indonesia.