Sawadee-kap!
Music: Martha Wainwright - When The Day Is Short / mirror
I've just returned from the kingdom of Thailand after a good 3 day 2 night stay.
The anticipated heatwave was pretty mild when I was there. Temperature must have been at a cooling 24 degrees so I wasn't as sweaty as my last trip which was probably half a year ago. As usual, upon arriving, you're greeted by the warm smiles of the Danuk city folk and the ladies were waving "Hey Darlin'" at every turn. I wasn't going to pay much attention to the callgirls as I had to check in to my first hotel with my cousin brother and his friend, Wong. For all you horny men out there, staying celibate in Thailand is a huge ask indeed!
After checking into our hotel, we started snapping some random pics for this blog. The room wasn't really 'with a view' as I had to look at the poor peasants' village from my window. It was hurtful to see that despite so much economic and social activity going on in Danuk, the residents here are still struggling to cope with the everyday demands of their respective families (water, electricity, food).
By the time we got ourselves ready, it was close to dinner time and we stopped by the local 7-Eleven and got ourselves a few packs of cigarettes, drinking water and some toiletries. I even got myself an Orange prepaid sim, just in case.
For our first dinner in Thailand, we had the balls to order a 3 dishes of spicy Thai delicacies; authentic Thai tom yam soup with seafood (trust me, you might want to have a glass of milk with you when you taste these), belachan chicken wings and pineapple rice with cuttlefish (heavenly). We could barely breathe when we're done with the food!
My cousin's friend, Wong, brought up the subject that most Thai people have good eyesight because of their diet (which consists of very spicy food - sorry Mexicans, you ain't friggin' close!). Out of an average of 10 adults only 1 would be wearing prescription glasses. Right then, I was thinking of the number of bespectacled people I know back home and he seemed to have a point.
First night out was invigorating. We set off to this strip club called 'Spyder' and upon entering the premises, we were greeting by a 'swarm' of young professional ladies trying to ooze our hard-earned money for free drinks and drugs. I don't know - it was probably in their job description to do that. Things have been so different now than the way it was. It's not a taboo to have two or three girls at your table. Jealousy and competition is not an issue anymore like it used to be. Men, especially foreign men, were seen as gold mines no matter what your nationality is. We obliged the ladies to take a seat with us to have a drink but we offered nothing more because we were worried if things got overboard (they do ask for drug money amongst other things). We waited till it was roughly 11 p.m. before the show started and we weren't disappointed. Teen-looking Asians with mature and well-rounded breasts stole the show and for a moment there, your friendly neighbourhood blogger wanted to snap some pictures of the ladies from front row.
Reason none was taken?
I was stopped by one of the locals we were sitting close with as he said it was not allowed. Too bad...otherwise we would have a picture gallery right here for all to see! We kept out evening short and headed back to our hotel room. The trip back by foot was funny because of the names we've received on the journey to the hotel.
2nd day in Danuk. Wong and my cousin thought it would be a good idea to travel down to Hadyai to see if we could do some sight-seeing of the city. I desperately needed to get my hands on some Lacoste goods too; haven't seen any boutiques back in Penang or Kuala Lumpur.
I bought two office shirts and a wristband from the boutique. I had planned to give one away to Michelle as a present once I got home.
And so we drove for a good 40 minutes before reaching the city. Finding a good parking spot can be rather tricky in Hadyai because of the Malaysian holidays so it did take us awhile to find a nice parking lot; the basement of Central shopping mall. All cars were checked by the security upon entering. It seemed to be the latest regulation from the government following the bomb threats and attacks of recent months; even more so if you're parking under the basement of a building.
We continued touring around the city and it was pleasant to see Hadyai-ese people going about their everyday lives.
You almost always get this strange feeling that every female that walks the streets of Hadyai is in the prostitution business though. Could it be true?
Final day in Thailand and I looked already tanned, which was a surprise considering the lack of sun I've been getting while I was there. More than half the time was spent in discos and karaokes guzzling duty-free beer which costs not more than RM 2.50 per can! You could spend all day having beer in the pubs over there and not pay a single baht on alcohol except for corkage at 300 baht (approximately RM 3.00).
Pic taken in U-House Hotel. Only 6500 baht per night with American breakfast!
Room with a view, sort of.
The discos there seem to try to milk out every baht possible from their customers. As I was entering the toilet, two men wanted to give me a neck massage and a hot towel which would have cost me 200 baht if I took up their offer. Knowing that I tend to have a rather weak bladder/tolerance for alcohol, I do make frequent trips to the lavatory! So I politely declined and I was lucky not to have been charged over 60 baht per club! Most of the clubbers in Danuk were all headbangers (feng tao-ists) so there wasn't much pleasure in that if you weren't equipt with a few tablets of ecstacy pills. I did, however, manage to learn a little bit of the Melbourne Shuffle from the locals. How ironic is that?!
The trip home felt awkward. I really look forward to my next trip to Thailand which will most probably be Racha Island or Bangkok with my cousins.
It seemed as though I was going back to a country that is lagging back in terms of societal openness. In that respect though, Malaysians are still by far the more stable ones when it comes to financial security. Many Thai people are still living in poverty and struggling just to survive on a daily basis. With that in mind, we should not take for granted of our comfortable day jobs and that we shouldn't be too stingy when it comes to tipping as long as it's justified.
