Friday. What a tough day at work. After a little detour in which the cab driver headed in the exact wrong direction for about 20 minutes I finally realized he WASN’T just taking a roundabout route to avoid traffic. By the time I got him turned around and headed in the right direction and we made our slow way through the same traffic for the second time, it took a good 45 minutes to travel the block and a half from the Marriott to the office.

Arriving at about 9:45 I actually spent a about 45 minutes working before we headed out to the Siam plaza to the VIP theater to see Lord of the Rings. I’d put this theater on my “to do” list after reading about it in D’Art and Xen’s report, and I must say it lived up to its billing. We took the elevator to the 4th floor (I believe), and proceeded to the ticket booth where we picked up our previously reserved tickets. As Xen reported, you pick your exact seats from a seating chart. My buddy paid, but I believe the price was just a bit more than a normal US theater – around $10.

The next discovery was not quite as pleasant. No buttered popcorn! Argh! They had popcorn, of course, but the choices were “salty” or “sweet”. I decided to try the “sweet”. Not too bad – sort of like kettle popcorn – not quite as sweet as caramel corn (btw, the caramel corn at the Cinepolis VIP at Plaza Rio in TJ will make you forget about buttered popcorn).

Our seats turned out to be 3 of 4 adjacent lazy-boy style recliners in the center section about midway back. The seats were separated by convenient end tables. We pretty much had the theater to ourselves. The movie was in English without subtitles. I think we had the choice of two or three showings that day. The rest were in Thai.

After lunch this brutal working day was done. They dropped me at the Marriott around 2:30. I called X and arranged to meet him at Big Dogs to plan the rest of the day.

Of course my previous short time girl was working. Before she could push for another session I gave her the bad news – no ST for drew today. When X arrived we decided to hit Soi Cowboy and to also try and locate Pegasus, which was on the Brit’s list as having the classiest talent available in Bangkok.

So we paid our bar tab and grabbed a sky train for a two-station ride. Everything was still closed on Cowboy, so we strolled down Soi 23 in search of Pegasus. We reached the next intersection with no sign of the club, so we decided to backtrack a bit. I finally decided to ask a cabbie, and he pointed us to a side street nearby. Sure enough, about an eighth-mile down that street there was Pegasus/Narcissus – dead as hell (it was still before 7).

Soi 33 was whispering in my ear, and X was amenable, so we grabbed a cab and minutes later were dropped at the intersection of Sukhumvit and Soi 33. We walked past the hello girls until we reached Goya, where we stopped to chat with the girls outside for a minute before going in. We were greeted by an entire bar chorus of “Sawasdee Ka!” and led to a pair of barstools on the left side of the bar.

Goya is a very typical 33 bar, with the very lengthy bar running down the center of the narrow room being the dominant feature. The standard cold towels were offered and gratefully accepted. We ordered beers and began to fend off the uglier hostesses. It wasn’t long before I noticed a cutie standing among the 4 or 5 girls behind the bar. X also noticed her and asked me what I’d rate her. I gave her an 8. X initially gave her a 9 but on closer inspection dropped to an 8ish number also. She noticed my appreciative stare and came over (but still on the inside of the bar). I was about to meet the V.

X was rotating between a couple girls, but it wasn’t long before he was ready to move out. I was wrapped up with V, so we parted ways, with X headed back to Cowboy.

I’m not going to go into the details of what happened with V, because I’ve decided to save them for a separate report “Falling in Love IN Thailand”. I will not be posting any pics of V either.

I can report that we had dinner at the White Elephant on the second floor of the Marriott. Besides the standard menu of Thai dishes, they offer an entire additional menu of seafood entrees. I had scallops with hot basil and they were very, very good. The ambiance is upscale, and they even had a lady playing a Thai percussion instrument that resembled a xylophone. Service was attentive at first, then it evaporated as we approached closing time. Perhaps it would be more consistent if you dine earlier (we didn’t arrive until 9:30 and they closed at 10:00). I’d rate it as the fourth best Thai restaurant I ate at during my stay, mainly due to the service issue. If you happen to be staying at the Marriott, you can avoid that problem entirely by just ordering room service from them.

To be continued…

drew Moo Yai