Various words

Slightly less lounge lizard, slightly more alcohol-related reptile by the end of this week. Wednesday: went out on a pub crawl with Linda down Soi 11. Ended up at a new Mexican drinking Margaritas, nibbling tacos and listening to outstanding classic 70’s rock from the restaurant speakers. Got home around midnight. Crept around the house so as not to wake up mine hosts. Thursday: went on a pub crawl with Mike up one side of Soi 4 and back down the other. (The bastard made me take one of those taxi motor bikes that I moaned about last post up to Sukhumvit - hairy!) Got home around midnight. Crept around the house so as not to wake up wives (FAILED btw - lots of complaints the next day of crashing doors, clattering in the kitchen, half eaten sandwiches and copious volumes of snoring!!!). Friday: we all met up with Mike for drinks and a meal at Monsoon and dragged him to see Avatar on the IMAX (waste of time - he slept through half of it and said it was “cowboys and Indians in space”; got no soul, that boy!). Have to say, the resolution and detail in Avatar on 3D IMAX is AWESOME! Got home around midnight. Crept around the house so as not to wake up young James.

As a pattern was emerging here I decided to skip Mike’s invitation to a Burns Night extravaganza. Lots of reasons in the end amongst which playing the pseudo-Scottish sport of Kipper Tossing (yes, that was not a misprint) in the restaurant car park is not on my top 5 list of Sporting Events I Must Attend Before Dying. Mike was OK about it: “Hamish was going to take the piss out of the Sassenach anyway”. Took Linda back down to the Khao San Road which she didn’t really appreciate (“Its tacky!” Well, yes. I didn’t bring you here to enjoy yourself just to experience how the other half lived). We shared a jug of Singha at Pier 13 and watched the boats go by at sunset, which was a better idea, and had an early night.

We fly out to Malaysia tomorrow so a final word on, well, words. I wish I’d thought of this before but the following are some odd things I have seen in Bangkok on my travels.

The first is a poster that appears all over Sukhumvit: BNE was here. Once you see it, these signs are all over the place. I thought Google would supply the answer but it would appear to be a world wide mystery. For an example of the discussions visit here. Seen any in Totton?

This appears on the menu in Monsoon: Spiced braised with taro-goat cheese mash, mojo tomatoes & smoked chilli jus. Spiced braised is OK but what do card-reading, fortune telling bovidae and spiritually-enhanced vegetables have to do with it? And what in the universe is a “chilli jus”?

And finally, this hand written notice appears in the apartment foyer next to the lifts: If you are looking for your beetle please call me. It has stayed in our home since 18th January. Apartment 12A. No missing cat or dog in Bangkok; beetle. Carolyn explains that this part of Sukhumvit is populated by Japanese expats and it would appear that they breed fighting beetles for indoor sport. One can only imagine the size and ferocity of the missing animal and what happened to the family pets in apartment 12A . . .

That’s it. We fly at dawn!