Well today is Monday 30th November, it is 6:30 in the evening as I write this and in another two hours I'll be back in the Big Mango ready for Happy New Year. Okay, for anyone wondering what I'm whittling about, the Big Mango is an affectionate name for Bangkok, just as the Big Apple is for New York. Happy New Year is what the Thai people call the western New Year, it is one of three they celebrate, the others being the Chinese New Year and Songkhran, which is the Thai New Year, celebrated during mid-April when the whole country has a week's holiday when people plaster each other in a paste, which has a wet talcum powder consistency, chuck buckets of water on people from above and of course set off fireworks all over the place.
I left Koh Samui at 08:20 this morning, well that's the time the ferry departed. I was supposed to be picked up by taxi or minibus from my hotel at 7am, at 7:12am a taxi pulled up and beckoned me to get in, I wave my ticket at him, with the big picture of a Lomprayah Catamaran and he said "yes yes, only one person", I responded "only one" and sat myself down comfortably in the back seat for the journey to the pier. You can imagine my surprise then, when ten minutes later we pull up at the airport. "Why are you taking me here" I enquired, "you go airport" retorted the driver, "er no, the Catamaran pier, you are supposed to take me to the Catamaran" came my reply. Anyway it transpired that he had a booking for the airport, although when he beckoned me over to his cab, I showed him my blatantly obvious boat ticket he had already got it in his head that he was going to the airport and that was that. However, as I didn't want the airport, he decided in his infinite wisdom to return me to my hotel only uttering the words "mistake, mistake". I telephoned Lomprayah and they said there was a bus leaving the airport car park in ten minutes, which I could take, I asked the girl on the phone if she could let the taxi driver know exactly where to take me and passed my phone to him to get directions. The driver then turned around and headed back to the airport and as we arrived back outside the terminal building, I said "Aren't you supposed to go to the car park for the bus", looking rather perplexed he decided to ask a Security Guard idling around, he pointed us in the direction of the car park and off yet again we went. Finally we arrived at the car park and I could see the Lomprayah bus waiting. I got out the taxi, grabbed my luggage and was asked for some payment; I merely responded by saying "no - your mistake, your mistake" and made haste for the bus.
After that nerve-wracking experience with me having visions of getting stuck in Samui, the journey has gone smoothly, well that is, apart from the rough sea we encountered on the way to the Chumporn on the mainland and for which I was glad I never had any breakfast to bring back up.
My eight days in Samui had been pretty uneventful, I wanted to watch what money I had available as I had no idea when I would get back my internet banking and access to my savings account. I was very bored, I realise now that I am not really an island person, Chaweng centre is mainly just one long road that stretches for about three kilometres and I couldn't even find a cinema to go to on the days it rained. So no more about Samui, I'll continue you this, probably tomorrow from the Manohra Hotel in the Big Mango.
Now it's the following morning and it feels so good to be back here, city life, city people, I feel so at home! Last night I checked in at the hotel, took a refreshing shower and made my way to Silom Soi 4. After a couple of drinks at the Balcony, seeing a few familiar faces, I went next door to 9, a very smart show bar / discotheque. This is a brand new venue that only opened three weeks ago, I was there for the show and had already been there a couple of times when it first opened The show was good then, though not quite up to the standard of the Boat Bar in Phuket but this time it was something else, brilliant choreography that a top West End show could be proud of, the highlight for me was watching the acrobats descending 20 feet from the ceiling on two lengths of purple silk that reached to the floor, swinging over the heads of the customers below, somersaulting upwards downwards and crossways. Wow, what an amazing performance, polished, classy, sensual and tasteful. Then one act was something off a comedy as this rather unglamorous lady boy opened a bottle of coke in the same way as Tricky Vicky in Benidorm would, although this was done through clothing. Drinks at 9 are also very reasonable, my rum and coke was 100 Baht (2 euros). I did go to a couple of show bars in Samui – they were a joke, expensive drinks and tasteless costumes and to cap it all they were so poorly performed that only a blind person could have been choreographed them. The biggest joke for me was two guys dressed as bulls taunting the matador; I started laughing out loud before realising, whoops this is supposed to be ballet and then pretended I was really having a coughing fit.
It's New Years Eve and I'm looking forward to tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment