I got those Bangkok blues

How to describe yesterday . . . Shall I tell of my day with Linda and Carolyn? We went shopping. Carolyn guided us to the Ekkamai bus station to see if I could make sense of it. We are planning to go to Ban Phe by bus tomorrow and thence to the Island of Koh Samet where, hopefully, we'll spend an idyllic week in a bungalow on the beach. I'm pretty sure I know how to buy a ticket but not sure what happens after that. No doubt we'll find out. Then we wandered round a Japanese mall and saw a thousand Japanese restaurants. Not sure what the hell they sold as all the menus were in Japanese or Thai. We then went shopping for cleaning materials and had lively discussions about the various brands of detergents available. It was my job to carry a humongous packet of toilet rolls under one arm back down the 300 meters or so of Sukhumvit Road. Afterwards, the girls took me for lunch in a nearby food court (curry and rice for 80p) and as a special treat, an ice cream sundae at a local Swensens.

Or shall I tell you about my night out with Mike on the wild streets and alleyways of Bangkok? No, perhaps I'd better not. Suffice to say my good behaviour during the day earned me a much coveted free pass which I promptly abused by not coming home until five this morning. I can say it was an interesting night, however, (how the hell does Mike find these places?) and dimly remember us sitting in a makeshift bar on the side-walk of Sukhumvit at four in the morning drinking cheap whisky and a makeshift evening meal-cum-breakfast (since I hadn't eaten anything since that curry for lunch the previous day) thinking we'd better call it quits. I'd run out of money anyway.

So we've been back in Bangkok for three nights and now face another early start tomorrow and, probably, a very uncomfortable bus ride down south for three and a half hours. Hopefully, if all is successful, the pace of life can calm down a bit.