Sunday, April 12th – The Songkran Festival

ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK
AND THE WORLD’S YOUR OYSTER…

SUNDAY 12 APRIL – SONGKRAN   

ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK

AND THE WORLD’S YOUR OYSTER

Unbelievably, despite the stifling atmosphere in our tiny room, we didn’t wake up until 12:30. Out on the street in the heat, the Thai’s annual Songkran Festival¹ was underway, with parades and people throwing water at each other. We spent the day in and out of cafes and every time we went outside, a thorough drenching insured!

We spent a couple of hours in a cafe drinking a bottle of Mekong whisky then, after watching 10 minutes of the movie Die Hard, which was being shown at full volume on a giant screen set up across Khao San Road, we caught it tuk-tuk over to Pat Pong Road to see a “shoot banana” show.

Pat Pong Road itself is a street market: brightly lit and crowded with water pistol-toting Thais. Luckily we were also armed with our own water pistols and a general atmosphere of festivity was in the air. We bought a pack of cigarettes and smoked them to put us in the right frame of mind then went into the Pussy Galore Club which had been recommended by some other travellers.

We were surprised by how clean and classy it was, with constant service, ashtrays emptied, tables wiped and spotless toilets. The show was bizarre, and slightly sad in some ways, with about 20 naked Thai girls flaunting themselves at the mainly single male crowd. Each girl wore a number for ease of choosing. Some of the tricks were quite impressive, to say the least: eggs inserted, cracked and dropped into a glass; darts fired at balloons; whistles blown and horns tooted; razor blades and sandpaper produced; cigarettes smoked; bottle tops removed – how did they do that? – and messages written out with a felt pen inserted thus. 

Man…it’s no wonder that sad, unattached males come here for sex! After an hour so, however, it all became a bit boring so we caught a tuk-tuk back to Khao San Road where we sat on the sidewalk eating corn on the cob and talking to the four young English people we’d met at the airport.

¹The Songkran Festival celebrates the Thai New Year. It is traditionally marked by water fights which represent ritual cleansing.