After a bit of chat with koshari in the Gasometer is grumpy thread, to avoid further ire, I've decided to create a thread for North Melbourne supporters to re-tell their travel tales of the trips they've made in and around Southeast Asia. It may be worth expanding to incorporate other places, but this is the place for dodgy stories, suitably embalished to take us away to the days of our youth when a surfboard, a couple of hundred dollars and a back-pack were our travel collateral.
To start off...
After a month in Viet Nam, my wife and I flew into Bangkok to continue our saved up holidays. It wasn't our first time there, but previously we'd booked accommodation and had airport transfers arranged. This time it was a public bus and work it out as we went along.
What we didn't count on was the flooding rain that was pouring down in BKK when we arrived. So much so that we stepped out of the bus and into a bar in the sleazy backpacker area and parked ourselves there, along with everybody else who got out of the bus as the rain was too heavy to go looking for digs.
The bar had some stairs leading to an area that was clearly used for extra services. The "girls" would come down and try to entice the bar patrons to go upstairs - think of Tender Touch.
At one stage I did venture outside to try to find a place to stay but with the water flowing over the footpath and visibility almost zero as night was falling it was not looking good.
Back at the bar, the other bus people had begun negotiating for rooms in the upstairs part of the establishment. Due to the rain, patronage was low so the bar people agreed. We took a room as well.
Fortunately it was hot and also, we had sleeping sheets and self inflating matresses so at least we felt only a bit queezy sleeping there.
The worst thing was that the rain stopped at about 10PM and there was a sudden bump in business being done in the place as the regulars came out from their haunts to take up the services on offer.
Those places have very thin walls.
That night we slept with one eye open and at about 5AM (when things were still going bump in the night) we rolled up our kits and made our way to the railway station for the first ticket out of town.
One night in Bangkok was enough for me at that point in time.
We have been back a couple of times since and we chose slightly nicer accommodation. Gee, on one trip we actually worked out how to catch a bus and actually get to our chosen destination.
To start off...
After a month in Viet Nam, my wife and I flew into Bangkok to continue our saved up holidays. It wasn't our first time there, but previously we'd booked accommodation and had airport transfers arranged. This time it was a public bus and work it out as we went along.
What we didn't count on was the flooding rain that was pouring down in BKK when we arrived. So much so that we stepped out of the bus and into a bar in the sleazy backpacker area and parked ourselves there, along with everybody else who got out of the bus as the rain was too heavy to go looking for digs.
The bar had some stairs leading to an area that was clearly used for extra services. The "girls" would come down and try to entice the bar patrons to go upstairs - think of Tender Touch.
At one stage I did venture outside to try to find a place to stay but with the water flowing over the footpath and visibility almost zero as night was falling it was not looking good.
Back at the bar, the other bus people had begun negotiating for rooms in the upstairs part of the establishment. Due to the rain, patronage was low so the bar people agreed. We took a room as well.
Fortunately it was hot and also, we had sleeping sheets and self inflating matresses so at least we felt only a bit queezy sleeping there.
The worst thing was that the rain stopped at about 10PM and there was a sudden bump in business being done in the place as the regulars came out from their haunts to take up the services on offer.
Those places have very thin walls.
That night we slept with one eye open and at about 5AM (when things were still going bump in the night) we rolled up our kits and made our way to the railway station for the first ticket out of town.
One night in Bangkok was enough for me at that point in time.
We have been back a couple of times since and we chose slightly nicer accommodation. Gee, on one trip we actually worked out how to catch a bus and actually get to our chosen destination.
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