My first weekend in BKK.

For this past weekend, many of my colleagues were working at one point during it so I decided it was finally time to go and explore Bangkok. The purpose for going to down to Bangkok was to explore the gay scene; a scene quite infamous in Asia let alone Thailand. It had been quite a while since I had 'let my hair down' so to speak so my friend and I decided to go down and just have some fun. Getting there was reasonably easy actually, with a 4 hour bus dropping me right into central Bangkok for less than £4. What struck me was the heat difference; Bangkok's humidity is much heavier than Korat and expectedly, everything is way more hectic with WAY more westerners! I'm surprised to see another young westerner around Korat, but they were everywhere! As I didn't get into Bangkok until mid afternoon on the Saturday, the places I could explore were limited, so we just explored some of the swanky malls and grabbed dim sum in Chinatown. Bangkok's Chinatown is the second biggest in the world and although I only saw a very small percentage of it, it genuinely felt like I was in China, not like the other Chinatowns I have previously visited where it is still very apparent that you are in a small area of a larger western city.

Chinatown Bangkok.

Later that night, my friend and I checked out some of the gay bars. We first went to a bar called Tawan which hosted a show full of muscled asians. Clearly being the youngest (and thinnest) white guy in the establishment, I felt a little uncomfortable but the show was totally worth the 350 baht I paid to see it...haha! After that, we went to perhaps the most popular gay club in the area called DJ Station. It cost around £6 to get in with 2 free drinks and typical for a Saturday night, it was rammed. The music and scene was good but with it being so crowded, it was easy to get lost. My friend became busy with some other guy, so before long I was roaming around the club alone. But, after a while I got talking to a guy called Harry from New York who was travelling around Asia alone and we really hit it off. So much in fact that we exchanged numbers and decided to hang out the next day and explore the sights. This turned out to be a really sweet deal as my friend who I came with wasn't too keen on the touristy parts of Bangkok. 

The one touristy thing I did for my entire trip in Bangkok.

After grabbing lunch at a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms (yes...that's its name and I was very pleasantly surprised! Every meal you ordered you got a free condom...great marketing strategy I guess?) we decided to check out the house of Jim Thompson. Thompson was a famous American entrepreneur and architect who moved to Thailand in the 1940s and built this house and filled it full on Thai artwork, decoration and pieces. He also became well known for generating international interest in Thai silk and for contributing to the commercial growth in the silk industry during the mid 20th century. Following his disappearance in northern Malaysia in the 1960s, the house has now become a museum to honour his work and life in Thailand. We had a walking tour with a really sweet Thai lady and although small, the house was exquisite and the pieces scattered around the rooms and gardens were beautiful. Unfortunately due to time constraints, that was really all we managed to do touristy-wise apart from just roaming around Bangkok but I had a blast. As my friend wasn't keen on the touristy things, it was so nice to be able to explore and share the experience with someone as I don't think it would have been as fun going around alone. I will most definitely be keeping in touch with you, mate!

Trying to take a Bro pic...just look grumpy haha.

Sunday evening arrived and it was time to go back to Korat. Shame I didn't get to explore Bangkok a bit more but being here until April gives me the perfect opportunity to come back multiple times. And heck, for 200 baht I'm not exactly breaking the bank either.