the morning after the first night, and 'cultural' events in Bangkok

THE MORNING AFTER

Awoke to a small Thai woman opening my door to ask me if i wanted to stay another night. At the time i wasn't sure where I was, but i managed to say yes, throw on some clothes and promptly lock myself out of the room. Checked myself in for another night, went up to the pool to find Natalie. She had about 2 hours to kill before leaving for the airport. I was a bit of a state, and considering she'd had about as much to drink as me she was surprisingly fresh faced and awake. Must have been the jet lag. I dunked my head in the pool and felt no better. Said my goodbyes to Natalie, but we arranged to meet up at the full moon party in a few days. Spoke to a young lad called Toby. He was trying to meet his friends but they'd not told him where they were staying, he'd also had to wait 7 hours inside Deli airport because they'd cancelled his flight! poor lad.

I went back to bed with a sense that I'd arranged to meet up with Carlie and Jamie at 3pm. I woke at 3.01 and pegged it downstairs, they were waiting for me, so i said i'd be 10 minutes while i sorted myself out. still feeling a little weary we made our way out on to khao san road. We minced about for a couple of hours and then got a taxi to the Lumpini stadium for the Muaythai boxing. a quick negotiation got the price down 400 bt, still too much but it was a big fight night and i'm not going to get the chance to go again so i thought it was worth it. I didn't like the idea of 5 hours watching two little fellas kicking each other, so we went to the night market next door for a drink and something to eat. Carlie went off shopping and left Jamie and me drinking a tower. will she never learn? The food part of the market was huge, with a stage and a band playing various thai songs with dancers. This was complimented by the giant screen behind them showing Juve vs Roma, Liverpool's goals of the season, and then the full 90 mins of Liverpool vs Boro. I'd seen it anyway so we left after the first 10 minutes.

The boxing was fairly brutal, and the thais were going crazy for it. the main fight was a bit cagey and therefore not very exciting, but the last fight was between 2 14 year olds, an elbow to the top of the head dispatched one of them in the first round and he had to be karted out in a wheel chair. I've heard of Muaythai places offering free buckets to westerners who want to join in for 3 rounds. not. a. chance.

The three of us went for another tower and jamie struck a deal with carlie that if he agreed to spend the next day shopping with her then we can all go to a 'show' tonight. Now apparently Jamie and Carlie had been to one of these shows before and didn't really enjoy it, i guess he was just keen to have me in the club. The details of that night shall remain guarded, lets just say there were some people in the audience who enjoyed it a bit too much while most people (myself included) just tried not to look too embarrassed and politely clapped at the appropriate times. Never again.

We managed to aquire another Canadian during the performance, a lad called David, we went back to the khao san road for more beers, I arranged to go to the tiger sanctuary with david the next day. It's a place outside of Bangkok where the monks look after orphaned tigers, they're so used to being around humans you can pet them and lie on their backs. Before they eat you.