Bangkok is great. All the women seem to want to have sex with me! Admittedly they also seem to expect payment in return, but I find it flattering nonetheless. Obviously there is always the problem of trying to suss out exactly who's a woman and who isn't. When out walking, by day or by night, I've taken to playing a little game where I assess the probable ladyboy-likelihood of every female-looking Thai person I pass. 100%...50%...95%...0.00001% (maybe I'm paranoid but somehow I can never quite get it down to zero. I hope this neurosis doesn't follow me back to Blighty and extend to Western women).
I feel a lot more settled here now. I've sussed out the currency, who to avoid and who to ignore, how to use the Skytrain and river boats, etc etc. I've used the taxis quite a bit, and I did have one ride in a 'tuk-tuk', just for the experience. To my shame I've still yet to bother learning any of the language, but I find one never fails with the tried-and-tested method of simply using slower and louder English while gesticulating mysteriously.
I've sampled a bit of street food. It started off badly when I bought something which looked like a sausage...well, it was a sausage, but God only knows what was inside. I don't think it was pork or beef. It might have been some combination of fish and vegetables. I threw it away. But I then got a couple of kebabs, and then a rice cake, and they were OK. My digestive system is as yet untroubled. The 7/11 next to the hostel does toasted sarnies for 22 baht (34p), and bottles of water are only 7 baht (11p), which is handy cos I've gotten through dozens as you might expect.
Most of the last two evenings I've spent checking out the night markets, Suan Lum and Patpong, which creak under seemingly endless pirate DVDs and dodgy 'massage' parlours but are nonetheless extremely safe and friendly places. After Suan Lum, I walked round the corner to check out the kick boxing stadium, but the 'tourist' price was something like 1500 baht (23 quid). I have no interest in paying over the odds to sit in a crowd and watch untalented sportsmen slug it out. I get enough of that at home, after all.
Incidentally, for those who don't already know, your correspondent has now gone from 'going bald' to '100% bald'. Yes, I got myself skinned in Melbourne. But the public announcement had to wait until I had acquired post facto parental approval for this decision, and I delayed the seeking of said parental approval so as not to risk spoiling a parental birthday! All is well now though.
