Day 68: Behold the Power of British Twins

Listening: Born to run, baby. Run like a stream down a mountainside with the wind in my back. I don't ever even bat an eye. Just know it was you all along who had a hold of my heart, but the demon and me were the best of friends from the start.

What's my problem? I have less than 24 hours.

I'm not going to go to sleep after three in the morning for the fourth night in a row. I'm just putting that out there. I'm not going to do it. Setting it down for the record. I'm seriously not fucking around.

And besides, the twins are gone.

Furthermore, I have a flight at half eleven tomorrow, which means I have to be at the airport at half nine, which means that I have to leave the hostel at either half seven or half eight, because you never know how traffic is going to work out here in Asia.

Yesterday was a pretty chill day. I didn't do much besides hang out on the internet and walk around a bit until I met the twins for dinner. They were on a quest to find this one shirt that they saw. It said "Allow me to explain it to you in interpretive dance." It was a funny shirt, but we only saw it at one stand and they didn't have it in Clover's size. Sophie did pick up an I (heart) BKK shirt. I saw some of the poi sets that I had been looking for, but they were around five hundred baht before negotiation, so I figured I'd save it for today. I also found the Buddhist prayer beads that I have been looking for as well, and they were two hundred and fifty baht before negotiation.

We actually had dinner in Chinatown. We were searching for dumplings, but didn't really find too much. One restaurant was serving dim sum buffet, but when I went in and looked at the shu mai, it looked like complete crap. They were tiny, and the wrappers looked like they were sitting around, not in the steamer, for ages. I saw that and I told the twins, "We're not eating here. The dumplings look like ass and I wouldn't feed them to a dying dog to euthanize it." Yeah. They looked that bad.

We ended up getting some fried pot stickers, some spring rolls, and I ended up getting some turnip cake. It was all pretty good, but when the pot stickers are deep fried, you lose the beauty of the doughiness. I also wanted to get some Chinese soup that I haven't had in ages, but we had to get back to the Khao San area so that the twins could pick up their laundry before the place closed.

So, for the second night, we hung around Khao San Road. It started with one drink at Silk Bar, then we decided to check out Chart, because they had good music for the past few nights bumping out of their front door, bu when we got there the music wasn't very good. The plan was to stay for one drink. "Lucky" for us, they were doing a two for one drink promotion and we had no clue. So when we each got two drinks, we were quite surprised. From there, we went back to Shamrock, where we were the night before.

Shamrock has a cover band every night, and they're a lot of fun. They play everything from Guns 'n' Roses to Kings of Leon to Eminem to Jason Mraz. It's just a lot of fun. People are all singing along. I almost lost my voice singing along. It was crazy fun.

We got there at around eleven o'clock, and we didn't come out of there until around half past three. Clover was... enthralled with one of the guitarists. Sophie and I had been shooting pool. For some reason, a bunch of Australians felt the need to whip out their cocks in the middle of the bar. It was a generally rawkus night.

Sadly, I had to say goodbye to another set of travel buddies that I had met along the way. I feel like I've known them forever, since I really met them about halfway through my mainland leg of the journey. They were there for my birthday in Halong Bay. I was there when they pulled up in Sapa covered in road dust. I ran into them in Hoi An on the day I left as they were riding their bikes to the beach. And finally I saw them in Siem Reap and traveled with them back here to Bangkok so we could all fly away.

Sophie and Clover are good kids. They had me pegged from the start. They knew what kind of dirty old man I am, and how my sense of humor works. They figured out early that I don't like hanging out with knuckleheads, and that I dig just chilling out and enjoying my drinks instead of skulling them. Smart kids. Very smart kids. I wish them the best of luck in Australia where they're going to try to find work for three months or so. I wish I could join them.

Anyhow, by the time I got back to Sukhumvit, it was, again, four in the morning. Amusingly enough, I saw the same British guy out front smoking a cigarette as I did the night before. He was staying at Soi 1 as well. Today he was off to Koh Phangan.

Now, again, like in Phnom Penh, I am alone. Which is fine. I'm trying to upload some pictures, but again, it's slow going. I miss my Mac and Linh's wireless network. Today I'm planning on going to Pantip, where supposedly, all of the night market and street vendors get their stuff to sell. I might stop by MBK to maybe purchase a new phone since my knock off iPhone Mini won't charge... I'll have to see if I can fix it once I get back to the States. Aside from that, there's not much more on my agenda.

I do have to book at least one night's hostel in Hong Kong though. I'm thoroughly scared though. The price of a bed jumps from ten dollars a night to about twenty five, and even then you're not guaranteed comfort, cleanliness or safety. I'm only booking one night though. I'm gonna stay somewhere crappy on the first night and then that first day I'm going to find somewhere good for the following day. I can't express to you how apprehensive I am about making this booking. I think in order to get a decent place to stay, you're going to be looking at around fifty dollars a night. Over five days, that kills me. For the same amount of money, I think I paid for at least the last three weeks of accommodation. That's just fucked up.

Okay... that's it. I'm not even going to make a booking. I'm just gonna drop into the Tsim Sha Tsui section of Kowloon and try to find a place. I know that if push comes to shove, I can walk into the Chungking Mansion or Mirador Mansion and find hostel with a crappy, bug-infested bed there for forty dollars if need be. I'll try my best not to though.

Wish me luck.