the meeting with the tran nies…..
We landed on Bangkok airport greeted by steaming weather and humidity. Apparently we didnt have any Thai baht when we arrived due to the fact that you get a much higher exchange rate when you exchange it in the airport. We rode on a brightly decorated bus to our hotel on which we realized that in Thailand it rains a lot. Anyway, I am skipping to the last day of the trip.
Before I fill you in, I want you to know that our group ate the cheapest food available to save cash for shopping. While other groups were enjoying the best of Thai food, we were experiencing the worst. On one occasion we literally had 4 chicken wings, 2 fried eggs, some random satay and rice. We went to seven eleven to get bottled drinks because it was cheaper there. THAT WAS IT. Well that is what we get for the great experience on shopping though it sounds like we are from third world countries. Anyway, the sweet part is this. There is a night bazaar in Thailand comparable to mongkok and Stanley market combined. That’s what we heard. The place was humongous and filled with great merchandises of reasonable prices. We split up as groups to discover the bazaar. First of all, I moved was really excited and moved quickly with my team. I passed through places selling from wrist bands and earrings, art pieces and tattoos, clothes and household items which were really cheap. I bought three pairs of shirts for only 200 baht, equivalent to $50 HK. That is two McDonald meals.
We passed through rows and rows of shops when I found one of the things I wanted all my life: hilarious shirts! From imagery to words, all the shirts gave me smile though sometimes rather perverted. I looked over the shirts and I was deeply in love with two pairs of shirts, one with dogs in adidas like logo called adidogs and the other showing evolution with the caption, “where we went wrong”. There were tons more but I saved them for a better outcome. As we strolled pass the shops, we were educated in the sense where we learned how to bargain. I never liked bargaining. Get a shirt and if I like it, don’t argue back. Well this time I had to. Me being a Korean and being so obvious as a tourist (ahem Mr. Burnett) we were to pay higher. Some of the guys in our trip got jipped by buying an wooden elephant figure for 400 baht. Now that is a high price. The quality was not the best but if I would have gotten that item in Hong Kong, I would have paid double even triple the original price. Anyhow, we wanted to get henna in the bazaar where we soon realized that it was far more expensive and time consuming than shopping along and getting whatever you wanted with your budget. We shopped more and sooner or later, we got tired and it running late.
It so happens that seniors in our trip wanted a junior-senior friendly come-over in our hotels. We weren’t allowed but we didn’t care and by the way, we were only 8 all together. However what we did over the night was very fun and memorable. We watched three different movies on Starworld as we cuddled together on two queen sized beds. The girls put makeup on me during that and I experienced the pain of mascara in your eyes. It felt very appropriate (or not) to get a makeup in a country known for trans se xuals. Passing on, we stayed awake until 5 in the morning talking and having fun, well some of us fell asleep early due to the fact that we were all tired.
The day after the night, we came back to Hong Kong from Thailand. The weather didn’t seem to change in-between the countries but one was different; the memory from Thailand would be kept mainly for some of us, not all. In another words, what happened in Thailand stays in Thailand.
