ping pong in patpong

hello!  it has been too long, i know.  apologies in advance because i don't have any pics for this post.  we were tired of lugging the camera around so took a night off.

the main red light district in bangkok (there are two or three) looks like a number of short parallel wide streets with clubs, bars and massage parlours two or three stories high.  they have many market stalls set-up in the wide street.  absolutely packed full and people approaching you with every offer imaginable.  the most popular is 'you wanna see ping pong show?'.  use your imagination...  you can actually choose from a number of other options from a menu as well.  i'll leave it at that.  ask me in person.  i would like to leave this as close to G-rated as possible.  haha  we ended up passing on the offers and found some excellent street vendor food.  we had bbq pork noodle soup with little bits of browned crunchy garlic bits.  to die for!  only $1.

we then bumped into a gay friendly alley (it was actually by far the least seedy street in the area...finally!).  a good choice of restaurants, bars, lounges, live music, karaoke and one dance club.

we were early (8pm) so we had an entire karaoke bar to ourselves.  drinks were cheap and the karaoke guy loved having us there singing english songs.  he kept wanting to sing duets with us.  i sang 'home' (michael buble) and 'i want it that way' (backstreet boys) with him.  in total roel and i probably sang 10+ songs.  great fun.  we also had a good time chatting with the employees there.

our next stop was going to be some dancing.  before the dancing started there was a drag show.  it put anything i've ever seen in a canadian bar to a whole lotta shame.  they knew all the words even though they don't speak much english and the back-up dancers and choreo were all very professional.  great energy.
after the show the music they played was very electronic and without much rhythm so we called it an early-ish night.  cabbed it back to our guesthouse and in bed by 2:00

the next day was a rest day and prep for our travel and border crossing to cambodia.  i can't find my usb camera adapter to upload pics.  i have to check my pack again at our new place.  we're staying at babel guesthouse in siem reap.  all for now.

more pics soooon!

last note: my email account was hacked and i can't send any more emails for the next 24 hours.  :(  sorry that i couldn't get back to those who emailed me!