Conan the civilised

Thursday 17th, evening

I had contacted the Mensa guy Mark and was waiting for him while I did the last blog entry. Once I finished, I went downstairs and did the crossword until he turned up. He uses the nickname “Conan” and as soon as he walked in I knew why. The ceiling in the foyer is relatively low but even in a normal room he’d dominate. He is nearly 7ft tall and had to stoop to avoid hitting his head. He works as an actor in action movies. He made me feel quite petite, which is quite an achievement.

We went to a Thai restaurant not that far from the hotel and just across the main road. He said the food was good but the service was slow, but that wouldn’t be a problem as we’d be talking anyway. We both agreed that eating on your own with slow service was pretty bad.

He has been based in Thailand for 3 years, with the usual foreigner’s trick of leaving and returning every 90 days. His work takes him away reasonably often anyway. He had some interesting comments about living here as opposed to just visiting and had experienced some discrimination on some movie sets. The fact that he’s stayed 3 years indicates these problems are not deal breakers.

While we were there, an English guy at the next table made some comment to Mark and it turns out the Chinese owner (elderly woman) keeps all the tips and doesn’t pass them on to the staff. As Mark said, there’s no incentive for them to give good service.

I had curried crab meat and rice and as we were still talking an hour or so later Mark said he was going to order some more and we both had a serve of fried vegetables with chicken. (400 B in total, about $15 and including 2 soft Cokes) He was heading to the gym and I thought I’d visit Soi Cowboy, which was only a few 100m away. This is a bit of a tourist attraction and I hadn’t got there last trip. I headed back to the hotel first and when I came out again 10 minutes later it was pouring again so I went back to the room for my umbrella. It just a small fold up that I actually found in a taxi in Brisbane last year but it helped a bit.

I realised I was a bit short of local money but by then (nearly 10pm) the exchanges were shut. I headed to Soi Cowboy anyway and it soon became obvious where the name comes from. It’s a bit of a red light district with gogo bars with (names at least) a Cowboy theme. Rawhide, Long gun etc. I went to the Cactus which Mark had mentioned, wander in the door and was confronted by nude pole dancers. Not my scene and I quickly retreated. There were 2 guys at the front both called John, one the owner and I mentioned Conan. They said I could get a drink there but they didn’t make cocktails but on their recommendation I headed to the Old Dutch restaurant at the end of the street where I had a Pina Colada for 220B. That was enough and I headed back to the hotel and watched the end of an Adam Sandler movie before going to sleep.

Its now nearly 7am and I have been awake for an hour or so. I'd better get back to bed soon so I can have my "breakfast in bed". Part of the service.

Actually this style hotel, like the one in Hong Kong, only has a ground floor reception area and the rest of the building is rooms. No restaurant, gym, pool, meeting rooms etc. It's probably more economical to have staff deliver breakfast to the room than to maintain a dining area.