Hooray! Hooray! It's a Holi-Holiday

Friday 10 October
Bangkok

After the slightly disappointing commuter boat trip the previous day, we decide to go on a tourist trip round the canals on the rive gauche of Bangkok, to see the arse end of the city in the best possible sense.

While we're waiting in a cafe for the trip to start, the sound system is playing the hits of Boney M, and I'm transported back to some of the first pop songs I ever heard. They weren't just playing the well-known classics like Daddy Cool and Rasputin (never has the contoversial historical figure's life been summed up so succintly as in the lyric "there was a cat that really was gone") but also songs I don't think I'd heard in over 25 years, like Painter Man. I mean, who'd want to be a painter man? One of life's greater philosophical questions I think you'll agree.

Anyway after that took the canal trip, seeing plenty of Wats from afar, as well as houses on sticks, a boat full of monks, plenty of catfish that crowded like sharks round prey for the bread that we threw them, and the odd bit of marshland that still remains. Our guide told us about Thailand and the royal family, and the symbols and traditions associated with both.

We also hit up Wat Arun (a.k.a. the Temple of Dawn, not to be confused with the Indiana Jones film) which was nice. Once back at the flat I went for massage which was very relaxing and helped with my posture. I'm going to have more of those I reckon. And I know what you're thinking, but no, it didn't end with a "happy finish". The parlour was in the middle of a shopping centre after all.

That evening one of Pete's friends was having a birthday dinner which we went along to, and was in the form of a Thai and Western combined all-you-can-eat buffet, which Pete won by a mile. I'm still worried about his plans to run a marathon... We went to a cocktail lounge after that and experienced some full-on loungecore from a live band there. It was clear to us at this point that for pretty much the whole trip, we'd been exposed to worryingly high levels of lounge music. It was awesome.

After that a few of us went to a nightclub. The first place we visited was dead except for a very enthusiastic live band playing covers to a room of waiters. I felt sorry for them. Then we went to a small bar/club and had a bit of a dance. One of the girls in the group tried to set me up with the other single girl there, but she wasn't that great. She had a mullet after all. I took a taxi home, it was on the meter.