Today was Mae's birthday. Must have been nice to spend your birthday on vacation with the coolest people in the world, the coolest being your roommate! Hahaha! NOT kidding!! =D That lucky Mae... Despite it being Mae's birthday, it was also somewhat of a sad day. This was our last full day in Thailand.
This was a Saturday, a day we wanted to spend some time at the JJ Market, probably the largest outdoor market in the world. Before going, Mae and Giselle wanted to go back to Chinatown to buy their gold. They weren't able to buy it the previous day because they needed their passport numbers. While those two went to Chinatown, the boys and I got lunch and got Mae a little present. They decided to get her some flowers. I thought that was so sweet. Never occurred to me to get someone flowers for their birthday! Anyway, they left it up to me to choose the arrangement. Uh... this proved to be more stressful than it looked. I had no idea what looked good with what. Anyway, we ended getting a dozen red roses with these orange orchids. She arranged it so beautifully! Even the wrapping was so nice!
When we got back to the hotel, it was already 2pm, the time they were supposed to be back by. I left the flowers on her bed and quickly jotted a note for her, quick and dirty, afraid she would open the door finding me hunched over her bed writing something. I hid in the boys' room, eagerly waiting for her return. I think they finally got back at 3pm. (This tardiness was anticipated for traffic in Chinatown was pretty gruesome.) Giselle came into the boys' room, and I asked her where Mae was. Mae was in her (Giselle's) room. "Tell her to go to our room!" I whispered. She went to Mae and asked to borrow something. Tommy decided to come along because he had actually never seen our room before. I wanted to come because I didn't have my key? And the boys just tagged along. So all six of us made the little trip down the hall to our room. Mae opened the door and went straight to the table that had the repellent Giselle wanted to "borrow." I saw her head shift slightly, noticing the flowers on her bed. All of stood there, waiting for some sort of reaction. She did a double-take and curiously walked towards the bouquet. At the moment, she was thinking, "Wow! This hotel is so nice! They even give you flowers! Wait, it's only my bed... And wait... There's a note!" She proceeded to reading the note and we saw a huge smile spread from ear to ear. She started screaming and jumping with joy and gave a round of big, warm hugs for each of us. I've never seen her so happy. It was great.
Okay, back to business! The plan was to make a quick stop at JJ Market. Not much time to wander around because we had purchased tickets for a Muay Thai match for later that evening. Man. This place was H-U-G-E. I am so surprised that none of us took pictures of this place. Maybe I can paint a little picture for you. Imagine a street lined with little shops with really narrow aisles full of merchandise, some only about 5 ft. wide and 10 ft. long, separated by thin sheets of tin. Now add hundreds of people walking down the main road. Now multiply this by a few thousand. Yeah, thousand. The outdoor part of this market wasn't too bad. There was more space to walk around. But the inside was very tight and stuffy. People can easily feel claustrophobic inside. And getting lost? Count on it! I'm surprised I made it back to our meeting place in time. (Well, I got the times mixed up so was actually a little late, but in my mind, I was right on time! Hahaha!!) They sell everything here, from clothes to plants to live animals to just everything.
After the hour of shopping, Mae took all of our stuff back to the hotel and we immediately made our way to the stadium. (Mae decided not to go. She's not a fan of brutal sports.) The fights were cool. All liquids had to be in cups so that no one chucks bottles at the fighters. The contestants of the first were young! Must have been in their early teens! The really good fights must have been the 8:30 show, because barely any locals showed up for this. Oh yeah! It sucked because us foreigners HAD to buy VIP tickets! These tickets were around $60 each! You get ringside seats and get to take pictures with the fighters. Oooh, big deal. Well, okay, here's a pic of us with a victor.
After the fight, we went back and took our dandy time getting ready for dinner. By the time we all made it down to the lobby, most restaurants were closed or were closing. The concierge suggested one restaurant whose kitchen closes rather late. Heck. We'll take anything at this point.I am usually hesitant and weary of suggestions made by any hotel staff. They are usually touristy and bad. This was quite an exception though. The decor was modern and romantic. Our table settings had a water lily theme. So pretty. Even the presentation of the fru-fru drinks were pretty! I've never seen such long straws! And the fusion of Thai and French cuisine was... wow. Very delicious. It was such a lovely meal. Perfect as Mae's birthday dinner and our last dinner in Thailand.
Partying hard was the last item on our agenda for the evening. By the time were done with dinner though, it was already 1am. We got a taxi that took us to Route 66, a bar that is hugely popular with DJs spinning hip-hop and R&B. Problem was that they close at 2 as do most bars and clubs. Our driver convinced us that it's already so late. He can show us another club that closes at 6am. Though all of us really wanted to check out Route 66, we realized it was late so we agreed for him to take us to this other club called Spicy.
The consequences of our early mornings and late nights were creeping up on us. All of us started nodding off. All but Mae and Giselle. I could hear nervous whispers from Giselle. "Where are we going?" "Where is he taking us?" The driver made a phone call during the ride. We picked up that he was getting directions. I assumed he was getting directions to the club, but Mae and Giselle were afraid they were directions to... our doom. When he finally pulled to a stop, I looked around. There's supposed to be a happening club here? It looked like a small business area, maybe even residential? A few local men were walking in our direction. I didn't see any club goers in sight. I didn't hear any faint sound of pumping music. I desperately looked for a foreigner, but nope, none that I could see. We asked our driver, "Where is the club?" "Inside," he said pointing his finger toward the building we stopped at. There was a courtyard, and people were walking in. All of us slowly reluctantly got out of the car, still nervously scanning our surroundings. Where the heck is this place? Are we gonna get screwed? I caught sight of a redhead. Aha! Foreigner! Seeing him walk into the courtyard made me feel so much better. The taxi driver told us to go check it out. He would wait for us in case we didn't like the place.
So we followed the sparse crowd through the courtyard and into a building. There was a man collecting cover at a counter. Don't remember the exact amount, but I remember thinking it was sort of expensive. We peeked into the club. There weren't many people inside yet. Well, it was only 2am and other clubs were just letting out. We assumed it would be packed in no time. So decided to stay.
I can summarize Spicy in just a few words. No ventilation and raunchy. Prostitutes were EVERYWHERE. There could be a western man standing by a wall, and in just a couple of minutes, a girl (or boy, you never know) would be all over him. It was insane. And there was this one girl who was dancing like she was simulating sex, and my friends said she had a cameltoe! Hahahaha!!! I tried looking, but it was too dark. Heehee... Something else I noticed was that many of the women don't wash their hands after using the restroom. As I was waiting for an empty stall, I noticed a couple of girls who walked right out the door from the stall. Hm. Maybe they just had to readjust some clothing. But then I noticed that maybe 1 out of 10 would wash their hands! Eww!! So back on the dancing area, the smoke was so bad, my eyes started watering. It looked like I was dancing in pain. None of us enjoyed this place much, so decided to leave. Wasn't too early, but definitely not close to 6am. That was a pity. We had planned on going crazy that night, but that didn't happen. It felt like we were leaving with a lingering desire to do that ONE thing. Oh well... =(
We got a taxi and headed back to our hotel. It was probably around 4am by then. We hung out in the boys' room again, complaining about how horrible the club was. As we recounted certain moments of our trip, Victor unknowingly fell asleep. The first person to fall asleep tonight was going to regret it. This was a nonverbal understanding amongst the group. As I stealthfully grabbed a wooden replica of a male's penis that Victor had purchased for his brother earlier in the day, let's just call it a "replica" for now, Eric and Tommy reached for their cameras. With stifled giggles, we put the replica in suggestive positions while snapping away with our cameras. All I have to say is "poor Victor."
In this picture, you can see Mae suppressing her laughs with her hands and Eric taking a close-up shot of the replica. =)
Victor finally woke up when we started taking photos with it in his hand. He didn't even know that he had fallen asleep. One moment, he was blinking. The next moment, he was fast asleep. Yeah, we were all pretty tired. But all of us knew better than to shut our eyes for more than a split second. The night ended shortly after that. Giselle and Tommy retired first to their room. Mae and I hung out with Victor and Eric for a little while longer. We could tell they were struggling to stay awake, so we bid them good night as well. Before leaving though, I gave them each a very big hug. It was our last night together, and I missed them already. Back in our room, Mae cooed over her bouquet while we both packed and chatted about everything. It would have been nice to have an all-nighter with the group, but it had been a long day. Heck. It had been a long two weeks! After we finished packing and taking a quick shower to wash off that horrible cigarette smell on our skin, we retired in our comfortable beds. I slept so well that night. I don't think I moved.
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