Freaking camera ran out of batteries by 13:00, ended up missing a couple of cool pictures. Part of the problem was that I was shooting indescriminately, tomorrow I'll be a lot more carefull what I spend battery on.
We went on a boat tour in the morning. I think it was a nice way to see the city, it's hot and humid in Bangkok (even in January) but there was a nice breeze in the canals and on the river so it was very plesant. The boat operator was kind enough (which most people are when you're paying them) to drop us off at a pier near the Grand Palace.
The Grand Palace takes up the space of several blocks so we spent several minutes wandering around trying to find the entrance. Inside were some beautiful temples and I got a few good pictures.
I should have known that IBM wouldn't let me down, their power supply works just fine with 220 volts.
That crappy camera on the other hand needs the power converted. I'm definitely going to be looking for a new camera when I get back, the Toshiba eats up batteries like it didn't take 6 hours to charge them. The next camera I get needs to run on some standard rechargable battery, and last longer than the 60 pictures on a charge this one gets.
I think it was Mark Twain who said that Bangkok is the Venice of the East. Well I'd say that Bangkok is the New Orleans of the East, and Patpong is the Bourbon St.
The main difference, less T-shirt stores and the entire street is covered with booths selling bootleg CDs, bootleg clothing, Leatherman knock-offs, Zippo knock-offs, and the standard line of chop-sticks and Buddha figures. Oh yeah, on the side walk every 3m there are two or three people trying to show you the small laminated card they're holding that looks like a menu. On closer inspection it turns out to be list of all the acts (with simple illustrations) you can see inside the club behind them, notably the ping-pong show, the banana show, and most intriguing the balloon show.
Everything here seems to run on the basis of whoever brings in the tourist a cut, be it restaurant, shop, tour, or is this case strip club. Later I was struck by the fact that they're using the same business plan as many websites but these gentlemen (and the occasional lady) are making money with it. I suppose credit should be given to their aggressive sales techniques, banner ads just don't have the same effect.
In the interest of being an objective tourist we decided to visit one of these clubs. I'll only say this, the beer and cover cost 600 baht (~$15) and we stayed there less than 30 minutes. I've heard you can get a massage and sex for $30.
Posted by drewish at January 29, 2001 05:33 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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