Halloween weekend

Last week when we went downtown for a conference, I fell in love with a quiet little side street discretely tucked away from the Bangkok chaos. So I booked a room in the Suk 11 guesthouse and spent the weekend there with some of the other teachers.

Sukhimvit Soi 11

We had a blast on Halloween Friday. Lauren M, Heidi and I were pirates, Griffin was a vampire and Lauren L was a coked-out model. We splurged on a tex-mex dinner with sangria and befriended the British restaurant manager. He invited us to stop by a costume party later that night. The party was for a group called Thailand Friends – supposedly half Thai and half expat guests. That turned out to mean half cute, young & “friendly” Thai women and the other half middle aged white dudes seemingly on the prowl. We never fully decided if this was an official prostitution ring of just a really weird singles group, but mai pen rai.

We actually had a great time despite ( or maybe because of??) being groped by Thai women dressed as sexy nurses. And if I ever want to take Ris up on her offer for a free weekend at her beach house – all we have to do is be open to “whatever it takes” to have a good time – then I can always call the number she practically stored in my phone for me.

I can’t even begin to describe the taxi ride home, but it was a good one. Take my word for it. We ended up... “somewhere,” as the Thai would vaguely put it.

Saturday was lovely and low-key. We wandered around the Nana area and southern part of town for most of the day. We chilled in a cute Chinese tea house, and later went to the closing night of a film festival for a killer showing of Scorcese’s “Shine a Light.” It was great – Lauren and I were as pumped and dancy as if at a real show. There was free beer and popcorn, too. Beat that. We ended the night at a small house party of some of Ladky’s new friends from her Frisbee tournament.

Sunday, we took a bicycle tour of the “Bangkok Jungle.” We rode out of the city, took a longtail boat across the river and then biked through rural areas. We rode on a concrete path only one meter wide and quite high above the land and water. It was really nerve-wracking, especially at all of the 90 degree turns we had to make on this platform while still riding at a reasonable pace. Jenn almost bit it at a turn, but luckily she caught herself.

So it was a great weekend – complete with Halloween costumes, a party full of hookers, a Rolling Stones concert experience, and a kickass 5 hour bike ride. I rather enjoyed myself and plan to spend as many weekends based out of Suk 11 as possible.

A few of us are off to Hua Hin for a weekend at the beach. We found a guesthouse for about $9 a night and a block from the white sand beach. I'm excited!