Too Easy
It's easy here. Want food? Want stuff? Want pleasure? Reach out on any major artery and you'll see the throb of Bangkok's lifeline.
Bangkok. It's an easy city. Easy to live to play to blow your mind away. YuppieNomad's gone back to the States, Joe's gonna fly in tomorrow, so I basically have a couple of days to myself...
It's easy here. Want food? Want stuff? Want pleasure? Reach out on any major artery and you'll see the throb of Bangkok's lifeline – the giveaway of itself, packaging vice into entertainment – sideways, crossways, any way that visitors will want it, no matter what. What other cities are pleasure capitals away from home? Amsterdam? Vegas?
You can gorge yourself for a few dollars. Walk down Sukhomovit Road and hear the cries for kebabs and Arabic fare. Chinatown can give you shark's fin soup on the cheap. Buffets served by churascarias and dim sum palaces entice more than your palate, they go to the heart of your greed. A meal costs $1 on the streets, $2 in the food courts, and $4 in a restaurant.
Had enough of food? Shop til' you drop. It's easy to spend – clothes and toys are bargains compared to Western standards – so it's easy to spend $50 on a pair of pants when those same designer labels will costs $100 in New York. Repeat that exercise with blouses, shirts, sunglasses and you can re-make your image on the cheap. The malls are stacked with gadgets, fashion, and smiling attendants to help you sort through your middle-class wet dream – and they're all within walking distance of one another. In a space of thirty minutes, I can walk through a complex that has 3 Ferragamos, 2 Thomas Pinks and 4 Gucci boutiques – not to mention displays of Ferraris and Aston Martins.
"Hey, you want to see girls dancing? Have sex with girls? They're clean! How bout boys? Hey! Hey, I know a place, c'mon!"
Fat men, skinny men, old men – men of differing shapes and sizes and peculiarities – pile into the go-go bars of Soi Cowboy and Nana Plaza and Patong. Some come in obedience to primal urges, some come out of curiosity, and some come without knowing why they come – just perhaps that they ought to because the offerings are there.
Boy-girls, fat girls, under-aged girls, mustachioed girls – girls in all configurations and dress-up and fantastical whims, they carry whips and school uniforms and cowboy boots – they perfunctorily gyrate around metal poles, glancing over bald heads and bald egos, making eye contact with a hopeful fool – they twitter and twirl before swooping down, sidling up, and cuddling next to their generous benefactor.
The girls wear numbers on their pieces of clothing. It makes it easy for the men. Like entrees from a foreign menu, forget about the foreign language, just point at the image and the number.
And it's not just the go-go bars. Most bars, whether you like it or not, have designated girls to chat you up, drink you down, and work their way all around your ego, into your pants, and out with your wallets. The bar girls crowd like vultures in pubs, in taverns, and in lounges. They may dress more modestly in higher end venues, but the game is the same.
When a city becomes this easy, it loses itself. Bangkok reminds me of New Orleans during Mardis Gras. There, as here, rules of morality are thrown out the window because 'everyone else is doing it'. Hedonism gains acceptability whenever you have a group mentality. But comparing New Orleans to Bangkok is like comparing a high school cheerleader to a Vegas prostitute – similar, but different degrees. Like a cheap date, a cheap thrill – a cheap girl – Bangkok sells itself for the passing fancy of suitors and the more permanent gifts of their wallets.
Did you know the Kingdom of Siam never capitulated under any colonial power? But that's because it gave in early, allowing the British to rule in its name.
When things become this easy, I lose interest. The thrill, I suppose, is in the chase. What's fun about getting everything you want, whenever you want, and however you want? There's something obscene about a person giving away everything so easily – even more so when a city does it.
Hmmm, doing research in the go-go bars I see?
You put into words the unease I was feeling when I was there whirling around those damn malls. It felt like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Posted by: Yuppie Nomad | August 06, 2006 at 05:03 PM
Hmm. Not exactly research since I already know what they're about – more like walk-by's. None of it is scintillating or even titillating...
Overheard two American men in the elevator:
- So I said, "Hey, how bout you do it?" And ya know, she giggled.
- Was she cute? They are so easy.
- She was – yeah, she was ok. You know how they are.
- You gonna see her again?
- Well you know, it was – um, yeah.. hey, so how was your flight over? Good flight?
Posted by: j.fisher | August 07, 2006 at 06:37 AM
Hey. I'm going to Kuala Lumpur for 4 days next weekend. Any recommendations and must sees? Also going to take an overnight trip somewhere...Bukit Fraser sounds interesting, did you go? Thanks!
Posted by: Sharon | August 09, 2006 at 07:26 PM
Hey Sharon - sorry for being incognito – I actually didn't stay in KL at all – opted for the interior and the east coast of ML more. But there are some nice islands around KL that you may want to try for a couple of days' getaway.. I think you should try the Cameron Highlands too, if you have time.
Posted by: j.fisher | August 13, 2006 at 11:13 PM
I really liked this entry and the way you described everything. The "overhead" conversation you posted in your comment was very disturbing to me. sigh.
Posted by: sanguine smile | August 21, 2006 at 10:35 AM