Thailand Report

So my trip to Thailand was relatively relaxed. I had one long meeting but it was a real bitch.

Friday I rolled into town and went to RCA to meet up with my friend Emily from Taiwan. After searching I met up with her and some friends and we all went to the techno section. It was cool. Then 2am came. You see Taiwan's clubs close at 4am or 4:30am. So I thought it was just a set change. Nope. That meant it was time to go home. But all the cab drivers knew I was a foreigner who needed to go home and couldn't speak Thai. So they gave me crazy prices (I knew the real price back to the hotel was 60 Baht).

Instead, I waited. The night was still young and I knew after an hour they would drop their prices. While I was waiting I was offered some food by a new friend, Ying. Once she left I made a new friend, Oi. Oi invited me to a club that was open until 5am (she claimed). Like the last one, the new club was free cover and Oi ordered a bottle and proceeded to get me hammered.

So it wasn't a bad thing that the place closed at 3:30am. I woke up in the afternoon and went shopping for coworkers. That night I planned to chill out. Oi called and wanted to go back to RCA. I was tired so I turned her down. Then Ying called. So I decided to go to meet her at a club that was open until 4am (she claimed). I headed there about 1am and got out in the general area. That area, Sukhumvit, happens to be around Soi Cowboy which is famous for its go-go bars which happen to close at 1am. So when I eventually went to the club (http://www.narzbangkok.com/) I walked the gauntlet of katoeys and go-go girls.

The club was really nice. It is really 3 clubs. A live Thai music section, huge techno section, and a hip-hop section. I met Ying in the live music section then migrated to the techno section with Ying and friends. The place closed about 3am...yet again.

The next day I moved a damn amazing new hotel. It was so damn sick that I just chilled there all day. I had a huge damn suite all to myself. That night I met my customers for dinner.

The plan was to discreetly invite my customer's technical boss to Starbucks before our big meeting to get a read on his mood in advance of the meeting then see another customer after the meeting. Instead, I felt like crap in the morning and popped pills until I felt better. Then I was grilled for almost 3 hours by my customer. By the time they were done it was too late to see the other customer. So I furiously emailed from Starbucks and went to get a Thai massage. After I got back to the hotel I met Ying again for dinner. She wanted to go out again but I had to get up at 4am in the morning for my flight to Hong Kong

As cool as Oi and Ying were it makes me feel bad. My Thai is shit and their English isn't much better. In Taiwan I can speak Chinese with anyone but in Thailand that's not the case. Basically, when I was there my English regressed ("I no can" and "I same-same" were well used phrases). Guess I need to learn some Thai too.