Saturday in Bangkok

On Saturday we had a leisurely morning and went to a restaurant down the street from Kim's that served American breakfast (Kim had been there once before). In all honesty you could really classify the place as a dessert joint but I certainly wasn't going to complain. I'm pretty sure everything on the menu came with ice cream. I had waffles with bananas, Katie had pancakes with bananas, and Kim had a ham and cheese sandwich (no ice cream).

After breakfast we headed to Khao San Road, the famous (or infamous) "backpacker mecca" of southeast Asia. To get there we took a songthaew to a river boat which were both great experiences in and of themselves. Once at Khao San we did plenty of shopping, browsing and eating. After some massages we headed back to the boat and back towards Kim's, stopping at some other outdoor markets to browse and buy.

For dinner we met up with one of Kim's co-workers, Annika and went to a restaurant that served both Thai and Isaan (a region of Thailand) food. We shared three dishes amongst the four of us: a minced chicken dish, a swamp cabbage dish and a sweet and sour chicken with vegetables. All were over rice.

After dinner we headed to Cheap Charlie's, a bar that seemed to have a lot of tourist clientele. With a few $3 Bacardi and cokes under our belts we headed to a street bar. At some point every night (or just on weekends) people park their vans/cars/carts on the street and open up bars for folks to drink at, usually with a couple of plastic tables and chairs set up right on the sidewalk. The first bar we stopped at was an old VW van with lots of cool lights. This street bar may or may not have been in the vicinity of multiple working girls, it was honestly hard to tell. I can however confirm that there was at least one ladyboy in the mix. After one drink we headed to a second street bar down the street, where I had my first Singapore sling (I'm pretty dumb for not having one in Singapore) and then caught a taxi home.
Bangkok is crazy and amazing.

Cheap Charlies with Kim (middle) and Annika (right)

One of the street bars