Chinatown + Nightlife | Bangkok
If you want to find the heart of any city, head to Chinatown. In Bangkok, the produce and home goods market in Chinatown is incredible. The food is downright delicious, and at $1 a dish, the sky is the limit. Just know what you are eating. Everywhere you look are huge bags, bins, and buckets of unknown food items (think chicken’s feet), but when you find the right place, it’s like winning the lottery. Thirty cent fresh oysters? Yes, please! Fresh squeezed pomegranate juice for less than a dollar? I’ll take three! I must confess though…I feel like I cheated, because on Priya’s advice, we went at the tail end of the day when things were starting to close down. During the day, the market is nearly impossible to walk through and completely overwhelming… but the nighttime stroll was just perfect.
After our dinner in Chinatown, we went back to Thong Lo to clean up and amp up. Priya was determined to get me over my jetlag. Her cure? A wild night out in Bangkok. We started at The Balcony in the gay district. I say the gay distract because it’s super gay, but what’s so cool about Bangkok is how gay, straight, and trans culture seem to mix seamlessly. I’m still wrapping my head around the vibe, but in general, if you’re LGBT in Bangkok, you’re in good hands. Many Thais are intimate with both males and females without worrying about what to label themselves. Crossing dressing is widely accepted, and males who cross dress are referred to as “ladyboys.” I was familiar with ladyboy culture before I came, but experiencing it has been refreshing. People who would be openly mocked on the street in the US (with the exception of New York City) are welcomed and embraced in Thai society. Priya also introduced me to the term “gig,” which might be comparable to “friends with benefits.” It is very common for people to have a primary partner and “gigs” on the side. Though having gigs often includes a sexual relationship, I learned that it’s not always that way. “A gig might be someone you just have a special connection with, or a mutual crush, like someone who comes over and takes care of you when you are sick.” How cute is that?
Next we headed to an ex-pat watering hole called Wong’s. Here, you will meet people from every country. Allow me to clarify, here you will meet plastered “professionals” from around the world. It’s a small, body-to-body bar that plays 80’s music videos from Madonna to Micheal Jackson. One patron sums it up (click the above link to read the CNN article about this famous spot) by saying, “It’s dark, it’s cramped, it smells. It’s the best damn place in the universe,” If you are in Bangkok and already drunk, I highly recommend Wong’s. Let me stress, the if you are already drunk part, this is not a place for sober people.
What time does a wild night in Bangkok end? Not 4 am. All the sudden we were at The Arabic Disco, or as Priya calls it, Bangkok’s best kept secret. I wish I could tell you the name of it, but I can’t. I literally can’t, and no one seem to knew it, it’s just “The Arabic Disco,” and the place is open until dawn. Don’t ask me how, don’t ask me why, but I spent most of the night belly dancing on stage. Do I know how to belly dance? No. No, I do not. But despite this, I seemed to collect some fans throughout the night, both male and female. I kept trying to take pictures, but the owner kept giving me a stern finger wave…I realized later that this late night spot is also frequented by Thai sexworkers. Sexwork, for better or worse is a huge part of Bangkok’s culture, so almost anywhere you go late late night, this is true. Clink the link above if you would like to be enlightened on the sexwork industry in Thailand.
After experiencing the sites and smells of Bangkok, Priya, Phon, and I headed to the islands…stay tuned to learn about the djembe house and my experience with raw crab…
