How to kill time in Bangkok

It’s been five days of pleasure-hunting with Gus, back again from Laos. We’ve been to Middle-Eastern and Japanese restaurants, Irish pubs and Korean bars, street barbecues, bookshops, cinemas and the odd place with a name like “Spanky’s” or “One Night in Bangkok” to watch the human traffic.

1. Stroke sharks at Siam Ocean World.
2. Contemplate going to church to sing carols, then change your mind when, upon consulting the church’s website, you see nothing but photos of a small army of white-haired Women’s Institutors doing good deeds.
3. Perform an extensive, detailed, comparable study of Bangkok’s shopping malls. Sit in an electronics shop in a vibrating chair whilst watching a $60000 television. Admire Ferraris and Bentleys on the concourse (you don’t get that at Bluewater) and eat cream pastries cooked by an imported French chef with a famous face.
4. Read something by Paul Theroux (witty) or Michael Palin (verbose.)
5. Drink mint tea and smoke a sheesha in Little Arabia.

I met up with Jerry Hopkins for a beer or three. Jerry wrote the Jim Morrison biography, No One Here Gets Out Alive, and is now a long-term Bangkok resident. He owns a house upcountry with his wife but spends most of his time in the city, which has phone lines. After a couple of beers in his appartment we went to a bar. It was empty apart from us but there was traffic through the bar. Transpires it was a blow-job bar. “They don’t sell a lot of beer here,” Jerry said.

So, happy Christmas. Mrs K arrives the day after tomorrow so free-time to update this will be at a premium. Will check in once or twice, though. Ho ho ho and all that.