We got up at 6 to be ready at 7:30. A tuktuk took us to the airport; the flight from Phnom Penh to Bangkok was uneventful. It was actually refreshing to hear Thai spoken again, even though I only understand about five words. We took a taxi to Lada's house, where we relaxed for a couple of hours. We regrouped and headed out for the afternoon at about 4. Lada's cousin, Aom, came along for the adventure.
Our first stop was a parking deck, from which we took a tuktuk to the
Siam Paragon, which I'm told was at one time the largest mall in the world. Our first stop was the food court. We settled on an Italian restaurant, and I tucked in to some lasagna.
From there, we headed to the movie theater and saw
X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I bet Augie ฿20 there wouldn't be a clip at the end of the credits; I lost. Oddly enough, the scene in the clip took place in a Japanese bar.
We took another tuktuk to the
Baiyoke Tower II, the tallest building in Thailand. (We saw a sign outside the entrance warning of pickpockets -- but only on Sundays.) Mere mortals were only allowed up to the 17th floor, so we went that far and found a bar and a driving range. The rate was ฿1 per ball. Augie and I each went in for ฿50.
The range consisted of a decently large space enclosed by green netting that kept the balls in without obscuring the beautiful view of Bangkok. Placed at the end of the range were the usual pins, complete with flag sticks. However, there were also two small bags. Augie and I agreed the first one to sink one would get ฿100 from the other. After several misses each, Augie called the shot, took three practice swings, and bounced it in. ฿100 richer, he decided to show off, hitting a 5 iron that bounced off the net and fell cleanly into the other bag.
We walked around a little more, then took a taxi back to the parking deck and drove to the
Suan Lum Night Bazaar. We relaxed in the food court, ate some pad thai, and enjoyed the atmosphere. Aom opened up some, and managed to communicate through our clunky Japanese.
We finally headed back to the house, where I saddled up for my flight back to Japan the next day. I politely but firmly declined Lada's mom's offer to drive me to the airport at 5:30 the next morning.
I woke up at 5 in order to be out the door by 5:30. Augie and Lada drove me to a taxi queue at the entrance to her parents' neighborhood. Her mom and dad both hugged me, and her mom invited me back anytime.
freaking out about the swine flu, was requiring everybody to go through security again, and inspecting every single carry-on bag. Many people were wearing masks, which didn't bother me in the slightest. However, there were some American tourists near my place in line, and I overheard how obviously rattled they were by the sight.
