March 25th 1984

Val had already done the washing + hung it out to dry before wakening me, then we went out for breakfast.  We have a lot of business to do in Bangkok. But today is Sunday, which pretty much wipes that out, so we’re doing a little sight-seeing instead.  We wandered across the park, close to our guest-house, where a lot of locals were flying their kites (as they had been yesterday evening, I remember) to the Royal Palace.  It was utterly magnificent, quite superb, + leapt straight in to my Top 10 world attractions chart.  We didn’t stay long, however.  On Sundays there is no entrance fee.  Which is good, of course, but makes the place impossibly crowded.  It was barely possible to move without getting in front of someone else’s camera shot.  So we took a quick look round + left.

We then strolled on to the Museum, + once again were hugely impressed with both the scope + selection of the place.  There were just so many galleries (tho’ they weren’t overcrowded with exhibits – everything was attractively arranged.)  My favourite gallery had a display of puppets which was quite superb – I’m sure they wouldn’t miss just one.  (But they would, they would.)  In the end we left the museum two-thirds unseen, ripe for another visit.

Strolled over to the park where I indulged a whim + bought a small kite.  Too small actually – we couldn’t get it to fly.  What can one expect for B2?  So we went a little up-market, + paid 7.  No comparison – this was wonderful, + simply soared.  We even looped our poor B2-er onto the string, to give it a taste of freedom.  Up the string it zoomed.  This was the first time I’d ever a controlled a kite in the air – when I was small we had a couple, I think, but could never even get them off the ground.  It felt magnificent, heady even, to see this flimsy thing of paper + string reach such heights… + with me in control.  Eventually, of course, the first excitement palled, but we brought it down + sent it up again, to prove we could do it, + then brought it down once more + returned home for a belated siesta.

I got Val to rub some cream onto my chest + groin.  Under the blast of the Ko Samui sun, I first blistered, then peeled, + now have any number of sores + scabs, which itch viciously.  Serves me right for laughing at Val, when all she did was peel.  We relaxed for 3 hours or so, then went out to see some of Bangkok’s nightlife.  We decided to walk down to the Red Light district, though I’m not sure we would have done had we realised how far it was.  We had a map now, of course, but it wasn’t all that easy to find the way.  A lot of the streets have their names written in English, but it’s fairly sporadic.  And our map isn’t wonderful.  Arrived eventually at Patpong Rd, the street, but it was tamer than I expected.  Mostly it was bars advertising girls, so, in the interest of scientific discovery, we tried one – Roxy Bar.  And it was full of girls, mostly very young girls, wearing very little, as in the briefest of swimming costumes.  Half a dozen of them at a time would be on podia, dancing.  There was a strict roster system, pinned to a wall.  The others would sit around, being groped by customers, trying to get them to drink, I imagine.  And all the while, a video was silently playing cartoons.  Weird.  Was the place for screwing?  Certainly not on the premises – there was no room.  (They even had lockers on public display.)  By private arrangement maybe.  I’m an innocent in such matters.

We headed for, home after the one drink, with no more tempting offers along the way than “live sex acts”.  It was quite the disappointment.  We now had a bus guide to assist us, so on consulting that we were able to work out that no 47 was the one we wanted.  Much to our amazement, it worked, + we were dropped off by the Democracy Monument.  Val had a meal, me a snack, then home – reading + writing.

Apologies for all the stuff on Bangkojk’s sex industry – I wouldn’t take that tone now (and shouldn’t have done then, but there you go.) But the kite-flying, that being ao much more innocent, and, indeed, enjoyable.