Fit Men and Freaky "Girls"

I'd better get this out of the way first. Today I saw some very fit men.

No, I haven't turned into a Sebastian and no, the famous Bangkok "girls" are not remotely attractive. I went to watch some Thai boxers training this afternoon, and bloody hell were they fit! The speed on their punches and kicks was incredible. It was a little gym in the back of some alley in the middle of nowehere. They just let us in to watch ringside, pretty interesting actually.

As to the "freaky girls". They are EVERYWHERE. Go into a bar or restaurant and the chances are that you'll be served by an "it" and not a "he" or a "she". What makes that worse is that there are different Thai words for "Thanks" depending on whether you're talking to a man or woman. So when I get served by a half and half I have absolutely no idea what's the right "Thanks" to say. I've ended up either mumbling incoherently or just saying "Diolch" instead!
The good point is that it's pretty damn simple to spot them. The chances of making a mistake are very small, even when very drunk. In fact I'm pretty sure one of them had a bloody beard!

We got a good chance to learn the difference when we got into an argument with three of them, one normal waitress and four bouncers last night. The problem came from the fact that over here you're served your drink in a bar and you don't just pay. They put a reciept in a glass on your table, and at the end of the night you pay for all the reciepts. After 6 jugs the idea of "forgetting" about one the reciepts sounded like a superb plan. And we got away with it (saving the massive sum of 2 quid!). Problem is that an hour later we went back to the same bloody bar (don't ask me why, especially when there are about 20 bars on that street!) and got remembered. We did the honourable thing and denied everything, lying through our teeth. The ladyboy who had served us before went into a proper strop and the bouncers came over for a chat. I don't think it will suprise you that we paid up pretty quick (while still claiming total ignorance and denying everything!).

Only other thing I've done today is go see the National Museum (I know, how cultured am I!) and bought a very crappy fake watch for about 2 pounds. I'm so used to having a mobile I totally forgot about bringing a watch!

I'm on my own now, the two Englishmen left about an hour ago and Carwyn, my flatmate, who was supposed to meet me yesterday didn't turn up. Fair play to him though he had a prety good reason. He got drunk and missed his bus! As long as he stays sober tonight we should be fine though, tomorrow evening I'm leaving Bangkok (thank God, I've had enough of being offered taxis, Tuk Tuks, cheap lighters, massages and ping pong girls every 20 seconds!) and heading for Vietnam! No plush Etihad Airlines this time though, we're going with Air Asia. From what I understand they're the EasyJet of Asia, let's just say that I'm not very optimistic!