Chapter 3:The eagle has landed.

The above is one of the districts in Bangkok where the Circle of Nine had dwelled. Hua Lamphong. No prizes for guess who the person in the pic was. Mr Same Same. Same Same, but Different..

Sidetrack: For the uninitiated, give the roadside food stalls a chance. We did not get any diarrhoea. On the contrary, the food was delicious, and the bbq skewered meat just makes you drool. And a meal there costs on average 40 baht per person, ice water included. Doing the math, its only around SGD 2 dollars! Also for cheap accomodation, try Baan Hua Lamphong Guest House, or the one opposite. Nice, quiet little corner. Very peaceful.

Back to the story.

Place: Hua Lamphong
Date:27/05/2006
Time: 0800hrs, Bangkok Time.(One hour earlier than Singapore)

The driving skills of the minivan airport taxi driver made Tinman, Iceban and Snakey hang their heads in shame. He switched lanes effortlessly and sped on the congested highway like there were no cars on the road at all. Kingkong noted that though the roads were somewhat congested, the pace of the minivan was unrelenting. Kingkong thought of home, and asked Tinman , who was already happily humming chinese pop songs with Iceban, to play another chinese pop song. 牡丹江 by 南拳妈妈. (nice song, by the way) Tinman the pop tart gleefully obliged, and whipped out his handphone to start playing Kingkong's song request. Everyone was humming to the songs, and some even broke out in loud renditions (i.e. Iceban and Tinman). Kingkong looked at the minivan driver, who seemed disturbed and a little confused by the occurrence and wondered if they had unwittingly said any vulgarities in Thai while singing Chinese songs. He hoped not. The driver was frowning, and his wrinkles and crow feet could be seen through the rearview mirror. He began driving faster. The rest of the ride, though, was uneventful.

The driver saw the Circle of Nine off at Hua Lamphong, but he obviously did not know the guest house they wanted to get to. He dropped them off at a DISTANCE away and assured them they could find the guest house nearby. After seeking directions from tour agencies nearby, the circle of nine were finally on the right track. Then came the major obstacle. Crossing roads in Bangkok. The cars were pouring. Kingkong wondered what the big fuss was about, and gallantly dashed across the first zebra crossing in Bangkok he had encountered in his life. The virgin jaywalk overseas. The rest of them who fell behind started screaming "King kong~~~!!!" When they saw the oncoming volume of traffic threatening to swallow Kingkong up. But Kingkong, at the point of time felt a surge of liberation. He felt like he was a swan, swimming gracefully across Swan Lake. Jaywalking was an art form, and Kingkong felt accomplished when he managed to beat the mounting odds against him. He thought he had reached the zenith of his art. Then he heard screams.

The screams came from DragonLady, who seemed to have a phobia of crossing roads, and had to scream each time she crossed a road. Tinman came up to Kingkong and asked him "What the f**k were you thinking, crossing the road like that?" Kingkong merely smiled and said nothing, and they carried on their journey to the guest house, each feeling an adrenaline rush.

The accomodations were finally settled. The Circle of Nine were hot, tired and sweaty, and preferred lodging in a guest house with airconditioning, and cheaper rates. They settled for the other guest house, rather than the one they were supposed to go to. They went for the guest house just opposite Baan Hua Lamphong Guest House. Kingkong quite liked the area. It had a quaint, traditional and peaceful feel to it, and it felt like a second home. The name of the guest house they stayed in, as they later realised, was named "Your Place." Since then, the jibes and jokes about it were unrelenting. Kingkong liked to start the joke first. He would say something like, "Where are we going to sleep tonight, my place?" And someone would answer, usually Griang, Same Same or Gnin, "Yes, your place. Not my place, but Your Place." And the Circle of Nine never once got tired of the joke. Allow me to mention two more incidents which are worth taking note of.

a)Lost in Translation
Dinner was great, and cheap. The only problem was that almost everyone was not eating the food they ordered. You see, dear reader, that the lady owner of the roadside stall was short sighted, and spoke little English, and so had great difficulty speaking and identifying the dishes. As such, everyone was eating everyone else's food, just not their own. Snakey said, as the Circle of Nine were wolfing down their food, "I think we are lost in translation. We took half an hour to settle our accomodation due to language barriers, and now we take another fifteen minutes to order the food." Everyone was quiet. They either silently agreed, or were too busy wolfing down the food to listen. Payment, however was easy, as Kingkong later realised, the lingua franca of the world was not English, but Numbers. Almost every shop owner was equipped with a calculator to handle language barriers. Furthermore, Numbers Don't Lie, with the exception of statistics of course.

b)You scratch my back, i'll scratch yours
A maxim Kingkong carried with him after reading it from a novel called Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. And on that very night he scratched TInman and Iceban's back and had them scratch his. Little did Kingkong know that this maxim would prove useful in later situations.... (to be continued)