Days 201-202: Bangkok--Days 5 and 6

Friday I did my lecture on transgender issues. I had a crowd of about 25, and it went over pretty well. I got to walk around this time--I wasn't sitting at a table. I was introduced by Kaia, an Australian faculty member in gender studies. Folks were attentive--mostly Kaia's students--and they asked good questions. After doing some packing, we had a very late lunch/early dinner at a Korean grill place in the mall--they cooked a lot of our food right at the table, and they had us get sides (like garlic rice) and vegetables on a buffet. They grilled lots of proteins for us: Australian steak, salmon, BBQ chicken. Good stuff! We then tried the Baskin Robbins there: Kerry had chocolate chip ice cream; I had one scoop of their Love Potion #32 (I think that's what it was called--white chocolate and raspberry). Later in the evening, Kerry and I ventured back into the seedier part of town. First we went back to HUGs. It was much more crowded this time, and we even got some pleasing looks. But we didn't stay there long--it was mostly guys drinking and singing Thai karaoke. We headed to The Stranger bar around 10:40 for a drag show. It was even more crowded in there, and sweaty. The show was ostensibly "free" but they also required a "two drink minimum." For awhile we were sort of trapped under the stairs, beneath the stage on the upper level. You had to look up to see the drag queens perform. I saw Whitney, Christina Aguilera, Rhianna, Beyonce, and then the emcee herself did a number. I thought they were pretty good, but Kerry decided to leave early to return to HUGs; he couldn't take the crowd and the heat. Afterwards, we decided to head home. Kerry, of course, found some cats on the way: we saw a woman who had a mama cat who was licking a kitten, and Kerry gave them some money. We found a cab back to the iHouse, and turned in soon after that.

Friday fun photos:

Me posing with the poster advertising my lectures.

Dressed up for last lecture.

Close-up of the poster advertising my lectures!

Giving my last lecture.

Saying goodbye to Dari.

Korean BBQ--with cheese--cooked at our table.

Whitney drag queen at The Stranger.

Kerry communes with a cat and a kitten, on the streets of Bangkok.

Before we left on Saturday (our flight was 4:45 pm), we decided to walk to the nearby mall again to see if we could find any other clothes, since they had our sizes. Kerry found some stuff--underwear and shirts--and we found some gift shirts for others. Then we had some Thai food at a place (originally named) "Thai Restaurant and Bakery." We saw a cockroach on the floor, so we had second thoughts about eating there, but we decided to take our chances. I had shrimp pad Thai; Kerry had pork congee. Then we returned back to the dorm to finish packing; we left around 2 pm for the airport. The checking-in process was easy--we were glad we reserved seats by phone a few days ago, so I got my window seat this time! We noticed that the security in Bangkok was more similar to the USA than Chinese security is: you have to go into this enclosure and raise your hands, just like most (if not all) the airports in the US. In general, the airport was more Westernized, like Hong Kong's, with more places to eat than Chinese airports. Once we got to our gate, they wanded us again (which was different), and then we had to show our boarding passes FIRST and then wait (usually it's done the other way in the USA and China). Once boarding began, we just walked into the plane. It was a pretty good ride--I slept a lot, and the sweet and sour chicken they served wasn't bad. I got some reading done: almost finished The Scarlet Letter. And we got through immigration REALLY fast when we returned. However, it took like 30 minutes for our bags to show up. Our cab driver was nice, but it cost 250 RMB--probably because we arrived home so late, after midnight on Easter Sunday. But we are back in Shanghai!

Our departure day:

View from our balcony, CU dorm room.

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Thai restaurant we went to at MBK mall, where I got Pad Thai with shrimp.

Our one and only tuk tuk ride.