Some 10+ hours later we arrived in Bangkok. The first thing we noticed upon exiting the plane and heading down the gangway,was how incredibly different the air temperature was here from Europe. It was a change we had both been welcoming for some time, and we couldn't be happier. Before even thinking of exiting the airport, we went in the bathrooms and changed into our board shorts and t-shirts, which we would wear exclusively the rest of our trip.Zanes funds being what they were at this point in our journey, that is to say, almost nothing... we decided to both exchange a small amount at a time and try and manage it well, so we went with $50 each. We grabbed our bags, exited security and headed for the skytrain, which started underground ironically enough. We got our little plastic chip tokens from the machines lining the wall and stood in lines waiting for the security guards to check the train before anyone got on, then boarded.It wasn't long before we arrived in downtown Bangkok, the heat and pollution was depressing, even in the evening, and we soon boarded the city train heading for the central train station. It was 4:50pm, we had been planning on getting our tickets for an 10:50pm train to Surat Thani, which would have given us time to rest and get some food before trying to go through a 15 hour train ride to the South of Thailand, but just as we arrived and found the office for "foreign speakers" meaning English only pretty much, they told us every sleeper train ticket was sold out until the next day, except the last two tickets leaving at 5pm, which was in 2 minutes...We hadn't slept in the last 50 hours, had been in 3 Countries, six time zones, and had been partying like sailors, used four city trains, two taxis, and three subways, boarded and endured consecutive flights totaling 15 hours, gone from Snow to Monsoon weather, and were facing the sorry predicament of staying in a city we had no intention of being in overnight, or pushing ourselves to even greater limits in a all out push to our destination. This is Daniel Maddox and Zane Davis were talking about here, The "Elite" of exceeding the fun limits...We looked at the classic black and white circular wall clock above the lady selling tickets, the 2 minutes we had to decide evaporating into midair much like our strength and poise, then at each other. With sullen smirks etched on both our faces, but raw determination in our hearts, we nodded in unison and bought the tickets. I was pretty worried we'd have no food on the train, but once we found our seats a catering boy came by to take our orders, we gladly paid.We barely spoke on the ride, mostly all we wanted to do was sleep. What little thoughts we had outside of that essential need, were of what was to come on the "dazzling endless summer isles of paradise" we had so perfectly burned into our minds by the advertising armies of the world. A fiction to be sure, this I knew well from my travels, but a fairy tale I entertained for the sake of convenience in a mad hope that our final leg of our travels on this trip would be more relaxing and charming than that of Europe.As the sun disappeared into the West, the cabin crew started setting up the beds in the sleeper trains. Once ours were set up and our gear was reassuringly stowed away in the racks beside us, our food was brought, which if you can imagine, was super cheap Asian food individually wrapped in Sa ran wrap, on a plastic plate, itself wrapped, and then all of it wrapped in Sa ran wrap again... I suppose they thought it was pretty classy, I didn't, but it did keep our food from spilling all over us while bumping all around on the train tracks, that probably had a lot to do with it. We finished our food and we did what we could to sleep, which, to our great dismay, would prove most difficult.
Last Night In Amsterdam
I got up early and had two apples in the cafeteria alone. Zane was still asleep, I knew there would be nothing for me there, but still, I just wanted to eat in the same space as the other people there. As much of a lone wolf I seem to be at times, Im really much more of a social animal than I admit to be, even to myself. A reality most lone wolves probably share. When Zane woke up we left for the city center to have brunch, Zane didn't feel like a salad, so Venkel was out, which meant we'd have to discover something new. After walking about aimlessly in our usual way through the city center I chose a place that in the end, was way too expensive and low quality in both portion and taste for the price. Kinda bummed at the whole affair we returned to WoW and after a short rest headed back out at around 6ish for our last night out in Amsterdam. We had our first two pints each at the same place we played pool last night. We played four games together, Zane won the first game easily, I beat myself the next two games by calling the wrong hole for the 8 ball, but won the final game. Just as the night before, after playing a few games of pool the establishment told us the table was closed. Then when we left and swung around later the table was open again for other players... Was it just us? Or do they do that for everybody all the time just to keep the competitive nature in people down to a minimum? I couldn't say. Whatever the case may be, Zane was sure it was because of his pool playing prowess and they couldn't have unbeatable players ruling the table.Since we were now fairly inebriated, the next thing to do was to smoke, this time it was my idea, so I got to choose the place. Remembering a sweet little shop we entered before but left for lack of a bong, I decided to go there. On our way, as we were crossing a small bridge ,we saw a man flailing on the ground, twisting and reaching for things round him. He seemed to be alone but I couldn't really say. He wouldn't be for long, because a moment later several security personnel appeared and held him down. He screamed and continued to shout in panic as they then dragged him away behind an ambulance. From the looks of him, he was most probably on a strong psychedelic, mixed with all the usual suspects, tobacco and alcohol. Which in a major city environment such as Amsterdam spells disaster for almost anyone not well versed in the trans-dimensional arts. Inside this little shop I bought a gram of something and rolled it up into a pure joint. We went up to the upper level and sat by the window, watching as that poor guy was being sedated by a gang of strangers sent to take him away. It wasn't long before the shop would close, in fact we had to power smoke the joint just to beat their closing, which was fine by us. I still had some unrolled marijuana left, but I didn't care to smoke it in the morning, so I just ate it plain, which is actually not all that uncommon for me, it doesn't get you nearly as high, but its far better for you than smoking it.We went into a few more bars after that, including the karaoke bar we met the Belgian girls, which was now full of 50 high school German kids, so we didn't stick around. Then Zane convinced me to go to a live sex show, but I instantly regretted it before we got inside and backed out the last second. Instead we decided on a topless bar, which cost 5 Euros to get into for the night, instead of 2 Euros a minute for the sex show. We get into this place and its all run by ladies, topless ladies, there isn't a single lady there with a top on, so it's well and truly a topless bar. Everywhere you looked there was a seductress of one flavor or another waiting for the smallest excuse to run up to a guy and trap him in a lap dance, or better yet there was a bleach blond white girl at the bar who would fling her legs around your unsuspecting head and work her thighs as she held onto a metal bar above the catwalk. That was my first impression. My second impression came down on me like the sword of Damocles, in the form of a huge black woman dancing in dangerously sharp heels on the bar. She flew down from the walkway that her and the other girls were dancing on and then she went looking wildly at each man before her with her piercing gaze. Finally she came to me and grabbed my shirt pulling me to her, I immediately threw my hands up and made every effort to indicate I had no money to pay her for the service, luckily she saw this to be true and moved on to a well dressed white man in his 60's, he tried the same technique but she wasn't buying it and he literally had to run away from her, not once but three times! At this she jumped back on the bar and tore off her underwear and went harder than ever on the pole. Three other men rejected her in the same way as she attempted then to reel them in. But I'm sure that a man befitting her caliber would be around sooner or later.by huge I mean she easily had 70 pounds of pure muscle on me and could probably pop my head open like a rotten melon between her thighs. This is not to say she was unattractive, she was simply too much woman for me or anyone there apparently to handle. Zane spent €37 on two gin and tonics that glowed in the bar light, which made is both broke for the night, so we left as soon as they were empty. We were pretty smashed when we left, I don't think we even knew where we were going. We were following behind a group of girls when suddenly and without the slightest warning one of them smashed her head into a stores plate glass window at full force. Luckily Zane and I were just in time to grab her limp body and help her down. Instantly every one of her friends disappeared, leaving just us and this poor girl who had just knocked herself out cold. She came to in a few seconds and we explained what happened to her, she seemed to understand so we helped her up, then just as soon as she seemed to be all together her eyes roll back in her head and she begins to spasm out, this time falling to the floor so quickly he couldn't catch her. This is when her friend comes back with the police. "Do you know this girl? What happened?" They say cooly, with complete detachment, obviously having seen this same thing hundreds of times before. 
Zane tells them "We were behind her when she just hit her head, we don't know her," and then I show them the mark she left on the window. Before we leave Zane gets a one on one with the girls friend and tells her that she really needs to watch her, she could really hurt herself. We leave the seen content with our part in the story and make it to the night bus, getting home by 2am, and so concludes our first trip to Amsterdam!