Tuk Tuk

After having a grand old time on the islands of Ko Tao and Ko pangjang I had to depart for the return trip to Bangkok...
I had really got used to island life, spending lazy days on the beach, hanging out in restaurants dining with strangers on local thai menus...enjoying the underwater adventures of Scuba diving at some of the worlds top dive sites. My total number of dives reached 50 and I celebrated with a large cocktail of Long island iced tea the night before the boat left for the mainland at Chumphon in the morning....2 hours on the fast catamaran and then onto the bus for the 7 and half hour road journey back to the centre of Bangkok to the famous Khosan Road....the bus finally pulled into town at 8.30pm in the middle of a monsoon drenching and I had to find accomodation fast, not wanting to stay out in the rough...I headed off to a place I found just before I left for the islands, but it was full...sooo off I set to find plan B. Sweet Thai guest house was the biggest flea pit I have seen but it was cheap and I was desperate so I paid my 180 baht and went to put my luggage into the room I had chosen...the larger of the 2 I was offered...the 1st one was without windows and I had to jump into the bed to get into the room and shut the door....this room was slightly bigger and had a window, but the fan was perilously loose on its fittings on the ceiling and looked as if it may come away and decapitate me at any minute.....I would find a better place to stay in the morning...
suprisingly I slept Ok, but found a better place to stay as soon as I awoke, moved in and enquired as to where I could get a taylor made suit for myself... the owner immediately dispatched a member of his staff to go get a Tuk Tuk and drive me 5 minutes to the taylors...this actually involved over an hours driving through town to see several "friends of his" to get a commision for the suit....but not after having to endure the suicide driving of my Tuk Tuk driver...only on 2 occasions were there all 3 wheels of his contraption on the road at any one time and narrowly avoiding cars buses pedestrians and head on collisions driving down the wrong side of the road did I struck up a rapport with my captureer, I mean driver...well after several near death experiences it was inevitable...I thought it best to keep the conversation down to a minimum because he would turn his around 180 degrees to chat leaving no-one seeing what the next potential accident may bring....after several tours of taylors...and on the last occasion when getting back into the back of the vehicle I noticed that not all the whell nuts were on ...only 3 when there was quite clearly another wheel bolt for another nut to go onto....by now I had decided to ask him to return to the Khosan road where I also knew of a taylor and I couldnt handle anymore of Bangkoks traffic pollution, in 1 hour it felt as if I had smoked 40 cigarettes and had 5 Cuban Cohibas.
I found my taylor and a deal was struck then I decided to steady myself after such a hairaising experience...5 locally produced Chang beers did the trick then I had another one and started to get unsteady again, where the whole unsteadyness started all over again....still unsteady I wandered off to look around town knowing that I had to be back for 7pm to get my second fitting for my suit at the taylors...