TEMPTATION tales

In a city of forbidden pleasures, with mom in tow. Unexpected encounters and grand temples. Bangkok. Yes, the nightlife is naughty

Spirits flow freely when people head for fantasy land. On our flight, there were at least 21 tipsy men making a small din. Amused I was but stewardesses weren8217;t surprised. All Bangkok-bound flights have a few people in high spirits, they said. I just reached for my earplug and stared into the clouds. Bangkok isn8217;t all forbidden pleasures, I had been told. Grand temples and naughty nightlife, sombre tradition and electric modernity, it8217;s a city of jostling contrasts8212;one with something for everyone. A good thing since we were a bunch of five friends in the age span of 11-58. So there was mom and I, her best friend the livewire and her two sons.

At the airport, any Indian just has to feel right at home in the hustle and bustle. A must-visit is the local food court here. But if you8217;re vegetarian, stay back and guard the luggage. From duck and pork to lamb and beef and we suspect other animals too this is a carnivore8217;s paradise8212;as is Bangkok. On-the-go snacks in the city are almost always non-vegetarian. If you can stomach it, have some asli street food8212;deep-fried grasshoppers. Now since I8217;m the 8220;puran-poli-in-Paris-kinds8221;, I stuck to the familiar. But my friends did try out delicacies that had tentacles stretching across the table.

Soul food is also not hard to find. Approximately 400 temples are woven into Bangkok 8216;s streets and alleys. My pick was the Wat Pho temple. It8217;s a great centre of meditation, medical science and has, of all things, a Thai massage training school. What really draws people to it is the golden reclining Buddha. Forty-six metres long, the feet of the statue are inlaid with intricate mother-of-pearl work. And if you ever wondered how much five tons of gold is, look no further than the Wat Trai Mit temple8217;s golden Buddha. At the height of three metres, this is solid, gleaming gold.

But, by the time we had finished with the temples, 11-year-old son of mom8217;s friend had started to whine. So off we went to the Ocean World at Siam Paragon shopping mall. The size of two football fields, this is a waterworld that left the brat silenced in awe. We took a walk through a rainforest where giant water rats and ancient lungfish are on display and gazed at the marine wonders. The brave have another option: jump into the 2.8 million litre oceanarium and feed the sharks and turn shark food.

For more action for the kids, we also traipsed to Samphran Crocodile Park, 30 minutes away from the city. After some regular fun8212;a crocodile wrestling show, a photo-op with the tigers8212;there was the piegrave;ce de reacute;sistance: elephants at a football game. Rooney Wayne, take a bow was by far the cutest and he sure can dribble.

Yes, we did sample the nightlife. While most bars stay open till 2 am, there are those that will be tucked away upstairs or those that you will have to sneak in under shutters. With two boys around you8217;d think we would have to blindfold them in the lane of temptations. But instead, they were making sure Mommy didn8217;t hang around for long. But since doors to the bars were open, we had to play voyeurs 8212;stunning women in little or nothing pole dancing and getting dangerously close to smitten men. There are 8216;normal8217; bars located off Silom road but you still have to hunt for the bikini on the girls. The infamous Patpong area is the heart of nightlife, where you get glimpses of gorgeous women and men and even those who are somewhere in between.

After two days in Bangkok, we headed for Pattaya, a cooler version of Goa Goa loyalists will of course disagree. Try parasailing or walk on the ocean bed and play with sea urchins and other friendly marine creatures. At night pink neon-lighted open bars erupt with the glitter of bar girls table-top dancing. There are high chances of bumping into Indians. We had the unfortunate opportunity of watching them haggle. 8220;Arre 300 baht too much. Make it less, make it less,8221; said one sleaze-ball while his eyes roved over other women.

Story continues below this ad

The highlight of your trip here has to be the Alcazar show. On the lines of Lido and Moulin Rouge, it has great performances and extraordinary costumes. There is a sanitised version for kids. And you are never too far from India. We watched a dancer doing a titillating version of Bhumro bhumro from Mission Kashmir. She rocked. So did Bangkok.