The Invictus

Damn me %$%^^^&&&& and then some more %&^*((&%$##...

I CHICKENED OUT!!!!! I've become my own worst fear....I have lost my identity...Oh yes, I've been thoroughly "domesticated" by marriage...

What else can explain this?

I decided to stay back in Bangkok for an additional day & half (i wrapped up all my work by today afternoon, and planned to take the whole of today, and tomorrow) with the sole intention of exploring the..err ahem..the "more interesting" opportunities that the city has to offer...to cut the bullshit exaggeration short, I wanted to go to one of the many strip-bars / sleaze bars in Patpong, the notoriously sleazy district of Bangkok for a "dekho" (and some beer, of course - nothing more than that, I swear!) tonight...As per plan, I finished whatever little shopping I had to do (won't be allowed inside my house without them, you see!), and kept the entire evening - actually night - free for Patpong...except that my rationalising mind had to do some stupid rationalising..

"Why go all the way to Patpong for beer, when you can get all that on Sukhumvit Road just a few meters away from the hotel i'm staying at?"...So at sharp 8:00 PM, off I went, trudging along the burden of high hopes (of a "dekho", silly). To the friendly neighborhood "Mini-Patpong"..So far so good..*Darn* That's when the chicken soup in my soul started to stir and cluckle (or whatever sound they are supposed to make)...I passed the place a couple of times, bought a pack of Marlboros that I've long stopped smoking (reassuring feeling of a companion from days of cowboy yore) and passed the place a couple of times more...By now, the chicken in me had grown louder..so loud that even Jack Canfield (the guy who served chicken soups for many a soul, and made millions in doing so) would have stopped to admire.

so, as the story went, 8:30PM saw me back inside the comforts of my hotel, sitting in the nice "decent" bar, finishing a beer, and getting out at 9:00 (this is supposedly one of the "hip" bars in town, but all the "hip"ness starts only at 11:00PM)..and like a true chicken that lost out on a chick, I went to the in-house Thai restaurant, had some vegetarian food (i'm not a veggie, but i guess the ironical / cynical side of me had taken over), and was back in my room posting this at 9:45PM...

And calling up DC in India, and telling her about it...Only to be laughed at.

And as DC says, "AC, you have been domesticated completely by marriage". Like most chickens are.

Cluck Cluck. Eggs anyone?


PS: Since writing this, I realised that my intention to visit Patpong could be grossly misconstrued by people not familiar with Patpong..To clarify, I was refering to the many beer-bars that also double-up as strip-clubs...So the intention was to consume the former, while "just having a detached look" at the latter (and NOT the other way round, please!)...