Thursday night, we all planned to go out on the town for Bijan's last night. I left early to meet Lucy and Eleanor for a drink to hear all about their trip to Cambodia and planned to meet up with everyone else for dinner. Around 6:30, I called the hosue to get the address and name of the restaurant they had decided on and talked to Russ, who told me that we were going to the 'Bangkok Bar' and gave me the address, warning me that there were two 'Bangkok Bar's, one of which was on Khoa San Road, and we were going to the other one. I thanked him, told him I'd see him at 7:30 and went back to Lucy and Eleanor.
At 7:00 we parted ways, Lucy and Eleanor to the house to get some rest and finish packing, and me to the Bangkok Bar. Armed with my napkin bearing the name and address of my destination, I flagged down the first cab that passed.
When I got in the cab, I handed my napkin to the driver, who took it and began driving off. Watching as he attempted to drive and read at the same time, I asked, in my rudamentary Thai, if he knew where it was. He answered me by pulling over to the side of the road, motioning for me to 'wait right there', and jumping out of the cab. He proceeded to walk up to everyone who passed, handing them my napkin and, presumably, asking them if they knew where it was. Finally, he found someone who said they knew, because he walked over with another Thai man who opened my door and said, "Where do you want to go?" I answered that I wanted to go to the 'Bangkok Bar' on R-something road. He, looked at the driver, spoke to him in Thai and then turned to me and said, "How much will you give him? You give him 200 bhat." Knowing that, 1) it is illegal for a taxi driver to ask you for an un-metered fare, and 2) that it would take a good two hour cab ride for the fare to get up to 200 bhat, I pointed at the meter and said, "No. I will pay him the metered fare." The cab driver then thanked him, got in, and looking at me, pointed at the man and made a face, shaking his hand at him. "Meter," he said and smiled at me. And we were off.
The next thing I knew, we were driving down a very familiar street and before I could think to say anything, he stopped the cab and he pointed at a sign above a bar. Realizing that he had taken me to the wrong bar, I told him as much and half spoke, half pantomimed my request for him to turn around the next corner and I would get out and ask someone else. He nodded and took me around the corner where I got out and asked a woman behind the counter in a guest house if she knew of the road I was looking for. She said she did and agreed to come out and give the driver directions. Once the message had been conveyed, we were off again.
After another few short turns, I noticed, to my great pleasure, that the street sign matched the address on my napkin. We drove for about half a mile and the driver pulled over again. He turned to me and I told him the address, to which he motioned for me to give him my napkin and he left me again to survey people on the street. Again, I found myself talking to an English speaking Thai man, telling him that I wanted to go to the 'Bangkok Bar' and that there were two of them, one on this street and one that everyone seemed to know about, near Khoa San Road. Unfortunately, he didn't know of either and so I thanked him, thanked (and tipped) the driver and took my leave, figuring that if I had the address and was on the right road, finding the restaurant couldn't be that hard.
Walking across the street, I stopped the first few foreigners I saw, none of whom had heard of the 'Bangkok Bar.' One man told me that I might have luck asking inside the restaurant because they would probably know the area and the spoke some English. So I went in and inquired, explaining my situation again. The young man behind the counter immediately whipped out a pen and a napkin and proceeded to draw me a map, saying, "Easy, easy. Close, close." He then walked me through the map (up to the light, right turn, walk to the bank, right turn, 'Bangkok Bar' on your right). Relieved to have finally gotten directions, especially as it was a few mintues past when I was suppossed to meet everyone, I thanked them and hurridly headed for the door.
I walked down the street, made a right, found the bank, but after another right, things seemed to be looking uneasily familiar... Khoa San Road. I was back to where I started! Not one to give up, I turned right around and determinedly made my way back to where I had started from.
When I made it back to the main road, I decided to start from the beginning and make my way down. I knew it was getting late, but I figured that if they were there for dinner, I would at least make it in time for dessert, if nothing else. Just as I neared the end of the second block, I looked up to see Russ's smiling face coming towards me on the sidewalk. Elated, I ran over to him and found that they had been driving around lost in their cab as well and when he saw me, he yelled for the driver to stop so he could come and get me. A few seconds later, everyone else walked up and we shared our stories. It turns out that thier driver had been taking them the wrong way as well and had they not seen me, it is very likely that we would have never met up.
Happy to be reunied with my friends, I joined them for about a half mile walk, where we finally found the 'Bangkok Bar,' although you never would have known it from the sign. Apparantely, the 'Bangkok Bar' had changed it's name a month earlier and was now a completely different restaurant.
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