A common sight: squat toilet and DIY flushing.

After dinner, Mon took me to the nearby mega nightclub. This place was huge.

Mon and I having another beer

A local band came on and played their hearts out to the empty seats.

They were good.

Mon gave them a request. Some Thai song I couldn't recognize.

Driving back to the old city, we got stuck in traffic for almost an hour. That weekend was the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the King's ascension to the throne. Many major streets were closed off, decorated in these fantactic lights. While we crawled along, we marveled at the display and all the locals out en masse to enjoy it.

The next morning would be a official holiday, to honor their King-- so everyone was out late on the town.

It was around here that Mon lost some of my confidence. He began to argue very strongly to go to a brothel. Just like the gem hucksters, he was telling me that he knew a good "Government run place" that was santioned by the authorities to be safe and high quality. Yeah right.

After a while, Mon relented and agreed to drive me back to my hotel. He was trying to stay friendly, but I had a bitter taste in my mouth-- I couldn't help shake the feeling that all his goodwill was just a scheme to get me to spend money at the brothel.