The trouble with taking a lady to Bangkok is that all your male friends consider you a loser for it. To the single ones, taking a girl to Bangkok is akin to, well, you choose your simile. I am not single and any comments down this road will hasten my ending up that way.
I recently went to Bangkok with my major half and I have lived to tell. It was a surprise trip around Valentine’s Day. A surprise sprung on her not by me but by Uber and Musafir, who gifted us this. Imagine waking up one day to book a taxi ride and being told that instead you are flying to Bangkok later in the day? Good thing that I decided not to drive after my usual whisky breakfast that morning.
So we arrived in Bangkok almost 12 hours later than planned, no thanks to Jet Airways and the Mumbai airport. But it got better from there. Our stay was extended by Musafir and between the two of us, our love for food and all things brewed (fermented or distilled) kept us visibly elated and in sync.
Given how on our first trip there together we had managed to visit every possible strip joint on the infamous Soi Cowboy, there was little to offend us this time. From giant prophylactic inserts for all sorts of orifices to solicited offers from every possible race, sex and body type, we took it all in our stride.
As long as a good fresh seafood salad or some ripe cut mango was there to punctuate the day, we didn’t really care much for things that others may have termed uncomfortable or perturbing.
And then, there was shopping. This was tricky because shopping is like girlie magazines — supposedly intended for women but it’s really the men who enjoy the engagement.
Although every good man knows to put the lady’s interests before his own and focus on all she tries on or shows interest in, it can be well-nigh an impossible task. Focus isn’t something we men-kind are built for.
The only constant in our brain’s functioning is the sporadic impulsive pursuit of one distraction followed by another. It’s like being a puppy with a thousand coloured bouncy balls being flung your way, from every direction.
Which is why it’s a good thing for a man to get his shopping fix elsewhere. There are online portals for such, and some even allow you to choose the delivery time so you can have the goods arrive at a safe non-suspect hour.
So shopping, scrumptious food and sips covered, there is no place on earth that a man and woman can’t expect to visit together and still be together by the end of it. Come to think of it, we are all simple creatures really, as long as we manage to remember that simplicity is a complex art where mastery only comes with time.
The safest holiday, one may still propose, is when a couple takes one holiday together and one with their respective friends, but till time and resources make that a reality for most out there, the safest way is to find common interests. In the absence of that, find things she likes and adopt the ones you can.
The writer is a lover of wine, song and everything fine
