2024 Travels

The following morning, before I could hardly open my eyes, Jason was champing at the bit to get back to the shops. There was no way he was going to miss out on a post-post Boxing Day bargain. And the thought that the shops might be closed over the New Year period didn’t impress little miss shopaholic. Jason wanted to make sure that he filled his broken suitcase. The suitcase was as good as new with some sticky tape from Mr DYI. MacGyver would be proud!

The fear of a great shop shutdown meant there was no time for our usual nana nap. This was replaced with shopping, right up to the time we needed to get ready for the White Party at Siam Paragon. After pruning and preening, we got into a taxi to go to the event. This was probably our biggest mistake – we should have just taken the BTS. We got almost to the end of our route before getting stuck in traffic, just as we were approaching Rama I Road. We sat for about 10 mins without moving. In the end, we decided to jump out and walk the last few hundred metres. Jason was panicking that the fare would skyrocket if we stayed in the taxi any longer.

We eventually arrived at Siam Paragon where the White Party was being held. There were no lineups to get our wrist bands. We went straight through. It was still early, too early to go into the event itself, so we hung around the shopping centre in our white angel outfits, sans wings and headdress. After a while we thought "bugger it" we’ll go in, top up our wristbands, because everything needed to be paid via our wristbands.

There wasn’t a line up at security either. We were expecting an hour to get our wristbands and another hour to go through security. Maybe security had nothing to do, but this was the most thorough search, they even went through my wallet. When we went to the toilets to change into our full outfit, we got padded down again.

As we walked to the photo area, an area set up with all kinds of props and company marketing backgrounds, we were asked to pose in the Gay Marriage in Thailand exhibition. As we started to head into the main exhibition hall, we were ushered by a photographer to pose on a throne positioned just outside. We both sat on each arm of the throne flanked by muscle queens. We felt like celebrities for a nanosecond.

We had VIP tickets but at this stage of the night there were very few people in the arena. But by 10pm the situation had changed and the arena was almost full to its 10,000-person capacity. Before it got too crowded, we made our way to the VIP section, where we met another guy dressed as an angel. It was the holy trinity 😂

The production of the White Party was next level. At times there were aerial acrobatics throughout the arena. Or a stage filled with scantily clad Adonises. Towards the end of the evening, Pangina Heals from RuPaul’s drag race performed, flanked also by muscle Adonises and flying high into the arena’s rooftop.

We stayed until about 2am and then thought we’d try to avoid the crowd exiting at the end of the event. To get out, you had to take a lift or escalator from the top floor of Siam Paragon, a five level shopping centre. 10,000 people trying to exit all at once was going to be a nightmare.

We made our way to the ground level as we prepared to walk the 40-minute journey home. We thought getting a taxi would be near impossible. So we decided to walk to the other side of the road rather than try to barter with tuk-tuk drivers outside the shopping centre.

A driver approached us and we started the negotiation process. The starting price was 400 baht but we were firm that we were only prepared to pay 200 baht. He accepted the deal as we quickly jumped in the back of the tuk-tuk. He spun off a million kilometres an hour. These angels had their wings clipped but they were now flying through the streets of Bangkok in a tuk-tuk. As we turned the corner I thought we were going to topple over. At record speed, we arrived outside of Chong Nonsi station.

The tuk-tuk driver dropped us off only a few metres away from our hotel, and as we stumbled to the hotel we were approached by two guys who wanted a photo with us. I mean with celebrity status comes some sacrifices 😂 😂 😂

We were starving because we hadn’t eaten dinner prior to the White Party – we had to look our best for the camera!!! We stopped into our local 7-Eleven for the obligatory toasted ham and cheese sandwich with hamburger and chocolate milk. As we walked through the doors, the shop assistants all looked at us and said “suay mak” (very beautiful). With our goodies in hand, we headed back to our hotel to get a little bit of shut eye before another big night.Read more