Baiyoke Towering Buffet!!!

Baiyoke II Tower is proudly advertising itself as Bangkok's tallest building, and towering 304 meters above the asphalt it sure is. Since I myself happen to be a tall guy, I thought to go and check it out. Accompanied by a sweet girl that also happened to have worked in the now closed Japanese restaurant on the 23rd floor, I felt confident I would blend in as one of the many tourists hoping to catch a glimpse of Bangkok's skyline trough the smog. No smog, but lots of tourists though. Russians, Japanese, Chinese, Germans! But mainly bulky and noisy Russians who easily win the unaware-of-your-bad-taste-contest from the Americans. I mean, who makes this shirts anyway? (If they are made in China, I'll have to give it to them for having a knack for wicked humor, and the guts for bringing it on the market, hoping there would be something like Russian tourists to buy them.) Forget about Hawaiian designs, forget about the "My Sister-in-law's-niece went to Zimbabwe and all she...". This stuff would make John Waters drool pure snot from the cavities under his tongue. (What, you didn't know he had cavities under his tongue? Well, then maybe you also didn't know he can be seen in "Seed of Chucky", the latest, well.. what do you think.) Anyways, I tried taking a picture of them but all I got was a loud scream from my camera as I pointed it towards the Russians. And then nothing. Just pitch black screen. Battery fried. That's for trying.
Baiyoke II tower. Yes. Why did I wanted to share this?
Because of this godly invention called "All You Can Eat" which in my case means "All I Can Eat And Then Some More". For 9 euros I got an entry ticket for the 77th floor featuring the skyline, and a voucher to get into the walking buffet on the 78th floor, which soon turned into a one-man marathon buffet. I did all the continents in 4 plates, saving some space for dessert. (Note: skip the following part if you are on a diet) I vaguely remember eating Teriyaki with soya-pepper-sauce, Tagliatelli with REAL bolognese sauce (most of the time they just chop the beef up in little pieces and wok it after adding some tomatoes on top), sliced duck in raisin-sauce (just like Christmas), mashed potatoes and mayonnaise, French-fries (crispy!!!), red snapper in some spicy salsa, more mashed potatoes with mayonnaise, Japanese kinda pizza stuff, salad-stuff with thousand island sauce, springrolls in sweet and sour, Hong-Kong style beef goulash (just goulash with a delicate burned aroma to it), grilled squid, again mashed potatoes with Mayo, and lots of other things that went into some black hole where some people presume I have a tummy. I'm sure I forgot to mention lots of things, but you see, it all went blurry and stuff after the elevator doors 'pinged' open to the heaven of floor 78. I do remember trying to keep a low profile by seating me and the missus next to a table of porky Russians, but I'm not sure it worked. Unless taking mugshots from stuffed and still starving visitors and printing them out accompanied with many funny red characters and even more !!!'s for their complete staff is standard procedure in Baiyoke II.

All in all it was a good evening out, and in doing so I am sure I helped the many people that have suffered from the tidal wave, since these days every business in this town is trying in some way to divert some of their profits to a helping organization.
There are many ways in which the Thais try to help the disaster-stricken locals and tourists in the southwest. At New-year's eve for example many of the Go-Go Bars in Patpong and Nana lured hordes of men in with the promise that a 100 Baht of the Barfine would go to an organization helping orphans in the south. (Barfines are around 500 Baht and have to be paid to MamaSan or ManagerSan for relieving them of one of their numerous dancers or short-skirted waitresses). Many nightclubs mentioned in their ad's that on this or that night 20 percent of their profits would go to the south. I couldn't help but wonder if this meant 20 percent of their profits before or after the local law-enforcement had taken their cut out of the pie. But even the cops where doing their best: in Kao San Road they had set up a large glass container to be filled with banknotes and coins, while a little flyer on the side mentioned the purpose. I guess about half of the local police force had decided to guard it as there stood a brown mass of uniforms all around the container, with accompanying serious looks. In doing so I think they managed to scare of most of the donators, since being stoned is still a serious and expensive offense in this country. But the intention was there.
Thai youngsters armed with a guitar and lots of off-key voices where raising money on a street corner. (Usually these groups perform just for the fun of it, or because of the level of alcohol in their bloodstreams, but today they had the ingenious idea of laying a hat on the pavement in front of them. This and a little "Help Thailand" note made up for the shrieking voices and unnerving accords stricken.)
In a pub on Kao San Road one of the many freelancers there (some are freelancers because they don't like the stigma of being a Bargirl, others because their monthly health-tests didn't please their MamaSan and as a result got sacked) proudly announced she was going to give blood for the second time tomorrow! And after saying this she sloshed (couldn't really find a more appropriate term here) her jug of Heineken down her hatch. (I'm not sure if "hatch" is appropriate, 'cause in general hatches from hootches don't make burping sounds that could make grown elephants cry)
Again, it is the gesture that counts. All in all, the Thai are all very keen in helping out, not in the least because 89 percent of them are superstitious and Buddhist, a combination that makes them believe good Karma can be bought. By donating blood, by giving part of your gray-area profits to NGO's, and so on. But all in all, most people here really feel like the important thing is just to do something while doing what they have to do anyway. Life goes on, but while it goes on and on and on, most of these people subtly and in one way or another try and make a little difference for the unlucky ones...