The movie is playing at this arthouse theater called "House RCA". I asked Dad's coworker Kun Egg (cool Thai dude who's into movies) about how to get there when he was at Dad's party and oh my did it sound daunting. Take a taxi or scooter (they're cheaper but I rode one once and it damn near made me crap myself, the drivers are madmen!) to this hotel and then hop on a "khlong" (they're water taxis, pretty helpful for accessing sort of out-of-the-way areas more easily gotten to by boat) and take it up one stop and then take ANOTHER taxi to RCA. Whew! Fortunately I had the sense to look up the theater first and upon checking out their map determined that it's very close to a subway stop. This seemed downright serendipitous as I'd been meaning to try out the subway system but hadn't had a reason to yet.
So on I went to the subway which was a bewildering experience, like the SkyTrain the amount you pay depends on how far you go. Once you put in your destination and give the machine your money it in turn spits out...a black plastic coin. Wow, WASN'T what I was expecting. So now that I've got my trusty coin in hand I walk up to the gates with a crowd of people behind me and notice there's no slot to put the coin in. Not wanting to hold up the line I pull a caveman move and simply slap my magical coin against the accursed barrier and VOILA, the doors open! Well to be honest I just figured I would try and use it the same way the SkyTrain works but seriously, who would logically assume that a COIN should be held up against a CARD READER? Thai madness! Anyway I find my way down to the subway platform and an interesting thing I notice is that the railway is closed off by sliding doors. In other words nobody can accidentally/on purpose jump onto the rails as the doors only open when the subway doors line up with them. Wow, that's sorta brilliant!
Arriving at my destination (one stop away, what a trip!) I find myself at another gate and discover that NOW is the time for me to deposit my coin into a slot. Alright, I guess I can see how the system makes sense--although I definitely wanna go back at some point and document the process via photos (preferably when there's not a swarm of commuters behind me) so you can feel my confusion. Heading up to land (the subway's about 3 floors underground) I come out of the station and immediately have NO idea where I am. Definitely should've printed out that map of the place. Undaunted I decide to do what I always do when lost which is pick a direction and stick to it. Pass some cool places on the way, such as this joint:
Man I wish I was hungry because I looooves me some BBQ! Passed a couple more specifically barbeque places too, this area must be BBQ central! Moving on, after walking about ten minutes in my chosen direction (right, if you're curious) and not coming upon my destination I figure I might as well take my chances with a taxi seeing as how there's a sea of them flowing right beside me. I flag one down and upon being asked where I want to go answer "RCA?" hoping it's a popular joint and sure enough it is. I'm worried for a bit that he's taking me to some TOTALLY different place because we get on a highway and stuff but about ten minutes later he drops me off, points across the street and says "There's RCA. You cross." Not realizing what this entails I happily pay the dude and get out, at which point I assess the situation furthter and realize I need to cross SIX LANES OF HIGHWAY TRAFFIC!
In short this experience was TERRIFYING. I must have stood at the first crossing for ten minutes just watching the unending stream of traffic go by in a daze, trying to even fathom how somebody could cross this. A fellow came along and proceeded to perform this seemingly impossible task before me and I stood by suitably transfixed and watched. The dude waited until there was a lull in one lane, walked out as far as he could and then STOOD BETWEEN THE LANES AND WAITED. Traffic whizzing by as he just stands there all humdrum, tapping his foot until there's enough of a gap that he can walk to the other side. I should have just walked beside him and gotten across at the same time but I could not bring myself to do it, I don't even get courage in groups! Eventually there was maybe a 5 second break in traffic and I BOOKED it, full out sprinted to the middle area. Woo, halfway done!! I won't belabor the story by describing the other crossing but eventually I bolted my way across that side too. Next time I am DEFINITELY paying the extra 10 cents just to have the taxi driver flip around!
Near-death experience now behind me I trepidatiously tread forward into the great unknown which is RCA. The thing I didn't realize (the map doesn't exactly show it) is that RCA is actually a street lined mostly with bars (they were the only thing open at least, although it WAS 8PM) and at the end of it was the theater I was looking for. One bar I passed was blasting some incredibly loud club music atop of which rode a subwoofer that sounded like rhythmic thunder. On a lark I put my hand up against the wall and felt the building literally SHAKING. Also took a few pictures of the posters outside of the place because they were...odd.
I like to read the one on the top as if were a very theatrical queen exclaiming "Easy stud, MY will you be Bronco!" Not sure what the word "Bronco" would mean as an adjective in that context but hey, it entertains me. Also I really don't think I could bring myself to dare to touch the one on the bottom, not that there's anything wrong with her but there's just something about the challenging tone of her comment coupled with the fact that I can't see her other hand. Laugh if you will, but that hand could be holding a myriad of weapons with which to bludgen me!
After I had my fill of over-analyzing the posters outside of this swingin' club instead of going in and getting my dance on I mosied on over to the theater which it turns out is connected to a building that ALSO has a "Bowling & Karaoke" joint AND Go-Karts! Hells yeah!
Turns out the Bowling & Karaoke place is shut down though, at least as far as I can tell:
Bummer. Go Kart place was totally open though, just to make this post super-media excessive here's a video of some people driving in it:
Another thing that was attached to the theater was a supermarket and seeing as how I had about an hour to kill before the movie started I set off to wander about in there and look for anything out of the ordinary. Happened upon a couple interesting things:
Cartoon characters are so inspiring, I mean here the top one has dehydrated fish strips for teeth and still he keeps on smiling! Maniacally, even! As for the faux Ariel hawking fried seaweed she seems a little TOO happy considering what she's marketing, so happy in fact that I had no choice but to buy some! Really not much of a gamble though, it was about 30 cents and I figured I like the seaweed that wraps up sushi. Turns out I was right to purchase it as they're very tasty, in essence they were like flat sheets of seaweed-flavored potato chips. Oh and a weird thing about them is the only way to bite off a portion was to soak the area with your tongue, sort of a hard explanation to follow but basically you couldn't really bite through it easily and yet saliva made it melt in your mouth. Still, it's something I'd certainly buy again.
Anyway moving on to the movie theater itself, this is seriously the best theater I have EVER been in! Not because it's all huge and plush like the cineplexes that are at every mall here but because it had a personality and identity all it's own. Let's start with the outside and especially the doors:
Now THOSE are some doors! I'd estimate they're about ten feet tall, I felt like I was entering Oz when I came upon them. As you can see from the first picture there's some neat fixtures inside, here's a couple pictures of them up close:
I wish America didn't give up on circles in architecture/interior design in the 60's because it's seriously just so fetching. Space Age Bachelor Pads 4 life! Anyway having acquired my ticket ($3, can't beat it!) I headed down the loooong hallway to the theater and was met by some absolutely charming wall art on my right:
These must be from the connect-the-dots book Tim Burton had as a kid! Seriously though, WAAAY too cool and they went along the ENTIRE hallway. Speaking of which after making my way to the end of said hallway I turned left and came upon the entrance to the theaters itself:
I really wish the pictures weren't so dark because it didn't actually look like this at all, it was very bright and cheery but I didn't have enough batteries to use the flash so there you go. Either way aren't those entrances AWESOME?!?! I honestly just want to live in this theater, make my home up in the projection booth and eat nothing but popcorn and theater confections. It would be a short life but a fulfilling one. Back to the subject at hand, pictures having been taken and experience subsequently documented I went into the theater and...well, watched the movie. Something worth mentioning though: I was the only person who purchased a ticket for this showing (it was the last one, 10PM) so I was all alone in the theater and that FREAKED ME OUT. Well at first it did, once the movie started my brain was focused on something and not left to wander about in my terrifying imagination. I don't know why but my imagination wants me on edge at every given moment, and considering I haven't used it for anything creative in awhile it makes me wish I could just get rid of the stupid thing. Ah well, moving on...
After the movie was over I ambled back through my now-favorite-movie-theater ever to the entrance and was shown out by a friendly security guard. I grabbed a taxi right outside of the theater (well some hot chicks got one first but hey, they were hot chicks!) and realized upon receiving a confused look from the taxi driver when I said "MRT/Subway" that I didn't remember the name of the MRT stop I came from or know how to say "subway" in Thai. I didn't even bother racking my brain for Thai words since I know maybe ten total and said "SkyTrain?" and made a movement with my hand like it was below ground and he said "Ah, blahblahblah!" (I really need to start making an effort to learn vocabulary from these experiences instead of immediately disregarding it, very bad habit!) and drove me to the subway which turned out to be really close to RCA if I had taken a LEFT! Ah well, 50/50 chance.
Anyway once we got there he asked me where I was going and I told him my address, he said "Oh, that's really close!" and figuring there was no need to leave the taxi I had him take me the rest of the way. He was the first taxi driver I've come across who was actually chatty, he asked me where I was from and I said "America" and he said "Oh, America, very good! We happy you have Obama!" and I laughed and said "Me too!" Once we arrived outside of the house I offered him some of the fried seaweed and he said "Hmm, I'll try a LITTLE..." and snapped off a bit. Gave him a better tip since he was so friendly, he seemed sort of taken aback by it (which is funny because I gave him 60 cents instead of the standard tip which no matter how far you go is about 15 or 30 cents) but wished me a good night.
Well that's finally the end of it, still haven't quite mastered the art of being succint but I'll keep on trying! As I said before I'll make the review of the film a seperate post so this one isn't as perilously long as SOME of my past entries have been (plus this one's got pictures!) AND that way not everybody has to read a film review about a porno theater in the Philippines if they don't want to. Everybody wins!
