Today’s letter is going to be another story time slinging back to our last night in Thailand this year. While we were there the whole of Bangkok was closed down for their King having a parade/celebration.
Being that it was our last night of our trip together, we wanted to drink and I did my usual not wanting to go out patter then ended up in a 30 minute taxi to a club called Insanity. We were recommended by the locals.
A good few EXTORTIONATE rounds later we were mingling and dancing and drinking and just having a rare old time. As the night went on I started to get a bit sore and began to look for a seat. After a few laps of the circle shape place we quickly realised the options for sitting down were 1. Going to the toilet and sitting on the pan or 2. Ask to have a quick sit down (willing to just go up myself) in the COMPLETELY EMPTY VIP SECTION. This section went round the outside of almost all the room, again in a circular shape and there were a few entry points with rope barriers and a bouncer at each one.
So I walked over – wearing a dress so my splints were visible, along with the way I walk – asked the bouncer if I could go up and have a quick rest. Bear in mind this whole night there was quite a large language barrier which was understandable. The bouncer kind of nodded and said if you’re quick, but then when he saw me going up the steps he pulled me back down and said no. Basically because I was making too much of a scene.
So me being me, a few beers deep, took the matter into my own hands and sat on the ground. Right in the way. If they weren’t going to let me sit in one of their 50+ empty seats then I found my own seat. Obviously they were on me like flies, swarmed around me and I ended up having to get up and they said I could sit down ‘through here’.
Thinking they were outsmarting us, they took us out the back and tried to get me to go down 2 sets of stairs and sit in a takeaway next door but as soon as I got out I just plonked myself down on the steps. This is where it started to ramp up – pardon the pun.
By this point I had about 4 or 5 huge men watching every move I made. My friends were consistently trying to explain to them I just needed a seat to have a rest for 5 mins then we would be back inside, spending money and out the way. They were shouting and making way more of a scene than I was by sitting there, saying I couldn’t sit there because I was blocking the staircase you could fit 8 of me sitting across. My mate is at the point she is bash knocking on my splints shouting that I can’t go down the stairs and THEY LITERALLY CAME UP AND GRABBED MY ARMS TO PULL ME DOWN THE STAIRS.
If my friends hadn’t have been there, who actually knows what would have happened. At the time I didn’t feel unsafe, just ridiculed but looking back if I was on my own I would’ve been terrified. When they grabbed me, being the Oscar winner I am, I just went as limp as humanly possible and laid my full weight on them. They quickly backed off when they realised they couldn’t just slump me away quietly.
Through absolute persistence and defiance, I sat on the steps for a rest then crawled back up the steps like a crab to be met by a wall of bouncers who were now not going to let me back in. LITERALLY WHAT THE F!
Like some sort of saving grace, the first woman worker appeared and I went over on a whim to see if she would listen to the entire ridiculous situation and get these pricks aff ma back. I wouldn’t say there was any sort of acknowledgement or recompense but thankfully she let us back in. I will add here that due to the celebrations in the city we had no other options of places to go. Otherwise I wouldn’t have stayed.
Regardless of cultural, language, infinite differences, the way I was treated was undoubtedly inhumane. This all started because they wouldn’t let me sit down on an empty seat in their VIemptyP section. Also the fact that the entire non-VIP section (- which was rammed) had absolutely nowhere to sit even if they wanted to.
To be absolutely honest I don’t know much about accessible laws in Thailand. They did have a lift that they let me use without too much of a fuss which didn’t really add up with the following ordeal. I wouldn’t encourage anyone with any sort of injury or disability or desire to sit down with your drink unless you’re willing to go and sit in the toilet cubicle. Also from the perspective of my non-disabled friends, they were afronted to witness the treatment I got and I think I can safely say they would also encourage not to contribute to this establishment – if you’re ever in the area.
❤
SPLINT UP, LOOK SHARP 