I love it when things like this happen. I was in Bangkok over the weekend, but it appears that not everyone knows who I am. If ever you want to engage in a bit of role play, Bangkok is the place to do it.

The first case of mistaken identity happened on Friday night at CRC Tower. I was queuing to get into the Heaven and Hell party when one of the girls at the reception desk said, “Oh hey, you work for Prestige don’t you?” I freelance for Prestige sometimes so I just nodded. The girl then turned to another girl and said, “It’s the Australian guy from Prestige,” obviously mistaking me for my friend Jay.

I just went with it. “I graduated from Canberra University,” beamed one of the girls. Apparently, Jay is held in quite high regard at CRC Tower because the girls made a real effort to get me in, and at the bar one of them even came to serve me before anyone else.

Even better than being mistaken for an Aussie: at the big Halloween party at Chula on Saturday, I was sat down with two French friends when a couple of very excited guys (one Thai, one farang) came over and asked, “Are you guys the band?” I was stunned and just said, “Yeah, we’re the band,” with a big smile.

Whatever band we were supposed to be, apparently these guys were fans because they enthusiastically asked if they could join us. “So what time are you on,” said the farang guy. “Later on,” I replied. “So are you guys on tour? How long are you here for?” he asked. “We’re here for a couple of weeks. Gonna head down to the islands I think; travel about for a bit,” I said.

As it transpired, I was the singer of this band and my two friends were the keyboard player and the bass guitarist. Unfortunately our drummer was AWOL. These two guys, no older than myself, seemed ecstatic to be hanging out with us. “You want some pizza?” the Thai guy asked my friend. “I’ve got some in my bag.” Sure enough, he had a pizza in his backpack.

It was just one of those weekends when crazy things seemed to happen. I guess that’s Bangkok all over.