First Night, Last Night

I am a great lover of all things Thailand and have been since my 1st visit back in 2000. Normally I travel to Phuket and stay in Karon Beach at a friends bar where many a good time has been had, unfortunately nowadays it no longer exists.

This trip I had decided to try somewhere new and along with my Dad who has accompanied me on most of my Thai adventures and my best friend who after 4 years of persuasion had finally agreed to come for his first trip, we settled on a 16 night
vacation to Pattaya. Arrival in Bangkok was fine, the minibus we had booked was there and waiting and in all the Pattaya trip was a great success so much that I have already booked my next visit for later this year. But I digress as this particular
story is all about the last night which incidentally happened to be my first ever stay in Bangkok.

We were flying back to England on the 12.30pm flight on the Sunday and due to my best friend being unable to get out of bed early (due in part to the many TGs that had kept him company over the first 15 nights), we decided to travel to Bangkok
and spend the last night there. We booked into the Walburi (I think that’s the correct spelling) down Soi Nana and once our bags had been dropped off in the rooms it was time to go explore and see what the City had to offer.

Well being new to the area we ended up walking up Soi Nana towards the plaza and after passing the few bars that were open, crossed the main road (no idea what its called) and headed down one of the sois opposite. All we were really looking
for was a bar to get a cold beer and maybe look at some lovely ladies, but as I found out later it’s a bit early to get that unless you know where you are going. We walked for a bit and after passing the first couple of bars we came across
(all closed) we were approached by a tuktuk driver asking us what we wanted. We agreed a price for his services and told him where we wanted to go and what it was we wanted to do, NOT a soapie as I have read about the drivers all getting paid
to take you there. We all piled into the tuktuk and bearing in mind my father is no slim lad it was a crush. What an experience, I swear it was going over a couple of times and I must have smoked at least half a pack of cigarettes on that trip.
Well as you can expect the driver took us to a soapie and we all obliged by heading in for a beer. I had promised myself the service of one of these establishments this time out and having not partaken of its delights yet I decided to stay. The
other of my group all declined and after picking my lady of choice off I went.

I will not go into detail of the actual event as they have been written up many times by far better writers than me. After enjoying the ladies company I headed back to Soi Nana and a beer. I grabbed a taxi at the end of the street and off
we went back to Soi Nana and my beer. That journey has to be one of the scariest rides of my life. No window winders in the back, the handles are all missing and the guy behind the wheel must have thought Thailand was hosting its first grand prix.
I stopped at a bar opposite the entrance to Nana Plaza and had a couple of beers just to calm my nerves then headed back to the hotel for a quick nap before heading out for the evening. Once back at the hotel I met up with my mate and ended up
downing a couple with him, all thoughts of sleep having disappeared.

Once we had all got changed and ready for our last night out we headed back up Soi Nana and stopped at a nice German restaurant for something to eat. Once fed and watered it was time to explore the nightlife on offer. Out first port of call
had to be Nana Plaza, after reading so many fine reports on what it has to offer I just had to experience it for myself.

When we go out as a group we employ a selection rule where by we take turns to decide on the location and that person also pays the bin before we leave. To date it has worked out very well and is a good way of everyone doing things they like
without any arguments. As my mate was in front he went first and we headed up to the 1st floor in Nana Plaza where he made a bee line for G-Spot. A nice gogo and some very beautiful girls, they also do a nice shower show that was very entertaining.
My dad tried to stitch us up with a couple of girls and ended up with 2 very young, very pretty girls sat on his lap while me and Ali fell about laughing at how his joke had backfired on himself. We finished up in G-Spot and headed out, my dad
took the lead and naturally the next choice.

He headed for a gogo in the corner of the 1st floor and on seeing the girls (I use that word lightly) sat outside we both clicked where he was taking us. After some discussion between me and Ali we decided it was his choice so in we went.
We were right it was a katoey bar and on walking in we were besieged by about 6 katoeys all ushering us to sit etc. I managed to position myself in between my dad and Ali and thinking I was safe drew a sigh of relief. Seeing I was reasonably protected
in the middle my Dad moved so the service staff could come and pester me, oh my god what was I doing here. Now as I mentioned earlier the person who chooses the bar also pays the check bin so me and Ali offered every katoey within earshot a drink
and bumped the bin up nicely, that will teach him to stitch us up like that.

You have never seen 3 guys down a drink so quickly; once our drinks arrived it took us all of 2 minutes to down the drinks pay the bin and head (run) for the door.

Breathing a sigh of relief I took up point and needing a quiet atmosphere to regain composure we headed to the bar in the far corner overlooking the entrance. We stopped here for a couple and then decided to move to the 2nd floor. After managing
to get past the very persistent gogo girls by and on the steps we made it up to the next floor and choose the carousel as our port of call.

As we walked in they were already well into their shower show and for some strange reason Ali choose to sit right by the stage. Not a great position in my opinion as I like to get an overall view of the girls rather than getting a kink in
my neck. We ordered a few cocktails and settled down to watch the show. The shower show finished shortly after our arrival and the normal girls came out and started doing there thing. One girl seemed to like my father a lot and would walk backwards
on the carousel to keep in front of him. Unfortunately for her he was tired and it wasn’t long before he finished his drink and decided to head back to the hotel. Saying goodbye he headed off (leaving us the bin) and seeing that a better
view point was free me and Ali moved across to get comfortable.

Ali caught the eye of a very attractive dancer and was soon chatting away and getting on well. It was while he had popped to the toilet that the girl he was chatting to pointed out a waitress that was eying me up (I am a Hansum man). I checked
her out and she was a very attractive girl looked about 22 and as I later found out she was actually 25. Now as I had wanted to go to the Nana Disco and I already knew that Ali was heading back to the hotel soon I quickly got chatting to this
girl and after an agreeable 15 minute chat I paid her bar fine and off she went to get changed. Once back Ali gave the girl he was chatting to a tip, I paid the bin and the 3 of us headed out into the night. At the entrance to Nana Plaza Ali headed
off to the hotel and I and my girl went to the disco.

What a great place, fantastic music a real party atmosphere and some absolute stunners strutting there stuff. We got our drinks and immediately headed to the dance floor where I proceeded to strut my stuff and impress the masses with my moved
(okay that’s my opinion). The night there was great and I was sad that it seemed to end quickly as I do love to get down. Well as with all things it had to end so I took tonight’s lucky lady (wish I could remember her name) out for
something to eat. We had some great Thai food and as I was still wanting to party we piled into a tuktuk and went out in search of fun.

She took us to a couple of places all of which were unfortunately closed and eventually we came to a roof top bar that was open and in/up we went for refreshments and conversation. The bar we entered was really nice and we soon found a couple
of empty stools at the end of the bar and settled down for the duration, unlike my traveling companions I had no intention of letting my last night slip by while I slept.

The girl I was with turned out to be extremely good company and we were engrossed in a conversation when I heard some young lad start to have a go at the couple that were sat next to us. He was telling this bloke that he shouldn’t
treat a lady that way and after calming him down and assuring the guy there were merely playing off he trotted. After catching some of the conversation and hearing an English voice I couldn’t help but introduce myself and much to my surprise
I had just met one of the writers for StickmanBankok (yes Union Hill, I did manage to make my flight that morning although I didn’t get any sleep that night). We exchanged thoughts on the young lad who had initiated our conversation and
after admiring the lady Union was with we drifted back to our own conversations stopping every now and again to chat on a subject or another.

Well we left the bar shortly after 6 AM and headed back to my hotel, it was only at this point that I realized we had headed back to Soi Nana and were only a 5 min walk from my hotel. I escorted the TG I was with back to my room and we had
our respective showers and funnily enough carried on our conversation until animal desire took over and enjoyment was had by both parties. About 10 minutes after getting cleaned up and relaxing once more on the bed I get my alarm call followed
by a call from my Dad reminding me we were having breakfast down stairs in 20 minutes. I left my TG asleep and headed down for a strong cup of coffee followed by another and after falling asleep briefly at the table I had to head back to the room,
wake up the girl and head down to meet the minibus taking us to the airport.

All in all it was a fantastic night, I got to visit some of the places I had been reading about and after many visits to Thailand I finally spent the night there. It was made all the better by meeting Union Hill and having a good chat with
him, which is what brings me to finally write a submission of my own. My next trip back to Thailand I am doing the first night in Bangkok so I guess this time I had better add Eden to my to do list.

Stickman's thoughts:

There is a certain thrill in finally visiting all of the places you have read so much about.