Base Camp BKK Part 1

When we married we agreed to travel each year and enjoy an exotic destination even when we had children. She understood that I was a world traveler and had grown up overseas with my petroleum engineer father. Travel is in my blood, my make up. As a bachelor
I traveled every year nationally and internationally. My parents were still living overseas during our courtship and the first few years of our marriage and I visited them regularly. She was from cow pie town and her biggest travel was to Utah.
She was excited and enthusiastic about the chance to see the beauty and cultures of the world together.

What she lacked in travel experience she made up for in beauty and passion. I’m in love. Our first international trip was to Central America to meet my parents and for me to pop the question. She accepts and our next trip is to Jamaica
for our honeymoon. That’s where it ended.

Two kids, houses, the corporate ladder climb and 13 years pass with just short trips close by or on the boat heading up and down the same river every holiday. I do travel weekly for business throughout the U.S. but I’m home usually
every weekend. I lived vicariously through family and friends as they share photos and vids of their latest expeditions. By then passion and desire had been replaced with apathetic routine, exhaustion and hopes for change. Be careful what you
hope for because it might just bite you in the butt when you least expect it!

Wished for change and change I got… via a phone call while I’m in the office…

“Hi. It’s me.” Her voice dry and monotone and very well rehearsed. “This marriage is just not working for me. I have packed the van and the kids and we are moving back to cow pie hometown. It’s over.”

Yes, I wanted to infuse change but through excitement and messing with the routine, not uprooting the family. Selfish B…

I’ll spare you any more gory details or trauma of my western divorce in California, no less.

That’s right! This sub is not about being screwed by a greedy, family focused upcountry gal or about a selfish western B. It’s about….

Freedom! Freedom! I am Free!

18 months after the divorce my company restructures and an offer of a transfer or a silver parachute (wish it had been gold) is offered me. After 20 years with them I’m burned out and take the package and quickly plan a long sabbatical!
My kids are teens and have settled in with good friends and now have little time for Dad.

My decision is made – I owe it to myself to regenerate and get my mojo vibe synched! Let’s get it on!!

Even though I married a westerner I have always been attracted to Asian women. My first girlfriend was a Korean girl living in the same apartment building in Singapore where my family was stationed while my father had a contract in Indonesia
around 1974. Since then that craving has never left me.

I knew my plans had to fulfill as many desires and voids I had felt for a long time. I head to the net and have 3 months to get a plan together as my company restructures move forward and my agreement is settled.

I go over my hopes for this badly needed sabbatical. I need peace, mood alteration and a fix for my new found bachelorhood.

Thanks to sites like Stick’s and Google, I concluded Thailand is a must.

I wanted to see and do as much as I could in the four months I had allotted this trip. Soon it became obvious to me that I wanted BKK as my base camp.

I want multiple destinations without the hassle of hauling a bunch of luggage around or a tourist group directing me. I want flexibility with comfort but I do need exotic and memorable experiences. I want to spoil myself but with value for
my hard earned cash.
Back to the internet and the book store for references and options available.

I check into a serviced apartment and set a deal with a luxury apartment building at Sukhumvit Soi 24. I chance it and book a 3 month agreement at the PP apartments over the net. I kept a month free for whatever. Base Camp has a been decided.

This a submission about my LOS trip and the excursions that emanated from my base camp BKK at the end of Soi 24.

Shall we begin?

It’s 15:00 on a Tuesday in October and I arrive BKK Don Muang airport and get through customs, change money and to my driver in less than 45 minutes. This amazes me since it takes me longer to get to my rental car in the U.S. when
flying domestic.

My driver speaks fair English and offers the usual: “You need a driver? I am available.” “Girls?” “What you do tonight?”

I had arranged a layover in Tokyo to visit some friends which gave me a nice break in plane travel. I am not that tired but I do need to shower and stretch out for a while. I tell the driver I want him to pick me up from my apartment around
21:30 for dinner and check the area out and get some company. How much will it cost? He needs 200 baht an hour for the Mercedes that night (yes pricey but I was comfortable). He tells me we should get the girls before dinner. He says this as he
motions pointing to me then back to himself in an inclusive manner. Yes, that is we. He is inviting himself to dinner. I let it go, thinking I could discuss Bangkok destinations with him at some quaint eatery only known by locals. (My first mistakes
in LOS made in less than 2 hours. LOL)

Traffic from the airport is bad and we start practicing my Thai which I have been learning from a CD program bought in the States. He explains the prefix Khun and I should call him Khun B__. I knew what Khun meant. (Mistake number ?? Many
more to laugh at will follow in future subs.)

Apartment check in is smooth but suite had to be changed which took about 20 minutes to get a new key and suite that fit the coupon sent me via internet. This suite is great.

Refreshed by the quick nap and shower I am ready when Khun B arrives about 15 minutes late. He takes me to money change and then he says he knows great seafood restaurant and some girls will meet us there. I reluctantly agreed to his direction
and I am sucked into the typical commissioned destinations for the remainder of the night. Don’t judge me- it’s my first 7 hours in LOS and I am already straying away from the path of knowledge taught by the best of Stickman submitters.

We end up at the tourist seafood restaurant with bright lights and Thai musicians right on Sukhumvit around Soi 20.

We get a table and he is calling the girls to see how close they are to the restaurant. He says he has “nice” girl for me. You no go to Patpong or Nana… only bad girls. I later discover the other girl is his mia noi that he is impressing on my tab.

They arrive and the girl I’m set up with, Tuk is a 4 in the face but tall and light skinned. His girl speaks English and mine does not speak a stitch. She seems to work in the tourist trade like her boyfriend. We drink beer and the
gals have soda. They order for the table and the food keeps coming non-stop. Musicians, food, conversation and the laughs are relaxing but this is an expensive introduction to Thai sanuk.

I am not going to get tied down to Tuk so I begin pushing Khun B to go with a few snippets about my long flight. He understands and I call for the check. Close to midnight now and we get the girls into a cab and we are off to next venue.
In the car, Khun B tells me how much Tuk wants to call me the next day. I tell him I just arrived and want to get bearings before I see good girls.

“Oh, you want bargirl now?” I agree with him.

We hit a roadside bar on Soi 19, a truck with lights and boom box blaring just past the Korean Christian church. I am drinking at a roadside set up next to an open drainage canal after just shelling out tourist trap prices for dinner. Go
figure? The bartender is hilarious and he is a mixologist with a traveling bar complete with generator and Christmas lights strung for ambiance.

My driver is drinking double to mine and is pretty drunk by the time he gets me to agree to a fishbowl. It’s about 24:00 by now and we head to a small spot in what looks like a residential area. This is not a big fishbowl like I understand
them to be. This place is behind a wall and down a long driveway with about 10 cars parked near the building. It’s rather dark and we enter into a small bar area with girls on bleacher set up but no glass between us. Again, I scratch my
head in quandary but it’s late and I want company. Only about 9 girls left. I pick a girl, about a 6, young and dark skinned with cute features but a little heavier than is my typical preference. Papasan and I barter for a few minutes and
I get until 11 AM for 4,000 baht. (Yes, I too am sick about that price as I look back).

Girl changes and we head to the car. The driver seems okay but has to be buzzin’. That’s confirmed shortly as he is trying to pull into traffic on Suk and the drunk bugger bashes right into a taxi! Just a fender bender but man!
Does it escalate. The cops come and this BS is cutting into my girl time. I call Khun B over and discretely give him his hourly fee and a nice tip and tell him I can taxi back to hotel. (More on that accident and Khun B later)

This young lady speaks good English and pulls out a dictionary from her bag if she draws a blank on a word. She helps me with the taxi and we have a nice talk on the way back to the apartment. She received some English classes in school and
continues to study while she waits for customers. We arrive at the apartment easily. We shower together and have a very nice romp. She’s happy with the apartment and the bed. Says she was tired of sitting on her carpet bench all night.

Next morning, after another great session, breakfast arrives. We talk and our dictionaries get a good flipping through so we can complete thoughts. We shower, she leaves me at the agreed to time. I hit the sack until about 14:00.

Wow, I am really here and it is like they describe in all those reports!

I rise with a smile on my face and a focus to get my base camp settled and set out to explore. I draw the curtains and feel the bright sun and see the busy street below. Let’s see if this is camp is all that it was hyped up to be on
the internet. My apartment has a kitchenette and a sitting room with TV, stereo and city view. PP serviced apartments
(I am not their advertising agency but I did enjoy my choice) have a gym, tennis, two pools, spa, restaurants and 3 buildings
of resident ex-pats, mostly Japanese it seems.
Pool is decent but when the kids get out of school the maids / nannies bring them down to the pool for a play until about 17:00. Some take swimming lessons from a Thai fellow. It reminds me of
my surroundings going to the American school and living in Singapore 30 years earlier. Eerie feeling with flashbacks to a good life growing up as an expat until I was 18 when I returned to the States for university.

I am satisfied with my facilities and head back to my room excited to plan my first full evening in Bangkok.

Back to the room and the phone rings. It’s Khun B–, my driver from last night . He had crashed his Mercedes into a taxi and I left him with payment, full belly, commissions and a tip while he sorted it out with the cops and the irate
taxi man. He needs help because his employer found out he was freelancing with their car and it has a dent. He wants 5,000 baht from me for repairs. I softly decline and tell him maybe I’ll call him if I need a driver again, wish him luck,
goodbye. (Thanks to Stick reports I am firm but polite when I really want tell him to F..off.)

Off the phone I see my room has been cleaned and a flyer for the spa is on my bed. Wednesday special for guests…1,500 baht. I bite. Package includes salt scrub, massage, ped and manicure. I need it. I walk over just past the pool in the
gym building. This is an upscale spa. I start in the Jacuzzi, then sauna and I’m called for my scrub / massage. After decent oil massage during which I fall asleep. I am wakened and sent to get my nails done (Sounds fem huh?! ). That’s
where I meet Su. I’m in a robe and she is at my feet giving me a pedicure and she glances up my robe more than once. She speaks a little English and she asks how long in Thailand, alone? What you doing today?… She’s about 30 and
nice looking. She’s off work at 20:30 and would love to join me for dinner.

That night we meet outside my building and the guard flags a taxi. We head to a nice Thai restaurant not far away.

Good conversation and she is exploring my goals for my visit to Bangkok. I evade most questions but explain I want some fun, does she know of a club we can go? She uses her mobile to ask a friend and says she has just the place to have fun.
At the restaurant I get a good look at her out of her spa uniform. She’s dressed in a nice blouse and jeans, very neat and has short hair, about 5’4” and a nice shape.

After dinner we take a taxi to a mega club past Soi 33 with a huge Titan statue on the roof, Coliseum. It’s a good live comedy / concert show that attracts about 80% locals and 20% farangs. Fair drink prices and it turns into DJ music
and dancing about 23:30. We had a great time. When it is time to leave Su checks the bill for me diligently. I tipped the service girl who had been quite attentive 100 baht and Su looks at me and says you tip too much in a stern fashion. I shrug
her off.

As we walk out Su explains that she is a “nice girl”. Not those words but stresses work ethic, doesn’t go to bars etc…she likes me very much and wants to be my friend in Bangkok, we kiss on the cheek. In the taxi back
to my room I put the moves on her and she is ready to go upstairs with me. Very nice GFE happens and she stays the night. (So much for nice girl myth). Good sex, fun and uninhibited.

Next day she explains she has to work but can not go back to spa in same clothes she wore yesterday and they smell like smoke from bar…this leads to a shopping trip, to Emporium no less. The apartment has a shuttle van running back and
forth to Emporium until about 19:00 everyday, very convenient and Su is familiar with it, how’s that?

She picks a new outfit out and a small toy for the son she has in Chiang Rai staying with her mommy. She is quite happy with me. “You good man”.

Back to my room for an appreciation romp and showers then she heads off to work but not before she asks to see me again that night. I just reply with “maybe soon“. She pouts and I give her a peck on the cheek. Bye Bye.

It’s 13:00 and I’m hungry. I take a walk up Soi 22 towards Suk and pass little shops and then see the bar beers, Regents, Queens hotels. I stop at a restaurant next to Rick’s dive shop? <Larry's Dive – Stick> It’s the same business, beach motif with sand on floor and American food that was tasty and a good base for my liquid endeavors to come. I then taxi up to see where Nana is. Sukhumvit is snarled with traffic,
I could walk faster but it affords me time to truly watch traffic tendencies, people watch and get my bearings. I must say that the books and sites I had reviewed before arriving were very accurate and landmarks start to be acknowledged Westin,
Robinsons, Sheraton, JW, Asoke etc.

The taxi drops me at the corner and gestures to go left and find NEP. The corner is crowded, music is blaring from a large open bar with farangs everywhere. I find the closed NEP and look up the 3 or 4 stories of gogos with anticipation.

I walk back to the corner bar and try to find a seat. This place is rocking and it’s about 15:30! I drink alone absorbing the energy and eye a table with 3 girls that has one cutey that catches my attention and I motion to her. She
joins me and introduces herself as Noi. Waitress is right there to take drink orders and I offer Noi a drink, she accepts.

Fair English, small, cute with long hair about 22. We talk and then she says she is hungry. I am stuffed but offer to take her out for food and thus my first short time is initiated. Still, a little different from the gogo scene I had been
preparing myself for.

She’s in jeans and a white tank top. I am happy but don’t recall if a bf was added to the bill or not. We cross the big Suk intersection and enter a noodle shop. Eat and discuss details in a much more conducive environment,
quiet and I am satisfied with the deal with one exception- she wants to go to ST hotel close by 400 baht for 2 hours. I reconsider when I look at the traffic. 10 bucks is worth not wasting 30 minutes with Noi. At the hotel we’re given towels,
soap, condoms and directed to a clean sparse room with shower / toilet and clean sheets. Once in the room she heads to toilet while I undress keeping a guard on my wallet by rolling pants up and keeping them in sight. She opens the door and invites
me into the shower with her as she places her clothes neatly on the night stand. She adjusts the water heater and soaps me up in a very sensuous fashion then gives me the soap and shower head as she turns around and bends over the toilet slightly.
A beautiful smooth and tight tan body, her hair is in a shower cap and this accentuates her round facial features.
Is this a cheap soapy?! LOL.

We rinse each other off and then go to town all over the room and bed. We part ways and she crosses street back to the bar. I felt the meal was a nice tip and she does not flinch when deal is concluded just smiles and wais with a
thank you. She gently touches my arm and heads back over to the bar. I move toward Soi 7/1 and find a small bar called Down Under. I move inside to the air-con and order a beer.

Yes! I scream in my mind. I made the right choice for base camp. I feel calm and have a touch of sanuk definition entering my mindset. I can’t wait for tonight’s adventures.

Stickman's thoughts:

You seem to be doing just fine and have fallen into life in Bangkok very well indeed!