And At The End, Stickman Is Right!

This is my second subscription and the first personal regarding my personal project, leaving Farangland in the next 2 to 3 years to move to LOS (Land of Smartphone).

I decided last year to move on after a painful divorce and have been thinking about it a lot. To make the plan come true, I make a bi-annual trip to Bangkok. I am not a newbie in Asia as I lived for 12 years before in Indonesia and have travelled around Asia since 1998.

What made me choose Bangkok? I am a city man and enjoy what a big city can offer and Bangkok offers a lot of interesting thing to do. Add on this, a great concentration of pretty ladies and this can make a man happy.

The first and second trips last year were mostly holidays trips, visiting friends, enjoying the nightlife and shagging a couple of hot bodies!

Then I decided to do some more serious research and this is the reason of my subscription today:

1/ First of all, I totally agree with the report from most people here:  The nightlife in the naughty areas is definitely not real fun anymore.

I spent a few nights at Nana and Cowboy. To be fair, the business was quite good there and some bars quite busy, especially Dollhouse and Billboard.

Ladyboy bars seem also to be the hit at the moment. Full of crowds and fun atmosphere, especially in Nana. I had a couple of drinks there and good fun and interesting conversation with one ladyboy there.

But this has been my only interesting conversation there.  The rest was as bad as recent reports. The ‘’You buy me drink’’ while she spends her time chatting online with her smartphone has become the norm and kills the fun. If you add on top on this, the ridiculous prices for lady drinks and short time offers of around 3,000 baht, I definitely think the business will now only attract young people and newbies and will soon lose the regulars from the past.

So after 3 nights hanging around without barfining any lady, I moved to some bars on Soi 11, Oskar and another I forgot the name of where the music was much better, there were pretty girls with decent conversation and no hassles.

So I think I’m done! Nana and Cowboy will become for me things of the past and I will go there only to show friends when they visit Bangkok and want to go there.

2/ Living in LOS

I spend the day time visiting several areas and condos and I have been pleasantly surprised with some places.

Stick in one column said how he enjoyed living near Sukhumvit 16. I will definitely say the opposite.  I visit some great place near Lasalle and Samrong. Those place get nice area (river, small and clean street) and great condo with great value, around 30% cheaper than lower Sukhumvit.

All this a 10-minute walk from BTS (Bearing or Samrong) where you can go inside the BTS without queue.

The only disadvantage is if you like to go out many nights a week, then this can be a hassle. But as I am not a night clubber, this will be fine for me .

3/ Enjoying time there.

This is my main concern as I spend  a lot of time on the last 3 trips interacting with Thai people having a normal life as I do sport and have some social activities too.

I remember when Stickman pointed out how difficult it was to have genuine Thai friends and I must say that he is  totally right! It is almost impossible to have the same conversation you may have with your old friends for a simple reason. Thai people are only interested in Thailand and most of them don’t really like to interact with farangs. They can be nice and friendly, as the guys I met at tennis or ping club are but we will never be close.

Event when you meet a nice girl, which is my case as I date now a nice friendly girl with a good job, it’s difficult to share as much as you can share with someone from your own country.

What will the future bring? We never know and this is probably what makes life exciting. But at this stage of reflection, I  have already a different point of view for my own life. I definitely wish to live in Bangkok as soon as I can but this will definitely be a part-time thing.

I will probably live there 6 months / year, travel 1 month around and spend the remaining time in my home land. This is not without difficulties as living in 2 different places bring  more issues  financial, logistics…).

But finally if you manage to do it, then you may get the best of both world. Let’s see what the future brings!

The author cannot be contacted.