Thais in New Zealand

Last week's photo was taken of the main entrance at Exchange Tower, the large building at the Asoke intersection which
at one time housed some boiler rooms.

FROM STICK'S INBOX (These are emails from readers and what is written here was not written by Stick.) Preference may be given to emails which refer to the previous week's column.

EMAIL OF THE WEEK – Here today, gone tomorrow.

It struck me when I was in Angelwitch last week. Back in the day, we threw a lot of cash about in gogos and had a good time and got along with the bar staff and management. But thanks to economic growth, a rise in mainstream tourism, a different staff attitude and a new business model by the gangster owners, it now seems we are just marks to be conned. I requested a couple of songs and tipped the DJ. Not one to miss a trick, the mamasan immediately asked for a drink, and being somewhat buzzed, I acceded to the cheeky request and got her and the DJ a drink on my tab. This was on top of the lady drinks I was buying the girl I was sitting with. Needless to say, I saw them repeatedly order more drinks on my bill and when I asked them who had authorised them to put it on my bar tab they literally just laughed. I didn't let the matter drop and I demanded they take the drinks off my tab. Much bad blood all around. It never used to be like this. There was always an implicit contract that we pay well and they give us a good time in good faith. Now it seems every customer is just a here-today-gone-tomorrow mainstream tourist to be treated like a mug and ripped off. I will never go to Angelwitch again. In fact I mourn the passing of all the old Nana / Cowboy vibe and I actually cheer its downfall now. I am glad when I hear of bar owners going to the wall. They only have themselves to blame. I even risked a beating by flipping the finger at the DJ and mamasan as I left, I was so fuming.

Escaping the apologists!

After 15 years of listening to so much bullshit from the locals, the thing that really tipped me was the Apologist Farang, the total denier, with stiff happening right in front of their face who says, "Nope, not happening". I finally said enough, gave my car, motorcycle, all the house furnishings and appliances to the orphanage and bought a ticket to Penang 2 years ago. I now have a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom, 2-kitchen house with a lounge, roof garden and balcony overlooking the park. There are hundreds of food vendors at my door and I get this all for 6,000 baht per month (yes that's correct). Utilities run 1,700 baht. I have never looked back. As you say, with Air Asia you can go anywhere. Fxxk Bangkok! India is knocking out online visas for US$ 60. I was just in Calcutta and at the right season it's a fabulous place, as you're aware. I spent many years in India, and a friend in India is a true friend. Bamboozle yourself as to how majestic it is to be away from the apologist nobodies!

Bye-bye Thailand, hello Japan!

I too left Thailand last year. I didn't go home, but to Japan. I had to laugh when you mentioned missing tropical fruit. Dragonfruit is what I miss. I can find it here, but at 350 – 500 Yen it is a very occasional treat. Do I miss Thailand? The short answer is no. Of course I miss my friends and some of the cheap food and the overall cost of living. However, I am really enjoying living in a country that is truly developed. Food may be more expensive, but it is high quality. Everything works here. The people are very polite and think about how their actions affect other people. There is no cutting in line, no special prices for foreigners and taxi drivers take you where you want to go, no questions asked. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. This was a great move and I wish I had done it years ago. I really thought that by now I would want to go back to Thailand for a short vacation, but I am totally not interested in going back any time soon. There are tons of other interesting places to visit and it is time to seek them out. I had a great 5 years in Thailand, and then kind of existed for 3 more. I don't regret my time in Thailand, I just wish I had left earlier.

Too much of a good thing.

It's nice to see someone write about something that I've long thought but is rarely mentioned – that there can be too much of a good thing to the point where you're not interested any more. As you said, you've not been a fan of the bar scene except perhaps the early fascination. My first extended business trip to Thailand is an example. I worked for a quality company who put up their staff at the Dusit Thani Hotel. A wonderful place, located conveniently close to the office and Patpong. I had a 13-week assignment and I spent every night of the first week in Patpong. It was great fun and I enjoyed drinking & flirting with the girls. After several nights I found it too much effort, too much time and too tiring for work the next day. So I stopped. I spent my time in the room and for entertainment I'd go down to the lobby and as often as not talk to the lovely ladies who worked on the front desk, obviously not a naughty girl among them. In the last week of the assignment I went out to the Patpong bars every night again; I figured I'd miss it the following week. But I didn't miss it in the 11 intervening weeks. It was novel in the beginning and I knew I'd kick myself not to do it again in the last week but in the meantime it was too much of the same thing and not a lot of fun. I tell this story from time to time and people rarely understand. I think you understand. If I try to summarise, I guess the bars are an interest, a novelty when you don't normally have that kind of thing around you, but for most people the bars are not a lifestyle. And if they are then maybe you have other problems to deal with.

Did you witness the soi 11 incident?

I thought I'd post you on an incident I witnessed tonight. I was in a taxi on soi 11 at about 10:30 PM, heading towards Sukhumvit. A motorbike coming the other way went for the gap between my cab and another alongside it heading the other way. It couldn't make it and crashed into both cars with a massive bang that brought out bystanders. At first I thought it was a legitimate accident but suddenly the driver and passenger on the motorbike (and it was an expensive motorbike, not a scooter) just jumped over their bike, which they abandoned, and hit the ground running for their lives further down into soi 11. Seconds later a mob caught up to the crash scene, some on scooters, some on foot. It was mostly comprised of motorbike taxi drivers and security guards, and all were carrying batons, looking ready to deliver the beating of a lifetime. I can only imagine the motorbike pair had carried out a robbery or assault, as the mob's reaction was way too much for a mere insult, even in touchy Thailand. I thought maybe they had even stolen the bike they had crashed, but nobody in the lynch mob seemed to lay claim to it and it continued resting against the side of one of the damaged taxis. Anyway, they were lucky that their wedged bike caused a log-jam in soi 11 and they had a head start, as they seemed to escape their pursuers. I wonder if any other Stickman readers were in soi 11 and can fill in the back story? There were plenty of witnesses.

Not in denial.

I disagree with the email that said "it's all prostitution." It's not. If that were the case then the column would be about Ratchapisadek and New Petchaburi Road – the big soapies, the streetwalkers. It's about booze PLUS neon PLUS music PLUS girls. Some guys need that. Some may even use it to delude themselves into thinking they're not actually johns, but of course they are. I am. I'm not in denial about it.

Remembering Goldfinger.

Regarding your comments about Goldfinger, the last time I recall good looking girls in there was in 1989! Don't get me wrong, I spent time in there every trip to Patpong (about once or twice a month for many years). I once asked Randy why his girls were so hard on the eyes and he replied, "I used to have good-looking girls and by midnight they'd all be gone, as were my customers. Now at 2 AM I still have girls and customers!" I might add however that it was usually the same 6 – 10 customers and some of the girls were as old as the bar. Still, many fond memories of the place; although after so many kamikaze shooters some nights, I don't recall much at all except that the DJs never played rap or techno-crap.

National Park entry fees.

You won't miss the discriminatory tiered pricing structure in Thailand. I'm not sure if you ever discussed National Park entry fees but the attached table shows just what a farang rip-off this can be. I visited site 12 on the list and was quite taken aback comparing Thai / farang charges. Some are 10 times the Thai price. What lunatic thought that up? Needless to say, I didn't pay up.

From my old partner in crime, the dirty doctor, comes word that Tilac bar, once upon a time the best gogo bar in Bangkok, is rebounding in popularity. There are loads of new dancers – and collectively a few hundred less kg than before.

I reckon Dave The Rave got out of Spellbound at just the right time as the plaza slowly goes down the gurgler. Dave missed the nasty incident in Spellbound this past Wednesday night when a middle-aged foreigner was badly beaten up inside Spellbound. In a country where even those seriously injured are often thrown in to a tuktuk or pickup truck and raced to the nearest medical facility, it must have been bad for this fellow was taken away on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance. The police spent quite some time inside Spellbound and their presence along with an ambulance in the plaza is the sort of drama nightlife areas can well do without.

The same rumours have been doing the rounds of the bar crowd for as long as I can remember. Nana Plaza is going to be turned into a hotel or a car park for the Landmark Hotel. The Thermae is full of girls who are HIV+. And The Office on soi 33 is up for sale. The first two rumours are old Bangkok wives tales but this time it looks like the third of these may have some truth in it. For so long the anchor property on Sukhumvit Soi 33 and the venue by which all others in the soi are measured against, rumour has it that Bob has put The Office Bar and Mojo's on the market. Apparently, the plan is to offload the two bars and then head back to Australia where Bob's wife can get the Kangaroo pass she has long been promised.

The sun really is setting on The Tunnel, that name of the shady lane behind CheckInn99 that connects Sukhumvit sois 5 and 7 that is home to a mix of bars, karaoke dens, bonking booths, Nigerian-only hair salons and the classic Country Road. A notice posted in the soi in Thai stating the lane will close for improvements. Of all the venues, Checkinn ladyboy bar should be ok as it has a back entrance. Some of the really long term tenants will be slowly eased out. The owner is loyal to long-term tenants so don't be surprised to see the same stall holders back in the new Marrakesh Market lane.

This past Monday morning between about 2 – 5 AM, Mother Nature decided to have a bad hair day and vented her fury with an unbelievable electrical storm over Bangkok said to have 20 – 30 lightening strikes a minute along with a mega downpour of 150ml over much of the city. Sukhumvit was hit and anyone with a basement copped it big time. Checkinn99 was flooded out. What saved major damage to the stage and musical equipment was the boss's plush basement became a swimming pool. A stroke of luck was that Chris Coles had just finished an exhibition of his Noir paintings and had picked them up from the cellar hideout the weekend before….except for one painting, Obsession, promised to a buyer. Hearing of the flood and having lost three of his paintings in the Bacarra fire, noir artist Chris resigned himself to having lost a fourth to Checkinn. He remembered it had been carefully placed at floor level but it turns out that the owner's wife Mook moved the painting just before leaving the night before. It's safe and the buyer will pick it up this weekend. To the credit of the staff and band, the next 24 hours were spent hand-bailing the estimated 20,000 gallons of Sukhumvit flood water from the boss's cellar (he was in Vietnam) so the bar could open for business on Tuesday. A remarkable effort, and that's what you get when you profit share with your staff.

Flooding in CheckInn99 on Monday, this past week.

Photo provided by CheckInn99.

Another small single shophouse bar on Soi Nana has the shutters pulled down and looks like it has said goodbye. A few months back Finnegan's, the small Irish pub on Soi Nana, closed after a rent increase that meant the venue was no longer viable. Now, Naughty Girls, a small shark tank beer bar on the main road down beyond from the plaza, has also closed. No reason for the closure has been forthcoming but it would seem reasonable to speculate that it too might be related to an increase in rent. Naughty Girls was one of those pokey bars with some really hard girls that you – or at least I – never heard much about.

The lady drink rules in one Patpong bar have changed and the girls are telling regulars they are not happy. The new system means that girls receive zero baht commission on the first lady drink bought for them by a customer. They do get something from the second drink but it is less than before. The exact details are unclear – even the girls are not clear – but it seems like a curious measure. My initial thoughts are that it will make the girls hungrier for lady drinks which makes it all the more curious given that is one of the major complaints of many punters. It will be interesting to see if this policy remains, or things revert back to how they were – or perhaps this will be the start of a new way of doing things and be adopted by other bars.

Down in Pattaya, The Castle, a fetish bar in which I have seen the most bizarre acts, far exceeding anything I have seen in any chrome pole bar – or even the antics at Nanapong dance contests – will celebrate its 11th anniversary in a couple of weeks, on Saturday, June 27th. The Castle is located on Third Road in Pattaya – their website
has details on how to get there.

One of the former owners of legendary Pattaya gogo bar Club Boesche tells me there are plans to reignite a bigger a better Club Boesche in 2017. In his words, it will raise the bar again. Perverts can live and hope.

Fun Pattaya bar Babydolls (a little further up the sub soi from Sapphire and Angelwitch) will throw a party this coming Friday, June 19th, to celebrate Mama Koy's birthday. Friends new and old are all welcome. And if you look like a lost lamb who doesn't know anyone, don't fret too much for customer relations manager, Great Uncle Larry, will look after you.

The once familiar sight of the one known as Glitterman, the Brit in the outrageous outfits cycling
his decorated bike on the streets of Pattaya, remains a familiar sight on the streets of London.

Glitterman, performing the show in London.

Photo kindly provided by a friend of a reader.

The old Carousel A Gogo on Soi Diamond was sold a while back and renamed Dream A Gogo. It closed again and has just reopened as Maxine's A Gogo. You don't need a crystal ball to know that in a few weeks I will be letting you know it has closed again.

Word from Pattaya is that a number of bars reported closed in recent months remain closed and do not look like reopening any time soon. And in some of the larger beer bar complexes (away from Walking Street, are there many still going?), fewer beer bars are actually open in each complex. It's many months since I was in Pattaya but it hardly sounds like a party vibe when beer bar complexes have so many vacant spaces. Walking Street is said to be busy, at least in terms of pedestrian traffic, and soi 15 with the likes of Sapphire, Angelwitch and What's Up is thriving.

With that said, Gentlemen's Club on Soi Diamond reopened on Friday night.

If each of Bangkok's major expat bar areas was a country in South-East Asia, Nana Plaza would be Thailand – the perennial favourite, but with ongoing unresolved issues. Soi Cowboy would be Indonesia – stable and staid. Patpong would be Vietnam – full of history, scary to some but with a small but loyal following and an undeniably bright future. In other words, the future remains uncertain at Nana. With outrageous rent rates and huge key money being asked, bar bosses have big headaches and there is no clarity about where things are going. Patpong is dismissed by many with some saying you're 20+ years late if you expect to have a good time there. I say think again. The Patpong area is full of history, and the bars are stable which is partly because the cop shop which looks after Patpong does not constantly hassle bar owners and change the rules as is the case on Sukhumvit. Patpong suffers none of the vagaries of fluctuating closing times and being forced to close certain nights of the year. When making the rounds I have long observed how much more relaxed bar owners and foreign bar staff / managers are in Patpong compared to their counterparts on Sukhumvit (Nana, Cowboy and the smaller areas like sois 7, 22, 33). On Sukhumvit, foreign bar staff are often nervous about police visits and strike me as not feeling secure in their jobs. That's not the case in Patpong and I think that is one reason why, amazingly, Patpong these days is more relaxed than lower Sukhumvit which has become a jungle.

Popular Stickman readers' submissions writer Phet has collated a bunch of his stories and published them as an e-book. You can grab the collection titled, “The Bangkok Ladyboys Male Voice Choir And Other Stories” on Amazon
for just £1.99.

There is no shortage of single, attractive women in Thailand. From so-called good girls to those who have not had it so easy and have ended up working in bars, from those who have never married to those who are divorced, wherever you find yourself in Thailand there are always heaps of local women available and interested in Western men.
With so many available, single women, why oh why would you fool around with another guy's bird? That is just plain bad form. And when she happens to be the partner of a figure in the bar industry who is known to be a heavy hitter, someone
who takes no nonsense and a person you really don't want to mess with – no matter how much you may fancy yourself as a high flyer – seems just plain stupid and the risky behaviour of a gambler. Those-in-the-know will know who and what I am
talking about.

The owner of AfterSkool bar has opened an American deli on Onut. John's Shophouse Deli is at 250/2 Sukhumvit 77, just past Big C. Stop by the bar for a card and directions if you enjoy great deli sandwiches.

Can the differences between Thais and Westerners be easily explained by communication difficulties and the fact that most Thais are Buddhist and probably the majority of religious Westerners follow one or other Christian denomination? Different attitudes and ways of thinking between the average Thai and the average Westerner run deeper and transcend language and religion. Often when a Westerner in Thailand meets a Thai with strong / fluent English and / or a Thai who is a Christian, they are mistaken for thinking that they are on the same wavelength. Communication is easier and through a shared religion there may be a common bond, but don't let that make you think fundamental differences in beliefs and values don't remain.

Songkran was 2 months ago but the thermometer refuses to drop. Even from the relative comfort of Auckland I see daily temperatures in Bangkok have refused to drop below the mid to high 30s. I don't miss that!

Is it just me or is the Bangkok Post covering more stories of interest to Westerners in Thailand? I always thought of the Post as a newspaper for educated Thais that happened to be in English with Westerners hardly its primary readership. Recently the tone in some articles and the general editorial content has been objective and I get the impression there is more that appeals to expats, stories which most likely don't appear in the Thai language dailies. I find it a more interesting read these days.