Stickman Weekly, July 30, 2023

 

 

 

Mystery Photo

Last week’s photo was taken of what was The Strip bar, on Patpong soi 2. The signage had been removed and that seemed to confuse readers with, once again, few of you getting it right. If you walked past that particular location this week you would see new signage had gone up on the bar which will be known as Kinky Girls. This week’s photo is one I did not know. Reader Richard kindly provided this photo and he had to tell me where it is! It’s somewhere in central Bangkok – but precisely where?

 

 

 

 

Stick’s Inbox – The Best Emails From The Past Week

Making problems for Thai people.

Regarding the Thai police cracking down on foreign gangs, I had a foreign boss in Thailand who absolutely hated having to involve Thai people in his business and only did it when he absolutely had to. His view was that if you didn’t involve, or make problems for, any Thai people and you paid the required “fees”, then you could do absolutely anything in Thailand. The foreign gangs are involving, or making problems for, Thai people. That’s why the Thai police have got involved. Imagine that you were sat in a bar and an Englishman sold you a “genuine” Rolex for $10.000. You handed over the cash but later found you had been the victim of fraud and the Rolex was a fake. What do you think the police’s reaction would be when you reported it to them (after they stopped laughing)? Now imagine a high-ranking government official had been the victim of the same fraud. What do you think the police’s reaction would be? In theory, it should be exactly the same reaction as it would be if the victim was a foreigner. Both crimes are the same so the police response would be the same, right? We know that would not be the case. As my boss used to say, “Making problems for Thai people is never a smart move.”

Thai news reports in the English language.

Reading news about Thailand in English language media is a frustrating experience. Initial stories about a woman arrested for the murder of a German businessman found dismembered in a freezer listed her as a Thai national, despite having a German name. Later reports, said that she was German. Mr Thomas Ginner, the leader of the Outlaws gang has been reported to be either an Australian national or a Austrian national. Daniel Talbot was reported last week as dying in either Phuket or Koh Tao under suspicious circumstances. A week later, it seems that the death was in Koh Tao, but no information has been provided about these “suspicious circumstances”. When I was in Bangkok in January, 1976, the burnt bodies of two Australians were found wearing Dutch underclothes. Due to inquiries made by the Dutch Consul, the bodies were later identified as Dutch. Part of the problem is that these reports are derived from the initial police reports which can be slack in recording facts about foreigners. The other part of the problem is that the original reports were in Thai and require an accurate translation.

Bill padding is nothing new.

8 years ago, padding the bill was common in “my” little bar in Patong whose owner was a Thai women. I used to buy her a beer and some days my generosity was able to go to a second beer – alcohol is not my cup of tea). We sipped slowly and chatted in Thai,. The other girls had of course teased me about being คนขี่เหนียว (kee-nee-ow or in English, a cheapskate or Cheap Charlie). In Thailand, I have found it is better to appear poor than rich. It was she who explained to me that in the bin of 2-week millionaires, drunk every night, the boss always added more chits and not one ever noticed anything, adding that ฝรั่งที่รู้มากไม่ดี! (the foreigner who knows a lot is no good!).

DJs in gogo bars.

You are dead right about guest DJs in gogos bars. Let them stick to the clubs. I can’t imagine self-respecting punters liking that sort of music blasting in their ears all night. Did you ever visit Abe’s Bar on Walking Street? The stuff they played in there was perfect. Also TQ on Beach Road where old school rock is played at a level where you can talk without shouting. Maybe I’m just a grumpy old git. There are plenty of us in Pattaya.

 

 

More Readers’ Emails

Bangkok is booming.

It’s just my observation, but Bangkok is heaving with tourists and / or farang. On the skytrain & streets along the Sukhumvit corridor: with wheelie suitcases or whole families in tow, European, East Asian, subcontinental / Arab in specific areas. Seems like high season, frankly.

Pricey barfines.

As someone who hasn’t been to Pattaya, or at least the entertainment part of it for about 10 years, I was kind of shocked at the reader’s email regarding the barfine. Not because he got ripped off but that the barfine has risen to 2,000 in the 1st place. <It is just some ladies in some bars who command such a high barfine. 2,000 baht is certainly not the norm. The most expensive barfines tend to be in Walking Street bars popular with Asian men – Stick>

A lady called Boom.

I met a lady named Boom just before the gogo bars reopened post Covid and Thailand hadn’t yet reopened to tourists. We met in March 2022 in Kazy Kozy after it turned into a music bar post-Covid and she worked as a hostess standing outside, enticing punters inside. A great figure and dyed long blonde hair. She spoke great English (she explained she used to have an Australian boyfriend, but they had broken up because he couldn’t “take care of her”). Anyway, I was instantly attracted to her and barfined her that night and because there were still no tourists in the country, it was a bargain ฿2,000. She subsequently moved to Rainbow in Nana (where she worked before Covid) and I would probably barfine her over 30 times over the next 15 months. I’d refer to her as Farang Thai girl due to her dyed blonde hair and great English. Although we’d always sleep together, it was often the girlfriend experience. We would sometime go to Hilary 2 to listen to the live band, and during the football World Cup I’d barfine her so we’d go to watch games in Butterflies or a sports bar on Soi 4. Although we were fond of each other, it was still transactional. I wouldn’t get upset if she was sitting with another guy when I walked into her bar and she wouldn’t get annoyed if she saw me with another girl. (Although I’d never barfine anyone else from her bar). Fast-forward to last month. I was chilling with her over a couple of drinks in Rainbow, had just paid the barfine and as she went to get changed I noticed a couple of waitresses whisper something in her ear and she looked a bit sheepish. She came back over to me and returned my barfine (฿1,000) and explained her boyfriend had just turned up from the Netherlands. I was a bit surprised as there had never been any mention of a boyfriend apart from the Australian. I left the bar quickly, not wanting to get her into trouble but returned around 3 weeks later. I bought her a couple of drinks as per usual and expressed my surprise that she had a boyfriend as she never mentioned anyone previously. I thought we had got to know each other quite well. She was a bit vague with the details of when the relationship started but did tell me he sent her ฿30,000 a month! I barfined her that night. So the moral of the story…..well, there is no moral. If you think you can buy the loyalty of a bargirl by ‘taking care of her’, you’re just wasting your money!

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This Week’s News, Views & Gossip

The 6-day holiday weekend – enabled by the government making Monday a bank holiday – began July 28 with expectations that Bangkok would be as dead as a cemetery. It didn’t turn out that way. Videos posted online from Friday night on Soi Cowboy showed throngs of punters on Neon Alley. Photos from the social media of pubs like The Game provided further evidence that there were plenty of people out and about. And on Saturday night, a quick run through Soi Cowboy by a friend revealed that Shark had not a single free seat at 10:45 PM. Suzie Wong was almost completely full. Both floors of Crazy House were open and the damsels of Soi Cowboy obviously didn’t get the memo about a quiet weekend expected with a full contingent of ladies on the soi.

Progress is slow and steady at popular Nana Plaza gogo bar Spanky’s where renovations are taking longer than expected. The new shower and bar went in a couple of days ago and the owner is hopeful that all the work will be complete by mid- to late-August. The reason it seems like it’s taking forever is that everything is built off-site, transported in to the bar and then installed. Unlike other bar upgrades, Spanky’s remains open and it’s business as usual every night.

We have confirmation that Kinky Girls will open on the 3rd of August in the space that was previously The Strip. Is this the start of the great comeback of Patpong soi 2? We’ll have to wait and see, but the reopening of what was a bar with a real following amongst some expats is a good start.

I believe either yesterday or today was the last day of the Biergarten in soi 7. So long, old friend.

 

 

Following on from what looked like good news last week for those who like to party late in to the Pattaya night, it appears the Thai Cabinet’s approval of a proposal to allow entertainment venues to operate 24-hours a day was only in the U-Tapao International Airport area, and NOT in Pattaya. Of course, there are a good few Pattaya nightspots which stay open until the sun comes up – just ask around and you’ll be pointed in the right direction.

In the Soi Buakhao area, many of the smaller massage shops have lowered the price of a one-hour oil massage from 300 baht to 250 baht. Of course, in a lot of these shops the lady would be horrified if you actually want a whole hour’s massage only. Plenty of Pattaya massage shops don’t have a single lady who knows anything about offering a genuine therapeutic massage. They are, however, skilled at up-selling other equally appealing services.

But don’t go thinking prices for other things have dropped in the Soi Buakhao area. While the price of a massage has dropped in many shops, a lot of the basic barbers shops in the area have increased the price for a haircut or a shave from what was a standard 100 baht to what seems to be the new standard, 150 baht.

 

 

The charming message on the photo above was taken in the toilets of Heart Beach Bar, Beach Road in Pattaya. I can’t decide who is classier – the bar for posting such a message or its customers who presumably need to be reminded of how to behave in the hong-nam.

Pattaya police are known for pulling over motorbike riders who tear around town without a helmet. Word is that there have been fewer police checkpoints in recent times and they may not be targeting those who do not wear motorcycle helmets with the same vigour as they have in the past. And there seems to be awareness of this with seemingly more foreigners roaring around town without a helmet. Put a helmet on your head to protect it, not to protect the contents of your wallet!

Back in the Soi LK Metro area, a long-time reader would like to offer a cooked breakfast recommendation. Cheap Charlies, which is located just south of Soi Buakhao, is said to hit the spot. I am told it is very popular with both expats and the typical Pattaya visitors of old.

Still in Pattaya, the recently sold Pascha Gogo bar, now owned by Japanese investors, has been rebranded as “One Night Jack”. Your guess is as good as mine. And, on Soi LK Metro, the spot that was As Friends is set to reopen as Fever A-Gogo.

 

 

Techno Tuesdays at Tycoon got off to a fun start this week with the girls having a good time with goofy get-ups and fluorescent body paint. Tuesday nights in low season don’t pack the punters in so the crowd wasn’t huge, but everyone seemed to be having a good time. More foreign DJs will be back on the turntables August 8.

Mandarin in Nana Plaza traditionally has been a place where there has been no showing, unless it was upstairs. But with upstairs closed during the quiet season, the main / downstairs bar has popped its top with both shifts of girls offering a bit more than they used to.

Strikers, the nomadic pool / beer bar that set up shop and lost its shirt upstairs at the back of the Nana Hotel car park, has been sold. The buyer? You guessed it – Tee, the same Tee that has bought up chunks of Nana Plaza. I mentioned in a previous column that Strikers had a hopeful 10 million baht price tag, but it has reportedly changed hands for considerably less. Plans are to enclose the open-air beer bar and turn it into a nightclub. This isn’t Tee’s first go at a disco in the Nana Hotel. He famously bought the EQ nightclub before Covid and, well, let’s just say that that didn’t work out as hoped. Wishing him better luck this time.

At times it seems like Tee wants to buy every property in Nana but he has not shown any interest in Whiskey & Go-Go. A sale of the middle floor bar looked imminent for a while but one of the owners is back on Facebook advertising it again.

 

 

A reminder that bars will be closed this coming Tuesday and Wednesday but when they reopen on Thursday, Red Dragon in Nana Plaza and Shark on Soi Cowboy will hold their monthly Full Moon Party with happy hours in both bars until 9:30 PM during which all drinks are just 95 baht. At Red Dragon, rum drinks will be 95 baht all night while at Shark, 95 baht will be the price for draft beer. Expect colourful costumes, glowbands and special shows.

Don’t ever think ladyboys and ladyboy bars can’t laugh at themselves. While sometimes it can feel like most gogo bars in Thailand uses Europe’s “The Final Countdown” as their opening song to call dancers to the stage, Obsession ladyboy bar in Nana Plaza has its own tune, The Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men”. 🤣 Digital a-Go-Go, who shot photos in Obsession this week, suggested they also could use Aerosmith’s “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)”!

There’s an old, long-running joke in Thailand that the best-looking women in Thailand are really men. If this photo of a dancer named Gop in Obsession is any indication, there may be some truth to it.

 

 

How much does the quality of the drinks in a gogo bar determine whether you’ll visit or stay? For some people, it can be a deal-breaker. There are plenty of gogo bars where the mixed spirits are absolutely awful. Topping that list is Rainbow 5 where, on several visits over the past two months, a spirit mixed with diet Coke (Coke Light was ordered) came back as flat, watery sugar water. No amount of protesting or sending drinks back fixes the problem. It’s far from the only bar with the same problem. When the drinks are good, people will stay and order more. When they’re dreadful, it’s often one drink and out. Back in the day, Tilac used to mix really good drinks while Angelwitch for so long was absolutely terrible.

Most Nana Plaza bars have their own security and, of course, the Plaza has its own squad. But, late night, some folks can get quite aggressive in the bars – and it’s almost always after too much alcohol. The owner of Billboard, who employs average-sized Thai guys at the door, early this month upgraded its security by bringing in a mountain-sized foreigner. Incredibly friendly and affable, this security-industry veteran’s presence is so imposing, his mere arrival on the scene of a problem defuses the situation. He shows up and suddenly the drunks causing problems became apologetic and even shake his hand to thank him – for cooling things down, but also not for crushing them!

 

 

Demonia in Sukhumvit soi 33 is the best-known and longest running fetish bar in Bangkok. Over the past few months they have hosted a number of bachelor parties and the owner would like to offer a special deal for Stickman readers. Anyone interested can drop Demonia an email at : welcome@demoniabangkok.com. Details from Demonia follow:

Give him a night he will never forget with a Demonia Party Package.

With over 20 years in business and so many special nights behind us, Demonia have all the experience you need for this type of party. 

Let us know your ideas, how many people will be in the party and of course, your budget, and we will provide you with a free quotation – with a special discount for Stickman readers!

Your only limit is what you can visualize and we can combine to create your perfect package that results in a legendary night you will talk about for years.

We can also arrange food, drinks packages, VIP vans to and from the venue, special shows and more, so come and celebrate your special occasion at Demonia Bangkok.

Have a night you’ll never forget – And remember, what happens inside Demonia, stays inside Demonia.

 

 

A friend was delighted to discover that one of his favourite pizzerias in Naples – the home of pizza – Starita, has a branch in Bangkok. When a Margherita runs almost 450 baht for a pizza with few ingredients and some of the fancy pizzas on the menu cost close to 1,000 baht, you have to wonders why the prices are so high. It’s great that Bangkok has so many fantastic eateries these days with food available from all over the world, but I do struggle to get my head around the prices in some places which are considerably more than you’d pay in much of the rest of the world. That said, Starita’s 499 baht lunch set looks like a decent deal. On a positive note, according to my friend who is a regular visitor to Naples and a true pizza connoisseur, that the quality of the pizza was very good indeed and right up there with what you get in Italy.

Given that Customs seldom looks at the luggage of foreigners arriving in Thailand, do you take a lot of notice of the laws regarding the importation of alcohol and fresh fruit and food? In the past, I would often take a couple of kg of kiwi fruit with me. I would not do that now that the law has changed and the importation of fresh fruit and veges is not allowed – while at the same time the chance of being caught seem remote. I remember an Australian teacher colleague of mine who used to bring about 20 bottles of wine in to Thailand in his suitcase after each trip back home. He never had a problem.

A regular Dutch reader who is based in Bangkok visited his homeland recently and said that without doubt, there are far more marijuana shops in Bangkok than there are coffee shops in Amsterdam – which are known more for weed than coffee.

 

 

What would this column be without an update of the one I have long referred to as The Mad Professor, the peculiar fellow who scribbles odd diagrams over the pavements, shop walls, signs and signposts of downtown Bangkok. A reader spotted him this week and it looks like he has hardly changed at all.

The latest book in the Reliable Man series, technically # 25 but the 10th full length novel, has just been published. This series can best be described as expat Asia thrillers. There is one chapter set in Thailand (Q Bar to be precise and of course there is the obligatory encounter with a ladyboy…) Other locations featured in the book are KL, Labuan, Manila and London. It is available now on Amazon in e-book, paperback and hardback. Please note that you can download the book from Amazon for FREE for the next few days – so get in quick! Here’s a brief synopsis:  It’s 2010 and Bill Jedburgh, formerly of the Royal Hong Kong Police and now a gun for hire, is invited to act as guardian to a well-connected doctor from Thailand who wishes to further her studies in the UK. Once his charge is safely settled in Bristol, Jedburgh takes a few days off to help an old friend recover a stash of gold from a bank vault in Labuan, the Malaysian off-shore financial centre. What starts as a small favour to assuage Jedburgh’s boredom soon turns deadly, as other parties try to get their hands on the gold. The Reliable Man has to contend with Albanian and Malaysian gangsters as well as operatives from the Israeli, Filipino, and Russian intelligence services who are all in pursuit of an unexpected prize. Will Christmas come early for Jedburgh, or will this mysterious treasure trove slip through his fingers?

 

 

Plenty of foreigners in Thailand complain about all and sundry in the country, but spare a thought for the Thais who are seeing many popular tourist spots in their country over-run with those who were once visitors but are now residents. Everyone says that Phuket is changing for the worse (I’ve heard that for 20+ years) and in a very short space of time has become totally over-run with Russians. Pattaya has seen a large influx of Indians, although in fairness most are short-stay visitors. Chiang Mai has long had an alternative lifestyle / hippy element which I think the Thais find amusing as much as anything. Parts of downtown Bangkok have long had more than their fair share of naughty boys, while Bangkok other neighbourhoods are today full of Chinese. And then you have a few small areas dominated by Arabs and Middle Easterners. Wherever you go in Thailand, there are foreigners.

It’s a long time since I owned this website outright. I sold a majority share in the site in 2015 and then 3 years later I sold my final share in the site. I am still the writer of this column. Does not owning the site limit me in what I can or cannot say? Not at all. The owners of this site have been magnificent. They have never said what I can or cannot write about anything. They have never instructed me to give favourable mentions to any particular business interests. They’ve trusted me to just get on with it and do my thing. In this respect, things could not have been better. Occasionally someone will accuse me of favouring a certain bar or other business and suggest that perhaps I have been instructed to do so by the owners. No, that has never happened.

 

 

Thailand-Related News Articles

In the USA, a woman sues a Thai restaurant over a super spicy meal she considered, ‘unfit for human consumption’.

Cyberbullies in Thailand beware, you could face both criminal and civil proceedings.

Thailand is to charge foreigners even more than it currently does to enter historical parks.

With the huge number of Russians visiting and relocating there, will Phuket soon become known as the Little Russia of the East?

Thailand’s Corrections Department is preparing to house former PM Thaksin Shinawatra.

An explosion ripped through a firework warehouse in Southern Thailand, killing 9 and injuring more than 100.

 

 

Closing Comments

As predicted last week, this week’s column contains a little less bar news than previous weeks. With that in mind, I included more readers’ emails than usual. Hopefully all the emails and this week’s ramblings were worth your while tuning in for.

 

Your Bangkok commentator,

Stick

 

Stick can be contacted at : stickmanbangkok@gmail.com