Stickman Weekly, September 29

Mystery Photo

Where is it?

Last week’s photo was taken at the Asoke intersection. Dozens of you got it right! This week’s photo may look obscure but this is a place I bet most readers have walked past plenty of times. This photo is in the usual zone.

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

Is there such a thing as stealing staff?

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HPV is to blame.

Regarding female reproductive tract cancers, if you’re referring to cervical cancers they are mostly caused by HPV (human papilloma virus). Vaccination is highly encouraged and effectively reduces risk. Pretty much recommended in the US. I don’t know how much the Thai medical system pushes this vaccine.

Nana Friday report.

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Where is the baht going?

In 2013, 1 kronor bought 5.10 Thai baht. It’s about 3.20 today. Market predictions say it will go to between 1.79 – 2.24 in 2027. That’s a big change! Add in the effects of inflation and I am not sure that Thailand’s tourism industry would cope with an appreciation of another 30% against major currencies.

Are we more compatible with Filipinos?

Regarding your comments about Filipinos. I went to the Philippines a number of times a few years ago and found them to be as you say – happy and often joking around. It was easy to talk to both men and women and their command of English was very good. They seem to be far more on our wavelength than the Thais. Maybe it has something to do with the influence that the Spanish and then later the Americans had on them?

More Readers’ Emails

Where are they now?

I would love to know what happened to the 3 singing, dancing Filipino girls from Check-Inn 99. After the demise of the original CheckInn99, they never seemed to have the same success. They were attractive ladies, all related, with their cousin (?) on the organ. I was a frequent visitor. They always remembered my name and greeted me from the stage. I can remember pre-pandemic when Bangkok visitors were in the Doldrums, going to the club and the girls were giving 100% to an audience of 3. I took the opportunity between numbers to join the girls on stage. I took a microphone from the lead singer and expressed my gratitude for their professionalism, giving a full performance to so few customers. I remember ending by saying ‘don’t worry, the good times will return’. They said ‘we hope so.’ Where are they now?

How cycle-friendly is Bangkok?

I read your comments about no bicycles at Benjakitti Park. I would not be surprised to hear they have banned bicycle riding there. Though one can ride next door at Forest Park, they only allow it until 5:30 PM. I saw a video from Global Travel Mate exploring some new renovations at Lumpini Park. However, he noted riding is only allowed there from 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM, the hottest time of the day. Last year, I mentioned my experience of trying to ride to Forest Park in the evening on the new path at the beginning of Sukhumvit and being blasted with klaxons and flashing lights installed on nearby poles. This path, too, is designed only for joggers or pedestrians who are always in short supply when I pass by, day or night. IMHO, Bangkok is one of the most unfriendly bicycling cities in the world.

Watch-seller update.

I know the Thai watch-seller with the growth on his cheek, always very nice and friendly. He would walk a marathon each day, I’m sure. I don’t think it’s that long ago I saw him, but hope the best for him. If there ever were a hardworking man, it was him.

Thailand’s greatest attraction?

Despite what people may say about the food, the weather, the beaches, etc, Thailand’s greatest attraction is still its nightlife, which is unsurpassed worldwide in terms of quantity and quality. Even mainstream visitors who don’t partake are curious to see what it’s all about. It’s what kept you here when you were young. Once you found your lady, the attraction wore off somewhat. It’s not surprising that you left. It’s often said that we’re drawn back to our first love. So you may return when you’re older (after the cats have passed on?). Everyone needs something to look forward to, whether it’s a bigger house, a nicer phone, or a trip to the bars after a hard week of teaching.

On Thursday night, a truck advertising positions at XS (part of the Pin Up Group) was parked up on Beach Road, near Soi 6.

This Week’s News, Views & Gossip

The first news item in last week’s column was about the Pin Up Group’s strategy to recruit girls employed in other bars by parking trucks with advertising on the side right outside bars with lots of girls. The day after last week’s column was published, the Pattaya News website reported that a truck with advertising screens on its sides was smashed by a gang of youths. Something like this happening was inevitable. One of the first things I learned in Thailand was not to mess with someone else’s rice bowl. And to be frank, that’s exactly what happened here. The bar industry figures I have spoken to about this all feel the response was entirely appropriate.

You’d think smashing the screens on the side of the truck might have been the end of it. No, seemingly the destruction of the screens on one truck did not put the Pin Up Group off at all. The photo above was taken on Thursday night and shows another truck with job ads – this time for XS, another bar in the Pin Up Group – parked up on Beach Road, very near the bottom of Soi 6. I get the feeling we have not heard the last of this.

In Bangkok, Dollhouse Dennis has had a name change and is now known as Lollipop Dennis. Friends and fans can find him at Lollipop, the ground floor Nana Plaza gogo bar, where he has been appointed as the new manager. Here’s hoping Lollipop is as good a fit for Dennis as Dollhouse was.

Welcome to Nana Plaza, Lollipop Dennis!

What’s going on in one of Bangkok’s very best gogo bars where there has been express instructions that under no circumstances is the word “barfine” to be used. Mamasans and girls have been told they absolutely must not use the word barfine under any circumstances. Mamasans have also been told they must not broker any deals between customers and girls. Something has happened but no-one will say exactly what. It sounds to me like either there is some sort of human trafficking crackdown taking place, or someone has been spooked. I’ve written many times about the odious practice of mamasans inserting themselves in to a deal and pocketing 500 baht or more as a commission. If whatever is going on stops this nonsense, bring it on. With all of this said, there has been no change in terms of barfining and it’s all very much business as usual.

Soi Cowboy’s newest gogo bar, Bad Beach Soi Cowboy, is set to open this coming Tuesday, October 1, in the space that was once Lighthouse. Management of the Crazy House group, which owns Bad Beach Soi Cowboy as well as Kazy Kozy and Five Star, said there will be a soft opening party on Tuesday to show off the lounge-like chrome pole palace located in the middle of the soi. But don’t expect Bad Beach to be Crazy House II where there are plenty of birthday suits on display. It is expected that in Bad Beach, dancers will be in beachwear.

The iconic Erotica brand in Nana Plaza is officially dead with the ground floor gogo bar finally erecting a new sign with a new name: Party. (See photo below.) I wrote about plans to rename Erotica to Party last year after it was purchased by a Japanese owner. Renovation and renaming was supposed to have begun in April, but it wasn’t until July that the Jacuzzi was ripped out and not until September that the new sign went up. The name may be new, but everything else about the bar remains the same as when it was Erotica, from the mamasans to service staff to the small number of dancers. And renovation also hasn’t moved past the removal of the bath, where a hole in the tile remains.

Many insist that the ladies working in bars back in the day were more attractive than the ladies you find in the bars today. And to be honest, that’s how I remember it too. But when I look at photos I took of ladies 20 – 25 years ago, the evidence is clear – they are not the beauty queens I remember them to be! Yes, they had a more natural look and there was little in the way of surgical enhancements. And yes, there were far fewer tattoos and piercings and braces on their teeth – all of this is absolutely true. I guess most of us remember how the girls were sweeter, friendlier and much more laid-back, and less business-like. But that doesn’t mean they were beauty queens. When I look at photos I took of ladies prior to 2007 or 2008, many are very plain and some look like they had just stepped out of the village. By that I mean they dressed terribly, and looked, for want of a better word, “rural”. Many were also very skinny (which may be to some people’s tastes, but I mean skinny as in too slim, almost like their diet was inadequate). Ladies you find in the bars today are more likely to have a bit more shape. And a good few go to the gym – they don’t just look good, they’re fit too! Ladies today are so much better at applying makeup, doing their hair, dressing nicely and generally making themselves look attractive and sexy. Sure, they may have been more fun to be with in the past, but that doesn’t mean they were more attractive.

Speaking of ladies’ looks, long-time gogo bar operator Big Andy (Dollhouse, Club Electric Blue and many others) used to always say, “The first role of running a gogo bar is that you need at least one fat girl!”

Talking of Big Andy begs the question: what happens to old bar bosses? When bar bosses leave the bar industry, what do they do? Where do they go? Many seem to stick around in Thailand – and plenty end up in Pattaya (even if they never ran bars there). Many former bar owners have a house on the dark side. But not everyone sticks around and quite a few leave Thailand altogether and return to Farangland. I was chatting with an old friend this week about legendary Bangkok gogo bar boss Johnny The Clock, who ran Hollywood on the top floor of Nana Plaza when it was one of the best bars in Bangkok. Johnny (not his real name) was given to him by Thais, as he used to drink a whole bottle of Johnnie Walker Whisky every night. He was a second hand car-dealer and word was he wound back the odometer on vehicles i.e. he “clocked” the cars, hence the name Johnny The Clock. Johnny returned to the UK many years ago. He is said to be in poor health and has trouble getting around. Johnny’s oldest son Kevin who managed the bar with him also returned to the UK where he works as a driving instructor. I hear Kevin has not been back in Thailand for a very long time. It must be 15 years ago or so since Hollywood was sold to Peter the Czech who then sold it to The Nana Group and it was developed in to Billboard. How time flies.

A few times I have mentioned that Soi Cowboy would be better without the cannabis stores which seldom seem to have customers. How about a decent Irish pub on Soi Cowboy? Could the established, popular Scruffy Murphy’s which is just around the corner relocate to Soi Cowboy? Yes, I am aware there is a Stumble Inn on Soi Cowboy and for sure, it’s a great spot – and I really like sitting at the railings upstairs and watching the comings and goings below. An Irish pub on Soi Cowboy (or any British pub for that matter) might just be a winner.

On Walking Street, available spaces are quickly snapped up. As the relocated Shark opened on the corner of Soi Diamond, builders were at work on the corner of Soi 14 renovating the long-closed Rich Gogo bar into a new chrome pole palace. But don’t get too excited unless the third sex is your thing. It will be Pattaya’s newest ladyboy gogo bar. The only other ladyboy gogo bar in Pattaya is the long-running Katoeys ‘Are’ Us on Soi Diamond. The question has to be asked – why are there so few ladyboy gogo bars in Pattaya when there are so many in Bangkok?

The other half of the departed Champagne-Pure combo of bars on Soi LK Metro has a new name. Playa A Gogo will take over from Pure after Champagne opened this summer as the Tuk Tuk Club music house.

About the hijab-wearing naughty ladies doing their thing on Soi Nana, the question has been asked whether they really are Muslims. Could it in fact be clever local ladies trying something different to market themselves and stand out from the crowd? Entrepreneurial Thais aren’t shy to push boundaries when it comes to making money!

Speaking of the international contingent, word is the African ladies opening gambit is often 2,500 baht. Those who have been there and got the t-shirt so to speak report that 2,000 baht is likely to be accepted.

If you are doing business with Thais, don’t take it personally if they rip you off. Some paranoid foreigners think that all Thais are out to rip us off. They’re not! If you really feel that’s the case, are these people working in the tourism industry? If so, don’t forget that the tourism industry is notorious for this sort of thing worldwide. Or perhaps you have spent too much time in the wrong sort of places / with the wrong sort of people. Thais who try to rip you off are likely doing the same with their fellow Thais. When you get involved with locals – whether it’s personal or business relationships – do the necessary due diligence.

These days it seems like everyone loves to bitch about the price of everything. If Thailand is getting expensive for you, do what those before you have done and head for Cambodia. I hear that you can still get draft beer at 75 cents in some bars in Phnom Penh before 6:00 PM.

Phnom Penh, the place for cheap drinking.  (Old photo from the Stickman archives.)

A couple of new books about / set in Thailand were released this past week, one novel and one non-fiction book. The Beating Room is Alex Caulfield’s first novel and sounds intriguing with the author describing it to me like this:

Having never fully recovered in the 30 years that had passed since the loss of his younger brother to suicide, when Alex is diagnosed with terminal cancer at the age of 60, he leaves Australia for the last time and sets out on a 12-month harrowing journey of self-destruction and redemption across Thailand. Through a labyrinth of intense reflections, raw emotions, and stark realizations, he attempts to understand and navigate a world collapsing around him, both externally and within.

Set against the backdrop of Western decay and the chaos of modern life, “The Beating Room” unfolds with brutal honesty and dark humour. It’s a tale for those unafraid to confront the harsh truths of life, who question the status quo, and who find beauty in the struggle.

The second book is Patpong Story Of A Red Light District, a history of Bangkok’s oldest bar area by my good friend Randall Howlett. The 223-page print version is 7 x 10-inches (which makes it larger than what he tells me is the usual 6 x 9-inch size). It has 80 images and 3 full-page custom-made maps. There are images and maps in the e-book but they are smaller. I’ll feature this book in an upcoming column.

Retirees are getting anxious about the exchange rate with the baht seemingly gaining in value each week. Some economists predict the baht will increase in value markedly over the years to come. One forex article I read this week predicted a 30% increase in the value of the baht by 2030. I am not saying this will happen – economists’ forecasts are wrong more often than not – I am simply pointing out that some in the business of making economic predictions say it might. Whatever happens, for retirees on a fixed income you might like to ask yourself how much further you can tighten your belt.

On the subject of foreign retirees, I was amazed at the number of really old, foreign couples – as in Western guy with a Western wife – who I came across in suburban Bangkok. We stopped by Mega Bang Na a few times as were staying out there and we kept coming across older retired Western couples. When I say old, some looked to be well into their 80s. The stereotypical foreign retiree in Thailand might be an older white guy who has settled down with a Thai woman a couple of decades his junior – but today it seems like there are plenty of older western couples who call Thailand home.

Chris Coles’ fabulous nightlife artwork. Do you remember the Safety Zone signs?

Following on from the column of a couple of weeks ago with a collection of Nana Plaza photos, Chris Coles sent through more images of his fantastic artwork from the plaza. I particularly liked this image. You can find more of Chris’s Thailand nightlife artwork at: BangkokNoir.com.

I seldom go to Thai restaurants here in New Zealand because most seem to be small businesses run by a family, no-one in the kitchen is a trained chef and the food is often disappointing. As a brief aside, the quality of the meat is usually better than you get in Thailand but that’s about it. Anyway, back to the story: A Thai friend of ours got all excited when she saw an ad online at a local Thai restaurant for sticky rice and mango. Despite the high price – $NZ 35 (about 750 baht!!!) – she made a special trip just for that dish. She was shocked at what she was served – regular sticky rice with coconut cream on top, and not the sweetened sticky rice (khai nee-ow moon in Thai) that is soaked in coconut cream. And alongside it was tinned mangoes! Thai food in New Zealand is disappointing but this was a new low. She couldn’t have been more disappointed and appealed to the staff as one Thai to another, asking how they could serve such a dish at that price and call it sticky rice with mango. They simply weren’t interested. I long ago learned that most Thai restaurants in New Zealand aren’t worth visiting. I haven’t eaten in a Thai restaurant in this part of the world since before Covid.

There are a few ads in this column which help to cover the expenses of running the site. I don’t have anything to do with that side of the operation whatsoever. The ads are automatically inserted; I do not manually insert them myself. I mention this because sometimes an ad might appear in an odd spot and break the natural flow of the column. So if you ever find yourself wondering why Stick put an ad there, that’s why.

Thailand-Related News Articles

Quote of the week, “The real Thai economy can still be measured by how fast the gogo girls scramble to pick up 20 baht notes from the floor.”

A Brit flying from Bangkok to London is caught at Heathrow with 100 kg of cannabis in his luggage.

In Pattaya, a gang of youths smash up the advertising screens on the side of a truck.

New car sales in Thailand are declining, as is the production and assembly of vehicles in the country.

A Thai woman who had unprotected sex with a foreigner complains after she contracted an STD.

Will the strength of the Thai baht put off visitors?

The heavy rains have seen Chiang Mai’s tourism industry have a dire low season.

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Closing Comments

It’s late September and the peak of the rainy season in Bangkok is usually around about now. It sounds like it has not been too bad in Bangkok so far, while parts of the country – Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai, in particular – have seen torrential rain, flooding, widespread damage and loss of property. Some people say the rainy season is not that big a deal, but try telling that to those poor people up north who have had a terrible time. I always found the rainy season in Bangkok to be awkward and I was often reluctant to make plans. If it rained really heavily, you could get stuck and unable to get to appointments on time. Getting around – by any means of transport – can become a real challenge. If you’re visiting Bangkok at this time, I hope you’ve managed to avoid the heaviest downpours. Unfortunately there’s probably at least another month or so before the rains end. Give me the hot season over the rainy season any time!

Your Bangkok commentator,

Stick

Stick can be contacted at : stickmanbangkok@gmail.com