Stickman Weekly, October 27, 2024

 

 

Mystery Photo

Last week’s photo was taken by a regular reader from Today@Soi8 Bar, near the start of Sukhumvit soi 8. Well done to the many of you who got it right. To be the first person to get the mystery photo right, you have to be quick! Oftentimes the first correct answer comes within just a few minutes of the column going live. And for the last four weeks, the same person has been first. Perhaps it’s a case of time zone advantage for this clever fellow in West Auckland.

 

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

A happy visa agent customer.

I used a visa agent when I lived in Bangkok and she arranged an annual retirement visa for me for 5 consecutive years from 2014 until 2018. I did not qualify for a retirement visa in Thailand, but the agent arranged everything for me and I was quite happy to use the service. There were never any problems. My last visa in 2018 cost 24,000 baht. They also arranged the 90-day reporting for me. I would drop off my passport to their office and pick it up a few days later when it was ready, which saved me the hassle of going to Immigration in person. For the first few years there was no charge from the agent for doing the 90-day report, but they later imposed a small charge which I was happy to pay. When I lived in Thailand prior to getting a retirement visa, I used to do visa runs to neighbouring countries which was fun for the first few years but then it became a right pain. I plan to move back to Bangkok next month, and recently contacted the agent to ask the current price. I was quoted 32,000 baht which is a steep 33% increase from 2018. But if you work it out on a per day cost, it’s not too bad.

Illegal visas.

The games played by people to ‘get’ one year retirement visas are illegal. Not “technically”, just illegal. I appreciate you have a diverse readership so you can’t say it but anyone who paid / pays the 30k+ baht fee to ‘borrow’ 800,000 baht for an hour is committing fraud. Difficult but not impossible to trace, and obviously unlikely to happen retrospectively.

Light-fingered ladyboys on Sukhumvit.

I was walking along Sukhumvit Road toward Soi 4 on the even-numbered soi side of the street. It was about 9 PM and it was raining quite heavily. I was holding an umbrella. As I passed the stairs of the pedestrian overpass, I saw three ladyboys hanging out under the stairs. One of them called out to me. I gave a passing hello as I kept on walking. A few steps later I felt someone grab my arm and put their other arm around my waist saying, “Where you go?” I told the ladyboy “this way” as I struggled against her grasp. She swung me around quite physically and said, “Maybe you like my friends?” who started posing and making gestures to me. I felt her put her hand in my back pocket and I yelled, “Hey!” She let go and backed away. I made it clear that I knew her intentions and glared at her. I said quite loudly to her friends, “She put her hand in my pocket!” I keep my wallet in my front pocket, so she didn’t get anything. I really didn’t know what to do. I could have reported the incident to the Tourist Police but I didn’t think any good would come from reporting it, so I just went on my way. I have nothing against ladyboys and feel they are part of the character of this part of town. I am just stating as a fact that they happened to be ladyboys.

Billboard kills the bar crawl.

It was dry meteorologically and alcoholicly extremely wet along Sukhumvit last night. Beer 1 in Crazy House. Packed at 8:00 PM, I did manage to find a perch and the girls (mostly) look mighty fine. I never have more than a single beer there because the music is so awful. Beer 2 in Long Gun. Hadn’t visited in over a decade. As you mentioned recently, female customers were present, some on bar stools to spectate on the sordid show. It cost me 200 baht to remind myself that I really don’t, and never have, appreciated such displays. Past versus present attractiveness of gogo girls is debatable, but past versus present patronage of female clients? A decade ago, they were rare. Two decades ago, they were non-existent. These days they compete for elbow room in Long Gun, at the Billboard Jacuzzi and especially the Geisha bath tub (where many seem keen to get their hands wet). Beer 3 Billboard. It was standing room only at 10:30 PM and remained that way well past midnight. Even when I left at 2:30 AM there was barely any spare seating. Billboard was gangbusters and killed my bar crawl, beers 4, 5 and my sobriety!

More Readers’ Emails

What’s mama up to?

Two ladies dancing on stage right in front of me gestured to buy them a drink. They thought I was looking at them, but in fact I was scoping out a beauty facing the other way behind them (I could see her reflection in the mirror). There were not many customers, yet she was oblivious to me looking at her. When mama came over and gave me the sweeping arm gesture to the 8 ladies on stage, I told her I would buy the lady in the back a drink. When mama got her attention to come sit with me, the lady seemed surprised that anyone would choose her. She was very demure, yet sweet and pleasant in nature. After a couple of drinks, I paid the bar bill and the 1,000 baht barfine. Mama wanted the 3,000 baht for the lady up front. Mama said, “2 hours” and made sure I realised the time was 9:45 PM. The lady went to get dressed. When the lady was returning, mama grabbed her arm and pulled her back behind the curtain. After a couple of minutes, I got up to use the toilet and could see that mama was scolding this lady, saying something sternly at her and pointing her finger. When we got to my room, I asked her whether mama was treating her ok. I used Google Translate to make sure she understood. All she said, timidly, was “Yes”. I asked if we could be LINE friends and she communicated to me that she did not have her phone with her. What Thai lady does not have her phone with her all the time? I asked how much mama gave her out of the 3,000 baht and she said 1,000 baht! “Is mama going to give you more when you return to the bar?” She confirmed that she was only getting 1,000 baht out of the transaction. I felt she was being honest with me and I felt so bad for her. She didn’t even angle for a tip when it was time for her to go back to the bar. From what I saw earlier, I wanted to make sure I got her back to the bar on time, otherwise I felt she would get in trouble. I gave her a generous tip. <On the surface, it looks like the mamasan has inserted herself in to the transaction and has taken a huge cut. It is also possible that the lady was new to the business and had been lent money by the mamasan – as is common – and the mamasan insisted on being paid back there and then – Stick>

Happy to have moved to the suburbs.

I used to be one of those people who swore they’d never leave the city centre. I lived very near the Asoke intersection for years and years. As the kids grow, you realise that not being able to go outside and play like kids should is not a life for them. So, my wife decided that we had to move into a house instead and I kinda agreed. We moved to a nice gated community down Soi Lasalle (Sukhumvit 105). A 5-bedroom, 4-bathroom house costs just slightly more than the 3-bedroom apartment we had in Sukhumvit soi 18. Fast forward 5 years and I’ve never been happier about the move. Lush and green, tons of restaurants and malls out here. Short motosai ride to BTS Bearing and 10 stops to Asoke (23 minutes) when I get the urge to go out.

Choosing the suburbs over downtown.

We have moved away from the area of Bangkok you focus on each week. We now live in the north-eastern part of Bangkok where the pace of life is more relaxed in a gated community with plenty of greenery and good security. It would be about a 400 baht taxi ride to Nana but I enjoy the exercise of taking an 80-minute cycle ride in and then leave the bike at a condo in town. The BTS is nearby and is also an option, and much cheaper than taxis.

Bangkok arrivals report.

My flight arrived in Bangkok at noon and I let out a groan when I saw the number of people heading to Immigration. But it went very quickly. Every booth was manned and I was on my way in around 15 – 20 minutes. I also took one reader’s advice and took a car service, Impressive (that’s the name of the service). I was pleasantly surprised by their professionalism and the money I spent over trying to haggle with a taxi was well worth it.

This Week’s News, Views & Gossip

The past few weeks have been particularly wet in Bangkok (and Pattaya), which is completely normal for the time of year. A reader battled the rain to make it to his favourite Nana Plaza bar and despite trying to shelter under an umbrella, he was soaked by the time he walked in to Spanky’s. Staff didn’t blink and he was given a towel and a Spanky’s-branded T-shirt completely free so that he could change out of his wet gear. How good is that? It’s the little things that make some bars stand out from the rest. Well done, Spanky’s.

Things are picking up in Bangkok, while the reports I receive from Pattaya are mixed. If my email inbox is anything to go by, many Stickman readers have descended on Thailand the past 10 days or so. Is the high season about to kick in to gear?

Add Bunny 3 to the list of bars where birthday suits are de rigueur.

What’s the story with the upstairs level in Soi Cowboy’s newest bar, Bad Beach? Previously Lighthouse and before that Shebas, the upstairs area was hardly ever used but this week a reader saw activity upstairs and thought he’d take the stairs for a nosey to see what was going on. He was stopped and told that only couples may venture upstairs. What’s that all about?!

Manager Dennis is making positive changes at Lollipop in Nana Plaza. This week he did something that every bar manager should do – and banned the girls from having their mobile phones with them on stage.

 

 

Sukhumvit soi 33 is quieter than it was. Why? The answer is not immediately obvious. Those in power seem hellbent on destroying an aspect of the city that so many foreigners – and locals, for that matter – enjoy as the many street vendors once based in soi 33 have been given the boot. They should count themselves lucky as they were given a week’s notice to be gone. Where do they operate from now? Who knows, as no alternative location was provided.

A large parcel of land on Sukhumvit soi 33 is up for sale, including the plots that made up the old Livingstone’s Lodge and the abandoned condo just a little further up on the same side of the soi. Any development on soi 33 would require hundreds of migrant staff who in their wildest dreams couldn’t afford to eat in the remaining expat / middle-class Thai oriented eateries. That said, will those developments ever get underway? Those plots have been vacant for a decade or so.

Still on Soi 33, many of the flasher massage outlets which target Japanese and other Asian men have undergone a makeover. It looks like good money has been spent on some of them. If you’re looking to try somewhere new, you could do worse.

Halloween falls on Thursday this week and bars across Bangkok and Pattaya are getting in the spirit.

These are organised, more than just-a-poster parties. Here’s a quick roundup:

• Red Dragon – Halloween happens to coincide with the bar’s anniversary, so this party will be big. Red Dragon turns 2 this week, so there will be plenty of scary get-ups, and lots of toasts to a bar that has become one of the most popular in Nana Plaza.
• Mandarin Nana Plaza & Shark Soi Cowboy – Red Dragon’s sister bars will celebrate Halloween with free food, lucky draws and “Goosebumps” and ghost shows.
• Tycoon – The top-floor Nana Plaza bar is dressing up for the occasion and all customers will receive a “Spooky Shot” with their first drink purchase. There’s also a costume contest for the girls with cash prizes.
• Billboard & Butterflies – Halloween always brings out wild “sexy scary” costumes at these 2 Nana Plaza juggernauts. The reason? BIG cash prizes in the girls’ costume contest.

• Angelwitch – Halloween is this bar’s national holiday. After all, a skeleton hangs from the ceiling year-round. This year all house pours will be 100 baht all night long.
• Fetish bars, Demonia in Bangkok, and The Castle in Pattaya, will perform fetish shows all night long and it will be buy one drink, get one free. Last year, several couples turned up at the venue so they will do it all again on Saturday, November 2 with a special promotion for couples – come two, pay for just one.
• The Old English – The Thonglor pub is celebrating Halloween on both October 30 & 31, with Lee Shamrock live on Wednesday and free scary shots and 199-baht “horror burgers” on the 31^st.
• Craft and Whisgars on Sukhumvit soi 23 will have spooky cocktails and food, Halloween-themed face painting, photo opportunities and a costume competition.
• Smalls – The Sathorn live music house is eschewing the dress-up for a Halloween Music Festival with 3 acts lined up: The Basic Jazz Trio, Mint Passakorn & DJ Freddy Funk. Details here.
• Pattaya – Walking Street will be the epicentre for Halloween fun and both Shark & Fahrenheit are welcoming all ghouls and goblins. Bartenders are whipping up special cocktails for the occasion.

Patpong, where Halloween is not a big deal despite the Night Market drawing more and more tourists, is preparing for its own Party of the Year: The Bada Bing 15^th Anniversary Party on November 14. The French-owned gogo bar will open its second floor for the first time since before the pandemic and is expecting a huge crowd and a Who’s Who of Bangkok’s nightlife scene. Girls from sister bar Radio City will join in the fun. Groups of partygoers can purchase six bottles of spirits for only 6,000 baht. That’s a crazy 1,000 baht a bottle, lower than what you’d pay in the nearby Foodland supermarket! This is a date to circle on your calendar.

A short stroll from the 2 Patpong sois is the Japanese-centric nightlife soi, Soi Thaniya. Some say it’s part of Patpong, others say it isn’t. Whatever, it’s definitely worth taking a wander so you can have a gander at the beautiful girls who perch outside the doorways leading up to the venues – many of which you need to take a lift to reach. For so long, the ladies of Soi Thaniya have largely ignored Caucasians, but times must be tough and today many will greet you as if you had just stepped off the plane from Tokyo. Why is Soi Thaniya so quiet? The weak Yen which has made Bangkok nightlife somewhat more expensive for our Japanese friends. I spent an hour in a Soi Thaniya bar way back in 2007 and wrote about it in a column opener, Little Tokyo. An hour back then cost 4,000 baht – goodness knows what it would cost today.

 

 

What’s the going rate in the bars these days? In Bangkok gogo bars, short-time typically runs 3,000 – 4,000 baht, on top of the barfine which is usually around 1,000 baht, maybe a little less. I hear that ladies in one Sukhumvit gogo bar are asking for (and getting) 5,500 baht for short-time, which strikes me as an unusual number. Why not 5,000 or 6,000? Why 5,500 baht? All power to the ladies who are free to charge whatever they wish. High season is just around the corner, the supply & demand equation will change and we know what that does to prices. If you’re on a budget, there are other options. Freelancers. Late-night bars. Massage shops. Apps.

I note that on the top-rated Smooci app for meeting freelancers and escorts, quite a few ladies are now asking – and presumably getting – 7,000 baht for 2 hours of their time. Rates for ladies in Bangkok used to top out at 5,000 baht. That said, there are plenty of ladies available for much less. A quick search while doing the final edit of today’s column revealed 40 ladies available to visit a customer at 2:00 AM Bangkok time. Most were asking 4,000 – 5,000 baht for two hours. The cheapest was 3,000 baht. One lady was asking for 14,000 baht – and she was one of the least attractive, to my eyes at least.

If you’re willing to roll the dice, freelancers can be found 24 hours / day around the top of Soi Nana and on the strip of Sukhumvit Road between sois 3 and 5. The snap above of a shapely freelancer was taken by a reader at 11:30 AM one morning this past week.

Speaking of Sukhumvit Soi 5, the Amari Boulevard Hotel has been rebranded as the NH Sukhumvit Boulevard.

 

 

Down in Pattaya, 2 foreigners were arguing on Soi Diana when one fellow who was described as highly intoxicated fell with the second fellow’s foot swung, hitting said fellow’s head. The fracas took place on the steps outside a 7 Eleven store. Staff came out to administer first aid, but the injured fellow was stubborn and wouldn’t sit still. Where do these 2 clowns come from? I think many of us could make an educated guess!

Elsewhere in Pattaya, the reports continue of Indians approaching punters, patting their belly and saying something smart-arsed. It’s the opening of a scam that I can’t get my head around. A couple of readers reported being approached by Indians this week who were trying this nonsense on.

African ladies have been a feature on Soi Nana for a while and can now be found in Pattaya. They perch in some bars and give the glad eye to passersby. And a good few have joined the evening lineup on Beach Road. The Beach Road parade is getting more cosmopolitan as high season gets closer and you can also find ladies with a Middle East appearance dressed in a way that makes a clear statement about their availability.

And Pattaya’s cosmopolitan erotic offerings are evidenced further by a couple of websites promoting sex shows starring a foreign cast. First up is 89 Adult Show. I was only recently made aware of this and have not had time to dig deep in it. And I really am not sure quite what to make of it. Information on the site describes adult-themed shows with Russian women engaging in “imitation intercourse” and “open demonstration of genitals with a bonus of touching for front seats”. And then there is the similar Imagine 79 Show which describes itself as “an absolutely new shocking show for adults, this is real extreme! Even the most experienced guests will be amazed.” It goes on, “It is impossible to find photos or videos of this show on the Internet. Taking photos and videos is strictly FORBIDDEN. You will be carefully inspected at the entrance, smartphones and photo cameras will be taken away for the time of the show.” Has anyone been? I can’t be the only person curious as to what this is all about. Or is it all a big scam? I can think of a dozen different ways in which this could all be a front for something nefarious. Assuming this is real, I can’t imagine it will last.

 

 

How do the bars in Bangkok and Pattaya compare these days? One big difference is the double lady drink nonsense in Bangkok. It has reached a point where some tell me they feel like they simply can’t relax in bars with this outrageous pricing and they don’t like feeling they have to ask about lady drink prices all the time. Is this double lady drink nonsense widespread in Pattaya? In a word, no. The odd venue has this odious practice but it’s not like Bangkok where many bars have adopted this crap. If you don’t like this nonsense, seek out the mamasan or better still, the foreign manager (if there is one) or the owner and explain – without emotion – that the reason you’re heading elsewhere is because of the double lady drink pricing. Truth be told, it will probably have little or no effect but there is always a chance that if enough people make a stand then maybe, just maybe, it might occur to them that it is having a detrimental effect on customer numbers and some bars might rethink the policy. That said, it’s complicated. If ladies receiving double lady drink commissions for every drink went back to receiving just half what they’d become accustomed to, they’d probably leave and seek work elsewhere. Is it a no win situation? I can’t see the clock being turned back.

There’s free food on offer at Catflaps Pratamnak. The GentsClubs.com-run bar on Pratamnak Soi 5 has replaced its free hot dogs with genuine jerk chicken and rice on Fridays. The food comes from a Jomtien Beach outlet and is said to be the real deal.

In last week’s column I mentioned that the Indian owners of the Penthouse Hotel planned to reopen the ground floor gogo bar. Many years ago it was known as Kitten Club but it will reopen under a new name, Penthouse X. I wonder if they still have the cameras in the bar which guests of the hotel can tune in to via one of the channels on the TV for a live view.

A number of you have told me about your positive experience with Thai Visa Centre which can get just about anyone a visa. To be very clear, I do not recommend any visa agency. These services operate on the fringes and some do not follow the rule book. Previously, I recommended a visa run operator but that firm’s visa agency operation deteriorated into shenanigans and as such, I do not wish to make a recommendation which may result in a Stickman reader ending up in a sticky situation. So what I will say is this: A number of Stickman readers have mentioned Thai Visa Centre and every one of them said that they are very happy with the service provided.

Overstaying your visa in Thailand is not such a big deal, right? So long as it’s only a short overstay and you don’t come to the attention of the authorities before you leave the country then what’s to worry about? Many seem to think that way but I don’t agree at all. In fact, I feel quite strongly that this is to be avoided. I have a friend who overstayed not so long ago, by just a few days. He paid the fine on the way out and the Immigration officers were very friendly and it all seemed like no big deal. He would return to Thailand before long and for the first time in a very long history of visiting the country, he was pulled aside, taken to a room, the rubber gloves came out and he was told to bend over. Ok, so I am joking about the rubber gloves but he was questioned for a while, and asked what his plans were. Now this is obviously a sample of N=1, but it does make sense that returning after an overstay may trigger a flag in the system and you’re off to the naughty boys’ room for a friendly chat with an Immigration officer. Just because Thai Immigration officers processing overstayers are friendly and don’t lecture you when you pay the fine does not mean that you should do it. You’re breaking the law and, who knows, it might have an effect on future trips / visa extensions in Thailand.

It’s not just foreigners grumbling about the strong Thai baht. Many Thais working abroad who regularly send money back to Thailand are also feeling the pinch. Thais here in New Zealand are screaming at the current exchange rate with some telling me they now get 20% less for their hard-earned New Zealand dollars. Many Thais here plan to stay until they reach 65 at which point they qualify for superannuation, and they will move back to Thailand. Some live frugally and send as much as they can back to Thailand. The magic number for some is 5 million baht in the bank, on top of a new house and a car.

I received an email this week from the family of Broken Man Repaired, a popular Stickman contributor back in the day who wrote more than 50 readers’ submissions. Broken Man Repaired – real name Paul Gullick – passed away this week after a short battle with cancer. He left specific details with his family to make contact with the Stickman community and let his many friends in Thailand know that he is no longer with us. He was a very popular contributor who wrote about his regular visits to Thailand, his tribulations with ladies of the night, his marriage, marital problems and subsequent divorce and his life in England. He had a charming, breezy writing style. What I best remember about his articles were his comments about how he liked to dress Thai ladies in West Bromwich Albion shirts (small youth size). May he rest in peace.

Thailand-Related News Articles

American lawyer Benjamin Hart posted some interesting thoughts on Thailand’s proposed Electronic Travel Authorisation.

A group of Filipinos caught pickpocketing admits to targeting foreign visitors in various tourist hotspots.

A 43-year old British businessman swimming at Karon Beach, Phuket, is dragged out to sea by the tide and drowns.

Sophisticated scam call centres ran Internet cables under a bridge from Thailand 5 km inland in Laos where they operated from.

The latest on Thailand’s long-proposed tourist tax is that it will start with those arriving by plane.

Instant karma for a British tourist after he ignores the ‘no smoking’ sign and lights a cigarette next to food stall gas stoves.

A taxi driver stabbed an Aussie tourist passenger with a cutter after an argument over damage to the vehicle escalated. Something worth noting here is that many taxi drivers have a weapon of some sort in the car. Knives, machetes, homemade clubs and even guns. The craziest story I heard goes back to the Red Shirt protests in 2010. Dave The Rave was a passenger in a taxi, discussing the mayhem in Bangkok with the taxi driver. Dave has an affinity for making people warm to him and the driver turned around and said, “Don’t worry, my friend”, as he reached down underneath his seat and pulled out a pistol for Dave to see.

Three Brits flying from Bangkok to Manchester are caught with 50 kg of cannabis in their luggage.

 

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Closing Comments

By the time next week’s column comes around, the rainy season should be pretty much over in Bangkok, and it should just about be high season. Will this year’s high season bring record crowds? Or will it mirror Europe’s tourism high season which was apparently something of a disappointment. Can we read anything in to that or is what happens in Europe irrelevant to Thailand? If I were a betting man, I’d say this year’s high season should be as good as last year’s, if not better. What do you think? Could another booming high season that runs all the way to Songkran be just around the corner? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Your Bangkok commentator,

Stick

 

Stick can be contacted at : stickmanbangkok@gmail.com