The week that was in Thailand news: In defense of Bangkok - leave my lovely home alone!

[DJ54]

As well I’m not keen on the Thai bashing in total...although there

are areas that are well known for issues....

 

My theory is some ladies of th night once long in the tooth may have taught their sons the art of the con. Not all but a few where the compass points upwards and the side of the rising sun....

 

enjoy the day!

[sambum]

As a first time visitor to Bangkok many years ago, I ended up in the Thermae which used to be the place to go to avoid bar fines! Being fresh off the plane, and having been picked up myself by "a lady of the night" (not something I was used to!) I asked my buddy if he had any condoms. He said rather condescendingly "You can get them anywhere - they probably sell them behind the counter here". (For the uninitiated, you had to buy vouchers in order to purchase your drinks there - a bit like the cafeterias in some supermarkets) When I asked the guy behind the counter if they had any condoms, I was presented with one of those sleeves that fit over your beer bottle! One of my first memories of Bangkok!

[mikebell]

Bangkok is a dreadful place even without the smog.  It can take 90 minutes to drive 8 kms on Suk.  If you don't want to drive, get down on your knees and beg a taxi driver to switch his meter on.

Don't get me started on the Bandits-in-Brown shakedowns round sois 11-19 on Suk.

[overherebc]

3 hours ago, SupermarineS6B said:

Indeed, served me time in the Blue Fox, Wongs, and the old Thermae...... the Malaysia Hotel was an experience back then as well........ Happy days ....

Thermae

 

Some would wash the dishes

Some would clean and sweep

But, best of all was the Thermae doll

Who would clean you out while you sleep.

[PaDavid]

From the opposite viewpoint, I hate Bangkok Rooster. I was brought up in a small village in Oxfordshire and instantly fell in love with the small Isaan village in which I landed 4 years ago. In some respects it reminds me of my roots. Everyone knows eveyone else and people are always popping in to visit neighbours - usually just for the sake of it. There is little or no crime (if you disclude drunken driving), the air is relatively clean (even now during the burning season), I've never laid eyes on a rat (see them everywhere in Bangkok), the traffic is light, grandmothers still bring up kids whilst parents are at work (just as mine did with me), and the pace of life is slow and non-stressful. I imagine that, except for the cars and agricultural machinery, life is not much different than it's been for centuries. Mine is much as I remember it from when I was a kid. Empty roads to cycle on, full ponds to fish from, and plenty of friendly neighbours to drop in on. 

 

Ok, so there are no bars, restaurants or ladies of the night, but who cares? My wife is a brilliant cook (and looks after the other side of things), and all my local shops sell Chang and Leo. Sorry Rooster, but you can stuff Bangkok up your jacksie. Dirty, noisy, smelly, crowded, corrupt, and brash place that at is. On the rare occasions I'm forced to visit, or pass through, I can't wait to get back home. 

[overherebc]

29 minutes ago, PaDavid said:

From the opposite viewpoint, I hate Bangkok Rooster. I was brought up in a small village in Oxfordshire and instantly fell in love with the small Isaan village in which I landed 4 years ago. In some respects it reminds me of my roots. Everyone knows eveyone else and people are always popping in to visit neighbours - usually just for the sake of it. There is little or no crime (if you disclude drunken driving), the air is relatively clean (even now during the burning season), I've never laid eyes on a rat (see them everywhere in Bangkok), the traffic is light, grandmothers still bring up kids whilst parents are at work (just as mine did with me), and the pace of life is slow and non-stressful. I imagine that, except for the cars and agricultural machinery, life is not much different than it's been for centuries. Mine is much as I remember it from when I was a kid. Empty roads to cycle on, full ponds to fish from, and plenty of friendly neighbours to drop in on. 

 

Ok, so there are no bars, restaurants or ladies of the night, but who cares? My wife is a brilliant cook (and looks after the other side of things), and all my local shops sell Chang and Leo. Sorry Rooster, but you can stuff Bangkok up your jacksie. Dirty, noisy, smelly, crowded, corrupt, and brash place that at is. On the rare occasions I'm forced to visit, or pass through, I can't wait to get back home. 

We split our time between BKK and the Eastern Seaboard and basically that means the majority of the time we are not in BKK. 

I go there maybe twice a year to stay for a couple of days, New Year and Songkran or a  one night before going to the airport to spend a few days in Japan or Vietnam.

There is no way I would live full time in BKK.

My wife goes there more often for family company meetings etc but I'm happy to stay away from the place.

At the moment we are planning to sell up in the eastern seaboard, now we've both retired from O&G and probably buy a place on the Med' somewhere and I will stay there until I fall off the perch ????

Why anyone would want to stay in a big city anywhere in today's world is beyond me.

[Imkah]

Good reading Rooster, thank you! I arrived - and fell in love with the city in 79. Stayed in a swiss?owned hostel on sukhumvit soi 1. Breakfast and lunch in stalls along sukhumvit! For dinner I often went to Silom/sala daeng just to watch and listen to the tens of thousands of birds quirping (did I just make up a new word? -I’m norwegian) at sunset snd then have a seafood dinner up a 1,5mtr narrow alley. In a british bar under a garage next to patpong 1 I met an ex helicopter pilot whi owned some shares in a few bar beer places. Think he was british. Since I also worked with helicpters he introduced me to the mamasans and told them to treat me as his brother. Anybody have an idea who he might be?

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

Great stuff Rooster!

????

[Jane Dough]

3 hours ago, Imkah said:

Good reading Rooster, thank you! I arrived - and fell in love with the city in 79. Stayed in a swiss?owned hostel on sukhumvit soi 1. Breakfast and lunch in stalls along sukhumvit! For dinner I often went to Silom/sala daeng just to watch and listen to the tens of thousands of birds quirping (did I just make up a new word? -I’m norwegian) at sunset snd then have a seafood dinner up a 1,5mtr narrow alley. In a british bar under a garage next to patpong 1 I met an ex helicopter pilot whi owned some shares in a few bar beer places. Think he was british. Since I also worked with helicpters he introduced me to the mamasans and told them to treat me as his brother. Anybody have an idea who he might be?

Yeh those birds...though I tended to go looking for other kinds of birds in that area.

 

You may be thinking of chirping?

 

Rooster 

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

I too was friends with Dr. Dick in the early 90s and I remember his awesome and well sorted Honda Fireblade. A really nice guy I met at Charlies' Bar.

My 1st visit to Thermae was on my 2nd night in Bangkok in the mid 80s. I was staying at Miami Hotel where you could see the car park from the swimming pool and inquired at the hotel bar what it was. "Johnny" the barman took me in and the rest is history. I think I must be one of the few to leave by the front door of the Turkish Baths upstairs when the sun was shining. I got the flyer for the opening of Jim's Bar, or whatever its name was, a few yards up the road and went for the first night, but as I suspected at the time it was soon to become Thermae II.

I got and official invite for the opening night and a free beer when I arrived, much to my surprise! When I get chance I still drop in and always get a very warm welcome from the staff.

 

On the question of Bangkok: there are city kids and country yokels, each to their own, whatever you prefer is fine by me.

[off road pat]

Good read,...brought back sweet memories...of my travels all around South East Asia starting 30 years ago !

I fell in love with so many places, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) Hanoi, Hoi Ahn,..Bali, Jok Jakarta,..Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, Malaka, Penang, The Cameron Highlands, Puerto Galera, Manila, Vientiane, Vang Vien, Luang Prabang, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, Krabi, Koh Chang, Siam Reap, Phnom Penh,...and so many more. I felt so privileged and lucky to be able to see all those places that from then on I continued to travel all over Asia every year for 6 months, and when I met the girl who was to become my wife we did all the best places again just to show her the places that made me feel so alive and made me happy. There were so many wonderful places that I could never settle for only one. And so many places have lost there charm to mass tourism, so we decided to travel around every six months. I am now with my wife on a secluded beach in the south...until we move again...

Best regards.

[grobec]

Lest we olde timers forget the disco at Nana Hotel. Soi 4 was only the Nana in those days. A couple of small bars and massage places but nothing like today.
The nana coffee shop only closed from 4-6 am for cleaning and food was amazing. People came after hours from all over the city.
Rooster your reference to Thermes made me smile.
I used to describe it as being like the bar scene in Star Wars with interesting alien species.
The bathroom entrance was classic.
Ah the good olde days.


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[Jane Dough]

7 hours ago, grobec said:

Lest we olde timers forget the disco at Nana Hotel. Soi 4 was only the Nana in those days. A couple of small bars and massage places but nothing like today.
The nana coffee shop only closed from 4-6 am for cleaning and food was amazing. People came after hours from all over the city.
Rooster your reference to Thermes made me smile.
I used to describe it as being like the bar scene in Star Wars with interesting alien species.
The bathroom entrance was classic.
Ah the good olde days.


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Ha...one night in Nana disco my whole life changed direction. I met my second wife there in 2000. Fout years later we were tying lots of knots, sai sin around our wrists in a country wedding ceremony in Loei. Nine years after that, when the children from my first marriage had left Thailand and grown up, we welcomed our first daughter who was six today. For four years myself and Mrs Rooster played pool in the Brunswick in Nana which has closed for many years now. Mrs Rooster was third in a tournament and I won one once. Nana is not a place I go very often these days but it holds amazing memories, My oldest friends and me used to play snooker every week for years on the third floor of Nana Plaza, in the days when very few people went out there for the bars. That was about 1986 to the mid 90s I guess. 

 

Rooster

[grobec]

Yup.
Across from nana was a gold shop and an Indian tailor.
Of course later on came Golden Bar.
Sad when they closed. I tried to buy it but Hooters had very very deep pockets. We used to go through bowling on Petchaburi with a fleet of “nana girls”.


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[Rhys]

Bernie would be proud...

 

[55Jay]

Bangkok Shmangkok, blah blah blah.  For me, it's like Pattaya.  OK for a few days visit, max, then outta there.  It's not rocket science that folks evacuate at the weekends and holidays.  Lots of farang up North lived down there for many years, moved up, never looked back again. 

[Jane Dough]

11 hours ago, 55Jay said:

Bangkok Shmangkok, blah blah blah.  For me, it's like Pattaya.  OK for a few days visit, max, then outta there.  It's not rocket science that folks evacuate at the weekends and holidays.  Lots of farang up North lived down there for many years, moved up, never looked back again. 

For me the pollution and traffic in the North is too much to bear ????

 

Lovely mountains though - until we need to level them to build more elevated roads in the South. 

 

Rooster