THE WEEK THAT WAS Get thee behind me Covid - Thai nights out in the good old days. Are there more to come?

[kennw]

7 hours ago, George Aylesham said:

Of course I've given my favourite Sunday read a like - your column has always been one of the main reasons for me to read ASEAN Now/ThaiVisa

Keep it up (the writing) best part of this forum.

[khaowong1]

Entry was through the back door, funnily enough, via the toilets, and to see some lady standing at the urinals peeing.  ha ha ha 

 

[khaowong1]

Entry was through the back door, funnily enough, via the toilets, and to see some lady standing at the urinals peeing.  ha ha ha 

 

[In Full Agreement]

3 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

The only area of Udon which is shut down is the soi with the ferang bars on it.

    

You mean all 3 of the farang bars are shut down?     ????

[Stargeezr]

Thanks for a great memory lane article Rooster. I have seen Soi Cowboy a few times, and Patpong, as well as

the bars that used to be near the train tracks and Sukhumvit and of course Staying at Nana hotel and Dynasty

 I got to visit Nana Plaza a few times.  I have visited Pattaya a few times and stay at Jomtien beach when I am 

in that area, as it is quieter and had lots of good restaurants and bars.  Hua Hin with Soi 88 and good eating along Soi 94.

plus some pool nights at Soi 99 and  of course Binta Baht.

Phuket gave me good memories of Kata and Karan beaches as well as a few visits to Patong  beach. Those early years

of the 70s and 80s were a blurr, the 90s are still good memories, and with lifes changes, marriage, etc. I still enjoy

travelling to Thailand for the break of a cold Winter and to just wear a loose shirt, shorts, and sandels for a couple

months or so.  I do believe that by next year, there will be some of us tourists returning to Thailand again for pleasure

and to see just how badly the COVID pandemic has affected, the places that we have all visited in the past. I am sure that

there will be a lot of places that have closed and there will be less people that we knew, because sadly some of them

have died either of old age or COVID or some other ailment.  Keep up the great work Rooster.

Geezer

[bangkok19]

Hey Bro...  great read!   I'm 66 and confess I personify the Jethro Tull song - "Living In The Past".

I first set foot in Thailand in '83.  I remember stepping out of the plane at the old Don Muang and it was like walking into a blast furnace.  And there was that smell....   

Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai were my ports of call in the 80's.

I always stayed at "The Honey" in Soi 19...  a short walk to Cowboy and Thermae, an expensive, long taxi-ride to Patpong.

Pattaya was enjoyable for a while..  did the Hash Runs, watch the Muay Thai downstairs at the Marine Bar then ventured upstairs to the Disco.  After a while Pattaya (to me) became like the #1 rock band at the time...  INXS,  excesses of women, noise, pollution and self inflicted diarrhea from excesses of Singha. I ceased going there in '91.

Chiang Mai was the perfect escape from those excesses!

 

From '83 until late 2019 I'd probably done about 70 to 80 trips to Thailand. The first 7 years as a single man, the rest, married to a Thai visiting the family. 

 

IMO.. the full-on fun 'vibe' in Thailand thinned out a little after the King passed away. Especially noticeable in Bangkok around the Christmas's after. They just weren't the same. I'm usually there every Xmas, Songkran and the 'quiet' August's. 

 

Anyway...  my comparisons between the 80's and the 2000's....

 

80's      -   Bar Fines cheaper, short times and long times cheaper (as mentioned earlier in this thread). 'Long times' also                       were the 'norm'.

2000's -    Mobile phones get more attention than the customers, many girls are chubbier, the attractive ones know thy're                   attractive and charge accordingly...  also more reluctant for 'long time' preferring to quaff drinks from multiple                   bar patrons.

 

80's    -    Somehow the music we heard in Thailand was more memorable,  both western music and Thai music.

2000's -   The music in some of the bars..... really?   The highlight is the Isaarn music at closing time!

 

On the flipside,,,

 

80's  -   An overseas phone call was 100 Baht for 1 minute (and not a second longer).

2000's  -  Thai SIM cards!

 

80's  -  You had to bargain for taxi fare...  too much traffic.

2000's  -  BTS, MRT and Meter Taxi's.

 

I still love the place!  

[StevieAus]

12 hours ago, GarryP said:

I'm only 58 going on 59 and it has already started. Eat well and exercise, but there are some things I just cannot avoid.  

Totally agree one to be aware of is climbing ladders

One year ago almost to the day I fell off a ladder onto concrete spent a month in hospital had five operations to fix the fractures in the leg and since had the torn tendons in the shoulder repaired.

Has made me realize that I am 71 not 41, agree with the above.

[StevieAus]

13 hours ago, Artisi said:

Or 20. 

Try not to think that far !!!

[eastlight]

17 hours ago, BostonRob2 said:

BJV (soi zero?) Clinton plaza (later) and Washington square did not really feature on Rooster's Radar, all division two. 

Yes, they probably were but they were all part of the nightlife 'scene' now disappearing.

[Artisi]

3 hours ago, StevieAus said:

Try not to think that far !!!

already there ????

[StevieAus]

12 minutes ago, Artisi said:

already there ????

Congratulations and I wish you many more.

[MyFriend You]

20 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Anyone remember the illustrious Clinton Plaza? It was torn down many years ago, but used to be a fun, low key assortment of bars, somewhere off of Sukhumvit, if I remember correctly. That was a long time ago. Good column. Thanks.

Monika Lewinsky bar, Cigar Bar, Blue dress bar, Hilary bar, 5 Star bar, and a dozen more popped up after Clinton gave his speech there during a visit to Bangkok..................okay place to have a few beers during Happy Hour.

[MyFriend You]

18 hours ago, eastlight said:

How about Buckskin Joe Village? 

Renamed Soi Zero, fell apart after that.................Original Det 5 was there, IMU bar, and another place full of Khmer gals toward the front.

[Rookiescot]

22 hours ago, In Full Agreement said:

    

You mean all 3 of the farang bars are shut down?     ????

No actually it would be nearer 30 bars bars.

Of course the local Bangkok hospital wants the land they are all sitting on so again make of that what you will.

Edited September 13, 2021 by Rookiescot

[Neeranam]

On 9/12/2021 at 9:12 AM, rooster59 said:

The disco above one of the King’s bars was our late night favorite before it was off to the Thermae Coffee Shop - the old one.

 

Entry was through the back door, funnily enough, via the toilets. The staff - many of whom work in it’s newer location to this day, I’m told - brought our Beer Sing or a Lipo if we’d already overdone it. 

Wild night in there for my 30th birthday in 1995. I ended up with a girl with a glass eye. 

Surely thr woman with the limp isnt still there?

 

[Marpa47]

Thanks for another great read.  One of the highlights of my week.  

[bristolgeoff]

Before they were many bars in bkk,soi 13  and just near na na,under the  highway.All gone now but many good times spent  in those bars over the years

[elgenon]

Patpong had some interesting shows. One bar had a strip show that was actually quite good.

One time my friend had taken two girls but wanted to see a LB. So I took him to Queen's Castle. A "girl" , with my encouragement, came over to him and lowered her bottoms discreetly. He refused to believe she was a LB even when the two girls told him. Wonderful time.

 

But Carousel in Nana had girls putting things up their quaffs that I had never seen in PP. Until the legendary Thaksin stopped all shows, and had the bars close early. Also cracked down on pot. That's when the girls switched to Ice. No smell and made them nice and skinny.

 

I do remember sitting in bleachers at a bar in PP and a patron started bouncing a girl on his lap (figure it out) and the momason came running over wanting to get paid. Never saw such a thing in Nana.

 

My favorite memory of Soi Cowboy was when I was in a bar and a girl got her check from her BF in Europe. None of us paid for another drink. The money soon gone.

[MUSTYJACK]

AAhhhh, Soi 39 apartments, long gone now I think, but whatever happened to Som, the trusty maid who "saw no evil, heard no evil, and most certainly never spoke about the evil she both saw and heard." ... on a regular basis if my memory serves me correctly.

 

????

Edited September 16, 2021 by MUSTYJACK

[BostonRob2]

On 9/16/2021 at 3:42 PM, MUSTYJACK said:

AAhhhh, Soi 39 apartments, long gone now I think, but whatever happened to Som, the trusty maid who "saw no evil, heard no evil, and most certainly never spoke about the evil she both saw and heard." ... on a regular basis if my memory serves me correctly.

 

????

Not to mention Bom the dog! PM me please. 

[MUSTYJACK]

Quote

Not to mention Bom the dog!

......  or the sleepy and grumpy old yaam, and of course the songthaew drivers in their rusty little daihatsus (alai wa... pai soi k'boy eek laew,  fon tok nak, sam sip haa baht!)

Edited September 19, 2021 by MUSTYJACK