1978 it was Patpong 1 & 2, nothing at all in those roads then, other than some parked cars and folk walking around, my favorite bar was The Mississippi Queen, I met my first Thai wife there in 1978. Some renowned foreign photographer came to Bangkok in 1978 and did one of the first glossy color books on Thailand. He took some photos inside The Mississipi Queen, and sure enough when his book hit the shelves there was a full page color shot of my wife. The Saigon bar scene from the movie the Deer Hunter was filmed inside The Mississippi Queen. The Thai gal who was in the movie in the scene with Christopher Walken worked as a go-go dancer in that bar. Before her brief appearance in The Deer Hunter her going rate was 500Bt, but after the movie came out she was getting 5000Bt. Guy's would BF her for the night then when they got back home to Germany or England or wherever they'd have some friends over and put on The Deer Hunter video, then when the Saigon bar scene came on they could tell their friends, "This one, this one there, I banged her in Bangkok." Soi Cowboy was just starting, I remember going there to Mitch & Nam's soul food restaurant for some Tex-Mex. Bobby's Arms in Patpong was another big favorite when we wanted farang food, they had things like pies & peas and fish & chips. The Toby Jug on Silom was also another favorite restaurant for British style pub food. The Grace Hotel and Thermae Bar were the 2 big pick-up spots. The very first time I went to the Grace as I walked in there was a group of Thai gals standing and shaking in front of one of the jukeboxes as it blasted out Led Zep's "Whole Lotta Love'. That sure impressed me. Of all the Bangkok bars my personal favorites were The Three Roses, Rosemary 1 & Rosemary 2 bars on Sukhumvit. Had some absolutely, unbelievely wonderful nights in those bars. Lots of guys talked about going to seedy joints in Klong Toey for sheer debauchery, but I never went there myself. The Ruby of Siam was a big old Thai-style nightclub on Sukhumvit, long gone now. Another good place we went to when we wanted farang food was the German Beer Garden on Sukhumvit. It was open-air, they played that tuba/oom pah music, served the beer in great big mugs, had excellent food, like sausages & potato salad, all good German grub that filled you up. Then in 1978 the guys who ran the Mississippi Queen opened The Tahitian Queen at Pattaya, and we often went down to Pattaya as my wife knew most of the girls who were working in the TQ at that time.
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