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Did Anyone Know Trink?


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41 minutes ago, JemJem said:

Come on, man. Don't leave us curious. Some details would be nice. 'Bizarre' can be fun 🙂


Some things are better left in the past and unsaid. Crazy Jack / Shadow Jack definitely did some unsavory things though. Apparently he was also a Vietnam war veteran who lost functionality of his family jewels as a result of a combat injury. If you want to know more about him, some of what he did in his bar is written about on Stickman. Google is your friend. 😊

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Posted (edited)
41 minutes ago, JemJem said:

 

Haha. So many memories for me  from the 90's, regarding the green minibuses. Yes, they were wild 🙂 I mainly stayed in Saphan Kwai those days. I often took the green minibus no 77 to Silom. And, back, late at night. If I remember right, they operated 24 hours back then. They are still present. When I see one, my mind goes back to those days 🙂 Patpong is like a shadow of the Patpong of the 90's so I rarely go there nowadays. When I do, I take the skytrain going there and back. I don't hang around there till late anymore. 

 

 

Those mean-greens are still around? Didn't notice. I need to look more closely. I might be wrong, but I think at least 30% of all the city buses now are electric. They are lovely. Navy blue in color. Very quiet. The back door opens wide enough so that at least 3 people can pass through at once, no stairs (which prevents falls), and inside they are cool as a cucumber. They are also run by a private operator, which is good because it means they will be (hopefully) better maintained than the state run buses, but (possibly) bad because they could also fail if not profitable enough. Other downside is I think they can only make 2 runs before needing to recharge batteries. And recharge time can take quite a while when many buses are recharging at once.

 

Saphan Kwai? Why did you ever leave? All those wonderful bars on Suthisan! A friend took me down there once in the early nineties telling me it was Patpong for the locals. To me the places seemed a bit rough and rugged though, filled with what looked like mainly low-level thugs. Truth be told, I was pleased when it was time to check-bin and never to return.

 

Edited by HugoFastor
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52 minutes ago, JemJem said:

I actually enjoyed the columns of both Trink and Stickman. It has been a long time since I last read Stick. Apparently, he is still writing his column, which has surprised me. I had thought he quit. I will check it out later this week. 

 

The nightlife is just not the same for me now. Sadly. Due to both the various changes in itself over the years and also my age of course. Hangovers used to last half a day or a day maximum. Nowadays, 2-3 days. So, I admire folks who can enjoy nightlife without drinking much. I have never been like that sadly. 

 

One also wonders if Bangkok Post would agree to have a column like Trink's now. I am guessing no. 

I think he gave up during covid then came back

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I more like the idea of Trink than the mostly dross he churned out; calling go-go bars nighteries and hookers, demimondes. He was the pinnacle of the golden era of mongers, wearing big medallions and over-tailored shirts.

 

I have stayed the Miami Hotel on soi, where the film The Serpent was filmed to good effect. It's been done up since, but retains it's retro charm. Is it still open? I was thinking about booking it?

 

I knew Cleo Odzer who wrote Patpong Sisters, the first feminist, post-modernist critique -but surely unread here, except possibly by Gamma.

Edited by Prubangboy
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1 minute ago, Prubangboy said:

I more like the idea of Trink than the mostly dross he churned out; calling go-go bars nighteries and hookers, demimondes. He was the pinnacle of the golden era of mongers, wearing big medallions and over-tailored shirts.

 

I have stayed the Miami Hotel, where the film The Serpent was filmed to good effect. It's been done up since, but retains it's retro charm.

 

I knew Cleo Odzer who wrote Patpong Sisters, the first feminist, post-modernist critique -but surely unread here, except possibly by Gamma.


I think what made Trink's look so unusual, more than his big round owl medallion, was that he wore the waist of his pants up around the top of his abdomen. Made him appear to have longer legs and a very short upper torso. Not sure why he did that though. 
 

I think only a few of the lobby scenes from The Serpent were actually shot at the Miami Hotel. The majority of the scenes were shot at a small apartment complex inside Sukhumvit Soi 4. The complex was actually about to be demolished when the location scouts for the production team of The Serpent spotted it. Because of its layout with the swimming pool, they paid a lot of money to the owner of the small complex to use the location for the shooting of the Serpent and not have it torn down until filming was completed. Now it's gone. 
 

The Miami Apartments I was referring to in my original post was on New Petchaburi Road and was not the Miami Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 13. But the two were actually owned by the same owner. The Miami Apartments' architectural design might've been also a suitable filming location for The Serpent, but I think it was already demolished by that time and not sure if it had a pool. They needed one of those small, 1940s style apartment complexes in Bangkok with a swimming pool to mimic the look of Kanit House, which is long gone and was the place where Sobhraj had lived in Sathorn. It wasn't such an easy thing for the scouts to find 60 years later. 


I read Odzer's book about 30 years ago. Wasn't overly impressed. A bit disappointed in fact how she came to Bangkok to do one thing for her PhD and ended up hooking up with a local guy instead, having a troubled, whirlwind relationship with him, and not really finishing her thesis in the way she had set out. It started out as a project with an interesting and useful narrative and then ended up as a rather typical Bangkok downward spiral story. I don't mean to sound critical of her outcome, because that's how real life often turns out; not exactly as one would have planned. But when you write a book about it, the reader kind of expects things to end on a more enlightening note. 

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10 minutes ago, HugoFastor said:


I think what made Trink's look so unusual, more than his big round owl medallion, was that he wore the waist of his pants up around the top of his abdomen. Made him appear to have longer legs and a very short upper torso. Not sure why he did that though. 
 

I think only a few of the lobby scenes from The Serpent were actually shot at the Miami Hotel. The majority of the scenes were shot at a small apartment complex inside Sukhumvit Soi 4. The complex was actually about to be demolished when the location scouts for the production team of The Serpent spotted it. Because of its layout with the swimming pool, they paid a lot of money to the owner of the small complex to use the location for the shooting of the Serpent and not have it torn down until filming was completed. Now it's gone. 
 

The Miami Apartments I was referring to in my original post was on New Petchaburi Road and was not the Miami Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 13. But the two were actually owned by the same owner. The Miami Apartments' architectural design might've been also a suitable filming location for The Serpent, but I think it was already demolished by that time and not sure if it had a pool. They needed one of those small, 1940s style apartment complexes in Bangkok with a swimming pool to mimic the look of Kanit House, which is long gone and was the place where Sobhraj had lived in Sathorn. It wasn't such an easy thing for the scouts to find 60 years later. 


I read Odzer's book about 30 years ago. Wasn't overly impressed. A bit disappointed in fact how she came to Bangkok to do one thing for her PhD and ended up hooking up with a local guy instead, having a troubled, whirlwind relationship with him, and not really finishing her thesis in the way she had set out. It started out as a project with an interesting and useful narrative and then ended up as a rather typical Bangkok downward spiral story. I don't mean to sound critical of her outcome, because that's how real life often turns out; not exactly as one would have planned. But when you write a book about it, the reader kind of expects things to end on a more enlightening note. 

 

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12 minutes ago, HugoFastor said:


I think what made Trink's look so unusual, more than his big round owl medallion, was that he wore the waist of his pants up around the top of his abdomen. Made him appear to have longer legs and a very short upper torso. Not sure why he did that though. 
 

I think only a few of the lobby scenes from The Serpent were actually shot at the Miami Hotel. The majority of the scenes were shot at a small apartment complex inside Sukhumvit Soi 4. The complex was actually about to be demolished when the location scouts for the production team of The Serpent spotted it. Because of its layout with the swimming pool, they paid a lot of money to the owner of the small complex to use the location for the shooting of the Serpent and not have it torn down until filming was completed. Now it's gone. 
 

The Miami Apartments I was referring to in my original post was on New Petchaburi Road and was not the Miami Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 13. But the two were actually owned by the same owner. The Miami Apartments' architectural design might've been also a suitable filming location for The Serpent, but I think it was already demolished by that time and not sure if it had a pool. They needed one of those small, 1940s style apartment complexes in Bangkok with a swimming pool to mimic the look of Kanit House, which is long gone and was the place where Sobhraj had lived in Sathorn. It wasn't such an easy thing for the scouts to find 60 years later. 


I read Odzer's book about 30 years ago. Wasn't overly impressed. A bit disappointed in fact how she came to Bangkok to do one thing for her PhD and ended up hooking up with a local guy instead, having a troubled, whirlwind relationship with him, and not really finishing her thesis in the way she had set out. It started out as a project with an interesting and useful narrative and then ended up as a rather typical Bangkok downward spiral story. I don't mean to sound critical of her outcome, because that's how real life often turns out; not exactly as one would have planned. But when you write a book about it, the reader kind of expects things to end on a more enlightening note. 

I think it's mostly the pool area that's in The Serpent. The nearby Honey House was another old classic.

 

Cleo did a better book about Goa where she lived till her early death. How I met Cleo: I bought a reviewer copy at The Strand BookStore in New York and her email was on the back. Cleo was not amused that her book was being sold months before publication. We met up in the nearby beatnik-legend bar nearby, The Cedar Tavern. 

 

And then again in Goa, by chance in the beach. Bonkers, yes, Brilliant, absolutely.

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7 minutes ago, Prubangboy said:

I think it's mostly the pool area that's in The Serpent. The nearby Honey House was another old classic.

 

Cleo did a better book about Goa where she lived till her early death. How I met Cleo: I bought a reviewer copy at The Strand BookStore in New York and her email was on the back. Cleo was not amused that her book was being sold months before publication. We met up in the nearby beatnik-legend bar nearby, The Cedar Tavern. 

 

And then again in Goa, by chance in the beach. Bonkers, yes, Brilliant, absolutely.


Sad, I didn't know Cleo passed away over 20 years ago. In fact, after reading the book, I think I only thought of her a few times when books about Bangkok nightlife came up in conversation. Never met her and didn't know much else about what she did with her life after that. She certainly had a lot of spirit though. I just read her wiki and how she died still seems to be a bit of a mystery. Don't know The Cedar Tavern, gone already I assume. Cleo strikes me as the kind of person who would have liked to meet up somewhere around 8th street, McDougall, maybe in Washington Square park or perhaps at The Scrap Bar or The Peppermint Lounge. 😉

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Trink was a friendly fellow who was always gracious when approached in public. I chatted with him a few times at the cinema in Siam Square that was demolished a few years ago. i used to catch a movie on Saturday afternoon and more often than not, he'd be there too. He was always polite, and friendly.

 

His column might have been good in the past but for the last decade or more it was junk, filled with Nigerian scammer letters and warnings about getting involved in relationships with bargirls. I remember reading it in the late 90s and early 2000s and there was little in it. In its prime, it was a must read.

Edited by mstevens
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8 hours ago, JemJem said:

I actually enjoyed the columns of both Trink and Stickman. It has been a long time since I last read Stick. Apparently, he is still writing his column, which has surprised me. I had thought he quit. I will check it out later this week.

 

Stickman is up and down. Some weeks are flat like this week, all bar news and little else. Other weeks are good and more varied. Some weeks are very good. He wrote about when he thought Pattaya was at its best a week or two ago and a week or two before that before that he wrote a very long story about an old girlfriend which was particularly good.

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3 hours ago, Prubangboy said:

I think it's mostly the pool area that's in The Serpent. The nearby Honey House was another old classic.

 

Cleo did a better book about Goa where she lived till her early death. How I met Cleo: I bought a reviewer copy at The Strand BookStore in New York and her email was on the back. Cleo was not amused that her book was being sold months before publication. We met up in the nearby beatnik-legend bar nearby, The Cedar Tavern. 

 

And then again in Goa, by chance in the beach. Bonkers, yes, Brilliant, absolutely.

 

You made me more curios about The Serpent's main shooting locations. So I did a bit more digging and following is what I found. 

 

As I said, not much shooting was actually done at The Miami Hotel, however many articles written about the series had led people to believe that this was one of the main locations. They only filmed a few scenes in the lobby, outside the hotel, and they had created a fake bar on the second floor in front of the elevator where they shot at least one other scene. The production crew had also wanted to film the murder scenes in The Miami Hotel, but they wouldn't allow it. 

 

I also learned that some scenes were shot at The Atlantic Hotel on Soi 2, the hotel I mentioned in my previous post, but I hadn't been aware that The Atlantic was also used as a Serpent location until now. 

 

I also found the name of the apartment complex in Soi 4 where most of the shooting was done and it's called Baan Bellawin. It's also still standing and the main apartment used for filming is still occupied. You can find it on Google Maps. 

 

The wrong information I had gotten about it already being torn down was something I had read in a Conde Nast article from a few years ago on the link below. Perhaps the reason CN didn't give the name of the apartment complex, and had said that it was being torn down, was because they didn't want a flood of curious lookie-loos popping by. 

 

https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/where-was-the-serpent-filmed

 

Also, the Kanit House, which I mentioned was on Sathorn, was close, but actually over at 77/5 Soi Saladaeng. Not sure what's on the property now and how long ago Kanit was taken down. 
 

 

IMG_4144.jpeg.3bc54e2895d0852966a9f12cb558d9a0.jpeg

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8 hours ago, HugoFastor said:


BTW, yes, there are/were a few other hotels designed like The Miami Hotel in and around Sukhumvit. The Honey Hotel on Suk Soi 19 is the one I think you were referring to. There also used to be The Federal Hotel on Suk Soi 11. There was also one called The Manhattan, but I can't remember where it was. There was The Rex Hotel on Suk, closer to Ekamai. And still very much standing is The Florida Hotel on Phayathai Road and The Atlanta Hotel on Suk Soi 2.
 

Funny thing about the Atlanta is that the sign right in front of the hotel says "Sex Tourists Not Welcome". Kind of hard to imagine they would get anything but. From what I recall, it was always the Nana Hotel overflow crowd.
 

All of these were probably built in the 50s or 60s too. 

 

IMG_4142.thumb.jpeg.dbf3eb40951f33c3008617419b93105e.jpeg

The proprietor tried to kick out my wife and I when we went to eat there in 2003. I showed her my business card and there were huge apologies and a fine table was found. I lived just don the road at Soi Ruam Rudee. It was quite a place.

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Loved Trinks Night Owl column and looked forward to it every week. Great stories and intel on the bar scenes and girls back in the early and mid-90s. Read his column to the very end around 2003...? However, The Post made him tone it down so much that many of the weeklies in the last 3 years were were kinda lame and mundane. Alw

Always looked for him in Cowboy and Nana, but unfortunately our paths never crossed. 🍻

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