Short Bangkok trip

I decided Greece's woes will continue for a little while yet so hopped on a plane and here I am in Bangkok. For the frequent flyers it was a Turkish Airlines flight (two actually) - Athens/Istanbul and Istanbul/Bangkok. I can recommend the Business Class product. I think they won an award in 2014 for their service. We arrived just after 2pm. The Thais now have a single queueing system in Immigration, which seemed to move relatively quickly.

The friend I'm seeing lives in Soi Ngam Duplee so had booked me into a local hotel (I won't give the name just yet; I don't want a447 popping around thinking he can claim droit de seigneur - I had enough of that in January). That Soi is, for those unfamiliar with the area in Bangkok, a money boy ghetto and my friend has booked me up with a couple of Cambodian* boys for a threesome before dinner, which I think will be somewhere local. Vincents has closed - or, rather, re-located - but not yet open in its new abode. However there are plenty of small places hereabouts. I had suggested Silom Soi 4 but apparently Balcony Bar is having a quiz night, so that's one place definitely to be avoided. My friend tells me he started out at one of those hole-in-the-wall bars in Soi 4 last night and, between it and its immediate neighbour they had six customers. He then ate at Eat, Drink, Man, Women where his and only one other table were occupied inside (and not much outside) the entire time. Spanish On Four was similarly deserted. How low can the low season go?

Certainly it's low enough for boy prices to be negotiable. The two boys started with "up to you", accepted 1500 each (sorry latin), tried unsuccessfully to increase to 2000 (having already accepted the lower price). That must be them at the door.

* My boycott of the Thai economy in disapproval of the political situation continues where practicable

It may please the locals - because it will cool the city down if only briefly - but it doesn't please me. The rain is blanketing this part of Bangkok. In a friend's apartment waiting to go out for lunch I can look out over Lumpini Park and the wasteland next to it that was Suan Lum Night Market. The traffic's not too bad although this is yet another public holiday to bolster the royal personality cult so many offices (and the banks I believe) are closed. No-one seems entirely certain whether the bars will be open tonight, and if open serving alcohol because, as with everything in Thailand, there is no rule of law just the whim of the rulers on the day.

However, as a friend who was in Silom Soi 4 last night remarked, he could have shot a gun down the Soi and possibly, just possibly, maimed a waiter touting for business which never turned up so bars open and selling alcohol tonight may be a moot point. The Cambodian boys last night said they have few customers in the go-go bars. Apparently they get two-month visas and the bar management are pleased to see them. Like many Cambodians, they speak better English than the Thais.

A story in the Bangkok Post yesterday pronounced the importance of English for the Thai population as the ASEAN "common market" develops. Like the European one, everyone is expected to use English for cross-border discussions. Another nail in the coffin of those who think speaking to the Thais in Thai is its own reward?

[corky]

No-one seems entirely certain whether the bars will be open tonight, and if open serving alcohol ...
Bars are open and serving alcohol tonight. I checked with the owner of a bar in Soi 4 last night.


The rain is blanketing this part of Bangkok ...
I'm close to the area you are in. The rain has now stopped.

[latintopxxx]

kommie...my dear...if you dont speak the local language you will never fully understand the culture. And this is not specific to Thailand or Asia. In most European languages there are local idioms or sayings that are difficult to translate without loosing some flavour.
Ofcourse if u r like me...a proud card carrying fully paid up sex tourist who only visits for a week or two at a time with only one thing in mind then yeah...why bother...broken English..or even rudimentary sign language will do.

kommie...my dear...if you dont speak the local language you will never fully understand the culture.I've listened to too many completely banal conversations on the bus or train in the UK to agree that learning Thai proficiently would be more than an exercise in futility (Bayes Theorem at work).

[latintopxxx]

sweetness I'm not disagreeing with you...just each to his own...why must you be so opinionated....why belittle someone who wants tp learn another language??...maybe u r a closeted american and feel that in light of US politics one has to choose a side??

sweetness I'm not disagreeing with you...just each to his own...why must you be so opinionated....why belittle someone who wants tp learn another language??...maybe u r a closeted american and feel that in light of US politics one has to choose a side??Yes I am a closet American. All I'm saying is that I wouldn't do it. If someone wants have enough Thai to discuss "Sirindhorn's arse is HOW big?!!" or "You know he has two minor wives?" Or even "Percentage-wise how much of a twat is a447??" then by all means go for it.

Where was I before one of the more opinionated board members (on some topics) accused me of being opinionated? Ah yes, having sex.

On Wednesday night we went to Classic Bar. I recall someone posting about the pushiness of the mamasans there; they're certainly assiduous, but if I don't want to buy I just wave them away. Being there with a farang friend enables one to say "I"m with my lover and he's very jealous". The show was pretty standard - frigging to the right and left alternately by some lissom boys supporting a hideous drag queen for whom the act is obviously some form of occupational therapy, three distorted (by cock rings) large cocks in two different episodes with the same three ugly elderly "boys", one of whom was clearly trying to corner the market in chubby chasers, more by the drag queen, and some boy swimming around in that tank they have (I just can't see the point of that act). The bar was surprisingly busy; the boys less so.

I checked out of my hotel (Ibis Sathorn in Soi Ngam DuPlee) on Friday. It's a hotel popular with Asian tour groups, no security that I could see, no key card security on the lifts. Perfectly serviceable (but small) rooms for something well under 1500 baht a night which in my case included breakfast. I was the only Westerner at breakfast most mornings. Were I with a boy I may have stood out, but my early adult life in a monastery has helped me form the view that breakfast is a meal best consumed in silence. I had a massage in the Soi. There are (at least) a couple of massage places there with boys sitting outside ("hullo sir, where you go?") and the usual hand job at the end.

When I left on Friday (the almost midnight flight but Business Class has lie-flat-enough beds) Bangkok was really unpleasantly steamy after an early afternoon storm. I really must try to avoid April and May in future.