Originally Posted by
snotface
My Way was my favourite Bangkok bar for years in the '90s. While other bars were becoming interchangeable in appearance, it had its own unique, rather cosy atmosphere - wooden Thai seating, Burmese tapestries, pole-dancing gogo boys. I went there often especially after I became very attached to one of the boys. The bespectacled Thai (Thai-Chinese?) owner always sat impassively behind the bar entering every drink and off into a ledger. I'd get the faintest of smiles from him in response to my nod on entering. He seemed almost like a non-person to me, though the boys seemed to respect him. I recall the boy I liked telling me with an incredulous look one time that he had received a 50 baht New Year's gift from the owner - not sure if that was because of the stinginess of the amount or its existence at all.
The other source of discipline in the bar back then was Charlie, the overweight mamasan. I'd go through an elaborate charade of being friendly with him, though he was one dodgy-looking geezer and I wouldn't have trusted him with a bucket of water if my knickers were on fire. The boys were expected to service him. I recall my boy telling me with a big smile that it was like fucking a fat pig (well, he was from a farming family). The last time I saw Charlie, after an interval of two or three years, he looked almost unrecognisably gaunt and sick and I believe he died of Aids. The bar did indeed go rapidly downhill in its last years and it came as no surprise when I found it had closed permanently.
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