Christmas in Bangkok

Christmas at Soi Cowboy
I found this image in Dean Barrett's archives from last year. Hopefully, there will be some photos from this year's holiday season.
Happy Holidays to everyone.

Christmas at Nana Disco

This shot is from a couple years ago, showing the dance girls at the Angels Disco (or Nana Disco), dressed for the holidays. (Its the dance club that's found inside the Nana Hotel.)

Maintaining Face

It takes a lot of courage for a Thai female to decide to enter this type of work. The one difference that sets Thailand apart from other countries is the Thai culture. It usually falls to the females to take care of the parents. The money that they make goes to support their parents and they live on the minimum amount that will sustain them. Often they live in small rooms without air conditioning and many live with another person to even further lower their costs.
The face being gained here is they are not pocketing the money for themselves but supporting their families who probably live upcountry. So if you decide to spend some time with a Thai lady who you met at a nightlife venue, keep in mind that you are making a donation to her family and not to her. By doing this she gains face with her family. Her family more than likely turns a blind eye as to how she makes her money. This is the case in the vast majority of cases.
(To read more about this, click on Dave's name.)
Dave the Rave

Songkran Festival Celebration in Pattaya

Photo from celebration in Phuket

Here is a link to Jim Suay's video on celebrating the new year in Pattaya. This takes place in April.
Check it out.

Hog's Breath - A Neighborhood Bar

Hog’s Breath is a little different than the other go-go bars in Nana Entertainment Plaza.

It’s a meeting place and hangout for old ex-pats, who often organize fishing trips and golf tournaments for its patrons. I saw the guys catch some 60 pound catfish on one of their sponsored excursions. The men gather about 5 or 6pm to drink beer and talk story, until the music starts at 8pm and then they are driven outside.

The girls spend more time mothering you, greeting the regulars with a cool damp washcloth, a smile, and your usual drink. On Sundays the manager even cooks up a pot of Texas chili for its patrons. One evening at the outside counter some of the girls showed me how to eat roasted crickets and bugs. The girls at Hogs Breath often shared their food with me, allowing me to try many exotic Thai dishes.
Later in the evening the djay plays old Thai pop and traditional songs from Thailand, and the girls will show you some of the old Thai dances. Some of the workers from other bars join in the celebration just before closing.
Its a safe haven for the ex-pats to tell stories, to relax, and to watch the tourists and katoeys walk by.

Its an old neighborhood bar in the middle of all of the excitement.

Randy Magnus

Fon

Dean Barrett Talks About His Thanksgiving

I decided I was spending waaay too much time in Bangkok's go go bars, so I decided to give myself a test, to make sure I wasn't addicted, I mean. And so I decided to go to Burriram for at least 2 1/2 days! To see if I could handle cold turkey, appropriately enough, as I was there over thanksgiving. Burriram, as you know, is where many of the most beautiful women in Bangkok come from. My Canadian friend, Dave, former master scuba diver, invited me up to his farm to relax and to take some photographs of the scenery. Somehow, when I got back to Bangkok, inserted the pictures into the computer, and looked through the shots in the computer, most of the shots turned out to be of his lovely wife, Fon, whom Dave was smart enough never to leave alone with me even when checking on the water buffalo in the barn.

Dave is so much in love with Fon that he has come up with a remarkable idea. When he dies he will be cremated and his ashes placed in a small stupa in the boundaries of the small local temple. But to ensure that Fon visits him all the time, he is going to build an ATM machine into the stupa, and if Fon wants money from his pension every month she has to type in something like "I miss you too much, Dave!". Now I ask you, is that not brilliant?
Dean Barrett