Quote of the Week

"....like Thai girls being Thai girls. They are all crazy, but we all love them."

ArtTv

Rant of the Week

Could the "hello girls" at the top of the escalator at Nana Plaza please stop physically assaulting me every time I ascend? Thanks.

from Bangkok Bad Boy

Two Fat Farangs Leaving Pattaya

It goes without saying that Pattaya has its unsavoury side, and murders and suicides occur on an almost daily basis, sure, but you never hear about the amount of successful love stories that happen every day, or the sense of community spirit amongst the expat community.
With a population of over a quarter million people you’re going to have to take the rough with the smooth.

My only regrets about Pattaya is that I didn’t find it when I was in my twenties. Now, in some ways, the place seems a little wasted on me. All too often I clock a girl who takes my breath away. Literally. Just the mere thought of having to try and satisfy her leaves me short of breath.

I’ve had my heart broken a few times here, but these days I’d like to think that I’m a little more careful. It’s all too easy to think that the next one is “the one”, but it’s impossible for things to remain as sweet as they are in those first few months of courtship, so move on quickly, I say, with as little emotion as possible.

Running a bar has to be kept as stress-free as possible, so I’m always sure to keep my emotions and hormones in check. If any urges overcome me I just slide out for a soapy massage down the road.

It’s never going to make me rich this bar, I know. It ticks over and that’s good enough for me. I’ve got a cosy little flat upstairs, and about every other day Pu sends one of the girls up to clean up after me or do my laundry. I’m spoiled really.

Apart from the obvious differences in beauty, Western and Asian females are like two entirely different species. That’s not to say that all Asian ladies are perfect, far from it, but the percentage that pride themselves on taking care of their man far outnumbers the amount of western females who once upon time used to also share the same qualities......

(This was John's feelings at the beginning of the year. Since then he has found his Thai country girl, sold the bar in Pattaya, and is trying to buy a house in Udon so he can help with her college education. (See Shy Thai Girls)
His partner, Will, is content being on top of some mountain meditating.)

In their archives there is some interesting interviews they did.
And the infamous letter from John Eke, which states "There will be a 28 period where all foreigners will be given chance to leave, after that we will be arrested and deported within another 28 day period. After that all farangs will be shot on the spot."

Check them out before its gone entirely.
Two Fat Farangs

(photo from Trek Earth)

Pompooey

One Thai girlfriend once told me that the term “pompooey” refers to little children or babies and has a rather positive connotation”. In TV-Ads in Thailand that show products for babies, these babies are usually overweight from a western point of view, but obviously Thai people consider that as very healthy. I also observed this in advertisements in China, where obviously overweight babies are also considered cute and healthy.

As far as I know the term “wan” really means “fat” and really having a rather negative connotation.

So if a Thai girl calls me Pompooey I usually try to think she is telling me I am cute.

Phoenix on Farang Speaks 2 Much

Ahh Nana .......

Some years ago, I was sitting in the Golden Bar outside the Nana Hotel. It is a great place to observe the lunacy going on over the road around Nana Plaza. I was chatting to an American at the side of the bar nearest the road when an elephant approached us. It had a harmonica in its trunk and proceeded to play “When the saints go marching in” without a note out of place. That scale of surrealism only happens in Bangkok.
by On Nutter at The Farang Speaks 2 Much

The Good Ol' Days

Remember the days before the re-model at Angelwitch where the dancers would rush right behind your back as you were taking a leak?
Turns out the girls had to go through the men's room to get to their changing room in those days.
You could peek in through the door next to the john and see them lathering up for the next stage performance.
Check out the video.

What Sex Trade?

While Thailand is infamous for its sex industry, it does not officially exist. Bars and clubs in Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya, which offer both men and women for sex, are not recognized by police as sex venues, provided they pay their monthly stipends to the police.

The Mail on Sunday

Dave The Rave Is Back

Dave The Rave has returned from his England excursion and has modified and updated his website. The Nana Plaza Go-Go club manager has modified his website by integrating it to a Wordpress blog. Although there is no longer a Photo Gallery, he is starting to integrate images in with the text in the articles.

Dave has included a new column entitled "Filipino Fever" that is becoming popular with Filipino fans.

Check out Dave The Rave.

The Wai Means Respect

The wai means respect. It's not a general friendly greeting.

Much like a military salute, the wai is more than a greeting, it is a gesture of respect offered by the lesser to his elder or superior. Every Thai seems to automatically sense and known his place in society versus everyone else around him. Exactly who pro-offers the wai and who answers it is extremely important. This is an aspect of Thailand that few foreigners can ever fully understand. It is generally best for foreigners to refrain from wai-ing at all. However, a pro-offered wai should always be acknowledged. It is perfectly acceptable to answer a wai with a verbal greeting (sawadee, kap), a bob of the head or a gentle wave of the hand. The hand wave is particularly effective in that it says don’t wai me. I’m just an ordinary guy.

Generally speaking, there are very few instances where a foreigner would pro-offer a wai. Inexperienced foreigners tend to wai everyone. This generally brings on more ridicule than respect. For example, an adult never wais a child, even in reply. Nor should a foreigner reply with a wai to service personnel like a hotel doorman, maid, waiter or other workmen. At the same time, all such wais should be acknowledged in some way. A simple smile or nod of acknowledgment is often sufficient.

At the same time, every foreigner should be aware of those special situations where he should answer a wai with a wai of his own. For example, the Thais generally show extreme respect to the elderly. Thai society is replete with exchanges that acknowledge the older/younger, greater/lesser, pee/nong status of the meeting pair.

One situation where a foreigner should answer a wai with a wai is when it is pro-offered by someone clearly older. The older Thai is acknowledging the foreigner’s exalted status.

Thaigers

(The photo is from the book titled
The Katoeys of Nana Plaza.)

A Soggy Nana Plaza

It's the rainy season at Nana.

Photo from Bangkok Eyes

Hello Girls

Some Hello Girls for The Peppermint Palace in Pattaya.
Posted by Steeve69, who borrowed it from PBase,
on Pattaya Addicts

Good Times at the Mandarin

Then I headed for Mandarin. The old one - not the new table dance one. It was awesome. One of the owners was playing DJ and it was great. Reminded me of being in a good US strip club with a good DJ and girls really moving. For about 2 hours the place was throbbing, the girls were having fun and I was rubbing up with some cuties. Mandarin seems to be pretty consistent as of late and has some nice girls.

FYI. As I am writing this post the new security cameras to the entrance of Nana Plaza are now installed. I have no idea who is managing them to be honest.

The Farang Speaks 2 Much

Are The Times A'Changing........

Older, greyer heads than mine have been shaking, muttering that the girls aren’t as friendly as they used to be. That they’re not as cheap as they used to be. That they’re not as pretty as they used to be.
That (and whisper this carefully) perhaps some of the girls are just in it for the money. Muttering in return that perhaps those older, greyer heads aren’t the “hansun men” they once were, tends to earn one a slap, however.
They may have a point though, at least as far as the bars are concerned .....

Bangkok Bad Boy

Watch Out for Dengue Fever

More than 21,000 patients suffering from dengue fever have been treated in Thailand during the first half of this year, with 17 persons having died from the rainy season disease, a senior public health ministry official said Saturday.

Bureau of Vector-Borne Diseases director Dr. Wichai Satimai said a total of 21,251 dengue fever patients were identified during the first six months of 2007, representing a 36 per cent increase from the corresponding period of last year.

Seventeen Thai victims died during the period. The sharp increase in the number of patients during the period was attributed to the early onset of the rainy season in Thailand, causing the quick breeding of
dengue-carrying striped mosquitoes, said Dr. Wichai.

The incidence of dengue has been significantly on the rise in other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Singapore also increased during the period, he added.

Earlier this week Cambodia reported 132 deaths from dengue fever in June alone, and asked for Thai government medical assistance, which is being extended.

Vietnam, meanwhile, has recorded 24,255 cases of this tropical fever during the first half of the year, which is over a 20 percent increase from last year. To date, 27 people have died from dengue, as against 17 deaths in the first half of 2006.

Report from Thaigers

There is no treatment or vaccine for dengue fever. The only way to prevent it is to remove the mosquitoes' breeding grounds. Dengue is commonly called "break bone fever."

Hanging in Phnom Penh

Sharkys Bar, Shanghai Bar, Walkabout, Martini Pub, all good.

Baht Strongest in a Decade

The baht jumped to a 10-year high yesterday at 34.25 to the US dollar in local trade thanks to continued foreign inflows. In the offshore market, the baht was quoted as high as 31.7. Rates between the local and offshore market have been split since last December due to the Bank of Thailand's 30% reserve rule on inflows and other capital controls.
Bangkok Post

Visa Problems
Dave The Rave says its better to get your Thai visa at your country of origin. The "visa upon arrival" has become problematic. Try to go to your local Thai Consulate before you come to Thailand to obtain a visa.

What I Love About Bangkok

Soi Cowboy was hopping with the Suzie Wong show as good as always but the most fun was had in Dollhouse.
No tops and no undie girls cavorting on our laps. Awesome.
Rawhide had a dancer contest with most of the A team and B team competing in mostly naked shows. All good. However it does get old buying the A team girls a drink and they disappear a few sips in.
Doubt I will do that anymore.

After closing down Cowboy we hit Spicy on Rong Muang. It was rammed. We could barely get a table but managed to share a table with 3 cuties. Within moments of joining them some Japanese guy came over and handed one of them some cash. She handed it to her friend who counted it and then 2 of the girls left. The last girl stayed, who my friend took home, but later the other 2 reappeared after taking care of business. Spicy can be all business at times but yet on some nights you might meet nice office or uni girls. Love it. Spicy appears to still be the king of after hours.

Farang Speaks 2 Much

Eating at Nana Plaza

It's always a pure pleasure to grab an entree at one of the many food stalls inside of Nana Plaza around 6 or 7 pm. You could sit up to one of the walkway counters next to some cute girls and watch the evening begin. The girls would trade food with you, trying to explain what it was that you were eating.
One of my favorite stalls was the food booth next to Casanova. It's excellent Thai street food, and the cooks are friendly.


Around 10 pm at the entrance of Nana was always the hamburger cart, where you could get a freshly cooked hamburger on your way out.

Images are from the book "The Street Food of Bangkok,"
by Randy Magnus.
160 color pages of Street Food and Marketplaces. Purchase it today.

Are The Good Old Days Gone ?

So while many guys come to Thailand looking for the girlfriend experience, all they often end up getting is a quick bonk, a quick fix. That's it. To make matters worse they are often paying upwards of 4,000 Thai baht for it! To put that in perspective, it's almost $US 120.

Don’t believe me? Find one of the genuinely pretty girls in Nana Plaza – and I am afraid there are fewer and fewer that meet this description these days. Typically the most attractive girls want at least 3,000 baht for short time. Of course you can get some for less, but the prettiest girls want AND command that. The barfine is 600 baht. You’ve had a drink or two yourself and she’s hand one so that’s another 350 baht. And if you take her to a short time hotel, that is going to be a few hundred baht more. All up, for what may end up being half an hour of passion (if that!), you’re paying 4,000+ baht. What a rip off!

Stickman

(Editor's note: With the prices going up and the US dollar going down (a 1,000 baht use to cost about $25.50 US dollars, now a 1,000 baht cost about $34.14).
Has anyone heard any updates from Phnom Penh in Cambodia lately?
Did the military coup mark the beginning of the end as we know it?)

Note from On Nutter about room service at the Walkabout Hotel in Phnom Penh:
A very cute Cambodian girl knocks on the door. She was about 21, dark-skinned and with an appealing look of untamed beauty. She brushed past me, checked the room and said: “You no have lady. You want short time?”

It was a VERY short time. She looked even better when she stripped off, with beautiful pert breasts. I knew this wasn’t going to be the girlfriend experience. Our union was brutal and brief, but oh so needed. She asked for 20 US dollars (about 680 baht at current, very favourable exchange rates) and I happily handed over the greenbacks.

Later, talking to the old hands in the downstairs bar, I learned the short-time rate was $10 to $15, with long time starting at $20. Even those rates are negotiable. While I had undoubtedly been ripped off, who cares at those prices? I mentally applauded the girl for taking advantage of a newbie.