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Bangkok 2000


Pom Michael
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Soi Zero - underneath the arches...

Yes, that was an interesting area back then. I went down there for a beer in the middle of the day, stop at one bar when this hulk of an Englishman came in threatening the bar staff, which was just one small Thai girl. I could not believe that a westerner was putting the heavy on, for what appear to be, protection money.

 

I thought it was best just to keep quiet, the Thai girl did as all Thai people do, said nothing, and just looked at him. He left after a few minutes, the girl looked at me, apologised for all the kerfuffle, and then asked if I would like to go for a drink elsewhere and she would close the bar, said she would take care of it later ... it ended up being a good night for me, she was thankful I took her away from the stress of the bar. I never did find out the basis of the rant by the farang :beer:

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My first trip to Thailand was for Songkran in 2000. Was picked up at the airport (Don Muang, of course) by driver a friend living in Pattaya hired. Took us almost 4 hours to get there. The motorway was just opening and he didn’t know about it and took Sukhumvit the entire way.

 

Spent a couple of days in Pattaya and several more upcountry. Only spent one night at the Landmark before heading back to Malaysia where we lived at the time. Had no idea NEP was just around the corner...

 

My impression is lower Suk has changed very little; the biggest change in the past 10 years has been upcountry. It seems like a completely different place now. Almost no automobiles or trucks or mobiles back then. The only person that had a truck or a mobile was the Phuyai Ban. It was actually kinda neat, people living in Bangkok (or Rayong) could call him (from pay phones of course) and he would walk over to the family’s house and wait for them to call back. He spent just about every evening doing this. He was also willing to take people to the clinic or run important errands with his truck. He took us back to Bangkok, which at that time was a 5 hour drive (it is now less then 3 hours) for 500 baht.

 

All that is gone now. Everyone has a bike and mobile, lot’s of people have trucks and all the other stuff that comes with development. But then the whole lifestyle has improved in so many other ways.

TH

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Santos - Mexican father, Indian (dot type) mother. The Warbler did have a good buffet. We'd sometimes go over after meeting at Woodstock. The Titty Twisty was a nice bar ... except that Santos had sold maybe half a dozen Farangs a 50% share in the bar. :p

 

 

Plus Santos never owned anything! He was just the manager! :deal:

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