Suk Soi 22 To Be Renamed Little India

[torrenova]

... One thing I have noticed quite regularly though is taxis stopping at the hotel and two Indian guys and one Thai girl getting out. Now either one of them failed to score or......?

 

When I first moved to Pattaya, I lived in a hotel where some visitors were from the Indian sub continent. There were regular issues with girls being enticed back by one guy and there being multiple in the room. I guess a few girls handle it but I wouldn't have the non westernised lot in my places. My proper customers wouldn't stand for it and the girls hated them.

[JaiRai]

Try Soi 13. On many nights around 8pm or so - I have to fight the hordes to get to my apartment. And by hordes I mean an army of Kon India occupying the street in front of my building.

 

I try not to be judgmental, I'm a product of what some of you would call political correctness and multiculturalism (and I believe in multiculturalism), but somewhere you have to be able to criticize too - and assign values. Because there are some rude bastards in this group that take obnoxious to new heights.

 

The thing I dislike most is that these same hordes are slowly taking over soi 11 in the evenings. Soi 11 is hands down my favorite street in Bangkok. Yes, it's in the farang ghetto and there is all kinds of kitsch there, and no it's not where you go to find 'authentic' - but I love the carnival atmosphere and the spectacle of so many different things colliding. Except now, there is the army of Kon India growing exponentially and bringing their little kids. I'm talking midnight, you'll see a bunch of families and little kids running around. Whatever soi 11 is, it's not a kindergarten. It's not Disneyland. What is wrong with this picture??? Ooooiiiiiiiiii.

[radioman]

A while back now GF and I were walking down Suk late in the evening, we'd crossed to the odd(sic) soi side and were making our way from 19 toward 7/1. It had been maybe a year or two since I'd been that way at that time of night but what really struck me was how the dynamic on that part of Suk had changed. So many more folk of African descent, male and female, all seemed to be looking to sell something, themselves or some substance or other. It felt intimidating, not the way I remembered it and now we tend to stay away. 22 is tame by comparison.

[gobbledonk]

There is a high-end audio board hosted in India where the discussions seem to be exclusively around price, and these guys are happy to get on a plane to get something cheaper than the next guy. Total suckers for anything manufactured in the US / UK / Europe, and the Chinese aren't far behind on that score. Lots of bragging about how they 'talked the dealer down' etc but zero discussion of what their new toy actually sounds like - Jesus wept. On the plus side, I dont find them to be confrontational - I'd be a lot more concerned to find my hotel surrounded by young Aussie and Pommie guys ....

[The_Munchmaster]

1 - Soi 22 has a huge number of resident Indians living it, by far the greatest density of residient Indians I know of in Bangkok are in that immediate area.

 

In 17 years I have never really noticed any sizeable Indian population on 22, perhaps its more Soi 24 (President Park was an Indian development) they hang out on, however none of the large number of Indians I am referring to in my post are residents.

 

2 - Indian Tourists are now one of the top 10 tourists coming to Thailand, given they look different from Asians, and not white, they tend to stand out.

 

They stand out because there's so fecking many of them!

[The_Munchmaster]

MM, if you must stay at the Regency Park I guess you have to expect this though. Anywhere with rates attractive to a scotsman will find they are also attractive to subcontinentals.

 

[huumlaar]

Hi MM, if you go to the residential buildings, which mates of mine live in, you'll find nearly all the residents are Indian. This si the same at many of the buildings in 22.

 

Not sure if you go wondering around the residential buildings though when here on holidays.

 

Raj Mahal has an entrance from 22, plus way up the soi is a great Indian Supermarket, in Soi 20 are a few smaller Indian supermarkets, all of them have been there for years.

 

[The_Munchmaster]

Not sure if you go wondering around the residential buildings though when here on holidays.

 

Erm, no I don't! But I was a resident on Soi 22 from 95 to 99.

 

Having lived on 22 for 4 years plus been a regular visitor there for the last 14 years, including almost 6 of the last 12 months, the presence of Indians on the soi was never something I particularly noticed, but I do now. I've no doubt you are correct about the resident Indian population but I don't suppose the resident Indian population swarms around the upper parts of 22 day and night.

[gobbledonk]

4+ years ? Strewth - I was keen to escape after 3 months on Soi 22 ! Doesn't it grind you down living in that neck of the woods for so long ? I accept that it would be different with a job to go to each day, but the traffic out on Suk and the crowds on the footpath are the same.