Bangkok Revisited – in Photos
“There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”
December 7, 2024.
I recently returned from a short getaway trip to escape my stale Pattaya rut.
A sampling of Bangkok photos from the trip:
My go-to place for happy-hour beers was the Nana Hooters.
From 3 pm to 7 pm, a Chang draft costs 99 baht.
Hooters is a prime spot to observe freelancers in the Nana Hotel parking lot.
The view inside Hooters is good too.
When a Hooters bargirl stepped onto the parking lot to pick up a food order, I gleefully began taking some “buttshot” photos.
But the goddamn motorcycle was blocking a clear shot of the bargirl. So I raised my phone above my head for a better angle and kept shooting.
I suddenly heard a voice saying, “Sorry, sorry, no photos.”
I turned to see the skinny Thai bartender standing next to me.
WTF!
Another night at Hooters: a rear-view of a freelancer.
A better shot of her.
Two ladies were having an animated conversation.
A worker fiddles with the Nana Plaza entrance sign.
One thing that completely turned me off was the heightened security measures to enter Nana Plaza.
Although not really enforced, there are signs saying to show your ID to enter the Plaza.
But any bag you are carrying will be searched.
I also saw a gung-ho guard frisking some people wanting to enter, as if he was searching them for guns or drugs.
This unfriendly paranoia never used to exist.
Until several years ago, there were no guards.
You could just walk in and out of the Plaza freely, no problem.
What happened was that some do-good charity went undercover, and deliberately looked for any underaged bargirls.
They only found one, who was age 16 or 17, I forget exactly.
Not knowing any better, she freely revealed her age to the man while she was being secretly filmed.
The do-gooders filmed her going to a hotel room with her “customer.” The police then barged in and detained the girl.
The Thai cops also raided the gogo to examine bargirl IDs and arrest the manager.
Serious criminal charges were filed against the gogo owner, who faced many years in prison unless he could bribe his way out.
After that incident was broadcasted in a documentary by the do-gooders, heavy security at Plaza immediately began.
All bargirls are now required to show their IDs to the guards before they can enter the plaza.
All bullshit.
One of the biggest enduring falsehoods is that Thailand is a good place to visit if you want to have sex with underage girls.
This is definitely not the case!
The Thai government is very sensitive about the image of Thailand worldwide. Thai authorities will crack down harshly on any bars that employ underage girls.
Bar owners all know this. No one is stupid enough to knowingly hire an underage bargirl.
Violations only occur when a bargirl shows the bar a fake ID, which does happen.
I myself have never seen a Thai bargirl who I thought was obviously underage.
This sexy chick was standing outside Nana Plaza entrance, so I took a few discreet photos.
I suddenly heard the security guard yelling behind my back, “No photos!”
I quickly fled the ugly Nana Plaza scene in fear and loathing.
You see, this is what I know – and have seen with my own eyes while living in Thailand for the last 12 years:
The mongering scene never gets better.
It only gets slightly worse every year.
Apparently there once was a golden era of mongering in Thailand, and all over Asia really.
That ended long ago.
Mongering old-timers will tell stories of those mythical days and nights – when bars and gogo were overflowing with young cute girls from the provinces needing money badly.
Back then, you could boom-boom these bargirls very cheaply. They would also stay with you for as long as you wanted, eager to give you a “girlfriend” experience of loving affection.
Apparently, this mythical mongering era was roughly between the years 1995 to 2005.
I first came to Thailand in December 2011.
I felt like I caught the tail-end of the golden era – and have sadly watched the mongering scene go slowly downhill ever since.
Of course you can’t ever stop “progress.”
But life goes on – and the world keeps turning, no matter what.
In the dismal future, I know we will be looking back sadly upon this time right now – as being the “good old days.”
On my first day in Bangkok, I took some photos of a hard-working Nana freelancer.
I would see her every day of my trip – both at night and during the day.
Once I was surprised to see her in the late morning, noticing that she was the only freelancer there!
The early Nana bird catches the low-life Farang worm!
Down the street at Dynasty Inn outdoor bar, other people were chilling out.
I’m pretty sure I fucked this freelancer many years ago, when I was living in Bangkok from 2014 to 2019.
I remember taking photos of her in the ST hotel room. She was very skinny and odd-looking (and still is).
Regrettably, those old photos of her are buried deep in my monstrous photo archives – and not worth the hours it would take to find them.
One late afternoon, after a couple Chang beers, I slurped a tasty bowl of noodles from the stand across soi 4.
This outdoor stand next to the Nana Plaza entrance has always been there – from when I first came to Bangkok a dozen years ago.
In this world of continual change (mostly bad for mongers) – it’s somewhat comforting to know some things won’t ever change in my remaining lifetime.
While eating, I spotted this gal on my left.
But she turned and walked the opposite way, so I couldn’t get a frontal shot.
Across the soi, a freelancer was plying her lonely trade.
A cheerful skeleton celebrates the spirit of Christmas.
A tattoo aficionado shows off her inked arms in an advertisement.
Being of Asian-American ethnic mix (Okinawan-Chinese), some people in Thailand mistake me for a Thai man.
In Hawaii, some people think I’m Filipino.
In mainland USA, some people think I look Mexican.
Right now I just look old.
I took a stroll down soi 24/1 to check out the massage parlors.
I got a satisfying happy-ending massage at Snow White from a friendly masseuse named Patti.
The upstairs ST room at Snow White.
Riders on the BTS engage in their phones, like everyone else in the world.
An eagle-eye view of Terminal 21.
A Tuk-tuk tools along Sukhumvit Road.
A soi Cowboy bargirl gets a pre-work meal.
Vendors on Sukhumvit were openly displaying sex toys – in plain sight of the tourist families strolling past.
“Daddy, what are those round things sticking up that look like big sausages?”
A Beef Stew and rice dinner at the Bus Stop restaurant was tasty, but costly.
I got a free upgrade when I first booked my hotel online (the G.M. Grande residence), paying 1,600 baht per night for two nights.
But when I extended for another 4 nights, I had to pay 2,000 baht a night (discounted from the normal rate of 2,800 baht per night.)
My first two hotel choices, the Ruamchitt hotel (above Thermae freelance bar), and the Nana Hotel, were all booked.
Welcome to busy season – and the approaching peak of holiday season – during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
This is when Nana and Pattaya’s streets will be insanely packed with drunken merrymaking tourists and happy greedy bargirls in rowdy bars — which will be playing either Christmas songs or blasting loud music, spreading infectious and horny good cheer!
The peaceful night view from my 9th floor balcony.
I never forgot what my elderly Okinawan aunt, who was as tough as nails, once told me.
“When you are old, you just want peace and quiet.”
My aunt back then was in her late eighties, or even early nineties, I don’t recall exactly.
She also said she is ready to die anytime – and in fact would welcome it.
“When you get up in the morning, your body all sore,” she told me.
My aunt finally found her peace several years ago when she died. She was maybe in her late nineties, I think.
I lost touch with nearly everyone back home when I flew away forever from Hawaii in 2014 – to live and die in Thailand or somewhere in Asia.
I last saw my aunt about 20 years ago, when she told me about her subtle death wish.
Oh how time flies!
Yes it does.
A roaming lottery ticket vendor cruises for a bruising down soi 4.
(“Cruising for a bruising” is an outdated American slang phrase, when referring to someone looking for trouble, or a fight.)
It reminds me of an old song I used to play on my car cassette player back in the 1980s, when I was in my thirties.
I remember taking the cassette with me when I stayed the entire winter in a Colorado ski town, just to experience snow at least once in my lifetime.
It does not snow in Hawaii (except for the remote Mauna Kea mountaintop about 8,000 feet high, located on an outer island.)
One night I almost died in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
My car skidded uncontrollably after hitting a large chunk of frozen snow that had fallen from the mountainside.
My spinning car finally stopped when it plowed into a snowbank on the side of the road.
I got out of my car and saw the road was on the edge of a cliff.
If not for the snowbank, I would have fallen to my death.
I shakily got back in my car and drove like a snail back to my apartment.
Imagine if I had died at age 36.
You would not be seeing this blog post.
Yes, it’s good to be alive.
Yes it is.
On my last day in Bangkok, I was going to buy something from 7-Eleven.
It was about 7 am in the morning.
I spotted two drunken ladyboys walking unsteadily down soi 4, after obviously partying all night.
Nana is such a seedy place!
By sheer luck, I filmed a Hooter’s bargirl riding the mechanical bull, below: