This may come as a surprise but I actually think it is a good thing for the most part. Sure I wish they would fix the broadband situation (Thailand is terrible when it comes to connectivity-as proof the ISPs here are just now installing Akamai. The techheads will know what I am talking about but the US did this 10 years ago), I yearn for some government stability, and wish to God they would realize that tourism is the lifeblood of this place but all things aside - Thailand is not going to change all that much. Why? Its the women folks.
OAH - don’t jump in I say it is all about the pussy or the working girls - what I mean is when it comes to things to do around here most guys choose to spend time chasing tail or being with girls versus other activities. So when Hong Kong office drones are still at their desks at 7pm on a Friday night, when Tokyo salarymen are still in a meeting room sucking down black coffee for purposes of surviving the monthly sales meeting and when China is abusing the hell out of any form of human rights in order to build another skyscraper - you will find the Thai guys at the massage parlor calling it an early afternoon.
I remember a buddy of mine who used to meet with some of the military generals for meetings at one of the big massage joints - of course the meeting was in a big VIP room with tubs and girls. My first big sales dinner in Bangkok was at the restaurant in the Poseidon and of course after dinner we had the special Thai dessert. 2 girls, bottle of champagne and a hot tub. Imagine any th-fri-sat night across Bangkok and you envision people going out to drink and eat. Not unlike any other country but for sure - more often than night some form of entertainment takes place that is generally female related. Coyote shows, models shows, scantily clad singers and so on.
Well I happened to get off the beaten path a bit this past weekend.
First stop was dinner at Shelter. Nothing amazing but tasty and a nice place to chill out. Inside they have the typical club, band and show thing going on. I stayed outside to eat and enjoy the chillness.
Then we headed over the Kaset-Narwamin way to check out Jungle Dance. A big Thai club that has a couple rocking house bands, coyote shows and various headliners. Sunday night supposedly the Clash played. I was there on a Saturday night and the place was rammed. Normal Thai joint but kind of like a downmarket Santika. Cheaper booze and a little more roudy. The bands are okay but the closing band for the night is quite good. The female singers are all hot and were some super sexy outfits. In between bands and shows they have the normal loud Thai DJ thing but the songs were all very danceable.
The place has some 15-20 coyote girls that take turns dancing on various podiums and on the stage. Some were real lookers and from Bangkok. You can buy them a drink for 250 baht. They tend to stick around a little bit and come back later to chat or drink from your bottle. If you speak Thai I could very easily see that bagging some phone numbers is doable.
On the weekends they either have concerts or shows. The show for Saturday was celebrating the Olympics and other countries so they dressed up some models is different ethnic outfits that they later took off for the closing bikin show. Good stuff. There was no cover charge and the prices were reasonable.
You can find Jungle Dance here. Soi Khlong Lamchiak is full of bars, clubs, pubs and restaurants. Kaset-Nawamin which intersects with Lamchiak is also full of places like Neverland, Gotcha, Tawandaeng and so on. Tons to do out here and you won’t see a lot of Farang.
I only had my phone so not great shots. Here is a video as well.
Here is even more proof that Thailand is all about the girls and that YP is really bored in the UK.
http://www.thailanduchallenge.com/miss_slim.asp
Just not sure what it is I am voting for.
I voted too, likewise not sure for what (I guess it’s something about weight loss, but hey they are all stunners).
Jungle Dance sounds like something you do rather than something you visit …
Siam Sunshine.
View all comments by Siam Sunshine
ss - it is about weight loss but it is not like these girls are that fat. I mean if these girls need to lose weight than I can imagine that 75% the girls in the UK or US really need to lose weight. Nutty.
View all comments by sideshowBOB
“Some were real lookers and from Bangkok.”
Bangkok girls get around.
View all comments by pablo
How do you get the girls over to your table to buy them a drink? Is there a mamasan(s) lurking about or do you have to jump up and down and flap your arms after making eye contact?
View all comments by John Brown
The sex industry exists to about the same degree in all of Asia, it’s probably more prevalent and widespread in China, and at least as widespread in Japan, where it really should be common knowledge by now that salarymen conduct a huge percentage of their business in hostess clubs and massage parlors.
It’s a mistake to think that sex entertainment plays a larger role in Thailand than elsewhere in Asia - it’s just marketed more towards tourists in Thailand, that’s really about the only difference I can think of.
Thailand is mediocre - and thank God for it’s mediocrity! - because of a generally low IQ population, a feudal social structure which does not reward talent or ambition but where one’s social position is largely settled at birth, and the persistence of a particular kind of primitive mentality.
But I for one would not have it any other way! At the end of the day even Japan is faintly boring, South Korea is a form of death by boredom, and even messy China is too organized and yes, boring, for my taste. I have discovered it’s really the low IQ, messy, chaotic countries which are the fun, adrenaline fueled places.
And if Thailand were ever to become wealthy, developed, and non-”mediocore”, it would swiftly become one of the dullest places on the planet - the Thai personality contains elements that if ever allowed to fully flower would transform Thailand into a place of the dullest routine and most miserable ordinariness, like Singapore, perhaps.
Consider the near universal Thai aspiration towards middle-class respectability of the kind we in the West have found to be so stultifying, the Thai emphasis on conformity with it’s unofficial ban on eccentricity and distinctive personality, the Thai terror of the unusual and the unfamiliar, and much more in this vein, and you realize that if the Thais COULD be what they secretly wish to be they would be a truly hideous people, not worth a moment of our time. The great irony and real saving grace of Thailand is that they simply lack the ability to become what they really wish to become
And may that state of affairs long persist!
View all comments by John Toland
jb - no mamas john. just tell the service guy u want to buy her a drink.
jt - I agree to a point but I was not really stating only the sex biz and having spent time in all the countries u mention I know of no other country where on any given night there are clubs rammed with coyote dancers? Can u cite some examples in CHina or Japan or HK? I can’t. So apart from the sex for sale there is still a lot of “normal” entertainment with normal people looking at sexy girls. Sure - add in the whole sex biz and maybe not in pure dollars but Thailand would rank right up there when it comes to the options on hand. I like Thailand more though for the general all around fun factor and the warmth of the people. Something China and Japan do not have in my opinion.
View all comments by sideshowBOB
@ JT: So cynical, and yet so true
However I do agree with ssBob that Thailand is more about girl-tertainment than any other countries, even in Asia, although I didn’t visit them all yet. The simple fact that it is open and “marketed” as you say, makes actually a big difference. In other places it is a fake secret, here it’s a true matter of fact.
View all comments by Suk Psycho
John T: We agree so much with your comments. Went to Chile (Coffee with legs), Amazon (the native experience), Rio De J for Carnevale two years ago and we were jumped everywhere by girls from the country areas of Brazil giving us the hard sell and short time hotels.. Let’s go my husband.. stuff!
Next year’s round the world trip we are going to Chile (for the serious wine.. only the shit hits Australia), Argentina (for the steak), Venezuala (of course) and Cuba ( to try out more in what we hear is a hot xxx climate), back through Madrid ( for the bull….better than London where we ended up in the middle of a cold snap in March) and finally (and naturally of course) back to BKK.
The LOS has the most wonderful experiences that we have had in many places visited. We return 3-4 times a year since.
Checked out your other comments before I(we all take responsibility for this) sent this and agree with them.
Good post!
Cheers
M
View all comments by 3amigos
3Amigos mentioned Brazil. I think the flavor in BZ is like Thailand same same but different.
Culturally it is a different beast but the non-west mindset makes it a fun place. Like thailand you can party until the sun rises, great food, you have “massage joints” and their version of the Gogo clubs like Thermas & 4X4’s. The woman are beautiful and like sex they like sex.. and everyone just wants to have a good time, even if things dont work some of the time. If you go to upscale clubs you can meet some hot non pro girls that just are out to have fun.
The difference IMHO it is not as safe as most of thailand, you do have to be careful with all the street thugs and the guys that come down from the Flavas. But other than that, the fun factor is right up there. But since the BZ Real gained so much strength against the dollar (1 to 1.60) the fun factor has gone down for us poppers.
Thailand is always changing and its up to you to adapt to have a good time if you don’t you’ll end up like the salmon that swim upstream using all its energy in frustration only to be food for a bear.
View all comments by GoodLife
ooh yea give me #55, 56, 54… ummmm hot.
View all comments by GoodLife
@ Smitty - Not disagreeing with you about Thailand, but I wonder about those other places. Japan has demographic problems and banking problems that make the US credit ‘crisis’ look like a walk in the park. And do those salarymen get all that much done after hour #12? I wonder. In my industry there’s a cult of staying late in the office and everyone brags about being at work at 3 AM, but the 3 AM crew doesn’t seem to do more/better work than the people who work efficiently at go home at 7.00. I just don’t think we evolved to sit at a desk 18 hours per day
@ Amigos - Sounds like a hell of a trip. Don’t miss out on wines in Argentina as well, they don’t do Malbec much better anywhere else in the world.
View all comments by tosh
TOLAND- right “on the money” I’ve been floating around Asia for over 30 years and agree 100% with your assessment. Well written post
View all comments by Midland
Some girl i met on tagged sent me the link to that uni site
I asked her why its a slimming site because shes already slim, and she had no idea why - dumb bitch
Smitty wheres that restaurant you went where the coyotes mince round with there titties out at your table? I got sent a chain email about a similar gig in Chiang Mai.
View all comments by Young Penfold
JT - harsh but true. disturbing shit that china argued against thailands olympic bid coz of its image of gogos and ping pong.
View all comments by Mr Carpet
Just curious. Been thinking about this for some time…. Shanghai was supposedly the hotspot for all kinds of fun in the 30’s. And, bad things happened next and it all came crashing down in an instant. Could something like this ever happen to Thailand (and what would that be)?
View all comments by Julian
gl - agree about the safety thing. in general makes thailand a very easy place to explore without fear of things.
tosh - did not say they were getting more done but it does not matter really. I think the person who stops being at the office to choose to go out is having more fun that the hk dude who stays in the office pretending to work even if he is not getting anything done. Saw this all the time in HK. They would look at u funny if u left before them - thinking that guilt trip would keep me in. Fuck that.
yp - http://www.durianseed.com/thailand/bangkok/restaurants/thai/other/chaleang-restaurant/
carpet - china should have NEVER got the olympics.
j - I see the point but i dont think it was a hey let’s stop the fun it was hey let dig into our communist roots. difference here is the people that run this banana republic like it the way it is. hence why things never get done around here. I dont see it changing much but there is always the fear they tone it done some but I think u have to blame the farangs who go overboard and embarrass the locals by their behavior around the red light areas.
View all comments by sideshowBOB
Okay, Smitty, just for you I won’t jump in with any thoughts like that. But I’m still thinking them…..
This was the comment on your post that I thought was really the sad one:
“…Thailand is mediocre - and thank God for it’s mediocrity! - because of a generally low IQ population, a feudal social structure which does not reward talent or ambition but where one’s social position is largely settled at birth, and the persistence of a particular kind of primitive mentality. But I for one would not have it any other way!…”
Lord, this place does pull the western mediocrities looking for a place where they can feel (and act) like kings, don’t it? Thailand still seems to me to be a long way to go just to live among folks you can look down on. Surely guys like this can find at least a few people they can lord it over somewhere a little closer to home. Okay, maybe not……
Over and out
View all comments by Old Asia Hand
oah - I agree with your point and my post was more about the normal flow of everyday life here where people choose to have fun versus working. Many times that fun is associated with celebrating the girls and the female form. Not entirely from a working girl scene either but I know people will always turn it into that no matter what I say. Hence the references to the sex scene in asia. Not at all what I was getting it but not much I can do about it.
View all comments by sideshowBOB
@ SSB - OK, gotcha. It’s weird, people talk about how ‘lazy’ Thais are, and certainly individual Thais (esp on a really hot or rainy day) might not be burning with ambition. Hell, neither am I. But in general I’ve found Thais to be entrepreneurial, hard working people _given the chance_ to succeed. I still think a lot of the apparent ‘laziness’ is a fairly shrewd realization that between an extremely rigid class structure, shaky education for non-elites, and massive corruption, taking it easy and not chasing the last dollar is probably the best course. But then again, I’m only there a few weeks per year, y’all aren’t.
HK office drones? Looks like I’m going to get a chance to be one if I want to . . .
View all comments by tosh
Not long ago I received a chain email about a restaurant called “free time” i was full of pictures of good thai people oggling with barely dress waitresses (they are all ladyboys though ). According to my girl it’s in Rangsit.
They even have a ladyboy shower show for dessert.
View all comments by RRR
You write as if there’s something wrong with mediocrity.
View all comments by jack dawson
“The simple fact that it is open and “marketed” as you say, makes actually a big difference. In other places it is a fake secret, here it’s a true matter of fact.”
Expand on this and you’ll find a key ingredient to the secret sauce.
View all comments by dogflye