Cowboy Jobs

Today's song is: To All the Girls I've Loved Before  .. Willie and Julio

Thavorn and I decided to head off to Cowboy last night and listen to some music at Country Road and maybe play a little pool. Despite it being Monday, usually a slow night, Country Road was busy and there were no open tables. However the band was playing and we ordered a jug of Singha for 190 baht and sat back and enjoyed the show.

After an hour we thought it was time to checkout some of our favorite GoGo bars so off toe Lighthouse we went. The girls at Lighthouse are always fun and we stayed for a couple of happy hour vodka and Redbulls at 90 baht each. After 45 minutes it was 8:45 so we thought we would move on to Dollhouse and ordered another 4 vodka and Redbulls at 90 baht each before happy hour expired at 9 pm. At that point, the drinks jump twofold to 160 baht.

Dollhouse was fun, despite only one of my regular girls being on stage. My other friends must have taken the month off as it is the slow time in the bar industry and the older more experienced girls know when it is time to spend time with family rather than hanging onto a chrome pole.

Outside on the strip, Thavorn and I noticed at least 3 signs outside GoGos advertising for dancers. The base salary is now up to 20,000 baht for a 7 hour shift, from 7 pm to 2 am. It entitles the girls to 3 nights off a month. If they do not show up for work then they are fined. Ditto for being late.  The girls also make money off of lady drinks at about 50 baht a drink. Figure in about 5 lady drinks at 50 baht time 30 = 7,500 more baht a month for a total of 27,500 baht in salary from the bar.

Of course, the real money is in pay for play, 2,000 for short term and 4,000 for long term. There is no hard data that I know that tracks the number of times a lady goes with a customer but lets assume 10 short terms or 5 long terms per month for about another 20,000 baht for month for your average girl.

That means that a good looking, fun, appealing young girl hauls down about 50,000 baht a month and that's about the figure I get when talking to my bar girl friends. Some girls like the industry and some do it strictly for the money. The happy ones seem to be the busy ones.  Average career length seems to be about 10 years in GoGo bars and 15 years in beer bars.  Nothing is sadder than a GoGo girl dancing on stage who aught not to be there as time has taken it's price.

No shortage at this bar

TTYL

Slow but Hot - No Visa News

Today's song is: Summer in the City .. Lovin' Spoonful

It is the slow time of year for the bar businesses in Bangkok, but the top bars are still going strong, like Billboard in Nana Plaza. The jacuzzi girls are a riot.

The jacuzzi seems more attractive these days because of the heat outside.  Here is the week's weather in Bangkok:

The weather this past week saw highs of 38 with humidity. The next few days do not look much cooler. The rains have yet to arrive so no respite until they do which tends to cool and cleanse the air for a few hours.

Thavorn and I are still awaiting news on her visitor's visa to Canada. So much for the 14 day turn around time listed on their website. We are at 80 days now.

TTYL

Intellectual Curiosity and Thai Culture

Today's song is: Alice's Restaurant  .. Guthrie

I have mentioned that I find Thais to have very little intellectual curiosity and for the most part live in the present. I mention this because I recently tried to impart some wise advice to a nooby bar girl I know and it simply did not register with her. Probably because it is based on my past learning and experiences. Her comment, 'I Thai, not like you!' pretty well sums up her argument. However, in search of how others think about Thais I decided to look on the internet for other opinions and Stickman's website, as usual, came up in my google search.  A reader's submission by the name of Simon describes the issue very succinctly.  Here it is :

My Thai experience started in 2009 and will come to an end in the next few days as I leave to start again in South Korea. Over the past 6 years I have learnt a tremendous amount from my time in Thailand and have nothing but praise for Thai people and their country. However, after six years I am also sure I will never have a long time relationship or marry with a Thai girl.

To set the context I would like to give a bit of background information before explaining the reasoning behind my statement. I am a 29-year old Englishman and first came to Thailand for a two-week holiday when I was 24. I immediately fell in love with the country, culture and people and was sure I wanted to return. At that time I was working in London as an oil trader and started to travel to Thailand in my vacations. After a couple of years of holidays and against all advice from family and friends I decided that it was worth quitting my job and pursuing a full-time life in Thailand. I moved to live in Bangkok in 2012, studied to become a teacher and have been living here ever since.

I’m not sure how I came across the Stickman website but I have often searched the readers' submissions to find answers to my many Thai cultural questions and now feel I can impart some of my own thoughts to others who may be wondering why they are finding it difficult to maintain a long-term relationship with a girl who seems perfect on paper.

I encourage you to click the link and continue reading ...

from:  https://www.stickmanbangkok.com/readers-submissions/2015/01/why-i-will-never-marry-a-thai-intellectual-curiosity/

I felt myself agreeing with most of what Simon describes but found that a reader's response was right on. Here it is:

The Analysis of Simon about Thai mentality is by far the most comprehensive and the most brilliant submission I’ve read on this site. ‘Hitting the nail on the head’ is a tremendous understatement! It should, however, be published as a ‘guest-contribution’ in the Bangkok Post or something similar. No offense, Stick, but within this blog it’s somewhat misplaced. <Not misplaced at all, this is THE site for it – Stick>

I’m a European academic, living in Thailand for many years with my (highly educated) Thai wife. The following circular (sequence) to my friends was sent at the end of 2013, calling it, ’The essence of all things is its appearance’, or ‘Why I wouldn’t live in Thailand without my wife.‘

I encourage you to click the link and continue reading:

...

So, why Thailand? Because my wife is here, that’s it. With her Alaska would be fine for me either.

from: https://www.stickmanbangkok.com/readers-submissions/2015/02/simons-why-i-will-never-marry-a-thai-intellectual-curiosity/

I can't agree more with the final sentence. I am here because of my wife. She is truly wonderful and becomes more and more curious as the years roll by. However, I have learned to not be disappointed when I announce we are going to a beautiful resort in a month and Thavorn shows little excitement. That is simply too far in the future and Thais don't believe it will happen until it does. Perhaps that explains why so many Thai girls cheat on their farang when he is back in his home country and won't be back for 2 months. In their eyes, that might be in another life  .. too far to think about  ..

TTYL

Farang Beggars

Today's song is: Heaven Can Wait  .. Meatloaf

It appears that more and more farangs are betting to support their asian travel both on the streets and on the net. WTF, the world is going crazy!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4400790/Rise-Western-backpackers-begging-fund-trip.html

Back to reality. This morning Jaidan was standing beside my bed (still recovering from my Songkran induced cold) and I noticed that he seemed a bit taller than normal. I looked down to see Jaidan standing on top of my closed 13" Alien-ware laptop, worth well over 50,000 Baht. I quickly moved him off of it and promised never to place it again on the floor.  I open it up, dreading to see a LCD screen with lots of dead pixels at best, and cracked at worst.

Wonder of wonder, not a single problem and Jaidan weighs in at about 22 kilos.  Now the Alien-ware laptop is not the thinnest or lightest out there, but being a game-spec laptop, it is fast and has 16 gb's of ram. I will now add tough to my adjectives when describing this laptop.

I currently work off 2 laptops, the Alien-ware and my 3 year old Lenovo Thinkpad which is military grade specs with respect to dust, heat, and drops, plus it has a spill proof keyboard which has been tested by a glass of red wine, and a glass of coke with ice.

Both laptops are highly recommended if you make a living working on a laptop.

However, the most important piece of tech in my programming world is the 36" curved Samsung monitor I use. Greatly improves my productivity and saves wear and tear on my eyes and promotes good posture.

We are now entering the slowest 6 weeks for nightlife in Bangkok. Fewer tourists means hungrier girls. It is a fun-time for Bangkok lifers  :-)

TTYL

Songkran Ends ...

Today's song is: A YouTube Video of Songkran in 2017

Songkran is over for another year. It was a much quieter Songkran because the 1 year mourning period for the King is not yet up. That meant there was no institutional involvement such as firetrucks and large businesses setting up stages with bands. Silom, in past years was often one huge bubble bath after detergent is laid down and the firetrucks unloaded on the detergent.

There was fun to be had in the usual tourist hot spots. I got involved on day one and after 8 hours of baking in 35 degree sun and getting drenched with buckets of ice water, I have developed my usual Songkran cold. Most of Thavaorn's friends do not have families so they partied on all three days and Thavorn joined them on the opening and closing days. Like most Thais, Thavorn seldom gets sick. Their immune systems are highly developed as they are not pampered by parents, eat off the floor, and seldom wash their hands after using the toilet. Hey, soap costs money  :-)

The good news is the carnage on the highways was down somewhat.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1233146/songkran-death-toll-falls-by-18-

The congestion in the bus terminals was very heavy as Thais moved back into Bangkok from their villages. You really don't want to be travelling today!

A downside of Songkran is that the bars are not well stocked with gogo dancers and bar girls. For Thais, family comes first during Songkran.  As usual, the bar fines are doubled during Songkran to keep whatever girls they do have in the bar, getting punters to buy beers.

TTYL

House

Today's song is: Paradise by the Dashboard Light  .. Meatloaf

House was among the top 10 series in the United States from its second through fourth seasons. Distributed to 66 countries, House was the most-watched television program in the world in 2008.[2] The show received numerous awards, including five Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Peabody Award, and nine People's Choice Awards. On February 8, 2012, Fox announced that the eighth season, then in progress, would be its last.[3] The series finale aired on May 21, 2012, following an hour-long retrospective. (Wikipedia)

Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think .. 

I was always a big fan of House but unfortunately I missed many of the shows because, at first, they fell on my basketball coaching nights and then I moved to teach in Malaysia and I could not get the series in that country.

I recently purchased a 55 inch LCD television and invested in high speed fiber internet and Netflix. I have spent the last month watching the whole series and tonight I watched the finale, which really did the series justice.

Songs from House

I was pleasantly surprised that the series ending features two favorite themes of mine. Motorcycling with a friend (think Easy Rider) represents Nirvana and life is not a dress rehearsal and one should embrace it to the fullest. I have never regretted the things I have done, just the things I chose not to do. In the immortal works of Ivan Kelly ... 'Don't fool around, buy a round!' If you have not yet read my 'Why This Blog' feel free to do so to understand this paragraph.

The Meatloaf song, 'Paradise by the Dashboard Light', sums it all up ... You don't want to be caught up, praying for the end of time  :-)

The craziness of Songkran starts tomorrow and unfortunately many Thais will experience their end of time  ..

TTYL

60's - 2017 WTF?

Today's songs are: Stones in Concert

Flashback to my teens in the 60's and I never thought I would be still listening to the Stones 50 years later. They just get better and better. Enjoy the 136 minute concert  ... sit back, grab some beers, or a bottle of whisky, chill out and remember when  ...

TTYL

Songkran Coming Soon ..

Today's song is: Imagine Dragons  .. Demons

Songkran arrives on April 13th. Time to start training Jaidan for water warfare.

Our swimming pool

Loaded and looking for targets

Pursuit

Make my day  ...

Songkran week has the most traffic carnage of any week in the year. The Prime Minister decided to ban passengers in the back of pickup trucks but has backed down and plans to enact the new law after Songkran. I doubt if this law will ever be enacted as pickup trucks are perhaps most common form of travel for lo-so Thais. It is not unusual to see 10 passengers loaded into the back of a pickup.

Getting to work

Family on the move

Pickup trucks are the number 1 selling vehicle in Thailand for a reason  ...

TTYL

Observations and Reflections

Today's song is: One Night in Bangkok  .. Murray Head and Waveya

You see many things in Bangkok that you don't see in many western cities. One thing you see often is older men with younger women.  Now, you do see that in Canada. Celine Dione and her late husband would be one example and Pierre Trudeau and Margaret Sinclair would be another. There are also many sighting of what would be referred to as trophy wives with middle age guys.  The attraction in these relationships on the surface appears to be power and/or wealth. Western women are attracted to both. Beneath that observation is that most of these guys have other things going for them such as good looks, athletic bodies, personality, etc.

However, in Thailand, these relations are referred to as 'Farang, looking after me and my family' and 'I look after farang'. Your average Thai man in Bangkok is used to this and accepts it for what it is. Younger guys are often jealous and resentful as they can't understand why a beautiful young Thai girl would go for a old farang.

Thavorn and I observed a many faceted reaction as we walked down Sukhumvit. There was a group of 25-45 year old Thai men sitting around a corner waiting for transport somewhere. They all had the same company golf shirt on and they struck me as the type of person that would be stringing fiber optic cable throughout the city. I think they may have been trucked in from up country but I am guessing at that. The looks Thavorn and I received were everything from puzzlement, to jealously, to hostility, and perhaps a little humor.

They don't understand that younger Thai women want something that most Thai men can not give them. They want a future where they don't have to worry about health care, worry about being abused by a drunk boyfriend, worry about their husband cheating on them, and an education for their children that the previous Thai guy abandoned.  In other words, they want what most farang women take for granted.

For the most part, the Thai guys sitting around that corner of Sukhumvit just don't get it and never will until the school system starts teaching respect for the opposite sex.

Thavorn's brother is a perfect example of a no future kind of guy. He has little education, does not want to go back to school to learn a trade and makes a living selling BBQ chicken from a cart. He is 26 and has two children under 5 that are looked after by his Thai wife. He will be doing the same thing 30 years from now.  I see many Thai women in the village that just want out. The internet has shown them that a different world is out there, and unlike many guys are willing to go out there and grasp it.

TTYL

Volvo Memory

Today's song is: Magic .. Rude

This song reminds me of my son's car that he drove during his first year at Trinity Western University just outside of Vancouver Canada. I recommended that we buy this for him because of its accident rating. Turns out that it was a good choice because 6 months later he had a head-on crash when a pickup truck with a drunk driver jumped the median and totaled his car. He managed to walk away with some minor head trauma.

Tonight Thavorn and I head out bar hopping. I just posted an eMail to Stickman's Weekly and I will share the content here. I highly recommend Stick's weekly if you want a historical perspective on Thailand over the years.  https://www.stickmanbangkok.com/weekly-column/

My wife and I are taking advantage of her older children visiting to take a break from our young son and head out bar hopping together. We often take turns going out with our friends but don't often get a chance to go together, except during school holidays when the older children visit Bangkok from their village.

I suggested the bar hopping because that is commonly what I do with my friends. First stop will be Country Road for a pitcher of Singha draft (about 200 baht) and some free games of pool. That will probably be from 6 - 7, which is part of their all-day, until 9 pm happy hour. At 7 pm until 9 pm it is happy hour on Cowboy with beer and liquor prices between 80 and 90 baht. My wife and I will hit 5 different bars and consume a total of 5 drinks each for about 800 baht. During this time we kibbutz with the mama-sans and girls and just appreciate the art form known as the Thai woman's body. Who says Bangkok has to be expensive. Good happy bars to visit at that time are Tilac, Light House, Shark Bar, and Dollhouse. Maybe it is time I checked out Long Gun on your recommendation.

After 9 pm, with a definite glow on, it is time to explore a few new venues. My wife has never been to the Bier Garden so tonight we will walk from Cowboy down to Soi 7 and I will introduce her to the one of my favorite Meet Places, before it is gone forever.

After a beer or two then we will be off to Billboard to sit by the Jacuzzi and be entertained by probably the most entertaining gogo dancers in Bangkok. Just goes to show you don't have to be in the buff to be sexy. Like most Thai women, my wife enjoys looking at other beautiful Thai women, especially when they are fun to interact with.

A beer or two and we will finish off the night with one set at Hillary 2 where we are well known and treated well. My 20% off Hillary discount card helps out as drinks are 180 baht each. If we spend on spending the evening there we like to go with another couple and buy a whole bottle with a set of mixers which can be had for as little as 1,900 baht (albeit, Red Label)

Total cost for one night, two people, including pool, 8 or 9 drinks each, live music and beautiful girls to interact with, over 7 hours is under 2,000 baht (no lady drinks, unless my wife decides to reward some young lovely for entertaining us). That would not even cover the tip for an evening back in farangland (Canada) and then you may, or not, get lucky  :-)

TTYL