Agoda

Today's song is: The Prayer  .. Charice and the Canadian Tenors

Expedia has market share in the west, but Agoda rules in Asia. I was fortunate to get invited to Agoda's workshop on using React. It was a 3 hour event where they showed a road map of where they are and where they want to be in a couple of years. They have over 1,000 developers worldwide which is massive for a travel app company. They have very ambitious plans both in Asia and the west. Their development head office is in Bangkok  :-)

The Agoda offices are in the Central World Shopping Center Plaza. I had never been to that shopping complex but I will be back. It would appear that it is the best shopping mall in Bangkok. Awesome selection of stores.

There is also an extensive above ground walk way between the Chitlom and Siam BTS stations so it is possible to walk from Central World Mall to Siam Paragon Mall, the top 2 malls in BKK. When I left the Agoda workshop I walked towards the Chitlom BTS station and passed the Erawan shrine that was the site of the bombing last year. I had never seen it before and it was quite busy and well lit up at night.

The Erawan Shrine, formally the Thao Maha Phrom Shrine (Thai: ศาลท้าวมหาพรหม; rtgs: San Thao Maha Phrom; "Shrine of Lord Brahma the Great"), is a Hindu shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, that houses a statue of Phra Phrom, the Thai representation of the Hindu god of creation Lord Brahma. A popular worship attraction, it often features performances by resident Thai dance troupes, who are hired by worshippers in return for seeing their prayers at the shrine answered.  from Wikipedia

Saturday I have some friends coming to my place for Italian night. Arthur is bring lasagna and I am cooking up a big batch of my spaghetti.  John is bring the red wine and I must remember to get some shredded cheese and a few baguettes.

TTYL

Down and Out

Today's song is: I Walk the Line .. Johnny Cash

It is not all that unusual to see farangs on the street that have lost it, financially (the shirt off your back), mentally,  and emotionally. Thailand can do that to you if you are not careful. Last week I saw this strange man (little bit like Crocodile Dundee) strolling up and down Nana with his girlfriend in pursuit, hurling vindictives at him (no doubt well earned), although she looked to be in just as bad a shape. I managed to get some stills and a short video.

He is the dude in the underwear.

He went up and down Nana at least 5 times with the GF in pursuit.

Two nights ago I found him sleeping on the street in the same attire.

When Jaidan arrived back from the village, he actually has a tan. I have mentioned before that being half Thai, he does not burn!

Thavorn is fed up with the village as she has had it with her momma's live in BF who is often pissed and abusive to anyone around him. Thavorn decided to have it out with him and he was quite surprised when she teed off on him and threatened to go to the kitchen and get a knife to cut her. I can only surmise he was afraid to box her. Thavorn told him to go ahead and she would end up doing the cutting. He backed off and was quiet but I would guess that ended as soon as Thavorn left the village.

Beneath this pleasant appearance is the Eye of the Tiger.  I would not want to mess with her  :-)

Thavorn dyed her hair for the first time while she was in the village. I think she looks great!

TTYL

Brilliant Farang

Today's song is: An Hour of Clean Bandit live in concert

Thavorn's village has about 500 people living in it. The closest town is about 10 minutes away by motorbike.  Recently, a farang got hitched to a Thai gitl in the town which has a population of about 10,000 and has a library, hospital, and now a water theme park that the farang built. What a great business idea. There is nothing for Thai kids to do in the country except have sex, ride around on unlicensed motorbikes and drink or consume jabba.  Best of all, it is only 50 baht for the day's entrance. Thavorn took  her kids yesterday and they had a riot, especially Jaidan!

Last night I headed out with my new friend Harvey to Cowboy to bar hop during happy hour.  Lots of fun as always and the bars had their A-teams in place :-) Harvey is the English BF of a bar girl friend of mine.

Meanwhile, back in the village it is still very hot and the ice cream man makes many sales as the kids go running when they hear the bells.

Still no news on the visa front and Sunday will be the 90 day mark and I will send out my monthly query to see if I can find out why we have no answer.

TTYL

Off Season

Today's song is: Symphony .. Clean Bandit

It is definitely off season for Thailand and that is not good for the bar industry. The bar girls are smart and often take extended vacations back in their village which leaves the bars populated with what I call the B-Team. The B-team is made up with rookies, and not so svelte ladies (chubby). The B-team is also smaller in numbers but that is because there are a lot fewer customers out there.

Arthur, my American buddy headed out at noon yesterday and had fun checking out the differences. The girls are hungry due to the lack of customers which meant that there was a lot of nuisance approaches and way too fast, 'What your name?' and 'You buy me drink?' requests.  The good news is that, being new to the bar, the girls could not tell Arthur and I (lifers) from the regular run of the mill punters so we had fun playing along.

After awhile we got bored with Hillary 4 and headed across the Nana parking lot to play some pool at Strikers. We had quite a bit of fun there as Strikers had their regular 'pool girls' on staff and I managed to get beat 2 out of 3 games despite playing okay.

After an hour at Strikers we decided to head over to the Bier Garden to see how it was doing in the off season and it was not very busy. Apparently it will be closing down soon as the land owner wants to build another hotel or condo.

After a quick beer, we headed over to Country Road for a jug of Singha and watch the girls arriving for work on Soi Cowboy. The girls start arriving at about 5:30 for their 7 pm start. They like to eat first and then layer on the makeup depending on how old they are. After we consumed the pitcher we started bar hopping along Cowboy and were somewhat dismayed at the B-teams at Cowboy. The Dollhouse had 3 girls on stage where it would normally have 15-20 girls.

Yesterday, Thavorn, Jaidan, and her 2 older children headed off for a couple weeks in the village which means I am a bachelor for the next 2 days. Arthur won the lottery as his wife took a 1 year year work contract in the US and he will be a bachelor for a whole year. I tend to suspect he will be a little bit lonely in about 2 weeks. I spent yesterday morning cleaning the apartment and now I enjoy walking around without food and other things sticking to my feet.

Jaidan seems to enjoy the village and was happy to see that momma has a cat. He also likes playing with his gf Icy and is teacher her Lego building. Apparently it is just as hot in the village as Bangkok, which has been very hot, in the high 30's lately. It is better to hide out inside during the day and head out about 6 pm when it starts to cool down a bit.

TTYL

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