Mo's Visa Run

A friend of mine needed to leave the country for a couple of days to renew his visa and asked me if I'd like to join him for a short trip to Thailand. It was his first. I've not been back since I sold my interests in the bars in Nana and thought it would be a good idea to see how things have changed.  

Friday: The morning Seair flight was full so we decided to call an air charter service and fly down to Manila. The P4,000 difference between a car and the flight is worth it. Why? Leave Kokomo's 0845, take off from Omni Aviation (a 5 minute ride from here) 0910, land MNL 0940 drop off at the international departure hall 1000. Total time Kokomo's to the departure hall: 75 minutes. 

Manila Airport thoughts: One word; CHAOS. What a messed up place. The queue to GET INTO the hall must have been a block long. Why? Because they x-ray every bag and box before you get to the check-in counter. This time of the year a lot of Filipinos are returning to their overseas jobs and have multiple boxes, suitcases and hand carry and each one is inspected. I know more than a little about X-Ray and am quite sure these antiquated units at NAIA don't have the oomph to get through a 1 meter box filled with who knows what. It took nearly as long to complete this little formality as it did to get from AC to the hall. The check-in was uneventful. We had some extra time and stopped for a cup of coffee, and I discovered that NAIA is WiFi friendly. For P110 you get 2 hours of connect time, so I bought a card and logged in. BTW, as far as I can tell, they are trying to keep it a secret. If we had not gone to the upstairs restaurant at the junction of the two departure tiers, we'd have never seen the sign. There is also a massage parlor in the same area. Prices are steep (by local standards) and I'm not sure if there are any extras available. Anyway, having Internet is a nice way to pass a couple of hours. About 30 minutes before departure, we wandered over to the gate area and faced the same massive queue as outside. Another X-ray inspection and another 30+ minute queue. 

The flight was uneventful. The meal (chicken curry) was excellent and the service in Thai was, as usual, fine. 

We grabbed a taxi and headed for the Dynasty Inn. And here was the first surprise. The trip took about 30 minutes. This is at 4:40 on Friday afternoon. It used to be a 2 hour trip. We just blazed in. The next surprise was the number of Dynasty staff who still work there. I've been staying at this hotel for 12 years and some of these people have been there longer than that. And they still remembered my name. How flattering. BTW, after nearly 7 years, the room rate is still Bt. 990 ($25). For purposes of this report, I'll use US$ as the currency, however, should you wish to convert, the Euro is about 49.8:1 and the A$30.5. 

We showered, unpacked and headed over to Nana Plaza for the beginning of the evening's activities. The Plaza has not changed much. As far as I can tell, only 4 or 5 bars have changed names in 7 years. Hell, in AC sometimes we have that many changes in a month! Lollipop/Mermadium is now only Lollipop and the mermadium is gone, the restaurant next door is now Red Lips, Hot Rods is now Sessions, Spider Web's changed name (but I can't remember what the call it now and the wonderful Farang Connection is now Angelwitch. I think that's it. 

My overall impressions: 

Nana Plaza/Soi Cowboy/Patpong 

1. Most bars are full of women and katoeys. It was awesome. Even the slow bars had 30 dancers. 

2. The music generally sucks. They play the same hiphop/technorap shit everyplace except Lollipop and Angelwitch and DC10. 

3. Prices are all over the place. In my old places almost every drink is Bt 110 ($2.78) including ladies drinks or standard imported fare. Next door at Pretty Lady, beer is Bt 75 ($1.89) and ladies drinks Bt 80 (2.02) or Bt 110 ($2.78). In all bars, when it's time for them to dance, they 'go dancing now'. Bar fines are Bt 500 or Bt 600 and I think this includes the outdoor beer bars. I don't have a clue how much the girls want or will take nor do I have any ideas about runners or short time vs. all night. It was more a pleasure trip than a 'pleasure' trip. 

4. About 11 we went over to Soi Cowboy. Compared to Nana it was a ghost town. Very few people wandering about and the bars were relatively empty. I had a couple of drinks in Tilac, Long Gun, Suzy Wong and one more and don't remember the prices, but would guess it's cheaper than Nana. 

5. Monday night we went to Patpong. Even if you don't like the place it's not to be missed for the first timer. We went to King's Castle, Pink Pussycat and ended the evening at my favorite bar in Bangkok, Goldfinger's. It was like stepping back in time. The owner, Randy, has been running the place for 18 years! That's a lifetime in the bar business. The staff is still as friendly and courteous as ever and Randy's wife Pim still looks as lovely as she did nearly 2 decades ago. Goldfinger's reminds me a lot of Roadhouse. It's not there for the girls, but there for the guys to have a great place to drink and listen to fabulous music. He has a few dancers - probably less than most bars on Patpong, but if you want to have some fun, put Goldfinger's on your lists of places to visit. Look for Randy and tell him Dave sent you. He knew me a long time before Mo was born. 

Pattaya: 

1. We took a taxi to Pattaya. The trip took just under 2 hours and the cost was Bt 1,095 ($25.65) with tolls. The last time (and first time) I was there was 8 years ago for a 3 day business meeting and didn't get to see much of the place. I lived in Phuket for a couple of years, and 8 years ago Pattaya reminded me of a HUGE Phuket. More bars, more hawkers, more restaurants and more backpackers. This trip was only 2 days, but I didn't have anything to do except find out more about the city and what goes on there. Like the last trip, Pattaya reminded me of a very very large Phuket except I never made it to the beach. 

We stayed at the Pattaya Centre Hotel on Soi 12. It's a great location! I splurged and took Panorama Suite for Bt 1600 [$40.40 (Internet rate)]. It was a nice room. Large with a beautiful view of the beach. The weather was overcast and it drizzled quite a bit, but the view was still wonderful. 

2. Counting the beer bars, there have to be several hundred bars in Pattaya. It's awesome. We hit Misty's, Kitten and a few more on Pattayaland 1 and 2. All had a good selection of dancers. My favorite bars were on Walking Street. The two Living Dolls and Willy's were awesome in both quality and quantity of dancers. Prices were 25% less than Bangkok. Other than the Living Dolls bars and TQ, everyplace played the same rap shit as in BKK. Ugh. 

Departure: We went back to BKK on Monday as we had a morning departure on Tuesday and thought a couple extra hours sleep would be welcome. And it was! We hopped in a taxi about 9 AM for an 11:10 departure. That gave us 90 minutes to kill. Check-in formalities were fast and efficient. We were check in and in the Departure Hall in less than 20 minutes. The long lines at Immigration were now short lines and very efficient. I bought a WiFi card for Bt. 250 ($6.31) for 1 hour's use. Very pricy, but it's a nice way to kill sitting around the airport. 

Conclusions: 

1. Drink Pressure: The bad news is that it's pretty pervasive. In nearly every bar we went into SOMEONE came over and said hello and within a few seconds was trying to get a drink. More bad news. I'm a sucker for that shit and bought one for them. I did get a little tired of buying drinks and within 5 minutes having her 'go dancing'. Answer; wait till the group on stage gets off and buy a drink for one of them a drink. At least you will be pretty sure she'll sit there for 15 minutes or so. In one of the bars I asked the manager if the girl could stay instead of dancing and he said yes. What a great surprise. The good news is that in spite of the pressure, there's something about having someone come up and greet you that seems nice. I liked it. I didn't barfine anyone (but was really tempted) so don't know the real prices for extra curricular activities. 

2. Food: What can you say about Thai food except it's wonderful? The beautiful blend of spices and flavors are unmatched anyplace. Here's a funny story. I ordered one of my favorites; stir fried garlic and pork on rice, but forgot that it's normally cooked very spicy. It came and I took the first bite and WOW. Coughing, nose running, sweats. It was great to be back. 

3. Hotels: When you can get a suite on the 12th floor of a genuine 3 1/2 star hotel with a balcony overlooking all of Pattaya beach for $40, what else is there to say? The answer has to be because of the competition. With the opening of three or four new hotels in AC, watch for some pricing to be adjusted. 

4. Language: English skills have not improved appreciably in the last 7 years. I still speak enough Thai to get into trouble and they speak enough English to keep me in trouble. 

5. Attitude: Generally speaking, it's all business. I found a couple of girls that didn't fit the mold (as I perceived it), but most wanted drinks and barfines. Companionship is incidental to the business arrangements. Forget the famous Angeles 'girlfriend' experience. Anyway, you're not there to find your bride, you're there to get laid and drunk, so who cares? 

6. Girls: As mentioned above, the quality and quantity is nothing short of spectacular. One note; It seems T-Backs are the uniform of the day. I don't remember one bar that didn't have them. I think one way to tell if she has mens or not is to see if she's wearing panties or T-Back. If she has panties on, she probably has mens. Just wait till they discover tampons. On a very positive note; we were in DC-10 and of the 8 dancers on stage there were 6 camel toes visible. Awesome. 

AC vs. Thailand: I don't think you can easily compare them. Each has something special to offer. If it's cheap booze and pussy, AC wins hands down. If it's women, Thailand wins. If it's local cuisine, again, it's Thailand, but the Philippines has great food - at unbelievable prices - from around the world (especially in Manila). 

In conclusion, I forgot how much I enjoyed Thailand. My plans are now to go back at least once every 6 weeks for a few days at a time. For living, I'll opt to remain in the Philippines. Give me the AC attitude, the wide use of English and the genuine friendliness of the Filipino people. 

The great thing is that Thailand's only 3 hours by air and I can go to Thailand anytime I want. And plan on going there often.