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Many BM's only knowledge of Thailand is gained from the threads & while there are reams of excellent information here I want to give a personal account of what the place was like 30 years ago. 32 years to be exact, when as a 21 yo [you do the math] I arrived for what proved to be a life changing 2 months in Thailand.
A lot has changed in the meantime & if I prompt others to recall their own stories, you are welcome to add them.
Like most backpackers we [a couple of us] stayed at the Malaysia Hotel, as recommended by Lonely Planet, fantastic value, full of hippies on the drug trail [of all ages], fugitives from the law [met a few of those] & the rest - wide-eyed innocents, at least I was when I arrived. A quick google & I was astonished the place is still operating. It was full of concrete cancer then but the pool photos on their web site look familiar so I assume it's the same place.
I will wait for the news that the place has collapsed, nothing would get me to stay there again. I went back several times on subsequent visits but in the 80's it was so tired & worn out, I checked out.
There were warongs [barongs?] across the street, what do they call those roadside eating carts where for 5 cents we had noodles in soup with a choice of meat, that tasted bloody good by the time we had added the necessary chilli & spices.
The two places to go for entertainment were Patpong & the Grace Hotel. Yes, the same Grace you go past on the wide street that runs straight into Soi 4 & Nana Plaza. I always genuflect as I go past because before the Arabs bought it & spent millions transforming it with added high rise towers, the Grace was a grand old colonial hotel that boasted the biggest pick-up joint in the world.
My first visit is burnt into my memory, when walking into the lobby/coffee shop/bar/dining area [it was all open] I came face to face with at least 1000 girls [don't think I am joking], all available & not many customers.
The Americans had only been out of Vietnam 6 months & there were an estimated 600,000 girls working the streets of Bangkok alone. I remember thinking where do you start around here? So many girls & so little time. It was definitely a buyers market & a short time was 100 baht, all night 200 baht, but we often paid less as we were the same age & the only competition were a few big German fellows who had to be at least 40 & Arabs in traditional robes, who were unpopular because of their habit of not washing & they treated the girls badly. And if those prices surprise you, in Chiang Mai a short time was 20 cents, 5 for a buck !
Back then I really was a hansum man.
What happened? 
We would grab a taxi there, I was popular to go with because my companions would be screaming at the driver - "the Grace hotel" saying it louder & louder like that would help him understand. I would lean over & whisper "the Grec hotel" & a smile of recognition & we would be off. All taxi drivers then were armed. Once we knew they were carrying a gun, we could always get the driver to show it to us, often we would pass it around in the car amazed at the difference to home. TiT or rather that was Thailand.
Back then here was no Nana Plaza, but the Nana Hotel was quite a place to stay & the disco there was one of the only places you could get a drink after 2am. I can remember walking down there a few times. The 4 lane road there now was one muddy lane each way, virtually all the traffic were taxis.
For some variety we would hit the bars of Patpong, a little dearer but the best looking girls were to be found there. Places like the Mississippi Queen, just amazing & it still shocks me when I see the size of the girls today compared to the svelte fucking machines that adorned every bar then. It has been a long time since I could say of the 30 bikini clad dancers, there wasn't one who weighed more than 40 kilos. And before you think they must have been underaged, they weren't, they were just all like that. Don't forget it was virtually unheard of that a girl drank or smoked. You will still find a girl in the bars today with the same build. Long & lean with shapely legs, tiny hips, a 15" waist & perfect tits. [Most of those fitting that description are kathoey now] One girl from the MQ, name Apple is still one of the finest pieces of ass I have ever seen. Can anyone remember her? I think she was married off to Indian royalty. I loved her for years.
These girls were the stuff of legend.
And what has all this to do with ATS? Not a lot except for some background & I will write about my first confrontation with the 3rd sex but that didn't come for another 20 years.
One story of a legend who I want to say was me, but I can't, involved one of our group who woke up one morning after getting so drunk he didn't know where he was, to find himself sleeping on the floor in a room of 8 girls also asleep on the floor. He only put his pants back on to leave about 5 days later. He screwed every one of them many times a day each, & had to leave in the end because he thought he was going to die.
I said to him "why didn't you just stop having sex & rest a bit?" He just gave me that look you give the biggest idiot you ever met.
Marvellous ! Only a teenage boy would understand.
Feel free to add any of your own recollections or if this is boring the mods can delete it.
Memories of being a block away from the miltary shooting at students, midnight curfews when no-one could leave the bar till 4 am, & they would turn all the lights on, stop the music, the girls got out a book or their knitting & we would sit around talking & sneaking drinks under the counter.
Others must remember . . . .
A lot has changed in the meantime & if I prompt others to recall their own stories, you are welcome to add them.
Like most backpackers we [a couple of us] stayed at the Malaysia Hotel, as recommended by Lonely Planet, fantastic value, full of hippies on the drug trail [of all ages], fugitives from the law [met a few of those] & the rest - wide-eyed innocents, at least I was when I arrived. A quick google & I was astonished the place is still operating. It was full of concrete cancer then but the pool photos on their web site look familiar so I assume it's the same place.
I will wait for the news that the place has collapsed, nothing would get me to stay there again. I went back several times on subsequent visits but in the 80's it was so tired & worn out, I checked out.
There were warongs [barongs?] across the street, what do they call those roadside eating carts where for 5 cents we had noodles in soup with a choice of meat, that tasted bloody good by the time we had added the necessary chilli & spices.
The two places to go for entertainment were Patpong & the Grace Hotel. Yes, the same Grace you go past on the wide street that runs straight into Soi 4 & Nana Plaza. I always genuflect as I go past because before the Arabs bought it & spent millions transforming it with added high rise towers, the Grace was a grand old colonial hotel that boasted the biggest pick-up joint in the world.
My first visit is burnt into my memory, when walking into the lobby/coffee shop/bar/dining area [it was all open] I came face to face with at least 1000 girls [don't think I am joking], all available & not many customers.
The Americans had only been out of Vietnam 6 months & there were an estimated 600,000 girls working the streets of Bangkok alone. I remember thinking where do you start around here? So many girls & so little time. It was definitely a buyers market & a short time was 100 baht, all night 200 baht, but we often paid less as we were the same age & the only competition were a few big German fellows who had to be at least 40 & Arabs in traditional robes, who were unpopular because of their habit of not washing & they treated the girls badly. And if those prices surprise you, in Chiang Mai a short time was 20 cents, 5 for a buck !Back then I really was a hansum man.
What happened? We would grab a taxi there, I was popular to go with because my companions would be screaming at the driver - "the Grace hotel" saying it louder & louder like that would help him understand. I would lean over & whisper "the Grec hotel" & a smile of recognition & we would be off. All taxi drivers then were armed. Once we knew they were carrying a gun, we could always get the driver to show it to us, often we would pass it around in the car amazed at the difference to home. TiT or rather that was Thailand.
Back then here was no Nana Plaza, but the Nana Hotel was quite a place to stay & the disco there was one of the only places you could get a drink after 2am. I can remember walking down there a few times. The 4 lane road there now was one muddy lane each way, virtually all the traffic were taxis.
For some variety we would hit the bars of Patpong, a little dearer but the best looking girls were to be found there. Places like the Mississippi Queen, just amazing & it still shocks me when I see the size of the girls today compared to the svelte fucking machines that adorned every bar then. It has been a long time since I could say of the 30 bikini clad dancers, there wasn't one who weighed more than 40 kilos. And before you think they must have been underaged, they weren't, they were just all like that. Don't forget it was virtually unheard of that a girl drank or smoked. You will still find a girl in the bars today with the same build. Long & lean with shapely legs, tiny hips, a 15" waist & perfect tits. [Most of those fitting that description are kathoey now] One girl from the MQ, name Apple is still one of the finest pieces of ass I have ever seen. Can anyone remember her? I think she was married off to Indian royalty. I loved her for years.
These girls were the stuff of legend.
And what has all this to do with ATS? Not a lot except for some background & I will write about my first confrontation with the 3rd sex but that didn't come for another 20 years.
One story of a legend who I want to say was me, but I can't, involved one of our group who woke up one morning after getting so drunk he didn't know where he was, to find himself sleeping on the floor in a room of 8 girls also asleep on the floor. He only put his pants back on to leave about 5 days later. He screwed every one of them many times a day each, & had to leave in the end because he thought he was going to die.
I said to him "why didn't you just stop having sex & rest a bit?" He just gave me that look you give the biggest idiot you ever met.Marvellous ! Only a teenage boy would understand.
Feel free to add any of your own recollections or if this is boring the mods can delete it.
Memories of being a block away from the miltary shooting at students, midnight curfews when no-one could leave the bar till 4 am, & they would turn all the lights on, stop the music, the girls got out a book or their knitting & we would sit around talking & sneaking drinks under the counter.
Others must remember . . . .
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