Once upon a time

[Guest]

 You are right, let's see what I can find from the late 80's  

Good stuff packie old chap  

[pacman]

It was mandatory to take an early morning tour of the klongs. No trip to Bangkok was complete without seeing the floating markets, the Crocodile Farm & the Rose Garden. Plus assorted temples.

Just what 2 young lads from Oz would get out visiting the Rose Gardens was never explained. What I do remember were the kids diving into the klongs on our Floating Market tour & swimming to the boat to collect a tip. They were incredible.

They would hurl themselves off the side of the klong & swim from boat to boat. I guess they would need to pick up boats going the other way to get home because they must have finished up miles from where they started.

All for 10 baht...     (don't laugh, it was considered good money then... )

[pacman]

I wouldn't swim in a klong for 1000 baht but I did enjoy the white sandy beaches of Pattaya.

Yes, before pollution & uncontrolled exploitation of the area, the beach at Pattaya was as nice as anywhere else in Thailand.

Here's a few pictures...

[bigmick22]

Great pics P - thanks for posting

You've been threatening to do this for a while and I'm glad you did!

[Master Bator]

Okay Paccie, I'll repost some of the pics.

And as you just posted a pic of Pattaya Bay:

These pictures were taken from my room in the Siam Bayview hotel (one of the first luxury hotels) during my first reconnaissance visit to Pattaya in 1987. One is southward and the other northward.

[pacman]

You've been threatening to do this for a while and I'm glad you did!

Anything to put a smile on your dial bigmick...      

I never had the advantage of a D90, but I made do with an original Asahi Pentax Spotmatic SLR, the world's first camera with a built-in light meter.

It was cutting edge technology, not that you would know from these scanned reproductions of faded old prints.

Look at the boy in the last pic of post 32 to see how much I am struggling with the colour adjustments. Admittedly that pic was badly exposed in the 1st place.

[pacman]

(Master Bator @ Aug. 23 2009,18:50) Okay Paccie, I'll repost some of the pics.

You are a good man Master Bator, I know I should have supported your thread but to tell the truth, I couldn't find it, I thought you had named it something else...          

[Master Bator]

(pacman @ Aug. 23 2009,18:57)

(Master Bator @ Aug. 23 2009,18:50) Okay Paccie, I'll repost some of the pics.

You are a good man Master Bator, I know I should have supported your thread but to tell the truth, I couldn't find it, I thought you had named it something else...          

MB is a wanker perhaps?

Speaking of klongs earlier on : here's one of me (Chuck Wow ) with sis and two friends on a klong behind their house. It was somewhere halfway Don Mueng airport (out on the sticks in those days) . Probably there is a skyscraper on that spot now.

The other one is sis,dad and me on the banks of the Chao Praya river. In the background Wat Arun -temple of dawn. Looked up some recent pics and here nothing much has changed in 40 + years.

Pictures are from 1967 and have kept remarkably well.

[pacman]

(Master Bator @ Aug. 23 2009,20:34) Pixtures are from 1967 and have kept remarkably well.

42 year old pictures & they are very good indeed. Great post sir...    

Not just well focused, they are also very well framed.

You were such a cute child Master Bator, what happened?...        

[rossco]

Great history tour from PM and MB

My early visits sadly have no photos just faded memories brought back to life from your archives.

PM - I remember doing the Rose Garden, Floating market (the colors were outstanding), Orchid farm, Patpong night market etc. TukTuks seemed more fun then!

One highlight was in Chiang Mai - a trip to a working Teak logging camp. The trip that followed was brilliant - elephant trek through the 'jungle' and, upon return, back down river by bamboo raft - Western Health and Safety would have closed it down!

Samui had no traffic lights and the main street was more a dirt track at Chawang Beach.

Is it just my memory but there seemed to be less scams/beggars and bloody Indian tailors!

[Foggy]

After visiting Singapore for 3 months in 1982 and having the Asian seed planted..........

I first visited Thailand in 1989 and was blown away by just about every thing there as it was 100% different from any thing I had known in the UK...... been coming ever since

Unfortunately a jealous Uk girlfriend destroyed all my old photo's and so it's good to see these for a refresher..... how the memories fade too.....

[benjy]

pacman has brought about the end of my "lurkship".I'm Benjy.my 1st trip to LOS.was 1981.Hong Kong,Bangkok+Pattaya for 1 month.truly was heaven.as pacman has stated,things were super cheap,the girls really did spoil you,no bloody markets in patpong 1+2!mulleen bar was the epicentre of all that was good in patts.
thanks for some old triggers

[pacman]

    Thank you benjy & welcome to the forum.

I agree with your statement, "truly was heaven", there is no other way I could describe it. Slowly the place has changed, prices have gone up & once the girls became more sophisticated, the end of paradise was in sight.

I know Thailand is no different from any other society in that regard but it was such a special place for a young guy who could scarcely have imagined the forbidden treats that laid in wait.

I had completely forgotten about the fabulous old buggies that you occasionally caught sight of until I unearthed these pics. Here are two photos of the type of jalopy to be found driving around Bangkok. One picture I posted on page 1 but I have cleaned it up a bit. Posting the same pic twice, isn't that called "doing a boarhog"?

[pacman]

This trip in 1976 was life changing for me. Thailand did spoil me for the rest of Asia, nowhere else offered the traveller the thrill & variety we met there. (Except maybe Bali, but that is a story for later)

One old pic I uncovered is from Nepal. What it has to do with the forum is absolutely nothing, but if you look closely, it may be a rare pic of one of the moderators in his previous line of employment. The perfect training for his current occupation...      

[PILOS]

How wonderful to see this bit of visual history! A great legacy to pass on to the next generation starting to frequent the board.

The pictures of the Bugis Street ladies shows that true beauty never needed hormones, injections, cosmetic surgeries and whatnot!