Once upon a time

[pacman]

I have 100's of old photos from my early travels through Asia but very few of the night life & the ladies I met.

I will try to find a few more but I thought these might bring back a few memories. These are mainly from my first visit to Asia in 1976.

First up, the notorious Bugis Street in Singapore, famous its transgendered population . We went there every night for the great food, the beer & the scenery. Several years later, the Singaporean Govt tore it down, only to have to rebuild it because the tourists made it clear it was their favourite place to go in Singapore.

[pacman]

A few more Singaporean LBs, the competition photos I did not take. I think one of the girls gave them to me.

[pacman]

This is Corina, I would never have remembered her name except she wrote it on the back of this polaroid. She was as sweet as she looks.

[pacman]

Onto Thailand. I had to take a picture of this car. There were a few like it driving around. I wonder where they are today. This wasn't better than the others, it was just parked when I had my camera. Bangkok was so much more colourful then.

[pacman]

And it wasn't just the old jalopies that were so colourful. Just as Manila has their Jeepneys, so the trucks in Thailand were decorated like this one. It is a pity they don't do it anymore.

[pacman]

I am sure this is Beach Road in Pattaya. Actually it would be Walking Street but that name never existed when this was taken.

[pacman]

And our hotel in Pattaya - the Pen Pat Hotel Bungalow is the name on the sign. I wonder what happened to it. It was good accomodation for us back then. I remember thinking it was quite flash. How times change.

[pacman]

When it came to accomodation in Bangkok, there were famous places like the Oriental, host to the rich & powerful.

But for backpackers there was one place that attracted everybody - the Malaysia. It doesn't look much but the stream of girls going in & out of there was constant.

The other places worth mentioning are the Nana Hotel, then the epitome of luxury & the Grace Hotel, long ago bought & developed by Arab interests.

[pacman]

I don't recall which bar this picture was taken. It could have been anywhere. When you are young & by local standards, have "big money", to say we were popular is an understatement.

Not much has changed. They still call us hansum, just back then, we were more inclined to believe them.

[pacman]

I broke my visit to Thailand with a week in Burma, followed by 3 months in India & Nepal. This was the ferry we returned to Rangoon down the Irrawaddy River. Luxury it was not. The river was filthy, full of dead dogs & dead pigs.

I was watching the little fellow who sold us meagre meals & indescribable cups of tea. He lowered a bucket over the side to refill his pot to make the tea. I had been drinking from the Irrawaddy, no wonder I became ill.

[pacman]

I am posting this photo taken at the most holy of all Indian cities, Varanasi. No great reason except for the vivid memories of taking a boat past all the Hindu pilgrims doing their ritual cleansing in the Ganges.

[pacman]

I don't have a lot of pics that would be of interest to most here. I came back to LOS for a month before returning home. I wrote about my time there in an old Trip Report - Memories of LOS if anyone is interested in what I got up to.

This pic is sure to be more suitable. It is Nicky taken in May 2007. That puts her at 17. No problem for me, she stopped me in Walking Street & I thought "what a pretty girl". As I was going to meet someone, we only chatted a minute. Just long enough for a street photographer to push in to take this polaroid.

[pacman]

But that wasn't the only time that Nicky & I had our photo taken on Walking Street.

The night we went on a bar crawl while she was dressed like this, she attracted more attention than any girl I have ever seen receive before or since.

[petesie]

Nice of you to share the memories Paccers...........

I remember my first coupla trips in the 80's and old 50's-60's Brit and American cars were commonplace and of course the colourful buses........

We always lose something along the way and unfortunately a certain degree of local charm...............

[Master Bator]

Excellent! My feeble attempt to create a thread like this is completely overshadowed by this Master piece.

Please continue....

MB