Dear Diary, it’s Saturday morning, and…

I’ve just awakened from a good night’s sleep.  I went to sleep at 9:45 p.m. last night (the earliest I’ve been to bed in many months) and except from a single interruption at 1 a.m. when my ex-girlfriend called me, slurred-voiced and drunk, I slept through the night.  She was polite enough to apologize and send me immediately back to sleep.  I woke up a few minutes before 6 a.m. feeling refreshed.  I probably should try sleeping more… it seems to be a good thing.

I hadn’t realized — and didn’t find out until 5:35 p.m. yesterday — that because of the Senate elections, Bangkok is supposed to be ‘dry’ again this weekend (no alcohol is to be served).  I was at work on Friday afternoon when my friend the Dude called to say that he and his girlfriend were heading to Coyote on Sukhumvit to enjoy the 2-4-1 beer & margarita happy hour that runs every day from 3pm to 7pm.  I was stuck at work until 5:00 but agreed to join them soon after.  Arriving at 5:30 the Dude told me to ‘drink up’ as I had less than 30 minutes before service was ended.  Bummer.

I couldn’t figure out why we were dry this weekend, as the election isn’t until 2nd March.  The Dude’s girlfriend explained that, just like the general election in December, this weekend was for early voting. 

So, there’ll be TWO weekends in a row where alcohol is banned.  I don’t really want to spend much time on expressing my opinion about this idiotic ban on alcohol, but I will comment that “TIT – this is Thialand” so just because a law or regulation is passed, doesn’t mean it is enforced.  The boys over at the Big Mango Blog have set up a forum thread to let everyone communicate about what venues are open or closed, and which ones are serving or not serving.  I haven’t looked at the thread, but you can see it by clicking here.

So anyway, last night I quickly downed my two margaritas at Coyote’s, then went to 7-11 and grabbed 7 large bottles of beer before the 6 pm cutoff, then me, the Dude & his girl went to the market and got some food, then on to his house where we watched Mystic River on the cable channel, drank 4 bottles of beer and ate some homemade nachos and burritos that the Dude whipped up in his kitchen.

I’d had an early start to the day, waking up at 6 a.m. on Friday, so by the time the movie ended at 9:15 I was knackered.  The dude’s girl was asleep in his bed, so I decided to grab a taxi home where I collapsed from exhaustion.

Thursday night had been spent with the Dude as well.  He had called me in the late afternoon to see if I wanted to join him for a happy hour beer at Country Road on Soi Cowboy.  Given how much time I spend at Country Road I’m surprised how little mention it gets in my blog.  I’ve probably consumed more beer there than any other single venue in Bangkok — possibly the world.

If I have a ‘local’ bar in Bangkok, it must be Country Road.  

In spite of being on Soi Cowboy, this bar is only marginally a naughty nightlife venue.  There are girls, and they are barfinable (both hostesses and waitresses) but mostly they just drink, talk, dance and shoot pool with the customers.  There is a live band on stage from 7 pm until closing time (the band changes over between 9 and 9:30) playing a blend of country music, Southern Rock, rock and other tunes that defy description.  On Thursday night the early band played Simon & Garfunkel, the Eagles, the Beatles, Dire Straits, John Denver, Santana, Procol Harem and a host of others.

Food is available, with generous helpings of food priced at about 100 baht.  The food comes from Sam’s 2000 in the middle of the soi, so you have to pay cash on delivery, but it’s always hot, fresh & delicious.

The happy hour runs until 8 p.m. nightly.  I’m not sure of the full list of drink prices because I always order pitchers of heineken, priced at 150 baht.  Great value.  Even when happy hour ends, I’ll often keep drinking, as the regular pitcher price is only 195 baht.

The music is always a half beat too slow, the singers of moderate talent, the girls not the prettiest or the most efficient and the pool tables are too close together, but somehow the Manager at Country Road (a Thai guy in his late 40’s who is there every night) seems to put it all together to offer a great bar with a good buzz every day & night of the year.

Country Road is my usual meeting place when getting together with a friend for a night out in Cowboy.  You can bring your girlfriend or wife in this place and she won’t feel uncomfortable — there are always plenty of both in the place.  And late nights can be pretty raucous as well.  Around midnite they have an Elvis impersonator who does about 45 minutes of the worst Elvis impersonation you’ve ever seen, and the band is happy for you to grab the microphone and sing your favorite song.

If you’ve never been, check out Country Road.

One of my long-time readers, and a commenter from earliest days of the blog — toddmorocco — has made it a point to comment (twice!) recently that I must be broke because I haven’t gotten laid in a while.  I am not sure why todd is quite so fascinated with keeping track of my sex life, but I’ll make a few observations. 

Firstly, today is the 23rd of February.  Seven days ago I filed a report of a highly satisfying sexual encounter with a girl on Soi 33 where I got my fingers wet sitting on the barstool in her pub, then bum-fucked her in a short time hotel.

I would have thought that that report would have qualified me for getting laid recently.

It was followed up by a lengthy story about trying and failing to get laid two nights later.

In the intervening five days I have filed no reports of sexual encounters, it’s true.  But I do actually do other things — working, for example — during the week.  Along with packing my house up to move apartments this week, I’ve been fairly fully occupied.

My ill-fated adventure in Spice Club and the Nana Parking lot was Sunday night.  Monday night I met a friend for dinner at the Duke of Wellington Pub, where I limited my beverage intake to Coca-Cola and enjoyed an excellent Big Duke Burger (bacon, cheese & a fried egg) that was hot, delicious and filling.  The friend I was meeting introduced me to a friend of hers who was in town from Europe, so it was a quiet dinner and a fairly early night.

Tuesday night was spent working.  I have a business venture that I’m trying to get started with a partner in the United States, and we were on a telephone conference call from 10 pm until midnight.  I had a girl show up at my place at 12:30 with a late night dinner, and she stayed over.  It didn’t make the blog, but she stays over several nights per month so I usually don’t mention her.

Wednesday was a quiet night at home.  The Dude had introduced me to the concept of free downloads from Mininova, and I fiddled around on my computer trying to get it to work.  I confess that I slept alone on Wednesday night.

As previously reported, I spent Thursday night having pitchers with the Dude at Country Road, but I was home and in bed by 11 because I had to wake up very early for a long work day on Friday.  Last night was early drinks and early to bed.

So, todd, that’s my full update.  If you read the blog just to hear about the times I get laid, it may sometimes be a long time between drinks of water for you.  One reason is that I generally don’t write about repeat encounters with the same girl very often.  Fon the freelancer, my favorite go go dancer, Song, Som and Oi don’t get mentioned every time they drop over to my house.  What’s the point?  If there’s something interesting or memorable I’ll give it a mention, otherwise it’s merit a one-sentence notation, “had sex with my favorite go go dancer again last night.  By my count this is #127.  The day before I got Fon the Freelancer for #28.”

As uninteresting as my life may be anyway, that just seems to be toooo boring.

Fon the freelancer called me yesterday while I was in a meeting.  I didn’t return her call.  I’ve gone a bit cold on her, but I don’t know why.  She’s always been good fun, and she calls me regularly, offering to come to my place.  I think the problem is that, many times when she calls it’s not a good time, so it gets a touch irritating.  Good problem to have I guess… sexy freelancer calling and offering to come have sex with you too often.

My favorite go go dancer — as mentioned recently — has put on a bit of weight.  I hadn’t noticed it in my bedroom on her last few visits, but I went to see her dance in her go go a few weeks ago and she was looking decidedly porky.  I haven’t been able to get that image out of my mind of the strings of her bikini cutting into her flesh.  She’s called me a few times since; I’ve returned her calls but I haven’t encouraged her to come by.  I think I’ll visit her go go soon and see if she’s knocked off a kilo or two to get back to her previous spinner proportions. 

The old mamasan from Pent has been calling me.  I’ve been answering the phone, but she seems to be calling mainly to try to sell me a membership at her new club, not asking to come to my house for a quick wrestle in the bed, so the last couple of phone calls have been brief and meaningless.

It may be time to refresh the stable.

Okay.  I may write another entry later today, but at the moment it’s 7:48 a.m. and I have a business appointment at 9.  I have to shit, shower & shave now.

Have a good weekend.