My phone rang the other day. It was my pal Terry saying that he was in town and keen to get together.

We found each other at Country Road in Soi Cowboy but only stayed long enough to down a single pitcher before moving on. We hit a couple of go gos. From memory the first stop was Tilac, followed by Shark Bar.

There was a stunning girl at Shark Bar; she was twenty years old and slender with perfect skin and a stunning smile. No baby, no tattoos.

Cool.

She lives in a different part of town — away from the usual bar girl ghettos and, if she’s to be believed, she lives along — no roommate and no boyfriend, Thai or farang. She even speaks decent English.

Normally I would have barfined her faster than you can say “number 67″, but there was a problem… the snuggler was back in my room.

It seems that she took 11 days off of work — personal holiday — because she was expecting a friend to visit from her home province. The friend canceled and she found herself at loose ends.

She ended up moving in with me for a week and a half.

She hasn’t been here every minute, but she’s been here every night, which has cramped my style a bit when it comes to sex with any beautiful young bar girls.

I grabbed the go go dancer’s phone number and told her that I had to work early in the morning and I’d call her another day and come back to pay her bar fine.

I’m expecting the snuggler to be here for another three nights or so. She’s gone for a few hours tonight, giving me a much needed opportunity to squeeze in a blog.

Aside from the snuggler being around, not much is happening. I shot pool with the Dude and Terry at the Big Mango on Saturday night, but that was a pretty early evening ending with me home in bed around 10:30 p.m.

Everything else has been work. I’ve got a lot on at the moment.

The snuggler will probably be here until Thursday. My next full day off is Saturday. Hopefully these events will be kind of like the planets aligning and lead to some torrid bar girl sex some time in the near future.

In the meantime, I think I hear the snuggler knocking at the door…

I dropped into the Big Mango Bar last night for a bit of dinner and some beer.

Nigel, the manager, approached me and said that “Tony from California” had been in the night before and paid for a beer for me to be supplied on my next visit in.

I just wanted to say “Thanks!”   I enjoyed a tasty pint of Tiger with my nachos and fish fingers while I shot a dozen games of pool.

Today’s blog post has a history that goes back about a year.

November 2008

In November last year BigDan was here from the US.  From memory, he and I got out together two or three times; at least one night on Soi Cowboy and another night in Nana.

Back then my favorite go go dancer was still a go go dancer and I was seriously considering trying to retire her from the chrome pole.  I was thinking about whether to invite her to move in with me or maybe even suggest getting married and possibly moving  back to the US or Australia together.    At that point, although I knew a fair bit about E-boy (the guy she now lives with in Europe) I didn’t realize that he was so far ahead of me in the race for my favorite go go dancer.  In November last year she was still dominating my thoughts.

At the time BigDan had his own obsession in the form of a Thai girl he had hooked up with here in Bangkok, and he was trying to sort out for himself whether she was “the one” for him, so we had a bit in common and a lot to talk about.

Another thing we had in common was our enjoyment of go gos and the girls working in them.

The night we spent in Nana last year included stops at a number of go go bars, but the final stop of the night was at Carousel.

In Carousel I focused my attention on a server named Nan who was playful and pretty.  I bought her a few drinks, then paid her bar.  She changed clothes and then she, Danny and I went out to Soi 4 to grab a taxi.  BigDan was gonna go to his hotel and I was gonna take Nan home.

On that night, almost exactly a year ago, just as we were opening the door of the taxi my phone rang.  I was surprised to see my favorite go go dancer’s name pop up on the display.  She wanted to come to my place.

I looked at Nan.  It’d been months since I’d had sex with anyone except my favorite go go dancer — Nan was sexy enough and fun enough that I was planning on breaking my monogamy.

But, as I mentioned already, at the time I was really all about my favorite go go dancer.  There was no way I was gonna say no to her.

So I apologized to Nan, explained quickly what had happened, and said I’d try to make it up to her another day.  Danny hopped in the taxi and Nan took off in the other direction.

I went to meet my favorite go go dancer.

The following day when I saw Danny again he mentioned that he had been impressed by Nan.  He wondered whether it’d be violating any guy-code if he barfined her.

I don’t care if every guy I know barfines the same bargirls that I do… that’s what bar girls do, and if my friends and I happen to have plowed the same fields at different times I reckon that’s just life in the big city.  In this case, I hadn’t actually had sex with Nan — and given my situation with my favorite go go dancer I didn’t figure I was likely to go back after her.

So, I didn’t just give BigDan my blessing, I actually gave him Nan’s phone number so that he didn’t have to go back to the bar to set up a short time with her.

And short time her he did.  A couple days after my aborted bar fine night he took her back to his hotel.  He later reported that they had a good session together, and he would be happy for a repeat performance someday.

A day or two later BigDan went back to America.

Fast forward a year.

November 2009

BigDan is back in Bangkok.  It’s not his first return visit, but it’s the first time I’ve seen him in 12 months.

My favorite go go dancer is gone from my life.  She’s living in Europe with her boyfriend, who seems to be a good guy and is looking after her.

Danny’s girl from last year is out of his life.  She has hooked up with an Aussie bloke.

I’ve been spending a lot of time with a good girl — the snuggler — who is very devoted to me, while my feelings for her best described by words like “fondness”.

For his part, BigDan has found himself a true-to-life good Thai girl who just wants to make him happy, while he finds her fairly attractive but probably not his happily-ever-after girl.

On Monday night — the night of the Loi Krathong Festival — Danny and I made arrangements to get together at Soi Cowboy.

I was with the snuggler on the train when Dan called to make the appointment, and I could sense her disappointment when I told her that I was going out with Danny in the evening.  It was kind of surprising, because normally she doesn’t mind sitting in my room watching TV while I spend a night out sipping Heineken with mates from out of town.

But of course I’d forgotten it was Loi Krathong.

When Danny called me the snuggler and I were riding the train together.  I had to jump off the train before her, so while I had BigDan on the phone, I said to the snuggler that I would be going out at night, tossed her my room key and told her to feel free to enjoy the air conditioning and watch TV in my room — I’d see her around 2 or 3 a.m.

Then I hopped off the train wondering why the snuggler looked so crushed about me going drinking on with a friend from out of town on a Monday night.

It was about two hours later that I had the Homer Simpson “D’oh!” moment and remembered it was Loi Krathong.

I rang the snuggler and confirmed that she wanted to see me around 10 pm so we could join the festivities.

I called Dan to try to re-schedule our appointment to later in the week but his schedule was restricted by work & travel.  It was Monday or not at all.

I explained the situation with the snuggler and the festival, and invited him to join us if he wanted.  We agreed to meet for dinner around 8 and play it by ear after that.

When I finished work I went home and dropped my computer and took off my tie, then headed out still in my work clothes since I probably needed to look a little more scrubbed and polished than normal for the Loi Krathong festivities.

I met BigDan in front of Tilac Bar, and we ordered some food from the Sam’s 2000 menu.  We drank Heineken with dinner and after dinner, and we bar hopped a little.  We started out in Tilac where a very sexy young girl with blonde hair and sequins on her eye lids put on a show for us around 8:45 while it was still pretty slow.  She got a tequila for her trouble.

I thought she looked eminently bar-finable but BigDan wasn’t biting.  It was one drink and out.

We went to Midnite Bar but Dan wasn’t impressed with the talent, although the talent was trying hard to impress him.

We moved to Shark Bar where he seemed equally unimpressed by the general lineup, though he and I both agreed that a fairly anorexic looking little waif wearing #87 and looking like she probably didn’t weigh 36 kilos soaking wet, but sporting a nice little bubble-butt was the pick of the litter.

Eventually it was nearing my ten o’clock commitment with the snuggler and I asked Dan if he wanted to come along.

Sure.

We met the snuggler at my room and sat around talking for half an hour or so before we went out into the street.

Loi Krathong is a water festival where Thai people buy an attractive floating basket of flowers (the krathong) which also has a candle, three incense sticks and a few other things.  Each person makes a wish, floats the krathong on the water and lets the bad things in his or her life float away.

The three of us made the short walk to Benjasiri Park where there are some small man-made lakes.  We spend about an hour on the festivities, first looking around for a while, then finally making our selection of three krathongs (20 baht each), which we took to the water and floated.

It was fairly brief and a bit less ceremonial than previous years have been with me when I’ve celebrated Loi Krathong with different friends.

The snuggler and I grabbed some chicken and sausage for a late dinner by the fountain while BigDan walked around and soaked up the atmosphere.  Around midnight we got back together and headed back towards my room.

The snuggler looked a bit surprised when I gave her my room key and said that Danny and I were gonna go out for another couple of hours, but she didn’t complain.   She went to my room while BigDan and I headed back to Soi Cowboy.

I got a call saying that a couple of friends were sitting in the Shadow Bar, so we stopped to have a beer with them.  And it was literally only one beer — one of the guys was getting tired and headed for his hotel; the other one had barfined a girl before our arrival and he was starting to focus on her, so Dan and I moved along.

We poked our heads in at Rawhide, where we stayed for two bottles of beer, but the energy level was a bit lower than usual, so we moved on.

The bars were getting pretty quiet and — maybe because of the holiday — they were fairly empty.  We looked inside Tilac again, but no magic.  We surveyed the pull girls arrayed on the street and finally decided that we should round out our night at Country Road, where I’ve been focused on a girl that seems just that bit cuter and more fun than all the other Bangkok hookers.

Unfortunately my girl wasn’t there.

We ordered a pitcher of beer around 1:50 am, thinking that we had an hour or more before closing, but it was not to be.

At 1:55 the boys in brown showed their faces and just like that Soi Cowboy as closed.

Big Dan and I emptied the pitcher, and were out of the bar by five past one.  We hopped a taxi and went to Nana Plaza.

There wasn’t much doubt about where we were going.

Dan remembered Nan, the Carousel server, from last year.  He was keen to see her again.

We walked up the stairs to the third floor of the Plaza and made the short walk to Carousel.  Walking in I headed for a seat near the left hand stage, where the girls dance naked.  I heard BigDan’s booming voice over the din of music: “Werewolf, let’s sit here!”

I turned and looked to see him taking a seat at a table just inside the door. Okay.

As I sat down he grinned and said, “This is where we sat last time we were here.”

His lucky table I guess.

We hadn’t been sitting ten seconds when it happened.  Eye contact.  BigDan and Nan had spotted each other.

She came over smiling, but I could sense a small bit of indecision about where her attention should be directed.  Dan had banged her last year, but after all, I had barfined her with intent before that.  It’s possible that she wasn’t sure that I was even aware that she’d gone with Danny.

But the interesting thing — and it’s something that Bangkok veterans will be used to, but never ceases to amaze me — is that Danny hadn’t been in that bar in a year, but she recognized him within seconds of him getting in the door.

I had been in Carousel a few times in between but, honestly, I would have never recognized her, though I remembered the event of barfining and bailing last year quite clearly.

In any event, it took only a few seconds for it to become clear to her that it was BigDan who had come looking for her, not me.

She was smiling and sexy, so it didn’t take long for Danny to be sure that he had made the right decision in coming back to see her again.  He bought her a drink, flirted with her briefly, then paid her barfine and she went bounding happily to the back, emerging about three minutes later in a cute white shirt and jeans, looking pleased as punch with her good luck.

There was a bit of talk about BigDan taking her out to celebrate Loi Krathong at the park but it seemed to have been forgotten by the time we reached the taxi — probably because we stopped in Erotica for ten minutes on the way out… the three of us evaluating the small young, seemingly teenage, girls dancing onstage.  The one that I thought looked the cutest also looked like she wasn’t more than 14 years old and all I could think was that I was probably going to hell for lusting after some tiny-bodied child writhing sensualy on-stage.  I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to leave a go go than when we  got out of Erotica Monday night.

In a strange through-the-looking-glass moment we found that once again it was November, once again Nan had been barfined, and once again the three of us were standing in Nana waiting for a taxi.  But this time the phone didn’t ring.

We all got in… me in the front and the happy couple in the back.

The taxi dropped me a couple blocks from my house, then took BigDan and his girl on towards his hotel.

It was 2 a.m.

I walked into my building, went up the lift, but had to knock on the door because I’d given my key to the snuggler.

She opened the door looking a bit bleary-eyed.  The lights and television were off.  She’d been asleep.  It was a cool night and she was tucked in under the covers.

I grabbed a quick shower then tucked in under the covers too.  She rolled over to face me, kissed me, and said “happy Loi Krathong”.  Then we started celebrating.

Just a quick blog.

This is Halloween weekend.  Bangkok is  not a place to find tons of Halloween celebrations all over town, but most bars and pubs that earn their living from western customers will make an attempt to celebrate.

I thought I’d tell you about the few places I know any details for and invite others to give details of other parties in the comments section.

I’ve been told by my buddy Ash that tonight (Friday the 30th) there is a party at Sky Club on Srinakarin Road, a kilometer or two from Secon Square.  Normally memberships at Sky Club are 10,000 baht and come with 6 bottles of whiskey.  On party nights, however, you get a bonus bottle with your memberships, making it 7 bottles instead of 6 — a pretty good premium!

On TFS2M blog today they have details of their Saturday night party at the Big Mango.  Looks like the focus in on San Miguel, with special price on beer and promo girls in the house.  Click here for details.

I went into Coyote Restaurant yesterday and the place was already all dressed up in cobwebs and the like.  My good friend who works there tells me that the owner gave each of the employees a little cash to go out and buy a special outfit for the night, and that there will be a prize to the employee judged to have the best costume.  She assures me that the outfit she bought is very sexy.

According to her Coyote will be offering 2-for-1 pricing on beer and margaritas all day and all night on Saturday.   There may be more festivities that she didn’t tell me about — it’s hard to imagine they’d have put up as many decorations as they have just to run happy hour.

By the way, while I’m talking about Coyote — though it’s not related to Halloween — three weeks ago they started a new Monday night special that runs (I believe) from 6 pm to 9 pm.  It’s an all-you-can-eat Mexican Buffet, priced (I think) at 299 baht.

I haven’t been in for the Monday night special yet (because I work on Monday nights) but I had the Mexican buffet there last month when the celebrated Mexican Independence Day and it was an impressive spread.

I’ve been to Soi Cowboy on Halloween night in previous years and usually there have been a lot of balloons, a lot of special costumes and a festive atmosphere.  With Halloween falling on Saturday this year I’m guessing that it will be in a higher gear, and probably starting tonight, though I don’t know of any specific parties or celebrations.  I’d be betting Cactus John might lay on something special at Cactus, and I’d be surprised if you didn’t see some special costumes or shows at Rawhide.

If anyone has any solid information on other parties around town, feel free to leave details or a URL link in the comments section below.

Have fun!

I had a long workday on Monday. I was fairly wiped out, but when NurseRon – my pal from Southern California — called and suggested dinner at Livingstones I thought I could manage a quiet dinner near my home, so I said okay.

And a quiet dinner it was.   One of my good friends — a Thai girl who knows Ron — saw us walking to Livingstones and called on the phone.  Ron said to invite her, so the three of us sat by the poolside in the cool evening air enjoying some decent food.

By around 9 pm my friend was ready to go home, so Ron and I walked her to Soi 31 then said goodnight.

Ron had told me earlier in the day that another American who I know from a visit to Bangkok last year — K — was in town.  Ron had met K at the Big Mango Bar and they had struck up a conversation and an apparent friendship.  K and Ron were trading messages and it seemed like the destination was Soi Cowboy.

Ash, who is also friends with Ron and me, was threatening to join us as well.

After saying goodnight to my female Thai friend Ron and I walked to Soi Cowboy.  I told Ron to pick the bar, and he chose Rawhide.

Normally I start at Rawhide if I get to Cowboy early, but at 10 pm it wouldn’t have been my normal starting point.  But away to Rawhide we went.

The girls were dancing naked.  Good.

K joined us in Rawhide before I’d taken the first sip of my Heineken, and Ash arrived before the bottle was empty.

Nang, a Rawhide dancer who I’ve been feeding drinks to regularly for three years, ran over and settled on my lap.

We ended up staying in Rawhide for well over an hour.  I never offered Nang a drink, but she didn’t leave my lap until it was time for her to dance sometime around 11:15, which is when we finally did leave. Throughout our stay she was cold and sleepy, and I was letting her sleep on my shoulder and doing my best to keep her warm.

And there were all the other regulars at Rawhide:

I saw Kung — my ideal go go dancer.  After three years of admiring her gymnastic performances on the chrome poles and countless lady drinks, I’ve still never offered to barfine her.  I worship her body, but it seems like that worship is destined to always be from afar.

Plaa used to look so much like Kung that when I first started visiting Rawhide three years ago I actually couldn’t tell them apart.

Over the past year or so Kung may have put on half a kilo, but Plaa has probably added 4 or 5 kilos.  They don’t look like twins anymore.  But Plaa is far from fat, and she still has a beautiful face graced with a beautiful smile and a mouth just bursting with pretty white teeth.

And, of course, the dancing twins were there.

And then there were a lot of new faces.  One crew was in white cut-off tee shirts and shorts.  They all looked young.  Some of them looked too young.  They took the stage together, and they looked a bit tentative.   It was Monday night and I’m guessing that these were the new recruits, fresh off the bus from Isaan.  Maybe not, but they were the only dancers who weren’t naked, and I’d never seen any of them before.

When we finally left, the four of us went to Spice Girls.

Let me just say here that I almost never have a problem with mamasans — but the mamasan at Spice Girls last night was truly irritating.   I quickly grew to hate her.

Spice Girls had some hot coyote dancers, but the go go dancers on stage were mostly an overweight crew.  K zeroed in on one coyote and made sure she knew he was interested in her.

But because of the irritating mamasan and the fat go go dancers we stayed for only one drink.  On the way out K talked to “his” coyote and I think they traded phone numbers.  Walking out the door, K immediately spotted another little cutie — a Spice Girls go go dancer, in fact who wasn’t fat  –  and started to chat her up.  She said something to him in Thai, and he asked me to help with a translation.

I stepped up near the go go cutie, and just as I did I saw K’s coyote walk out the front door.  Rather than make him (perhaps awkwardly) choose between the two girls I immediately put my arm around the go go cutie just about the time K saw the coyote coming towards him.

He chatted with the coyote while I made nice with the go go cutie.

Eventually all the introducing and flirting was done.  K was as set as he was gonna get with the coyote dancer and I left the go go cutie standing on the front veranda of Spice Girls, probably vaguely confused about why I seemed so focused on her for five minutes then left without trying to close the deal.

Ah well.

We went to Shark Bar.

One of the problems about going out with Ash is that Thai girls think he’s handsome.  He’s less than 25 years old, American, about 6′3″ tall and slender, with styled light-color hair and blue eyes.  The girls swoon when they see him.

It’s always tough entering or leaving a go go bar with Ash, because invariably a confident and attractive girl with grab him by the arm, talk to him, and suggest that she could make him very happy.

Ash always talks to the girls for 5 to 10 minutes and eventually trades phone numbers with the girl.

I used to stand around like some steaming dog turd waiting for him to conclude his business.  Nowadays, I just leave him with the girl.  If we’re going in I get a seat and try not to finish my first beer before he gets inside.

If we’re going out, I tap him on the shoulder and tell him which bar I expect to go to next — or that I’ll SMS him after we’ve sat down somewhere and ordered.

Ron and K weren’t accustomed to this yet, so we had a long pit stop in front of Shark while some Isaan spinner tried to do her magic on Ash.

In the end, the joke is usually on the girls.  The ones who accost him are usually the ones who are hard bodied and popular with the punters, but Ash has tastes that run to fleshy girls who have a nice rack in front and something to hold on to during a gymnastics session.

The girl that had Ash’s arm in front of Shark would have gotten a lot of play from me, but I suspect she looked just a bit to anorexic for Ash.

Finally I suggested to Ron and K that we were burning too much time standing around like Ash’s groupies, and that we should go inside.

We did.

The lineup in Shark was good, but not as good as Rawhide had been.  We stayed for a while, then decided to move on.

By this time it was well past midnight, and we were seeing a lot of pretty girls being barfined.

Ron suggested Long Gun.  I hadn’t been there in a long time, so I agreed, and the others tagged along.

Ash, of course, got snagged by a girl on the way out.  I followed Ron & K to Long Gun.  They stepped inside the door and stopped dead.  I was still outside the curtain.  They turned around and said “nah! no good” and we left.

I’ve been having good luck at Midnite Bar for a long time, and better luck recently, so we went there.  It was almost empty and not a single girl caught our eye, so once again we did an about-face and left without sitting down.

We talked about Five Star as an option since they have the live band, but one look at the lineup of girls and K poo-pooed that idea.  We did our third consecutive about-face and walked out.

A curious thing happened.

K saw a girl standing outside of Five Star and took an instant interest in her.  He put his arms around her and started talking to her.  It was clear that he was — for the moment at least — smitten.

We stood in front of Five Star trying to decide what to do.  It was after one o’clock in the morning, so Ron & I suggested K take the girl and go home.

Since the go go gods weren’t smiling on us, Ron and I – a couple of 40-something Americans — were gonna go listen to the band at Country Road.

K said he’d call us later.

Within 20 minutes or so we were all re-united in Country Road.  Ash had finally gotten away from the front of Shark Bar, K had barfined his girl from Five Star, and Ron & I were attacking a pitcher of Heineken.

A hostess in Country Road that I rather like (Pea) was giving me attention.

Ron suggested that K needed to have a shot of whiskey from the cart in front of Country Road.  I was shanghaied into joining them.  Making my way from our table to the front door I had to pass a hostess who was fairly well blocking the way.

Because I’m a clumsy oaf, likely to knock her down in a cramped space, I placed my hands on her hips as I passed by.   She looked up into my eyes.

She was beautiful!

Shiny eyes, white teeth and a small diamond stud in her nose.  I slowed down my progress as I passed her, flirting with as I passed by.

Then it was off to the whiskey cart.

The girl with the beautiful face turned out to be named Gat (pronounced like “gate”).  And while her face was stunning, she was definitely about 10 kilos over the werewolf spec… she had a bit of a bulging waistline.

But some rules are made to be broken, and my fascination with skinny girls occasionally manages to include a fascination with certain heavy girls.

I was definitely fascinated with Gat.

The problem was, I already had Pea at the table.

Then I sensed the perfect solution.  I bought a drink for Gat and suggested that she and Ash could talk.  He’s a girl-magnet, so she wouldn’t complain, and he likes his girls a bit meaty.

This seems to have worked out okay, because by the end of the night Ash and Gat had traded phone numbers.  But before the night was over we had quite the party at the table… K & the 5-star girl, me & Pea, Ash & Gat with NurseRon holding on firmly to his bachelorhood.

I don’t know when Ash left for home, but after the lights came up and the band shut down, Ron & I said goodnight to K and his girl… they were headed for Jim Jum up around Soi 11.

Ron & I headed for the outdoor bars at Asok.

There was NOTHING inspiring at the corner last night, so Ron suggested a walk on the Miracle Mile.

What the hell.  Why not.

We started the walk, discussing the many options that presented themselves.  Around Soi 11 we spotted K and his 5-star dancer with another Thai girl – farang guy couple.  They were cooking their Jim Jum.  We stopped and chatted briefly, but declined an invitation to join them.

We kept walking — looking at but not engaging the hundreds of hookers we passed.  (Though at one point I did actually lift an outdoor bar girl up on my shoulder and carry her about 30 feet before putting her down again, so I guess it’s not quite fair to say we didn’t pick up any girls).

Finally we arrived at Soi Nana.  We went to the burger cart to order some food.

“Closed” we were told.

Then a British guy stepped up wanting to order a burger, and suddenly the cart was open again and 5 burgers were grilling.

Ron and I took our burgers over to the Nana Hotel parking lot and bought a couple bottles of beer, but there just wasn’t much happening.  We finished our food and started walking back towards Soi 22… this time on the quiet (even) side of the street.

As we passed Soi 10 I set down the half-full beer I’d been carrying;  there was no way I was gonna finish drinking it.  In fact, we had been drinking at a pretty modest pace all night, and now that I had two burgers in my stomach I was feeling full, but clear headed.

Arriving home I actually checked my email before going to sleep sometime around 4 a.m.

I woke up at 8 a.m. and immediately decided to go back to sleep instead of going to the gym as I had planned.  I slept another hour, then woke up both because the room was hot and because I needed to pee.   I took care of my needs, re-set my alarm and went back to sleep, finally waking when the alarm rang at eleven.

After getting up, I looked around my room and realized that it looked like a very messy college dorm room with an un-made bed, clothes and empty drink bottles scattered everywhere.  During the night I’d even managed to knock my laptop off the table and onto the floor — a first for me.

I started cleaning.  After I’d put the vacuum away I surveyed my handiwork and decided that it was good.

I walked to the optical shop near Phrom Phong and ordered some new contact lenses, dropping off a pair of bi-focals for a frame repair.  They’ll be ready tomorrow.

Then I went to Villa Market and bought a bunch of essential groceries.  I arrived home around 1:15, put away my purchases, and started wondering exactly what I should do next.  I didn’t have to work until 5:30 today.

The phone rang.  It was NurseRon.  He was with K, and they were heading to Soi 22 to eat lunch at Raan Derm Restaurant.

Did I want to join?

You may be starting to figure out that I have no talent for saying “no” to invitations.  I joined them.

Lunch was a quiet affair, suited to three guys who had been out until nearly sunrise.  We each had a bottle of water and a lot of food.

K is supposed to leave Bangkok in the next day or two, but he’s thinking of extending his trip.  He has been staying down on Soi 4 and suggested that if he stays another week he might want to stay closer to Soi Cowboy for the additional time.

I told him about a couple of low-cost options for accommodation in the area, and the three of us went to Honey House 1 and D’Pelican to check out the offering.

D’Pelican was priced at 900 baht per night, so we didn’t look at the room — K was a bit more budget-minded than that.

The Honey House 1 was priced at 650 baht per night for a standard room, with a small discount for weekly pricing.  This was similar to the rate K has been paying down Soi 4 way.

Looking at the room, he said that Honey House 1 was much smaller than the one he was in now, but it was much closer to the train and nightlife.  He said that he would consider it if he decided to stay in Bangkok beyond his scheduled departure.

It was three in the afternoon by this time.   I needed to go home and get ready for work, so I said goodbye to K and Ron, leaving them standing together chatting on the street.

I went home, cleaned my toilet, took a shower, washed a load of clothes, got dressed and headed out for a grueling 1 hour meeting.

Now it’s just near 7 p.m.  I am supposed to meet Ash in thirty minutes.

One more invitation I didn’t say “no” to….