Nat and I woke up around 9:00 and fooled around a little bit, then I jumped in the shower and she followed. It was now 9:50 and I knew that breakfast was served from 6:00am to 10:00am, so if we were going to make it, we had to leave now. We went downstairs and were warmly greeted by the staff in the lobby and we walked outside towards Tower A. The doorman again saluted as he opened the door and everyone in the lobby again warmly greeted us, including the desk manager who greeted me by name. We sat down in Maxwell’s at 9:55. Now, I don’t have to tell you what would happen if you walked into a restaurant 5 minutes before closing in the states. But here we were nicely greeted and told that the buffet was self-serve and we could help ourselves. They had a nice selection of western foods – eggs, bacon, sausage, Freedom toast, pancakes and some of the best home fries I’ve ever had. Then they had 4 or 5 Thai dishes and of course rice, plus lots of fresh fruit, breads (and a toaster) and fresh juices. We each made a plate and sat down at our table. At about 10:15 the chef came over and asked how everything was. I told him everything was great and then he said that he was going to start to close up the breakfast line and get ready for lunch, but he would be happy to bring us another plate of anything we wanted. What great service! And the breakfast buffet for 2 was included in the room rate (If you walk in off the street it’s a very reasonable 120 baht per person). We finished up our breakfast and went back to the room.

After a nice morning session, we got dressed and I told Nat that I wanted to head over to MBK so I could pick up a cell phone. We hadn’t discussed money so far, but I gave her 2,000 baht (like I did on the previous trip) and told her she could expect that every morning. She seemed pleased with the arrangement and money wasn’t ever discussed for the duration of the trip.

Photos: Nat 3 Nat 4 Nat 5

We walked to Asoke Plaza and took the Sky train to MBK, which is a nice-sized mall loaded with kiosks selling used and new phones of every variety, plus the SIM cards that come with your phone number. All I wanted was a simple phone that I could use in Thailand – I really didn’t care about any of the features. Now up until this point, Nat had never asked me for anything, but I guess the bargirl love affair with the cell phone was just too much for her. She kept hinting that I really needed a cell phone that could also take pictures and that when I left, she could take care of it for me. I told her I just wanted a simple phone. We went back on forth on this for about 15 minutes and then she came up with this proposal: What if I got her the picture phone and she repaid me 1,000 baht every morning out of the 2,000 baht. Never mind that the phone was 11,000 baht and I was only staying for 6 more days. But me, being the nice guy that I am and thinking that I’m at the beginning of a great week of sex and total GFE, I said just give me your Nokia and pick out a camera phone, because I want to take the phone back to the states so I have it when I come back (so the next time the hotel car doesn’t show up at the airport, I can call the hotel – I’m already thinking that far ahead). She’s ecstatic of course and the total bill for her phone plus my new phone number and minutes is just under 12,000 baht. Oh well, I considered it an investment. I know, I can rationalize anything.

I tell her that I’d like to see a movie – I had read in Blazer’s Definitive Guide to Bangkok that he considered the theater at the Emporium the best, so I had to check it out. There really wasn’t anything playing that I wanted to see, but Nat wanted to see Bad Boys 2, so that’s what we saw. Paid 250 baht each for VIP seats and they were good and the theatre was great and a good time was had by all.

It was now late afternoon and I wanted to get a 2-hour Thai Massage and Nat said she wanted to run a few errands, so again we agreed to meet at the Long Gun at 11:00pm. I told her to be ready to go right away, because I wanted to have dinner at the seafood restaurant Ratchada that night and I didn’t think they served past midnight on weekdays.

We went our separate ways with me headed back to the hotel. I showered and changed and decided to give the hotel’s salon a shot for the massage. They said they no longer offered massage and suggested I try across the street. I walked directly across the street and entered into a combination dry cleaners/massage parlor. The owner asked me to wait just a minute and she called her other store to get a masseuse. First they sat me down and washed my feet, then gave me slippers and led me upstairs. This isn’t a big place, with only three massage beds, but it was quiet and semi-dark and cool – great for a relaxing two-hour massage. The masseuse was very professional (zero chance of any extras here) and I drifted off to sleep a couple of times. I paid 300 baht downstairs and gave the masseuse 200 for her effort. I went back across the street and got ready to meet the boys at Genesis.

I hoped into a taxi around 7:15 and walked into Genesis 20 minutes later.

Billcink, Badabing and I exchanged stories and then Bada suggested we head over to the Soi 7 Beer garden. I had read about this place in many reports but had never seen it. Bada knew his way around and took a shortcut from Soi 11 to Soi 7 without having to go all the way back to Sukhumvit. The Beer garden was packed and we were lucky to get three seats together. I was very impressed with the set-up. There appeared to be a lot of talent here and eye contact and smiles were everywhere. None of us were really interested in taking anyone, although there were certainly some doable ones. We spent a nice couple of hours girl-watching although Badabing was getting private Thai lessons from a cutie, so he wasn’t too involved in our conversation. Billcink was real interested in one girl and started talking to her and as we decided to leave, he decided to stick around and further “interview” her [Billcink did ultimately take the girl out and said she wasn’t great, but wasn’t too bad either].

I wanted to give the guys my phone number, but it was programmed into the phone and the battery had run out. We said we’d try to keep in touch by calling each other’s hotels, but Badabing was going to busy the next couple of nights with work. This was an actual business trip for him.

It was close to 11:00pm, so I headed over to the Long Gun and had a beer. Nat was just coming off stage and she said her stomach was bothering her, could we not go to Ratchada tonight. I agreed and picked up some street food and we went back to the SLP. I had Pepto and other stuff in my bag, but she really didn’t want anything. She dutifully took a shower and gave be a great BBBJTC. She’s a little sex machine, no two ways about it.

As we got ready for bed, I told her that I wanted to go fishing tomorrow at Bungsamran Lake and that we’d leave around 12:00noon. She seemed genuinely excited about this and we both fell asleep pretty fast.

You gave a bar girl a $300 cell phone...OUCH! Her Nokia was probably worth $80 at the most. Tell you what...you show me around New York and I will be your interpreter for your next trip...that way the bar girls wont pull the wool over your eyes next time. I hope this doesn't get worse. I can't say I didn't fall for bargirl bullshit either but this girl is a pro's pro and I hope some her tricks after-the-fact. The dark Isaan girls are ruthless at times and this girl has the Sterotypical Ubon/Surin look that you see so much at Long Gon...girls from that region are thieves.

some typos....."I hope you notices some of her tricks after the fact".....stereotypical..sorry

And remember (according to thai logic) anything goes wrong with the phone, you have to make it right.

" why u buy me bad phone"


still, nice report. glad you are having a good time.

hope to read you hooked a big one ( fish)

Blazers: There's a reason why I called this report "The Street gets Schooled" - and I didn't want to sugercoat my blunders - I write 'em up just like they happen. Thankfully, I bottomed out with the cell phone purchase - didn't buy her another thing. What's bad is I couldn't get her cell phone (now mine) to work until the last day - had I went to MBK on Sunday by myself, I would have had a working phone and saved 8,000 baht. Hindsight is 20/20. Looking forward to showing you around New York.

Pasathai: Wait till I post the fishing pictures - they blew people away in my office.

Wallstreet
Any time you take a BG to MBK you're asking for trouble. Did you check out the phonebook on her Nokia ?? Probably loaded with farang cell phone numbers !!
The theater at Emporium was just remodeled. It is nice but has THE worst selection of flics in BKK. Don't know why .
Excellent report-- looking forward to upcoming installments. Where is the lake you went to-- fishing was never on my mind in LOS, but you know ---as you get older there are other things in the world besides constant sex. Not that I'm gonna start fossil hunting like Murasaki.

Damn straight. Sex and fossil hunting. That's the ticket.

As long as you had a great time, you can say is money well spent. i'm sure Wallstreet knows the saying, "easy comes, easy goes"; the same goes for money, just make sure you get something out of it. years ago, i bought a cell phone (nokia 3310) in one of those malls in Pattaya (close to sabailand), still got it, only difference was i didn't brought with me any BG, no pun intended Wallstreet. i'm not really into fishing, the only interest in fish is to see them on my plate. the movie theaters at the WTC are pretty good and the inside of them is great, can't beat the ticket prices. i need to check soi 7 beer garden, last time i had a seafood dinner across the beerbar and saw a lot of cuties just walking around like unguided ballons, some very good looking. i'll have my chance next week!!!!. anyways, good report .///

Wallstreet you (good man) are a Thai girl's fish.

Fossil hunting....?

-DJ

Khun Mor: Nat took her old SIM card and put it in her new phone - thus keeping her phone numbers.

Bungsamran Lake, I'm told, is technically still in Bangkok and without traffic we made it in under 40 minutes both ways. I'm writing up that chapter right now and will include the phone number of a local Thai Fishing guide who works at the Lake - I'm sure he can give you directions - although when the hotel booked the car, they knew where it was right off.

DJ: Fossil hunting is code for what to tell the folks back home what you did while on vacation (when you can't tell them what you really did).

Wallstreet , you are really spending a lot of money on this girl. Anyway ... as long as she serves you well probably that's fine. I really like your report .

Cheers

WS, you made me sound like I'm very green. I just haven't heard that one b4. Sounds like hunting for old broads.

Actually DJ
Fossil hunting is sorta a private joke between Murasaki and I. I accussed him of preferring fossil hunting to mongering when he took large amounts of time out of his trip to tour Burma and Vietnam to gawk at temples and historical sites. That was my reference above. Sorry to confuse you with a private joke.

DJ - Sorry, not my intention to make you sound green (which I know you're not). And as it turns out, I got it wrong to boot.

Thanks for clarifying, KM. Mura in Burma and Vietnam lol. No harm done, WS.

(Message edited by dickjohnson on September 16, 2003)

Hey, I thought maybe some of you were fellow paleontologists!!