It’s 4 AM. I’m in Bangkok, getting ready to fly home after 2 weeks in the sweltering 100 degree heat. It’s even steaming hot at 4 AM. I’m 75 and Bangkok, long one of my favorite cities to visit, has been a very different place for me than it’s been in the past. I’m glad I never bought an apartment here, as I once planned. I have a feeling this will be my last visit, although if I were 100% sure I’d change the 12,000 and some odd baht I have— around $400— into dollars.
Yesterday was Sunday, my last day in town. I didn’t do much. I stayed in the neighborhood, went to visit a wat I’ve been to many time in the past and a small wat I’ve never seen before. And I went to a medical-oriented massage place that I never noticed before. They want to see your photo ID first and they take your blood pressure. Good 60-minute foot massage. Nothing really relieves the peripheral neuropathy much though.
In the past I always used to go at least once to the decadent all-you-can eat brunch at the Oriental Hotel. This time the idea of all-you-can-eat is a big turn off. Bangkok is a wonderful food city but yesterday I decided to fast for the long ride home today. I didn’t eat anything since Saturday lunch and I don’t feel hungry at all. Glad my IBS isn’t acting up and looking forward to spending as little time in the tiny airplane toilet as possible. Two flights today— first to Tokyo on JAL, probably a good flight— and then to L.A. on American; anyone’s guess on how 3rd rate that’s going to be.
But speaking of decadent, the other thing I never got it up for on this trip was the boys. The thought was not a turn on. Some young stranger who came down to the city from Isan unable to speak English, slobbering away on my dick… what a total nonplus. I went to visit my old friend Top but the whorehouse he had been managing last time I was here was closed down and the space is for rent. And the place where he had been a bartender when I first met him— also closed down. A lot has changed in Bangkok. The seedy gay street across Suriwong from Pat Pong… well it doesn’t exist any longer. The street itself is gone. And Pat Pong is no longer two streets— just one. The other street is kind of the gay area now, but it’s completely not happening— just a couple of commercialized versions of the old bars from across the street but empty, dead and sad.
The big difference from pre-COVID is that every street has one or two marijuana shops. They’re everywhere. I think the Thais suddenly legalized pot to lure the tourists back. I doubt that means much to Europeans or most Americans. Maybe to people from red states. And Chinese, Indians, Arabs and Russians, except the Russians don’t seem to be back yet in any discernible numbers. I asked one proprietor in his big empty, shiny shop who the customers were. He looked around and smiled wistfully.
I met an American entrepreneur on the plane from Tokyo, a guy from Colorado who has a cannabis company in Denver. He said he's opening one in Phuket or Koh Samui; I don’t remember which. I think that’s where the tourists go these days rather than Bangkok, especially the Russians.
Favorite restaurant this time was the same as my favorite restaurant last time: Issaya Siam Club— incredible chef, eager to be the best in town. I ate there 3 or 4 times and each meal was incredible… also, best pomelo salad in town. I e-mailed Bussaracum to see if they were open yet. The owner remembered me (from a time I was there in 2006, he said) and told me COVID is still a problem and they’re planning to reopen but he wasn’t sure when. He recommended a place in the Central World Department Store, a humongous mall, called Nara Thai. It was good, but no Bussaracum. Nahm in the Metropolitan Hotel was superb. So was Baan Suriyasai. And the Blue Elephant, as always, was decent. Warner Bros was in the same complex which is how I came to start eating there but Warners has moved somewhere and the Blue Elephant is still worth a trip.
One thing I loved about Bangkok is that everyone-- except a few stupid tourists-- is wearing a mask. I loved that. But traveling alone at 75 is very different from traveling alone at 25— or even 55. I think I need to go with friends on these trips from now on. Even steps I used to bound up and down, I’m now very careful navigating. Getting old’s a bitch. And that's one of the reasons I go to Thailand so often-- drugs... not the kind of drugs I used to smuggle across borders. Now I get pharmaceuticals that are prohibitively expensive in the U.S. This lot is enough for two years and would have cost nearly-- wait for it-- a quarter million dollars in the U.S. Who can afford that? [VOTE FOR BERNIE and Bernie-like candidates and no one else ever.] But in Thailand... around $3,000. Thank goodness I didn't get stopped at customs!
