mardhi

The JSB schoolgirl party - 7 years ago this month !!!! Nam#1 on the left and Nam #2 on the right. Nam#1 came so close to being Mrs Mardhi except some other bugger snapped her up.

I have just spent the evening looking through the ATS/LadyboyQuest vaults - my god - there are thousands upon thousands of posts and pics. I had forgotten the JSB school girl party that was in August 2006. I am not sure what is more worrying. 1. The fact I was there. 2. the fact that Amy/Emma was there and that she is still plying her trade. I will try and dig out some pics of that great night and some others I have also noticed. One big difference is the quality of the pics !!!

This should be what it's all about - the kinship. shit happens with girls but buddies should stick together through all of it. The old days were good, even excellent, but the best should surely be to come ???

aside from the usual birthday parties - two stick in my mind at Guess. One was the Stringfellows pool party (and the re-match at Goldfingers with jenny chucking the water over herself and tossing her hair around dancing - poor DonneyK nearly had a heart attack as I recall) and the other was the Victoria Secrets party - the effort that went into those outfits was amazing. Must look back on other forums for some pics.

Jesus, fancy seeing Pear there. I have a lot to answer for with her LOL, not least of all being an accessory in my break up with someone else. Pear is in Chayapoom now I believe. No idea about Ohm, but Nan is still around (albeit with a skinhead) as apparently is Fern - but I never see her in Temptations where she is alleged to work. Jenny is working in London, England. Not sure about the others though - the grey matter is clearly suffering.

I actually don't keep any old pics. The only places they stay are on forums. A nice reminder to an otherwise blurry night !!!!!!

When was Ciohba's 40th? I am wondering if it was before my time and I have been here 10 years up already. Maybe I attended his 50th in some shape or form. Joking aside, there have been some great parties and over many venues. Its invariably the group of guys that make it and the bar becomes the sideshow. I can remember early parties in Guess when in Soi 1 as being great. More for the group of guys and looking back, how we were all breaking ground - parties in a ladyboy bar - unheard of. Having a group of mates all knowing each other, all into the scene and BINGO. Good days for sure.

Wow - I know everybody is sick to death of that song, but not literally. RIP and not the way you want to go.

The only element that came as a surprise to me was the number of customers in the gogo. Good result having 50 punters in on Sunday night/Monday morning considering everywhere is pretty dead. I went in there once with a couple of mates maybe 8 years ago - drinks were a rip off then. Gawd only knows how much now.

Don't know if its just me - but since the refurb the girls seem to be better looking. Shame Ploy has left and gone home though.

Surely you know how much you have to spend. You can then budget accordingly. I mean you can stay in the Mandarin oriental and eat on lobster 24/7 if you have enough money. You my think $200 night for a hotel is 'reasonable' its entirely your choice. Perhaps think of how much you spend when you go to Pattaya and share it. Then try and work out, how to do BKK on a similar budget.

Much would depend on what you like. BKK is a huge city with a LB nightlife zone that is very compact. If you like city style then go for it. If you prefer resorts stick to Pattaya. If you like cosy atmospheres and bar beers - then Pattaya wins. larger venues with more choice, BKK wins. The key difference in terms of ladyboys are the venues. BKK has fewer, larger venues. Pattaya has more, smaller venues. You have over 100 staff in Cascades alone. That is typically the same amount of top drawer eye candy that you would see in 10 bars in Pattaya. If your in a rush, then maybe the supermarket is your preference over lots of little boutique shops. BKK need not be anymore expensive than Pattaya - I should know, I live in Pattaya and have also lived in BKK. I split my time now 70/30 in favour of Pattaya as that is where my home is. However, the focus of this forum is more on Pattaya and often long stay residents. Opinions will likely follow accordingly as they build up knowledge of making the money go further (and aren't we all in these economies). It is easy to overspent in both places and to book some over priced hotels and eat in over priced restaurants. Your money, your choice and plan accordingly. There is a wealth of info on the forum and its worth going through many of the topics especially BKK related as you already know Pattaya. Once you have the info only you can decide. However, my gut feeling is for top drawer talent, there is nowhere better than BKK - however some remark that its not as "girlfriendy" as Pattaya. (which basically translates as some are robots and very business like in their attitude).

I cannot think of any Thai who ever muttered the words "Chelsea" to me. However Man Utd is whole other situation - every taxi driver and many other people always mention it when they know where you are from. Man U sure have strong fan base in Thailand.

If you mean Jenny, ex Stringfellows & Guess, she was last heard of working in London. Not sure if still there.

Maybe same as Qantas did at BKK LOL. Repair it no matter the cost, we are not losing an aircraft.... Remind me of Trigger's broom..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1VNNbSYdt0

That is still a huge loss of aircraft in relative terms to take off's and landings. South Korea is NOT that large a country and does not have huge movements like the US for example. In international terms, both airlines are (relatively) tiny. Its a significant hull loss no matter how you look at it. One Big MNC I managed did not allow any staff to fly on these airlines unless they were based in South Korea and had no choice. That is actually quite common among MNC's

The KLM captain died - that much I remember. I think the Pan Am flight crew survived though.

However, to keep this in some perspective. The worst airline fatality crash was caused if I am not mistaken by a Dutchman. The chief pilot no less of KLM who crashed into a Pan Am jet in Tenerife a long while ago causing some 800 deaths. It was the same issue - the subordinates would not question the Captain's plainly crazy breach of rules and taking off without clearance. The Pan Am jet was landing at the same time as I recall but I do stand to be corrected as too lazy to google it.

They have no such issues Sam - they are all asleep, so no need for a disagreement. But seriously I also wondered about that when I came into HKG in the middle of a Typhoon. Luckily I was on Cathay, however it was co-incidence to travel with a HKG based colleague. Ordinarily I would fly TG to HKG had I been on my own. I would rather a Cathay Pilot in that situation than TG for sure. Not just because he is a white guy, but more for the fact that its his home airport and they train continually for this type of landing as it happens every year. However, my gut feeling tells me, it would be no different to what seems to have happened as per Paccer's comments. I doubt a Thai co-pilot would question the captain.

Current typical price for a drink (does not seem make much difference what you chose) is 150b in other Nana Gogo's. I can only assume they want to ramp up volume sales. A new tactic for this bar and hopefully works out well for them and they stick with it. By the sounds of things from what I hear, some previously popular bars are deathly quiet in NEP and soi 4 - others are doing quite OK/good. Service & quality counts in lean times.

Blimey - i was going the other way. Wonder if there is something in that..... The issue for me was not wanting to get stopped for the 2nd time that night by the drug police on Asoke who stop many cars especially taxis - they are fine, just empty your pockets, show id etc etc but something always lurks in my mind especially when with someone not Thai about set-ups. Easiest just to go the other way. Quite how they ever manage to catch anyone is beyond me. If I know they are there then sure as heck the drug guys do and I do not even live in BKK.

I had the first do-lally taxi man the other night on Sukhumvit - I just asked him to U-Turn and go a not common route and he slammed his fists on the steering wheel, brought the car to a halt (that is in the right order) and barked at me, that you cannot U-turn - I said, I know - just go straight up for another 200m and then U-turn where you can. I kept calm and smiled all along while this went on It was actually the first time I have experienced something like this just rip with a taxi driver. That plus a couple of other incidents is making me think, this is going to be a serious financially challenging couple months till the next high season for many folk (and this in BKK which does not really have a low season). To his credit though, he was using the meter even without asking.

Not easy for me to pin down my favourites. Having worked in the travel industry since leaving school, travel is one of the major perks and make up for the (relatively) piss poor pay. Since moving up the food chain, the perks got better and economy seats became business class and so on and then hitting the jackpot with the posting to Asia doing a global job meant I was hardly ever at home and continually travelling the world on the company dime. Anyhow, these would all rate highly but for very different reasons:- Cattolica, Italian Adriatic. This is your very traditional mass market resort and very popular with the advent of the 'package holiday'. Like South Beach in Miami it had pretty much died with the advent of much cheaper destinations not to mention the "oh we have done that" thinking. However the beaches are great and so well organised. Rustic little family owned hotels with 30 odd rooms. Great food and wine. I thoroughly loved the week I spent there. Miami, Florida I was posted to Ft Lauderdale and actually had our CEO had his way, would still be there. However he got the can and hence the new guy said, WTF are the Asia Pacific team doing based in Ft Lauderdale. Pretty simple point and one everyone had often pondered over. Anyhow weekends were always in Miami and often staying overnight on South Beach as it got re-generated. Maybe it was the influence of "Miami Vice" but I never tired of walking that beach and just people watching. Amazing restaurants although much of it in hindsight was the wow factor - this was in the days when all were trying to outdo each other and I recall dinner one night in an indoor restaurant where they made the floor of grass. Seriously real grass. They had to re-turf it every few days. Food was so so but it was so hip and that probably is what South Beach is/was all about. Florence - Not much more to add - again, had to open an office there with my job so was a frequent visitor. Being in the industry, our staff travel dept looked at best industry rates and I got put into a Starwood hotel. They had recently taken over CIGA hotels, an old fashioned chain in Italy and these hotels were like palaces. I got put into one of them, ended up with a 1 bedroom suite filled with genuine antiques and stunning artwork all for US$49 night. To put it into perspective - dinner was more expensive than the room. But it just was stunning and bang in the centre of the city. One other highlight for me is the airport - its tiny and has a very short runway. Very few decent sized jets could fly into it. Tioman Island, Malaysia My first foray into Asia (using free tickets of course) and flew to Singapore for few days then 2 weeks on Tioman. Small little prop aircraft from Seletar takes you to the island - its make Koh Samui's airport look HUGE. there is nothing of it. One trolley for bags, a windsock and an ancient set of scales for weighing your luggage (10kg limit). Its probably still the same today. Anyhow one main resort that covers about quarter of the island a couple of back packer type places near the airport. That's it. Beaches and rainforest take up everything else. 2 weeks probably too long but heck was it relaxing and then and probably now, it was very natural - just a road but no Thai style shop houses trashing the the area, aka in Koh Chang. Hong Kong There is no better city view than having a harbour front room in HKG - its just awesome. Never tire of that view - alas those expense account days are long gone, so not a hope of staying in those kind of hotels again, short of winning the lottery. Napier - New Zealand Wine and the art deco style of most buildings caused by an earthquake that flattened the city and guess what was in fashion when they re-built it in the 1930's. Food & drink were awesome. Milk still served in bottles and inn keepers who kept reminding me of my grandmother. The downside is everywhere is 10am checkout and a minute late they are banging on the door of your room. Angels Falls, Venezuela The flight on the 10 seat plane is vertigo inducing as its seems to spin a 360 to get right up close to the falls. Its difficult to get it in context until you have seen it. Reminded me of a wet version of the Grand Canyon. we eventually landed on this grass airstrip and it was like walking out into the land that time forgot. No electric anywhere. Air traffic control was a radio hooked up to a car battery !!!! Huge national park surrounds the falls and its combination of rainforests and plain rocky plateau's higher up. Everywhere is just silence on the platueau's and the night time view of the stars is a sight you'd never forget. Dalian, China What a place. Occupied by the Japanese for donkey's years - almost everyone speaks Japanese on mainland China. Very interesting city to visit (I was setting up a call centre to service Japan) and the sushi is fantastic. Friggin cold though in the winter. There are hundreds more places that have special memories for me but these are probably the most I enjoyed but all for different reasons.

Pammy ( which is her name) used to work on the daytime team. I have no idea how things are structured now though. She often would finish work around midnight. Maybe she was on a day off or barfined or maybe she no-showed, which is now very common given they get no salary. There is a very easy way of checking what is really going on - its nothing to do with staff or customers. Only one person knows what is really happening in terms of volume. Its not the owner - she has not got a clue. I am not going to say who he/she is, but a) its not me and they don't work there.

Used to be an annual event party at Guess/Anaconda Bar. Now they probably don't even know where America is on a map