BANGKOK'S Old Backpacker Ghetto | Drugs | Scammers | Hippies | US Military | with KARL
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ม.ค. 2024
- In Sathon there is a smaller backpacker area. Soi Ngam Duphli & Soi Sri Bamphen was much more hardcore than Khao San Road. It attracted more than just travellers: Drugs, criminals, dodgy characters, english teachers, drug runners, prostitutes, US Military on leave from Vietnam all came together amidst many cheap hotels, hostels, dosshouses, bars, nightclubs along a street called Soi Sri Bamphen, off Soi Ngam Duphli in Bangkok's Sathon District. Join me and Karl@karlsthailand as we hear stories of karl's time living here in the 1980s and 90s. It's a great ride through the history of this infamous ghetto.Enjoy!
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First time in BKK in 1967. I was 13 on an around the world with my family. The place was flooded with loud and happy GI’s each with a beautiful girl on their arm. As a 13 year old boy I was bug-eyed and thought the place was amazing. (Retired now in Chiang Mai).
That was great! The first hotel I ever stayed at was the Malaysia Hotel back in December 1987. Back in the days before smartphones and internet seems unimaginable now but Bangkok felt so exciting and mysterious. I feel so fortunate that I experienced those Wild West days, and all the usual suspects like Thermae’s, Nana Plaza, Soi Cowboy & Patpong which were going strong back then. A different world indeed.
Great times
Best Thailand channel on You Tube - thanks Pat for all your hard work. Look forward to this channel getting the recognition it deserves.
Thanks Tom👍 one day.....
Wow! This is a great post that brings back a lot of memories. In the fall of 1978 I arrived at Don Muang from Kathmandu and taxied directly to Soi Ngam Duphli. Checked into the Boston Inn, but it was terrible. No AC and the walls between the rooms didn’t reach the ceiling. Checked into the Malaysia the next day and it was like moving into the Ritz. Lovely pool, excellent coffee shop, great AC. After 10 months of staying in youth hostels and fleabags across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, the Malaysia seemed the pinnacle of luxury. First memory of the Blue Fox: a bar girl was eating chilies out of a jar. Put the whole chili in her mouth bit it off at the stem and chewed. She offered one to a farang at the bar who’d been ogling her. He attempted to eat it the same way and immediately fell to the ground screaming and clutching his throat. My first morning in the area I went to a small open front restaurant where, to my amazement, they made me a bowl of corn flakes with cold milk and sliced bananas. It was one of the most memorable meals of my life. You got 20 baht to the dollar. A big plate of shrimp fried rice was 7 baht ($0.35) and the Malaysia was 100 baht a night ($5.00). Spent several evenings at the nearby Lumphini boxing stadium, which was just on the other side of Rama IV. Went back for a visit to the area in the early 1990’s and it had indeed gone to seed. The Malaysia had become very shabby but there was a lively Issan-style nightclub in their banquet room where I managed to have a fun time.
Thanks for sharing a fantastic story, that would make a great video in itself😎
I did spend my very first night in Thailand, 1980 in the Malaysia. The jukebox in the Blue Fox hit it's high 1985 when Madonna joined the box with: "I am a virgin."
Sounds like a classic! And I hope you got up and danced!!
I wonder what happened to that juke box. I clearly remember the worn ‘Stairway’ 45 and some really obscure Thai made EP’s from The Beatles White Album on it
@@karlsthailand One is for sure, it would be a priceless collector item.
Wow, five minutes into this video and I know it's gonna be another good one!
Best Bangkok content by a million miles... another great video. Thanks Pat and hope to bump in to you at some point in Bangers.
Your correct Pat digs into Bangkok's under belly.
Very interesting...... I never heard about this area.
The backpackers on Khao San road were sitting around drinking 40 baht bottles of Mekong whiskey in the 80s.
The shot of Bangladesh Biman airways at Don Muang also brought back memories of the cheapest flights to Rangoon and onward to Kathmandu after the seven day visa in Burma.
Exactly ca,e on this flight too from Kathmandu via Rangoon on a 7 day visa ! Great to mention it
18:19 .... wow, very hypnotic and what a very nice color for a pair of cat eyes !!! Nice !!!
The curious cat liked the camera!!
Pat and Karl making content together is a match made in Thailand 🇹🇭 Historical Heaven 😇
Cheers, exactly what you'd expect when you team up with TH-cam's best storyteller, he stands way up above the others who tell stories on YT
my old haunt! i lived on Yen Agat and Nanglinchee areas for several years. the original wong’s, kenny bar, etc. weird dives. Sam was not the original owner, his brother nicknamed Wong-person in the photo on the wall-was the original owner). Sam is his brother that took it over after he died. i went to Wong’s funeral.
Boston Inn, dark and dank and ODs.
So many stories, but so long ago (20 years)
i stayed at a guest house next to Madam for $5/night last i was there.
totally gentrified now.
I lived on the old Soi in 1987 and worked as an "English teacher. " At the time the best heroin was sold by the police at the Malaysia Hotel coffee shop. 4 hours a day of English teaching kept me in a small room, bought food and cigarettes and paid for those long trips by train every 90 days to pay for a new visa. Good times!
Those “Butterworth Express” visa runs to Malaysia were legendary and a rare opportunity to get beer that wasn’t Singha or Kloster.
And in Georgetown....those indians guys for the visa...Great time👍cheers you both Men.
@@xxx777xxxrrrYeah, he’d bring the visa forms, help you fill them in, take them away and bring them back the next day complete with your visa. Very convenient
1969 my big head teaching English to bar girls while living for free in s monastery
You could be making serious money on Telly doing this Pat. Excellent stuff.
Agreed, but I think the tele is history. This is the modern telly. Best wishes to Pat, I hope his channel continues to thrive and grow. It deserves more attention.
@sackofrice13 correct, this is the new telly.
You did great research and background checks. Well done.
Exactly what I said a couple of years ago, top presenter
Are you a big TV exec then Terence?
Stayed at the Malaysian a couple of times in 84-85, when I had enough cash. The coffee shop/restaurant was quite a scene in the evenings.
That's for sure 😄
Great vlog Pat. Very enjoyable to hear Karl’s recollections. Beautifully shot as always. Fantastic old photographs.Thank you!
That was excellent Pat. Cheers
Thanks Karl, my trickiest editing job thus far, brilliant storytelling as usual mate. I'll be in Pattaya during February so we can film something down there too.
What a nice guy. 30 years later and still doenst want to speak ill about anybody from those days. Great video. Thanks.
Great video Pat, Im envious of Karl seeing Bangkok in the 80's ...I stayed at Soi Duphli in 1998 called "; Miggi house, something like that. Good fun. crazy characters and everyone was skint
The best one yet Pat! Well done. Great look back on BKK’s past. Really interesting walk around.
Great video Pat. Thanks again for showing me round Bangkok couple of weeks ago. Karl, I met at Le Pub, awesome guy. Fountains of knowledge these two.
My very first experience of BKK was 1981 I stayed at the Malaysian hotel. I remember walking to Patpong almost every night. I had many a coffee in the Blue fox coffee. Oh the memories are flooding back
Glad the video invoked a bit of nostalgia John, cheers!
Way back I was going to stay there after a friend recommended the Malaysia Hotel. I took one look at the place and thought no thanks.
Malaysia hotel probably had an overdose weekly in the late 80's, stayed there once.. Boston Inn had a swimming pool. air con and cheap as. We found hidden Gangja in the room and made a bong from a small broom handle as a stem and an orange juice container, 1988. Love this stuff Pat. YFKM.
Karl has some great videos about this area on his channel.
Hey Pat,
I'm the Soi Sri Bumphen 'old hand' (into my 34th year here now) that accosted you lol... while you were taking pics of the infamous Soi!
FANTASTIC video! - You really are a natural for this type of documentary filming, professionally done, But...MOST IMPORTANT... down to earth!
Okay a bit of info so On-wards...
In the spring of 1990 I had decided i wanted to see a bit of the world, so quit my permanent job and started contract work, the first contract job was in Holland, anyways...at this company...during the lunch breaks all the Brits used to sit at the same table, there was an eccentric old chap from London (he lived in BKK during the UK winter since mid-80's) that used to tell stories about Bangers...
...one time he mentioned all the nefarious activities that went on in the soi that he lived, when he walked off back to work, all the other Brits would pipe up and say he was talking BS!
Well...I went to Thailand for the first time back-packing in the winter of 1990, met up with the old eccentric chap, that Soi turned out to be: *Soi Sri Bumphen* and YES it was all TRUE what he had said!
I loved it there so much, ended up staying every winter for 6 mths,(including 4 years full-time) used to stay at Soi Ngam Dupli APT's, that guy in his 1970's attire crossing the soi in your elephant pic, he stayed at those APT's...I stayed right up until the APT's got sold & knocked down and the ibis Hotel was built there.
YOU had to have lived in *Soi Sri Bumphen* in those early years to experience the ENIGMA, YOU had to have BREATHED it... SEE it...they were VIBRANT Times, and sometimes totally insane...unreal times with equally mental characters!😂
Remember Karl's mate Mike (RIP) walking down the soi regularly, always seemed to have a small bottle of Mekong in his back pocket lol, the soi was action central as you had Patpong, Nana, the old thermae, Cowboy... all close by.
You & Karl didn't mention the "Cambodian restaurant" (now gone) which is a surprise cos this place was paradise during the late/early hours with all sorts of ODDBALL characters!!!
In ya video at 10:06 that farag lady is Eva aka cat woman (takes care of stray cats) shes been their since about 94 & to my knowledge never left lol!
A film/book should be made about this by gone "dodgy street"...spilling the beans about its scams/nefarious activities and the colorful characters who participated, but hey... most probably wouldn't believe it, cos if you walk down there today, its one BORING street!
BTW, You just got another subscriber, Cheers, Robert.
Hi Robert, it was nice chatting to you that evening, none of what I filmed while we talked made it into the video as I wasn;t really concentrating, too nusy listening to your stories. I of course didn't know that was Eva the cat women walking out of Soi 2, it was just by chance that I was filming at that moment, which is rather interesting. Had I known of course I would have had a chat. She sounds like a legend.
If only there were as many old pics and videos about as there are taken at Khao San Road, luckily we had Karl's fantastic memories to savour.
Glad you found the channel mate!
Wow, interesting comment. I have to go back and check out cat-lady. Thanks for the time stamp!
I went with some expats to Wong’s Place back in 2014, and it was so good that I returned the next night with my friend. We played Tic Tac Toe with Johnny, the lively bartender, and the place was bustling.
Interesting game after a few drinks😇
Bloody awesome vid Pat.
Well researched, well executed as per normal.
Karl is an added bonus!
Such a great storytelling master.
By the way, wtf is in your backpack???
I never saw you take anything out of it on our walking trip!😂😂😂
My euipment goes with me everywhere in that backpack!
A cut above. A pleasure to watch as always.
Back when I was 23 and lived in the area for quite some time during 1974-5 you couldn't really call Soi Ngam Duphlii a 'backpacker ghetto' by any stretch of the imagination (for one thing I recall there were no guest houses there then). Although you could use the phrase to describe some of the funky old Chinese hotels near Hualamphong Railway Station - the infamous Thai Song Greet (ไทยทรงกิจ), the even more notorious Pepsi, just over the small khlong that runs parallel to the rail lines, and a few others. Elsewhere the Atlanta down Soi 2 was pretty out there - among other things you could see pink splotches on the ceilings in some of the rooms, the handiwork of people spraying water up in the air when cleaning their syringes after having a shot.
When I originally came to Bkk I stayed in the Thai Song Greet, where the walls of the rooms and the mattresses seemed to 'sweat'. It was a classic dive with its fair share of 'skanky hos' looking to unzip your fly for a pittance, although the restaurant downstairs wasn't too bad. I met someone there who suggested the Malaysia was a far better option - aircon rooms, baths, hot water etc. etc. room service and pretty reasonable - I think it was 80 baht a night (when the exchange rate was 20 baht to the US dollar). And he was right. A great place for travelers ('backpacker', incidentally, was a term of abuse back in those days - almost the equivalent of those quaint old terms 'straight' or 'square') with too many incredible memories to even begin to relate. However it was subject to police raids from time to time so you had to be rather careful.
No mention in this clip of the other major hotel nearby - over the road from the Malaysia, just up from the Blue Fox on the corner - The Privacy Hotel (or Rong-raem Thungmahamek - โรงแรมทุ่งมหาเมฆ) which, in fact, was a rather nice 'short time', or 'Love' hotel - a classic Thai 'marn ruut' ม่านรูด - which refers to the 'curtains' to conceal the vehicle of a guy involved in some illicit 'hanky panky'. It was much more low key than the Malaysia - but still got occasionally raided by the police (those mofos presented the only real danger in Bkk which is generally a pretty safe city). As for the Blue Fox I only went in there a couple of times and found it totally underwhelming - indeed, it verged on being a nothingburger in my opinion. For a lot more fun the 'coffee shops' in the Grace Hotel in Soi 3 and Thermae down on Sukhumvit were much more like it especially very early in the morning. Patpong by comparison was shit, just a money scene - and many of the women who worked there would show up at the Grace or Thermae when the go-go bars closed for the night (Nana, as I remember, didn't really get going until around the mid 80s). Or if you liked hanging around with Scandinavian sailors and drink piss you could always head down to the Mosquito Bar in Khlong Toey (the Bangkok docks). Being much more of a weed man myself I never went there, although the mate I came to Bkk with, a 19 year old fellow Aussie, did and ended up living with one of the women working down there for a while - right on the Chaophraya River. He said he'd look out through a hole in the wall at night and see great big freighters moored only metres away. Said it was great and not as rough as I'd frequently heard. Right next to the Blue Fox was a Chinese dry goods store which also had a restaurant. The middle aged guy who ran it was a really cantankerous bastard, but the food they served was excellent. I was a vegetarian at the. time and only later discovered many Thai dishes back in the day were stir-fried with pig fat. Oops! There was also a fabulous Chinese restaurant down towards the mouth of Soi Ngam Duphlii, on the lefthand side just before Rama 4. It was quite a grand place, with high ceilings and an army of waiters all attired in white (often just a tad grubby, along with the table cloths) - it felt like being on some enormous ocean liner back in the 1930s. Anyway, probably the best Chinese food I've ever eaten in Bkk.
Finally, only stayed in Khao Sarn once, either in '80 or '81 - there were only a couple of guesthouses then - very, very low key - nothing remotely like what it would become in later years. But as we all know nothing remains the same forever, or even for that long. Cheers
That’s great hearing about your experiences of Bangkok in the 70’s, it must have been another world back then to even what I remember in the 80’s. I was aware of the Privacy Hotel but never stayed there lol. I have many more memories of the original Thermae though. We used to call it the “Star Wars Bar” after the bar in the movie that was full of every imaginable life-form. The Blue Fox certainly wasn’t exciting but it grew on you in its convenience and simplicity and friendliness when you lived there. Cheers
The Chinese resto is Chanpen (จันทร์เพ็ญ).
Thanks for the great stories!
Very interesting. I l love the old photos and footage
Fantastic pictures.Very interesting 😀👍
Great vlog and Karl came trumps taking back into memories of his early days in that area.Thanks Pat for showing the old and the new of that area😊😊😊
Glad you enjoyed it, cheers mate😻😎
My partner and I stayed at the Malaysia Hotel in 1975, plenty of drugs, luckily no meeting with the Serpent.
That title is BOUND to ruffle some feathers. Good show mate!
Depends on who gets ruffled....maybe l'll get reported for copyright, wouldn't be a surprise at all 😇🐱
@@BangkokPat You aren't (badly) reading other peoples' stories in front a green screen, you should be fine. 🤩
Hope there's a part 2,3 and 4 ! Fascinating stuff 😅
That was great. Karl is one of the best story tellers on TH-cam. I first arrived in Bangkok in 1993, stayed at Uncle Ray's Guest House on Soi Nana, good times.
I remember Uncle Rei's (pretty sure it was spelt that way). Cheap and basic but unbeatable location
@karlsthailand Remember seeing a couple of Uncle Ray's Ice Cream Shops around Bangkok about the same time. Yes, the guest house was in a super location & cheap
10 of the best years of my life spent in that area.
This guy “Karl” is a real professional! A real pro
Definitely😎
On my first trip to Thailand back in 1979 we stayed at the Malaysia for our first night. What a dump. Blood stained nylon sheets in every room !! Our first meal that night was at a place called The Lisboa , down the road from The Blue Fox. We had Pizza , which predated Wongs by a number of years. Gone by the time Karl was there. I used to know Mr. Blue Fox quite well as I used to sell him smuggled porn mags from the UK !! Nice bloke. When I decided to stay several months I got a very small apartment around the corner at Pitak Court where Charles Sobhraj had once done his dirty deeds , but he had a 1 bedroom apartment which was a lot bigger. What a long long time ago but the memories are still fresh. Great video, Thanks for reminding me how it used to be.
Wow, sounds like it was mad there in the 70's. Can you confirm my memory that the guy in the white in the white shirt, just left of centre on my picture shown at the 6:46 mark is Mr. Fox? My memory is that it was although I never got to know him that well. Cheers
Hi Karl , Long time ago and not the sharpest of pictures but that does look like him. We were a gang of 3-5 and we got to know each other through hanging out there a lot. I had a big Canadian biker friend ( sadly now dead ) who once sat and ordered 5 plates ofspagetti bolognaise on the trot ! This prompted Mr Blue Fox to come over and comment " Gin spagetti geng !! Another Aussie friend had no money and would hang there drinking just water. Mr Foxes comment " Gin nam geng ) with heavy tones of sarcasm. At that time, opposite the Blue Fox were the Sri Bumpen apartment. Dark and dingy but friends liked the location. I found a single picture of the Lisboa restaurant on google. Single story purple building. Joe Cummins who wrote a lot of the Lonely Planet guide on Thailand lived nearby in Soi Atakarn Prasit which has disappeared from the map and been redeveloped.( He smuggled his Laotian girlfriend out of Laoes using scuba equipment to swim under the mekong with her !!!) Pitak Court seems to be still there though. As for Pattaya, there was only beach road ! Second road was still dirt and being developed. The rest was just empty land with a few houses here and there If you left walking street and past soi post office it got very dark with nothing until the Tahitian Queen. After that just darkness and dragons.
Hard to believe but in 1979 there were only three high buildings in Bangkok. Dusit Thani hotel , The Golden Mount temple and the Chok Chai steakhouse on Sukhumvit. Bad time to be a lift salesman !!! @@karlsthailand
@@bangyai3194 Thanks for more of your memories. I’m pretty certain it was him. I recall he had a French wife. Like you say, long time ago. The dingy apartments opposite The Blue Fox were Ngam Duphli Apartments btw. Sri Bamphen Apartments (equally as dingy) was a couple of hundred meters further down on the same side of the road as the Blue Fox.
I stand corrected. 66 now and memory a bit fuzzy. Enjoy your out and about videos by the way. Very entertaining.@@karlsthailand
I Love that area, Blue fox Cafe, Lee Guesthouses, Malaysia Hotel and our Fav, Boston Inn. Stayed upstairs at tabletop when the rooms were double the size. I could walk home from Patpong, cheap taxi to NaNa, Soi Cowoy and Tharmae.
Nostalgic, fun stories and marvelously evocative cinematography of yet another time and place In my favorite city. I can see you making a big time Oscar Winner movie in a dark "Bangkok Dangerous" / "Chinatown" theme with the stories you have to tell ! Thank you again Pat. And thank you too Karl !
Thanks for the kind words Aaron, maybe one day.....
My pleasure Aaron. Cheers
Great informative piece... Nice collaboration... thanks guys...
Another great video. I arrived too late for all of this. Probably a good thing. How Bangkok has changed.....!
Top collaboration here. Great to see. Now for Pat to go hiking with Karl
Now there’s an idea
Another easy to watch and interesting video
When you told me you have endless stories to tell about Bangkok, you weren't kidding - nice episode Sir!
Thanks! 😃 Still so many more to come!
Good video..... i like to hear stories of Bangkok's past, these days the city authorities seem to want to sanitise everything and become another bland western style city......
stayed at the malaysia hotel in 1993, my mates and I use to call the area Soi 'JUNKY" for obvious reasons, Im pretty sure the Blue Fox was still open in 1993, great vid, great memories.
We used to call it ‘Needle Alley’ when we wanted to cast it in a bad light
Madam Guest House! - that brought back some memories. I stayed there for my few weeks in Thailand 23 years ago. Lovely old wooden building with nice staff. I had a few crazy times there :)
I thought I “pulled” in Taiwan, China, and Bangkok. I guess I'm pretty naive… Great video, I've never heard of that area.
Bangkok the only place to live. Get what you want at what price your willing to pay. I love the city. Never bored every time I think I've seen it all Bangkok changes. Bangkok's in my blood after 35 years. I'm not going anywhere.
I love Bangkok, but haven't been for years. I would go when I lived in Tokyo, and I needed a break from all things Japanese. How have things improved in Bangkok in the 35 years?
In 35yrs its totally different....too much to mention!
@@CrapKerouac yes mate many changes. Transport, food, from the old times to the ultra modern. Something for everyone. Japan a great place. But to live from the cheap to the very expensive. Without the formality.
Quality video. Thank you both.
Another great video. Finally a reason to feel good about being home, seeing your videos. Thanks
It's a good evening on the sofa when a new @BangkokPat video lands 👍
Excellent stuff, great collaboration chaps. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks Mark, glad you enjoyed it mate.
Great video Pat, nice to see you and Karl together
Thanks 👍 we gotta get on video too mate
@@BangkokPat definitely mate👍
The 2 best vloggers on you tube
My only excitement was staying in the Rose Hotel surawong road 1992
Krap Pom
Awesome Pat, you really are the best consistently. Looking forward to your feature film on the big screen
You used my Wong's quote! Nice one. :)
So glad you noticed! I was looking for old pics and vids but your quote was so fitting for that part! Cheers😻
Do you remember Wong when he had a light perm? In fact whenever he cusses my mind it’s with slightly curly hair, not like the picture Pat found of him. Cheers
most welcome!@@BangkokPat
@@karlsthailand not really. I only remember him as pictured, always smoking heavily and just totally chill behind the bar. He spoke English really well like he'd been educated overseas since a child. I suspect his family weren't too short of a quid.
Definitely need more collabs with Karl...you both have excellent channels.
Yes, best storyteller on YT. Far better than any of the other so-called storytellers
Two of my favourite TH-camrs coming together, both of you always have a great story to tell.
The colab with Karl just took it to another level 😎 Thailand vlogging royalty 💙🇹🇭 great work guys 👏🏼👏🏼
Great pair up- Pat & Karl! Triggered good memories, went into the Boston Inn in 1981, they were full but the desk girl said to checkout the bulletin board… found a note looking to share room cost and had the desk call up to the room. Ended up bunking in with an English girl on her way the Oz.
I remember those message boards lol. People would decide they didn’t want to leave, sell their air tickets, literally just cross out their name and put yours in instead. Another time, another world!
🎉life was more simple then ,but at that time it wasn't 😅 crazy humans aren't we.🎉
Could watch you and Karl chatting all day.
2x very good vloggers.. always interesting.
Excellent pat 👏 thanks
Glad you enjoyed it Brian, thanks mate.
Very interesting. Thank you both.
Amazing you found so much original footage from decades ago in the same places //// well done 👍 🎥 📸
Had to hunt so deep in Google to find those clips
My first trip to Thailand in 1978, 20 years old with the yellow SE Asia on a shoestring and short wave radio in hand. I stayed at the Privacy Hotel very near the Malasyaia. My very first pub was the Blue Fox, Stairway to Heaven on the juke box. I later moved to the Atlanta. Thanks for the memories, still try to get the Bangkok at least every 2 years, for the past 25 years more familiar and comfortable in Jakarta and Indonesia.
That yellow book was so valuable wasn’t it? No internet back then.
Great video. The old retro photos and stories are great. Karl has a great channel too.
I lived in that area in the early 80s , I never seen a problem.
The sum is greater than its parts in this video. Pat and Karl with different takes on bkk's history.
i stayed at the malaysia in 1978, 1982, 2020, 2023. it is still cheap and feels the same. in the 70's the other side of the street was lined with cheap airline travel agencies. big posters with prices and destinations. bought my ticket to bali and perth. lots of cheap eats around. you could receive mail at the malaysia and it had a great travel board.
I stayed in that area in 88 89. I had completely forgotten about that area I will go there tomorrow and check it out, maybe there are some old memories.
Enjoyable video 😊
The comments here have said it all, Pat! But I just want to add that I consider yours to be one of the best channels on TH-cam, if not *THE* best!
As I've said before on your other contributions, your film-making skills combined with painstaking research are outstanding.
I love the nostalgic vibes I get from watching your videos, partly brought about by your skilful use of archive footage and stills from a past era, and also your evocative choice of mood music.
Well done once again!
Thank you very much for the kind words, it's all part of the package of work that comes with each video! I love every part of it, but not so much the late nights editing!!!
Pat - great historical stuff of this BKK hood. I'm Daniel, the dude u met while filming near the Pinnacle Hotel! Keep up good work! Cheers 🤙
Hi Daniel, it was nice to bump into you, and thanks for stopping by the comments!
that was brilliant i real history story told by a man who was there i sure wish i would have discovered the place back then, good effort pat
dam the early 90's were great as i remembered thailand, glad to have seen it back then times have changed like everything
Compared to now, those days were so free and easy...
Bloody Brilliant as always, thank you x
Great video pat 😊
Really cool and interesting video Mr. Pat! It's fun to have guests share their memories where they happened!
Yet another brilliant video you’ve knowledge is incredible?
Many thanks for a really interesting and informative video
OMG! I LIVE HERE! I have lived here since 1987, though I went back to Japan for 3 years (end of 2010 to the end of 2013). Thank you for sharing a nice overview of HOME. This is my neighborhood.
Glad to hear that! There are some really nice parts of this area, l saw some lovely places along Soi Yenakat😎
A woman I know from this neighborhood appears in the video walking down the street at around the 10-minute mark. She is wearing a pink visor (cap). I have known her for years. I also knew 'Wong' from Wong's Cafe for many years until he passed away. I used to go there all the time. I have been to every place mentioned in your video, which goes without saying, I guess ....since I have been here for over 30 years! I will share this video with others since you have made it very clear just where I live. Thanks again!
@@BangkokPat I live very close to the corner of Yenakat and Soi Sribumphen, very near to the 7 11 on that corner. If you turn right as you come out of that 7 11 and walk for about 2 and a half minutes, you will see that a new 7 11 has just opened up. It opened a few days ago. There is definitely no shortage of 7 11s around here!
@@IantaylorCanuck Do you live in an apartment building?
I recognized the neighborhood right away! Between 2000 and 2019 I must have stayed at the Babylon around 30 times. I loved it. It changed a lot over that time, and some people were critical, but I was very put out when they closed permanently in 2020. I was very used to staying there when I came to Bangkok. There are other gay bathhouses in BKK, but this was the only one that also had a very pleasant hotel. Uncomplicated. Very international crowd, and a lot of Thai guys too. And the neighborhood is terrific! Now I don't know where to stay. I was back in BKK in 2022, and I jumped around to a lot of different hotels in that area and also Silom, never finding something that made me as relaxed as the Babylon.
2 very interesting TH-camrs top vid!
Lots of memories from watching this video as I also stayed in Soi Ngam Duplee/Soi Sri Bamphen area every time I was in Bangkok from 1987 til 1999! For the first years Madame GH was my home, but I also stayed in different other places including one night at the infamous Boston Inn! My last years up until 1999 I stayed at Lee 4 GH a tiny room, but at least it had an inroom toilet and shower, most Guesthouses had shared facilities back then. I wasn´t a partyperson though, so I never even entered the Blue Fox, but I did eat breakfast at Wong´s Place many times as it was the only aircon place open in the mornings! It was managed by Wong´s sister Lek in the daytime a very sweet person, and Mr Wong would run it at night!
Here is a video I filmed in Bangkok back in 1988, there is a short clip filmed on Soi Sri Bamphen at the end,and a quick look inside my room at Madam Guesthouse! th-cam.com/video/ssAG117Q3OM/w-d-xo.html
Fabulous video and nicely filmed. Permission to use parts fof other videos? Will of course credit you!
Glad it invoked a bit of nostalgia for you!! You must have crossed paths with Karl!
@@plahgatsthailand8465 really enjoyed your video
Thank you for your kind words!@@BangkokPat Yes, you can use parts of my videos if you like, as long as you give me credit! I might very well have crossed paths with Karl back in the days without knowing it! We have more recently exchanged words via posts and PMs on Internet though, as we are both active on different Thai Forums! Keep it up! "Plahgat"
In my many many experiences I’ll never forget the old Cheap Charlie’s bar in Soi 11……..used to stay opposite…..legendary!!
Ladies toilet-- no shit👈
@@BrianinBangkok you sound like a toilet yourself…
"... criminals, dodgy characters, english teachers, drug runners ..." 'English teachers!' Good one! Gotta keep an eye on those English teachers!
We used to laugh that they were all so easy to spot in their cheap, collared shirts. Actually I was one for a while both in Bangkok and Taiwan but I soon worked it wasn’t for me!
i knew a few english teachers who lived in the neighborhood…
Happy hour english teachers, you can always rely on them to turn up between 5-7pm
Another great researched vid Pat. Interesting stuff.
Really interesting video. Never stayed there as I only ever heard talk of addicts when the place was brought up in conversation.
Malaysia Hotel back in the early 70’s was full of very stoned people I remember … getting in the lift and peoples eyes hanging out 😂 you could get anything ( drugs) from the bell boys at the hotel or tuk tuk drivers …
I remember thinking wow where else in the world could you do this !! 😂
The hotel is still known as a gay place,a friend of mine stayed there recently and was telling me about men knocking on his door at all times,my wife told me the truth about it and he left soon after,but not before I managed to question his sexuality ! Lol
Thanks Pat and Karl for the trip down memory lane. On the advice of Lonely Planet. I stayed at the Malaysia Hotel back in '94 on my first trip to Thailand. Hired a taxi driver stationed out of the hotel to show me around town (no SkyTrain yet). The fellow had been working out of the hotel since day one... at that point 27 years he said!
Enjoyed watching this. Soi Ngam Duphli was the area where my wife & i always stayed in BKK back in the day. We put up in the Malaysia Hotel our 1st night but the next day moved to the Boston Inn which became our hotel of choice for the next years. The Boston was an interesting but fine place in our opinion. On the wall at reception was an large US Army unit crest from the Vietnam days. The rooms were large, the water out of the tap was brown and the pool was a nice touch in the heat. Our last year at the Boston was 1986 and from then on we moved to the newly rising backpacker ghetto at KSR. I'm not sure why the Boston had such a bad reputation considering other places were equally bad with drugs and whatever. Anyway it was nice to see the area nowadays and how it's changed.
What I meant when I said it had a bad reputation was the condition of it and lack of maintenance (certainly from 1987 at least). I think the condition of it just spiralled down over the years.
Excellent production Pat, Karl is a legend and the icing on the cake! I hope your collaboration can continue into other areas.
I'm so glad the algorithm suggested this channel, old BKK hand here. Love the history. Every year the Bangkok of the 20th century retreats further into oblivion thanks for throwing a line
It gets a bit melancholy for me and I first came fairly recently, 1991.
Great chat guys , cheers 🍻🙏🇦🇺🇹🇭
Cheers Mark😎
I used to live in the Soi Ngam Duphli area in the early 90's. One of my best friends was Naughty Nigel who became Thailand's first internet pornstar a few years later. There was Wong's Bar and the infamous 7am drinking sessions at the Malaysia Hotel: half wasted and still off our heads on over-the-counter 'pinks n whites' (Adderall). Thanx for the vid Pat... your vids are a trip down memory lane. Those were the hey-days!
Sounds like an era of great and not so great memories Steve!