Backpackers don't do that
“Enter Sandman, Metallica,” Reinout shouts into his friend's ear, nodding to a booming speaker box hanging on the wall. He knew it existed, bars full of ladies and male testosterone bombs. But in the backpackers' guild it was not done to get involved in that. This was looked down upon with a semi-intellectual look.
No, then they, the backpackers, were the real Thailand goers, who stayed far away from mass tourism and were certainly not concerned with these excesses, as they were called in their world. Backpackers don't do that. They mingle with the locals and take traditions and culture into account. They found.
That Thai men were not averse to visiting brothels, married or not, that in every hamlet there was a club where men could retire with a lady, that massage parlors were often something else, that almost all Thai adolescents had sex with a prostitute as an initiation ritual. lost their virginity, that a second wife or even a third was a status symbol, that Thailand was a sex paradise for millions of men from all over the world, they forgot that for a moment. Because they, the backpackers, were above that, who adhered to the backpacker's bible the Lonely Planet for Thailand.
They sit awkwardly on their stool. “What are they talking about now,” Reinout nods to a few men at the back of the horseshoe, all of whom have a lady sitting next to them behind a glass with something in it that looks brown. Two guests hang with their bare arms around the shoulders of their group, which is a few heads smaller. “I don't think they're talking about anything,” says Johan.
In silence, as the Rolling Stones thunder over them, they survey the scene. The waitress behind the counter with a wall full of bottles behind her asks “Another One?” They nodded yes simultaneously. Just in time, Reinout prevents her from throwing a handful of ice cubes into the glass. “She just tried that too. Slow learner,” he says to his buddy.
“Ice in your beer. How do you come up with it.” Johan makes a dirty face. “To keep it cool,” Reinout knows. “Just drink faster, then it won't get hot,” Johan chuckles and takes a big sip. The fans that are strategically placed keep out the evening heat. There is an older lady walking around the store who is clearly in charge. She wears a long green dress, has a gold chain around her neck and two rings on each hand with red painted nails. Her black hair is tied in a bun and her face is long, lightly made up with a smooth jawline. Rose-colored glasses on her nose. Her mouth is folded into a perpetual smile, regularly showing her teeth when her eyes meet one of the men. She looks around the place intently, occasionally speaks to one of her girls who lure passers-by in front of the bar and tries to connect them to bar guests, the two see from their strategically positioned bar stool where they oversee everything.
“Sick song,” Reinout comments on the music that is now blaring from the speakers as he looks upwards, while Johan's gaze passes over two small women on the other side of the bar who are staring into a glass of cola. Showy make-up while two breasts try to free themselves from behind the buttons of their white blouses.
“Isaan for sure. They are all so small,” says Reinout very wisely, like a seasoned Thailand visitor. “Yes, and I think they put something behind their bra. Those things are much too big,” his friend explains. As if she had heard them, the barmaid walks over to the two and points at them. "Who? Us?”, Reinout gestures. “Oh, oh, here they come,” Johan sighs as the two ladies come towards them, swaying their hips.
About this blogger
- Bert Vos, born 1958. Living in Amersfoort. Worked as a residential counselor in mental health care and an institution for people with intellectual disabilities. Education HBO social work and later in life HBO journalism. After his working life in health care, he worked as a freelance journalist and photographer for local media and a travel magazine. Administrator of the website Azië Tijger from 2009 to 2019. Writer of travel stories and who knows a book set in Thailand. Has been visiting Thailand since 1997 with trips to Laos and Cambodia.
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Yes, it pulls harder than ten Belgian tubers and I'm not talking about the Rolling Stones.
Oh well, backpackers, everyone should do what they like. I'm already sweating without a backpack on my neck, just give me a suitcase. And with 8 people in 1 room it doesn't seem like a holiday feeling to me. But if they like it, then they do it. I enjoyed watching that scene in Vang Vien in Laos while enjoying a Lao beer.
A lot has changed in Laos. There is now a shopping center in Vientiane and there is a toll road from Vientiane to Vang Vien. Section to Luang Prabang is under construction. It is still pure nature. Nice to see those open carts with tourists covered in splashing mud. We spent one night in a beautiful resort. It's just a pity that the next morning the power went out and you couldn't take a shower, etc.
Nicely written.
I'm curious about more.
This story proves again that some people (especially stupid know-it-alls) think that what they “despise” does not belong to the REAL Thailand
While many real Thais think so.
The story of Johan and Reinout, I really don't know whether it is a serious travel report or whether it is meant cynically...
Don't do that again, stay in such a 'despicable bar' I think. Just mingle with the locals.
I, with my wife by my side, always have fun in the bars we go to. And when they don't serve beer in the bottle, it's great to have ice in your glass. Thai way, which I also adopted.
By the way, what is a 'side number'? Or is it a bullshit song...
Peter Leen, 12-08 2024
I have been retired for over 15 years (working hours) but still young in heart (oops) in soul. My first Asia experience was in 1976 with my Indian girlfriend at the time (later wife and ex-wife) to Sumatra to visit the grandparents. Also to Jakarta and Bali.
Over the years I have lived and worked in the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.
Married and divorced three times since 1978. Dutch Indo, Filipino and Thai.
In addition, I almost married 2 Chinese women one after the other (Shanghai and Shanghai). It has now been 12 years in a relationship with a Vietnamese (grandmother).
I have a house in the Netherlands, 2 in Thailand (Jomtien and in the northeast and not Isaan) and 2 in Vietnam 50 km east of Hanoi and 120 km northwest of Hanoi..
I hang out with locals and I don't really do anything weird. (I haven't played other women in the last 10 years.
Saw a lot of funny things, especially from backpackers and holidaymakers. (they have an account on coach surfing, so they sometimes have guests in the province).
Get holidaymakers who say they have been to Asia for the third time and to Thailand for the first time and by bike.
Let me explain what life in Asia entails. So laugh. So go with a guard from our complex (have known him for 20 years). To Bang Lamung to a club where you only meet Thai people. My guests don't know what is happening to them and react to it as if we were in Sodom and Gomorrah.
In the Philippines in mid-1983, I went out with 2 of my 6 brothers-in-law and also a guard from the neighborhood where I lived (somewhere around Muntinlupa). The eldest and second brother-in-law would show me the nightlife. Only I was informed about and what to expect.
So we first went to a local where we could eat and drink and also watch the waitresses and follow the show on stage (The girls there ranged from about 12 to a maximum of 22 years old). Everything was possible. It was my wakeup. Inside the restaurant were families with children, also aged 10 or older, but younger than 20.
The tips were delivered in the neck of a bottle at the edge of the walkway and tables. The tips were removed from the neck of the bottle without hands.
This is also in full view of the family tables.
This is just one example and I certainly don't want to talk about China. Also in Malaysia in mid-1 (Kunming), walking with a Malaysian friend on the street after eating in a restaurant, we encounter two young ladies on the board walk, time approximately at 2000 p.m. The first question was whether we were looking for something fun that was especially interesting for foreigners. The two girls were not allowed to enter alone, but in the company of a foreigner that was no problem.
To keep it simple, the show consisted of smoking cigarettes, shooting ping-pong balls, making a FULL beer bottle disappear and after belly dancing, making the beer foam until letting a real snake escape from a moist hole. .
The other guests in the locality were 90% locals and no foreigners.
About the same happened in the Philippines in Candon, Abra and Laoag. Then you will soon be 350 to 450 km above Manila. I'm talking about mid-1980.
Nothing surprises me anymore, except sometimes the ignorance of some tourists who form an image of the people and the country.
It is forgotten that in Germany the FKK clubs form the main part of the nightlife and then we forget countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Latvia, Slovenia and Switzerland..