n the ‘dark ages’ of communication up through the 1950's, information on Bangkok’s expat Night Scene was by word-of-mouth: seamen from the ships seeking out waterfront bars of repute, or ill-repute.   Employees of foreign companies, employees of airlines passing on to fellow expats the names of the dens of after-hours pleasure.   Embassy staff passing on the ‘best places’ to their eventual replacements.   A rare advertisement in the local English language newspaper of a hotel lounge bar.   At that far-distant time, Bangkok’s Night Scene was not much different than any such similar capitol city around the globe.

      And then along came the '60's.   Concomitant with the influx of the US military assigned to the various military facilities in Thailand in 1965, an unknown columnist with the Bangkok World began publishing exclusive coverage of the Bangkok Nightlife.   Popular restaurants, hotel bars, piano bars, you name it.   The columnist in question, of course, was Bernard ‘Who’s Your Daddy?’ Trink. Without fanfare, ‘communication’ was no longer just word-of-mouth, it had, through the local Media, taken an unheralded, but significant step forward.

      But it wasn’t just the 50,000, or so, military stationed in Thailand during the war years.   The Rest & Recreation program (R&R) conceived in 1965 -and up and running full-bore between 1967 until 1973- was dumping an estimated 70,000 men into Thailand each year.   Even after the US armed forces departed en-masse from Viet Nam in 1973 and the R&R program likewise instantaneously ceased to exist, a large part of the US military contingent remained in Thailand until 1976.   It is estimated that 700,000 US military visited or were stationed in Thailand in the 60’s and 70’s.   That’s a lot of word-of-mouth 'communicating'.   And the communication itself during this time was morphing from just ‘Bangkok is a great place’, to ‘this bar or that bar is a great watering hole’, to ‘Lek, number 27 is the one for you’.

      But the Bangkok World’s Bernard Trink wasn’t standing idly by as all this US presence paraded itself through Thailand.   By 1967, Bernard Trink had transmogrified into the ‘Night Owl’; and while still covering the nightscene entertainment in general, his emphasis had changed to the lounges, discos, A Go-Go bars and massage parlors.   His weekly columns, lasting through 2003, featured photos of "the best Go-Go dancers I saw in the ale houses of the Capitol last week".   Not to mention his recommendations, by venue and badge number, of the best ‘special’ masseuses he had encountered….   So popular were his columns, that they were being clipped and mailed to the four corners of the globe.   Again, no mean feat, ‘communication’ of Bangkok's nocturnal delights had been notched up yet again, through a wider, dedicated Media effort.

      Also, at that time, the travel guides were coming into their own, such as FEER’s coveted “Golden Guide To Southeast Asia”, and those that followed.   Virtually every backpacker, every casual tourist would have one under his arm.   Although these guides’ coverage of the Bangkok Nightscene was scant at best, referring to the Nightlife backhandedly, by way of negative inflection (for fear of being labeled promoters of the ‘dark side’), ‘the word’ nevertheless continued to spread.

      On the 1976 departure of the remaining US armed forces in Thailand, it was thought that the Night Entertainment Industry would fall flat on its face.   Nope.   The word was out -‘communicating’ had stayed ahead of the power curve.   Wave after wave of 'other' tourists were to follow: the ‘German Wave’, the ‘Arab Wave’, the ‘Japanese Wave ’and then, generally, every nationality from Australia to England to (sometime later) the Russians and newly-mobile East Europeans.   Each group to its own, word of mouth still a strong element of ‘communication’.   But this was also the era of the “Sex Tour” and the ‘Social-Justice Warrior’ school of journalism, primarily from Europe and America.   A virtual parade of morally indignant 'experts' coming to Thailand for a week, writing their ‘definitive’ know-all piece on the evils of prostitution in Thailand.   We residents cannot begin to relate how sick we became of these sh*theads.

      As the ‘communicating’ of Thailand’s Nightlife pleasures continued to spread, during the late 1970’s, one of the varied groups of tourists flocking to Thailand was the foreign construction workers.   Many from the Indonesian oil patch, many from Saudi Arabia and environs, they were often referred to, somewhat derogatorily, as ‘the construction stiffs’.   Enter the era of “She works in a bar, but she’s not a bar girl.”   Invariably, these gentlemen would pair up with their favorite A Go-Go girl, and spend whatever number of days with her.   On departure back to the oil patch, addresses were exchanged, and for the interim, until their next visit to the Land of Smiles, the correspondence flowed hot and heavy.   The men professing their devotion, the girls expressing their love-you-too-much, oh, and the need for just a little more money, if you could send it right away, dear.   Dying mothers, multiple birthdays, and the now-classic sick water buffalo.   The ladies of the evening, catching on quickly, would often have a string of ‘construction stiffs’ on their letter-writing agendas.

   Not unsurprisingly, a sub-industry blossomed at the periphery of the Night Entertainment Scene – letter-writers to the fore.   Most of the ladies in the Night Entertainment Industry were not literate in English, and could, for a nominal fee, have a letter written for them by a ‘professional’ letter-writer.   Often with hilarious results.   Captured to perfection, both humorously and accurately in “Hello My Big Big Honey” – a delightful collection of such snail-mail communications of yore.   But this was not, as many of us thought at the time, just a quirky offshoot of Bangkok's Nightlife Scene.   Rather, it was what history will someday view as THE pivotal paradigm shift – for the first time, a significant number of the girls -and their big big honeys- were no longer dependent on ‘the bars’ to communicate, to ‘connect’, to continue doing what they were doing.   'Hooking-up' outside of the bars had, comparatively rapidly, become a mainstream alternative.

      Not that any more 'spotlights' on Bangkok's Nightlife were needed at this juncture, but the Eighties saw the beginning of a long proliferation of books, of novels.   And each, in turn, according to its relevance, tended to spread awareness - and the somewhat misplaced mystique and skewed perceptions that had grown around, and about this oriental night-time playground.   Some of these books on Bangkok were 'keepers' (some others, not so much).   Of the notables : Alan Dawson’s Patpong: Bangkok's Big Little Street, and Nick Nostitz’s dank-more-than-noir Patpong, Bangkok’s Twilight Zone, and Cleo Odzer’s Patpong Sisters, and right down the middle, Christopher Moore’s “Smile” trilogy.

   Our first article on the rise of the 'communication revolution'.   ...The tip of the iceberg.   < link >

It had to happen - go on line, dial-in your specs, designate a time and place, and off you go....

         uring a 10 February 2017 National Legislative Assembly (NLA) debate on Night Entertainment oversight, accusations were levied by children's welfare advocate Wallop Tangananurak to the effect that zoning laws were not being adequately enforced.   Deputy Interior Minister Sutee Markboon countered the accusations, and in the process, a great deal of heretofore unreported information on Thailand's Night Entertainment scene was brought to light.   Historians of the Nightscene in some future time will surely want to refer....    Below is an extract from the Bangkok Post article.

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Bangkok Post
11 February 2017

      Many Night Entertainment venues nationwide are illegally located in prohibited zones, the blame for which could lie with state authorities, said Wallop Tangananurak, National Legislative Assembly (NLA) member yesterday.   He questioned whether Entertainment Venues scattered in prohibited zones across the country, particularly in Bangkok, were mainly the result of state authorities failing to strictly enforce the law.   Some business operators were blatantly violating the law and contributing to the problem, Mr Wallop said.

      Mr Wallop, a children's welfare advocate, also asked the assembly members whether the current laws and regulations were sufficient to regulate nightlife outlets.   It was necessary to devise additional measures such as clearly-designated Entertainment Zones for more efficient monitoring and policing of Nightlife Venues, he added.

      Responding to Mr Wallop's queries, Deputy Interior Minister Sutee Markboon insisted the existing laws and measures can regulate entertainment venues effectively enough.   He ... cited related laws which were being enforced, including the Entertainment Spot Act, the previous coups’ proclamations associated with the regulation of entertainment venues in 1959 and 1972 as well as the latest orders issued by the National Council for Peace and Order.

      According to Mr Sutee, agencies under the ministry have conducted 22,344 inspections on Entertainment Venues and 102,309 on alcohol outlets nationwide over the past year.   Of all Entertainment Venues, 341 have been closed down for a gross violation of the law.

      Mr Sutee said there were 2,991 registered entertainment venues - 470 in Bangkok and 2,521 in other provinces- in 2015.   They were reduced to 2,801 last year after the authorities doubled law enforcement efforts and worked closely with relevant public and private agencies.   Also, the ministry is now reviewing the re-organization of entertainment venue zoning in 27 provinces.

      Of the 27 provinces, new entertainment zones in 13 provinces have been approved by the ministry while the designation of other zones in the remaining provinces are being reviewed by local authorities and will later be considered by the Interior Ministry.   The list of zones approved by the ministry will ultimately be forwarded to the cabinet for final approval.

      As for Bangkok, 50 entertainment venue zones, designated during 2002 to 2004, unchanged.

      Mr Sutee said the ministry has also worked closely with the Metropolitan Police Bureau which oversees venues in the city.

      For Bung Kan, which is not among the 27 provinces because it was a new province since established in 2011, zoning will be considered based on economic development potential as well as peace and order in the province.

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