Daily Report: Monday Night Family Pub Crawl

I put in half a morning's work before lunch time (Subway delivery), and then the other half morning's work afterward.

Pui's brother, Lawt (that name means "straw" — the drinking kind — in Thai) had his first day off from work today, so when I decided to go with Pui and Pot to Fuji restaurant for Japanese food, I invited him along. I had some dumplings, teriaki chicken, and a sushi plate, and Pui ordered a steak set. Pot didn't eat anything, and neither did Lawt... but he had a beer. Places like Fuji always get me at check-out time: I start off looking at the 80-baht prices and think about how remarkably cheap the meal is going to be, so I order 3 plates, Pui orders 3 plates, and we order 3 100-baht drinks, and then I'm surprised when I get an 800-baht bill.

After Fuji, it was off to Foodland to do my every-2-month restocking of the shelves with the things I like. I bought stuff like grape jelly, Hershey's syrup, salsa and queso, Prego pasta sauce, and a bottle of discount Irish cream to put in my coffee a few tablespoons at a time... things that will last at least a month, if not longer. Total cost: 2,000 baht... $60. Pui, as per usual, bought 50 pounds of household cleaning products, plus rice, noodles, lots of mysterious items in tuna-fish-shaped cans... enough to keep the house afloat for a week, if not longer. Total cost: 2,000 baht... $60.

After finishing up at Foodland, it was back home, where Pui and I decided to take Lawt out to Walking Street for his night off. This would be his first night out in Pattaya ever.

Our first stop was TQ2, where we stayed for about 2 hours. I'm starting to feel a little let down by TQ2. It really seems to have lost it's personal touch, and you get the impression now that some customers in TQ2 are more important than others. (That was nice when I was one of the important ones... not so nice now.) It used to be that if you went in to TQ2 and spent 1,500 baht, the manager would notice, buy you a drink, and take a while to hang out with you and get to know you. That doesn't really happen now... at least with Russ. The number of girls has tripled recently, but none of the new girls is noteworthy, or particularly spirited up on stage.

The distinct lack of any of my friends being in TQ2 last night of course made it a lonely and boring evening as well; perhaps when I go back when Stan and Alf are around (and my little TQ2 Girlfriend, Poo, is back off vacation) my opinion will shift completely.

Lawt certainly had a good time though... although the guy is so timid and shy, he barely said a word all night (although that isn't much of a difference from the norm).

At 9:30, Pui and I had had our fill of TQ2 (Pui especially, actually), and we went to another GoGo bar, "Living Dolls Showcase." Talk about a drink special! From 8:00 to 10:00 every night, all well drinks (vodka, gin, whiskey, et cetera, plus a mixer) are 30 baht... 90 cents. As we were sitting down at 9:45, I immediately ordered 3 vodka tonics, and Pui ordered 3 gin and tonics. Pui (and Lawt, natch) had a great time watching the shows. At about 10:30, we were joined by Bob from Bob's BBQ. (He had been down the road at FLB Bar when I called him to see what he was doing.) We had a drink together, and then headed back down Walking Street.

We went to the new Sweethearts GoGo, which is a typical table dance bar. That means that you sit at a table that has a mirrored surface, and the girls dance on the table in short skirts with no undies on. It's really my least-favorite style of GoGo bar in Pattaya, but is a really popular bar format these days. Apparently there are a lot of shoe salesmen and gynecologists vacationing in Pattaya, because other than a pair of white boots shuffling in front of you, and what you can see reflected (if you bother to look) on the table surface, you can't see the ladies dancing at all.

However, Sweethearts GoGo did have one fun feature: A lot of the wait staff that Russ and Alf laid off from TQ2 and a lot of old staff from Champion (another GoGo bar I like) are working at Sweethearts. Therefore, there were lots of familiar faces wandering the floor serving drinks. Pui and I actually enjoyed ourselves there, chatting with old acquaintances.

After Sweethearts, it was off to Shooters, where I had some poker chip hamburgers, and Pui had some street vendor food. Bob took requests for the music computer, and we sat there and crooned, "Oh, I've got friends in low places! Gonna slip on down to the OOO-aisis!!!" All the Thai girls working in the bar laughed at us.

Anyway, home very late... and in bed by 1:00 a.m. Lawt had a great time.