19 April (Friday) Took another quick trip this past weekend to Pattaya from Singapore to experience Songkran. Arrived in Bangkok around 5 PM and grabbed an AOT taxi to the condo I was renting in Central Pattaya. Usually a 90 minute drive but when the driver reached the left turn to get onto Pattaya Klang it was a 90 minute drive from there to Central Pattaya, about 5 km. I did think ahead and packed only a backpack, putting my clothes and valuables in a garbage bag to make it waterproof, and ended up getting out of the taxi and grabbing a motorcye the rest of the way. Still took me 20 m ..read more

I was having a week off from the column and Bangkok should have been the last thing on my mind. It was a beautiful, cloudless, mid-Autumn day, ideal for a drive along back-country roads and a visit to a charming café known for good coffee and great pies. But it seems like Thailand is never far from my mind and on a morning’s outing in a small, country town, I’d end up thinking about Bangkok. Otane is a 55 km / 40-minute drive from home. It’s a nondescript country town without any especially redeeming features, save for its one and only café which makes wonderful meat pies. Thais will happily b ..read more

  In 2014, ten years ago, I married for the third time, despite having previously sworn I would never marry again. Haha! Why? Because I had fallen in love with a beautiful Thai woman whom I believed would be my wife until I died. Eight wonderful years passed and I was blissfully part of a small Thai family living in Bangkok. Though I was unaware of it, my health was deteriorating during this eighth year, due to what was later to be the cause of two heart attacks (myocardial infarctions). Looking back, I think this may have been a trigger factor in what was to ensue in late 2022 and early ..read more

  The mainstream news in Thailand has been riddled with reports in recent weeks about foreigners who have been up to no good, arrested and charged with various crimes. Even Thais with zero interest in foreigners in the country are aware of the crap that has been going on. There have been so many incidents of foreigners misbehaving that the reputation of  foreigners has taken a hit. But it’s not foreigners in general. It’s a subset of foreigners. The miscreants for the most part are Caucasians. Foreign men assaulting Thai women. Foreign men assaulting Thai police. Foreign men causing ..read more

  Although I am not a regular contributor, I am an active reader and fan and appreciate everyone’s input to this site. That being said, I thought I would send Stick and his readers my thoughts on my last trip to Bangkok. I currently live and work in Singapore so whenever I have a Friday or Monday off, I try to book a quick trip to have some fun. Mid-last week I found out I had Monday off for Easter, so I booked my tickets and hotel for Sat – Tues (30 Mar-2 April). Cost me around $500 US for round trip tickets and 3 nights at the IBIS Bangkok on Sukhumvit 4. This is about $3,200 cheaper th ..read more

  Get used to hearing “6,000 baht, please!” as the biggest change to Sukhumvit’s naughty nightlife in decades is coming very soon. Bar owners across Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy have been working together on a universal, all-inclusive barfine system with a flat rate of 6,000 baht. The idea was first raised when the industry was shut down during Covid. Since then, there has been ongoing talks amongst bar owners who are seeking a solution to the big problem the industry faces today: recruiting girls and retaining them. Bar owners know the best way to keep girls is to pay them more than they ca ..read more

    Mystery Photo Where is it? Last week’s photo was taken from the Ploenchit BTS station, next to the Rosewood Bangkok Hotel, looking towards Soi Nailert. This week’s photo is from a very central location which I am sure many Stickman readers walk past this place every day. This photo is current, having been taken in the past week. It does not always look like this. One long-time reader dropped me a note this week and explained how he managed to figure out the location of last week’s photo. “This week’s photo was pretty easy to figure out. I printed it out and looked at Google Map ..read more

2024 LPGA Honda Championship Chon Buri— final round, Sunday Feb 25th I’ve always wanted to see the professional lady golfers compete in Pattaya. There are many young and pretty female golfers playing, including this year’s winner—Thailand’s  own 24-year old Patty Tavatanakit. She pocketed 255,000 bucks for the win. A typical men’s tournament winner is near 2.5 MILLION bucks! These girls spend their whole lives doing golf and they deserve more. Just all the international travelling they do, in and of itself, is a bitch. I haven’t been to Thailand in about six years, ever since the meet-up ..read more

  THAILAND – MALAYSIA – SINGAPORE – LAOS By Mega   Website: megaworldasia          YouTube Channel: Megaworld Asia   THAILAND Phuket: I arrived back in Phuket a few days into the new year. It was the very peak of the high season and the traffic congestion on the roads was chaotic. The distance from Phuket Airport to my condo building is 32 km. It took over an hour to get there. The first half of January isn’t a good time to be in Phuket if you’re looking for a relaxing time on the beach. The numbers coming onto the island are probably ..read more

I used to enjoy Pattaya in the years around 2003 – 2010. And I agree with Stick’s latest column Peak Pattaya that those were the golden days of Pattaya. I bet lots of fun had happened there before and lots of fun after, but for me, those were the days. What happened? The first big change was the sudden influx of Russians, especially from Siberia. Suddenly the Thais got confused when they saw a white man. Was he a Westerner or a Russian? That’s about the same time I felt the attitude towards tourists dropped. Russian signs popped up and the condo market changed. Then came the Arabs, then the Ko ..read more