Happy Hour Pt. 2. Ladyboys!

 

Simon and Arthur are still enjoying pre-go-go beers outside Nana Plaza. They aren't quite ready to plunge in to an actual bar.

Arthur of course has seen it all before but it's new to Simon. He watches the action in the plaza. It’s much as he imagined it but more so. He hadn’t counted on the smells and the constant noise or the muffled ‘thump’ of go-go music somewhere off to stage left. Nor had he expected such a vast variety of sex tourists. He’d seen more than enough documentaries about Bangkok’s lurid sex trade but here they were in the flesh. Very much so. There are the predictable middle-aged men but, surprisingly, a lot of younger ones too, wearing football shirts, many with their Thai girlfriends. The girls themselves are more Westernized than he’d imagined, most wear jeans and carry cell-phones, many sport bright red hair, piercings and tattoos.

He watches intently as Thai girls and foreign men come and go and touts try to lure them into the bars. Their conversation takes place to the strains of Hotel California*. Most Bangkok expats know every note of the guitar break.

"Your friends didn't waste much time." Says Arthur indicating Simon's producer and cameraman leaving the plaza now accompanied by two exotic Thai ladies.  A little too exotic perhaps.

"Ladyboys," says Arthur, "they tend to overdo it."

"Good God," says Simon, "I expect they want to interview them for the program."

"Probably," says Arthur, "I understand transgender issues are all the rage in the West. You’ll find the full range here. All genders and tastes.  Everything from go-go bars to massage parlours. If you're looking for a quick blowjob I know a good place…..”

“Thanks Arthur. Not right now.”

“I’m just kidding. Wouldn’t want you to catch anything. So how’s London these days?"

“Bloody awful really. You finally find a place to park and somebody comes along and stabs you.”

“That bad.”

“Well I’m exaggerating. But it’s not good. And don’t get me started on politics.”

“How about religion?”

“That’s turned into a sort of multicultural atheism.”

*Don Felder wrote Hotel California in a beach house in Malibu. He has been fighting with Glenn Frey and Don Henley over money ever since. Glenn Frey died recently. Joe Walsh had a triple bypass. Did it himself at home.