My bar.

    

·         Since I posted that last piece I’ve been barraged with requests for more information about Pattaya. So here's what we know. It’s about 100 kilometers southeast of Bangkok. It used to be a small fishing village until some G.I.s started going there during the Vietnam War. Bars popped up on the beach. Thai girls popped up in the bars and one thing lead to another. Now there’s hotels and bars all over and the Thai girls keep popping up. It’s very popular with single males from all over the world. The Thais are very tolerant in such matters, especially when money is involved.

I    I keep meaning to write more about that bar. It was called Dick’s, for obvious reasons. It was just a hole in the wall really but I managed to attract a colourful  bunch of characters. All kinds of degenerates found their way to Dick’s. Defrocked priests, disgraced politicians, bank-robbers, retired policemen and of course lots of CIA agents and SAS men on secret missions. I’d even get the odd axe-murderer. That’s when I met Chuck Woww. He was hawking his book ‘Losing the Plot’ round all the bars and I agreed to take a few copies. This was before he was famous. I used to get all types in my bar. Mostly the same types though I must admit. Middle aged blokes living in Pattaya. It was a surprise when Arthur walked in one day though. Hadn't seen him for ages and I had to look twice. Small world. He was surprised to see me too. Maybe even a bit embarrassed. Same old Arthur. We had a bit of a chat, talked about Simon and the old hippy days in London. Then he wandered out again.

I suppose I should explain how I came to be in Thailand in the first place. That was Oscar’s doing. We went there from the Philippines. Ah, but what were you doing in the Philippines Dick? That was Oscar again.

I was living in Spain and doing OK. Building villas for retired English folk. Got a letter from Oscar. This would have been late 80s. No email in those days. I’m not talking about ARPANET. People still wrote letters. Oscars came from Manila and it was short and to the point. ‘Get your ass over here!’ it said.

So I did. I’ll be writing something about Manila soon. On second thoughts I may not. Don't want to alienate any readers.