Three weeks in the Bangkok
I've been back a week following three weeks in Bangkok and an unexpectedly long trip home.
I used up some Skymiles on a flight to LAX. From there I took Cathay Pacific to HKG and on to BKK. Cathay Pacific offers a premium economy class on some flights. After watching the promotional video on the website I decided to book it. It was a few hundred dollars more than regular economy. This turned out to be an excellent decision. Due to a change of equipment the premium economy class was not available on the HKG to BKK leg. I got a refund of a couple hundred dollars and an upgrade coupon that I used to take business class from LAX to HKG. Same thing happened with the HKG to LAX leg on the flight home so I got another free upgrade to business class on that leg. I love Cathay Pacific business class! Lots of good food, all the free booze I wanted, included Johnny Walker Gold, and a flat-bed to sleep on. My flight home from LAX was in high demand so I exchanged my seat for a redeye to JFK with a flight home the next morning and a voucher for US$1000. Same story at JFK where I traded my seat for vouchers for meals, a hotel room and US$1300. Got home 36 hours late but with US$2300 in vouchers for future flights. A lady working the desk in the SkyClub lounge at LAX told me retired people are adept at working these voucher offers. She claimed many travel extensively without ever paying for a ticket.
I stayed at the Sofitel Sukhumvit at a good rate, US$110 per night. At check in I asked for and received a free upgrade to a club room on the 28th floor. Comfortable room, very good breakfast buffet, friendly staff, good maid service, very good gym for a hotel and a convenient location. Will definitely stay there on my next trip. It appears I have been elevated one level in the Club Accor program because now I can book a room at this hotel for US$100 during high season.
My first night on the town was the Thursday just before curfew ended. Checked out Soi Cowboy and Crazy House around 8-9 pm. Soi Cowboy was dead. Crazy House was almost full. There were a couple of available seats when I walked in. The upstairs was empty. The downstairs stage was packed. Every lady on the stage was attractive, some were very attractive. A few girls wore G-strings with no tops. Most were completely naked. A few of the girls looked to be mid-teen. Most loooked late teen to mid-twenties. A couple looked to be around thirty. On several subsequent visits I did not see another lineup as stunning as on this night. One night the lineup was so poor I walked out. On a couple of occasions the lineup was not significantly better than in several of the bars I visited on Soi Cowboy. One of the Crazy House staff claimed that the youngest girls are mid-teens. She claimed Crazy House gets away with this because the real owner is a high ranking police officer. Because there is at least one dim-witted simpleton on this forum who doesn't realize that sometimes people repeat another person's statements without necessarily believing the statements to be true, let me be clear: I have no idea if this is true. I'm just repeating what I was told.
Thermae is next to my hotel. I stopped in there a couple of times and walked past it almost every night. By far the best looking girls I saw on this trip were there. Some were dolled up to appeal to the Japanese men. They did not appeal to me. No doubt I did not appeal to them. On two occasions, once mid-week and once on a Friday, I went inside, found it full of East Asian men and many, many very attractive ladies. It was clear the majority of them had no interest in this old farang. However, on both visits a couple dozen or more very attractive ladies made it clear they would be most happy to accompany me back to my hotel.
Overall it was a nice visit. One night was particularly fun.
My plan is to write a number of reports over the next week or so about my various mongering experiences.