Analyst

The Balkans are my dream destination: Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, etc. That sounds like a great trip. Make sure you write about it, too! A good read for the trip is "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" by Rebecca West (1934). Some old-school shit about travelling in the Balkans.

I'm glad that there's some real appetite for the travel writing. Keep it up!

England,

Nice work. I've heard amazing things about Laos, namely Luang Prabang.

Great post and pics. Next time, let me know when you're going to be in the area...

Should be a couple of Pay Less Shoes around various strip malls....can't miss 'em

Good luck!

I may have to. I still prefer to see such items in person before purchasing.

I'm also still learning to read Thai, which makes reading/posting on the Thai Panerisiti page difficult. Soon....

I've been looking for decent OEM straps in Thailand for a while and every authorized dealer says the waiting period is between 6-8 months. Also, forget about finding any Pre-vendome straps and buckles in Bangkok.

I found an awesome authorized dealer in Ginza, while taking some PTO in Tokyo, with a case full of brand new OEM straps. Picked up the light brown calfskin for the PAM 164. Unfortunately, it's still on deployant, since old school-style buckles are once again not available.

Tisswat,

I wrote a bit about one night at the infamous 4 floors...let me dig that out of my archive and post it up.....

Wrote this back in late 2005....after a quick trip to Singapore...

Just got back to BKK after a two day visit to one of the most modern cities in SE Asia. I didn't initially know what to expect from Singapore, but it left quite an impression on me. Amid the humidity and tropical trees and plants you'd expect to find in SE Asia lies a city as clean as Charlotte, NC and brim with US stores like Borders Books and Music, Starbucks, and Toys R Us. Globalization in all of its glory. The sidewalks lining Orchard Road, Singapore's main shopping promenade, are filled with faces from Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, USA, Mainland China, Japan, and other countries around the world. Actually the city reminded me a lot of DC with so many ethnicities milling together in one big salad bowl.

During my one night in Singapore, I met two American executives working for a US-based contact lens manufacturer. They had taken the 40 min boat ride from Bhutan, Indonesia, where they operate one of the firm's business units. One of the expats, Tim, in his mid-forties, had made numerous excursions to Singapore for the last 10 years. The other expat, Carl, recently arrived in Asia during the last month. Tim explained that the Singapore's "nightlife of ill-repute" centered on a random building officially known as Orchard Towers that sat right on the main strip. Unofficially, the building was also known as the "Four Floors of Whores."

By day, Orchard Towers houses numerous overcrowded electronic stores hocking digital cameras, laptops, plasma screens, and DVD players. As a side note, these shops are more along the lines of the Ali's Electronics you'd find on West 34th Street (NYC) rather than the Bang and Olufsson or the Bose Boutique in Tyson's Corner(DC). Among the other drug stores, cheap clothing shops, and phone card kiosks in the Tower, you'll also find several bars with names like Country Road, Crazy Horse, and Ipanema. During daylight hours, each bar looks deserted with extinguished neon tubes aligning the windows. At dusk once the sheet metal screens come down over the store entrances, the Tower turns into quite a unregulated night spot in a very regulated city.

A steady stream of Western men simultaneously enter and exit the infamous Tower, according to Tim, until 4am. Until then most enter in groups and then later leave paired with female in hand. Apparently, the quality of women (and $$$ to play) increases with each floor level. We decide to make a round robin walkthru of a few bars on each floor. On the second floor we hit Country Road which sports the obvious and cliched Western theme strangely popular in Asia. We make a quick walk through the mostly empty bar and rodeo competition on a plasma screen and exit into the next bar: Ipanema.

This cavernous den on the third floor boomed with activity. Inside women of all nationalities immediately make eye contact with you. All of them are on two to three week tourist visas from Malaysia, Thailand, Russia, Portugal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bulgaria, or Romania and all are vying for a share of expat dollars flowing through the greater Singapore economy. The price is $200SG or about $110US for all night back at your hotel. Walking through Ipanema with Tim and Carl, I am approached by a pretty Vietnamese girl. Her name is May and she arrived two days ago. May latches on like a vise and is determined to find her bed for the evening. I quickly motion that I'm with my friends and try to nicely disengage her as she finally leaves me alone. Tim erupts in laughter and tells me to be careful. Sunday is a slow night and the women start to get ultra competitive.

Next stop is Crazy Horse on the Fourth Floor. As soon we enter I realize what type of establishment have walked into. Unlike Carl, who has never been to Asia and represents the cliched-middle age-balding-nearsighted-cheaply dressed-overweight-American middle manager, I have seen plenty of ladyboys in BKK.

On first glance, the women are all tall and skinny and beautiful. But on closer examination something seems very unnatural. Their faces look almost plastic. Too plastic. Too pretty. They bodies are hairless and slender with large breasts and no Adam's apple. For some you have to look at their hands or feet to tell that they were formerly male. Unless you talk to them, their gender can be somtimes ambiguous. I've seen many drunk Westerners wandering off from Silom Road in BKK with ladyboys and I've often wondered if they were aware that the "hot" girl on their arm used to be fully equiped downstairs! As a guy, you take for granted your ability to differentiate between male and female. In the US, it's easy and often too ridiculously obvious of the tranny or transgender person working behind the counter. In Asia, sometimes it takes a few seconds or minutes to tell if that girl is really female or male (genetically).

Asia has a very tolerant attitude toward gays and transgender folks. This is further complicated by the fact that Asian men often are very thin and have androgynous features. It fucks with your head especially if on first glance you do a double take on what you thought was an attractive girl, only to realize that its a ladyboy. In some ways, you begin to question your own sexuality (also something you can take for granted). You ask yourself, "How can I be attracted to that? I'm straight." But looks can be deceiving. It's a girl but it's also not a girl. What does gender really mean? Does gender matter only genetically? Or does it matter only on a physical level. Genotype versus phenotype.

We stay in Crazy Horse for about a minute before quickly departing and entering the creme-de la creme spot, Top Ten. Inside we grab a few drinks as Tim approaches a blond Russian girl. I talk to a light-skinned Asian girl dancing to the live band covering Outkast's Hey Ya. She's Thai and from Bangkok and reminds me that she's here looking for work (as if it wasn't already painfully obvious). Sensing a lack of interest from my part on taking her back to my hotel, she moves on to a pack of Australian rugby players all sporting FBI t-shirts (with Female Body Inspector in large script). By now I realize I'd rather sleeping than wondering through Singapore's underground at 2:30 am and decide to call it a night. Tim and Carl, still wearing his wedding ring, are determined to find the "perfect" girls for the evening. I bid them farewell and make my way to the door.

I forgot to mention that one of my distant cousins, a banker from Hong Kong, made friends with one of the sons of an owner of one of the casinos. I really wanted to try and track him down so I could see what he did for fun.

I would be interested in any intel gleaned from these guys on how this place is operated.

What fascinates me about this place is how much it pushes various legal boundaries:

The border between Cambodia and Thailand is completely porous. Basically these motorcycle touts are bringing Vietnamese girls back and forth through immigration with just a wave of the hand and probably some extra cash. Plus, the fact that they will pretty much take anyone visiting through a closed border after hours for $2.50 without any need for visas/passports amazes me. If anyone wanted to disappear from the world, this would be one of the places to do it. You get your passport stamped out of Thailand and enter Poipet and then illegally enter Cambodia, and then poof.

You basically don't exist anymore as your entrance into the country is never officially documented, as entry into Poipet doesn't require any passport checks.

The clubs are basically open air drug markets where you can procure most anything possibly imagined. Everything is done in the open and so obviously, hence the pleasure island analogies.

I won't go into detail about the local "water" trade, which possibly also pushes the legal envelope as well.

These DJ-501XX are currently my favorite denim to wear. I sized down actually and they have now stretched out to the perfect size with no hemming necessary at all.

The denim is quite noticably thicker compared to other 14oz denim. I anticipate that this may be an issue once the Bangkok heat really kicks next month.

The detailing on these and the denim quality is what completely impressed me: double chain stitching, selvedge fly, leather-backed rivets, etc. My pair also came individually numbered with my name stitched onto the inside label.

CinSun, I believe the sizing for the DJ-501 Heavy (15oz) and DJ-501 (14oz) are different.

The chart that I posted up a while back is for the DJ-501XX Heavy (15oz), since the last pre-order was open for only the heavy cut.

I had DJ wash my Heavies down to size for me before shipping just to get the shrinking out of the way. I found that the one-wash sizing for 02 matched the chart perfectly.

Just found this thread, wow how things have changed hey analyst

555555

Time sure does fly by doesn't it......

Yes please.

Tisswat,

I wrote a bit about one night at the infamous 4 floors...let me dig that out of my archive and post it up.....

Great read. More pics please. I need to get to Cambodia.........

At least crossing the border was fairly simple. I spent close to 6 hours (4 hours coming in, 2 hours leaving) getting a group of us + 2 Thai-registered trucks into Laos from Thailand a few weeks ago...........

Speaking of which, I should follow your lead and write up a little summary of that trip. Wish I had time for a couple days in BK; would have been great to grab a beer.

England,

I would love to hear about your trip. It's definitely much more interesting travelling by land to these places.

An interesting and possibly hairy trip would be Poipet-Siem Reap-Phnom Penh by motorcycle.

One of these day, we'll have to meet up in some far-flung place somewhere in SE Asia.

Additional Notes:

Travel from Bangkok

I was surprised how difficult it was to find directions for driving independently from Bangkok. There are a ton of bus companies and services that will pick you up around Lumpini at 5am and drop you off that afternoon at Aranyaprathet, the last Thai city before crossing into Poipet. While I received several versions of how to get to Poipet from Bangkok from friends, we basically just winged it and printed some maps from Mapquest.

If you are driving from Bangkok, the easiest way is to take the motorway/expressway towards Suvarnabhumi Airport and Srinakarin and stay on the 314. When you see signs for Chaosongsao 304, make sure that you don't miss it, or risk being spit off into going towards Chonburi or Pattaya. Staying on the 304 towards Panom Sarakham and Suram Buri will then take you to the 33 towards Se Keaw and eventually to Aranyaprathet. While there is a 10km stretch of construction and crummy road conditions on the 33, as soon as you hit Suram Buri, most of the roads are newly paved with two lanes divided by a wide median. The total trip should not take more than 3.0-3.5 hours from Bangkok.

I highly recommend taking the same way back. We stupidly followed the 359? I think to Bangkok instead and encountered some pretty crazy driving for about 60km. On a two lane road, you're pretty much playing leapfrog passing all the heavy trucks, at the same time as playing chicken with the asshole driving coming at you in the other direction....

31 and Denim Junkie, 45rpm

Soaked my Rag & Bone RB8s after wearing them on and off for about two years...

55555

Great pictures...more please?

If you've watched Disney's Pinocchio, you'll remember Pleasure Island as a place where wayward boys go to enjoy unlimited freedom to drink, smoke, gamble and vandalize at their whim before ultimately morphing into donkeys. While one trip to Poipet didn't quite turn me into an ass (yet), I could definitely imagine this happening after several repeated visits.

Cambodia is one of those frontier countries that seem to be outside the influence of law, regulation and media and that still feels like the "wild, wild west" of Southeast Asia. For the last few years, I've heard and read stories from backpackers and travelers and bloggers about various small Cambodian towns situated along on the Thai border that have not yet caught up with the rest of the world. There's Pailin, which is considered to be the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge, who are responsible for the genocide of over 2 million Cambodians in 1979-1980. Also Sihanoukville is supposed to be one of those undiscovered beach towns. Battambang gets mentioned a lot. Lastly, Poipet also gets the nod as a casino town favored by the Thai mafia for laundering money and catering to Thais who want to gamble (casinos are illegal in Thailand) and party at a level beyond even the loose constraints of Thai culture and society.

During a recent long weekend, a friend and I decided at the last minute to venture out to Poipet and see for ourselves if hype reconciled with reality. Poipet consists of a 4 km stretch of no-man's land nestled between the Thai and Cambodian borders. At Aranyaprathet on the Thai border, you officially exit Thailand through immigration but you don't officially enter Cambodia. Sandwiched between these two borders is a small enclave of casinos and hotels that seems to exist outside the jurisdiction of any sovereign law. I assumed that Thai organized crime must be silently enforcing the peace in town as we felt quite safe in all hours of the day and night, despite the absence of any visible police or military presence.

Once I exited Thailand at Aranyaprathet and entered Poipet, the scenery drastically changes. Trash litters the street and dust seems to be rising from everywhere. Dirty street kids approach in droves begging for money as various touts compete for your attention to take you to one of the 7-8 casinos located off the main street.

On a friend's recommendation, we stayed at the Star Vegas, a hotel/casino that seems to be part of a larger group of businesses all consolidated under the same "Star" moniker. To the right of the Star Vegas and past the latest construction project, there is the Star Venus, a massage parlor, and the Star Max, a trance/house club open until 8-9am.

Every hotel has its own casino and often will have a bar/lounge featuring dancers. At the Grand Diamond City Hotel, on the third floor, the bar area features a Thai band performing mainly Thai Carabao-style rock music. During band breaks, "coyote" dancers perform. All are freelance dancers from Bangkok and come here for several weeks at a time. They are working to "sell drinks" to bar/lounge patrons and stated that they could earn a lot more in Poipet than in Bangkok, due to less competition and more blatant cash flow around the town.

At the Holiday Palace Hotel, on the sixth floor, the bar/karaoke also features two girl show that was interesting. Probably actually rated about a PG-13, rather than the NC-17 that it was sold under. I really liked the Holiday Palace Hotel and wished that we had decided to stay there instead. There's also the Tropicana and the Golden Crown Hotel, but I didn't see anything that stood out from the rest of the casinos.

In terms of places to see and things to do, there isn't much in terms of temples or photo opportunities or sight seeing. In lieu of such landmarks, I spent my 24 hrs in Poipet gambling and exploring the night life. With most casinos in Asia, baccarat is the main game in town. Blackjack tables aren't packed at all, even with the 100baht a hand minimum. Roulette and a variation of Sic Bo is also very popular. I noticed only one craps table but don't remember exactly where it was located.

For me, the main draw of Poipet is the town's randomness and the thin line between order and lawlessness. While the border opens at 7am and closes at 8pm, motorcycle touts will happily take you into Cambodia after-hours with a 100baht "tip" to the border guards and a promise of waiting for you at the border to make sure you get back into town. One motorcycle taxi guy said that it was really "safe" across the border, but advised against taking a mobile phone or very much cash. Hmm. Again, you can imagine the consequences of getting mugged or getting stuck behind the line without the proper visa stamps, etc.

On a final note, Poipet is the place to go for a trip with your guy friends. As they say, there's no need to take sandwiches to a picnic. There's not much there that would hold the cultural tourist's interest for longer than 15 minutes, but there is something to be said about being a geographic "grey area" where most laws also seem a little vague. It would also be extremely helpful to be able to speak Thai. Everyone in Poipet speaks Thai, including the Cambodian staff and the Vietnamese workers that you meet in town.

Anyway, I'm making plans on returning very soon for round 2. Two nights would be perfect. Any more time spent in Poipet over 48 hrs might accelerate that permanent transformation to a donkey, so do so at your own risk Nite.

Lately, I've been going to the Middle Eastern quarter in Bangkok, between Soi 3 and Soi 7 around the Nana area. The tiny side streets are filled with tons of shisha bars, egyptian and lebanese restaurants, shwarma stands, etc.

The upstairs of Nasir around Soi 3 has excellent Moroccan Mint tea, which is hot green tea infused with mint and sugar and served in tall, thin tea glasses.

The best part is that this place is open until 4am!

England,

These days Soi Cowboy and Nana seem to be the place to go to grab a few drinks and hang out with the local talent. Go-gos in Patpong just don't really pack them in like it used to; although, it is still the mecca of the pussy show: razor blades and ping pong balls galore.

Patpong has become more of the night market to buy DVDs and watches or fake luggage, etc.

Thaniya, the Japanese hostess bar street two sois down, is also entertaining. You can always trust those Japanese salarymen to know how to have a good time.

The hard part is finding the right bar. As you can see in the picture, each building has a lounge on each floor (at least 5 floors in each building). A back of the envelop estimate puts over 50 lounges on that street alone. Each lounge has between 10-40 girls in each place. Average is probably around 15. Basically, that street has the highest concentration of talent per square meter in all of Bangkok.

In terms of quality of time spent...well, that's a different question altogether...

For a great book to read on your travels, check out Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk. He won the Nobel in Literature in 2006.

I'm a dj/producer right now, working at three spots in the NYC. (Love, Room Service, & Apt.) I use to work for a number of years at the mecca of Deep house music Club Shelter. That's where I got my schooling on Classics, disco, and Paradise Garage music. I spin a bit of everything...

2 technic's 1200 turntables

Urei 1620 mixer

Vestax 05 q-bert mixer

Serato

Ableton

Logic Platinum

Pro Tools

MPC 2000

Mac 12inch Labtop

and thousands of records in my apt. and in storage...

Is this when Shelter was being thrown at Club Vinyl? I used to go to the Body and Soul parties there on Sunday afternoon to hear Francois K play deep/tribal/classic house. This is way back in the day.

Been DJing since 1997 but have taken a two-year break since moving overseas. All my gear and records are now in storage back in the mid-atlantic.

Pretty standard set up:

2X Technic 1200s (10 yrs)

Vestax PMC-07

Ortofons DJ S

Started playing drum&bass/jungle and eventually moved to breaks. Played out at some small private parties but mostly just resigned to just being a bedroom DJ.

I miss hunting for records back in the day at Music Now/Yoshitoshi/12" Dance Records in DC and 611 in Phili. Used to also order from 3 Beat (UK) and Breakbeat Science in NYC.

cmon, you're overlooking Laos and Cambodia. Out of Indochina, it's certainly the best right now. Def the emerging asian tiger of the third world, second to bangkok.

I don't know what you are particularly comparing Vietnam on either. It's not like they've had 50 years of unrestricted growth....the embargo was lifted with the states within the last 15 years. As well as the millions who died in the war. It's like comparing Cambodia to Korea....you can't do it at all. The only fair ground is comparing Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam with each other, and Vietnam is certainly the most modernized country...

It's gotta be an amazing time to be in Vietnam as the country transitions between the old-school communist line of politics/media/control and the growing pains from the country's recent entrepreneurial boom and emerging economy. Current GDP growth rates (pushing 9%) are twice as high as Thailand's (measely 4.4%). Tons of foreign direct investment is coming into the country. Lots of cross-border activity going on between Vietnam and Thailand, Japan, China and US right now.

If China and Korea and Malaysia are considered emerging markets, then Vietnam is considered a frontier market: a completely different animal altogether.

If you want to have a good time in cities in Laos, Cambodia, Burma/Myanmar and Vietnam, I think you need to have an certain appetite for risk and a wanderlust to leave the "reservation", so to speak. Sure, Vietnam is decades behind from catching up with the rest of Asia-Pac, but it's definitely in motion right now. And I can't think of a better time to be in the middle of all the action.

I didn't like Beijing much, but then again, I was with a tour group with the 'rents and didn't have a clue where to go or what to do during those 2 hrs that I had to myself.

I also haven't heard that many good things about Seoul. Seems bleak for some reason.

Singapore is not bad for one or two nights, at most. It seems almost too westernized (i.e., Borders Book and Music) and "clean", if that makes any sense.

Hong Kong is awesome. Great mix between east and west. Thinking about eventually working and living there for the LT.

Macau is also fun and much preferred over casino towns in the West. It's mad shady, but that's a good thing right i.e., Lisboa afterhours?

Phnom Penh is definitely off the grid. It's one of the last frontier cities in SE Asia. Siem Reap is being overrun with 5 star resorts and hospitals, capitalizing on tourists who want to go Tomb Raider at Angkor Wat. PP is a sleepy city with an assortment of NGO/UN personnel and backpackers milling about. The nightlife is mellow but surprisingly very much "happening" in the right spots.

Saigon is one of my favorite places. Great food and fun place to hang out. The first thing I noticed was the air was so much cleaner compared to BKK. While it's tough to cross the roads at first, the city quickly seduces you with amazing coffee, traditional ao dais, fun nightlife, etc.

Bangkok is home #2. Not much to say about it. Amazing city.

Tokyo is on my list to check out. I'll be there in late January. I've been to Fukuoka but never had an extended stay in Tokyo for longer than 1-2 days. Should be interesting given the intel gathered from SuFu.

Manila doesn't seem very interesting for some reason. I could be wrong though. But maybe it was the Philipino girls I accidently met in Wan Chai that turned me off.

Overall, the emerging and frontier cities in Asia are the most interesting to visit. I haven't been to Burma or Vientiene but they are both on my list. Anyone had any interesting thoughts about Mumbai or Karachi?

Two books on my reading list:

The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri

Other Colors: Essays and a Story - Orhan Pamuk (his nobel prize acceptance speech is amazing)

you going to MBV reunion?

Probably not going to make it. Sucks.