Greetings to our loyal readers and I hope you are enjoying this blessing we call life as much as I am. In my August, 2010 column, I compared 1995 Bangkok to present day and detailed the changes in the nightlife industry.  This month, I want to compare changes in cost, livability, transportation and relationships with “good gals.” Then I will throw in an entertaining story or two of every day life here in Paradise. 

Much like everywhere else in the world, costs are rising in Bangkok. Even more so for those who insist on only living, eating and partying in places set up to serve foreigners.  It is really quite simple. The average Thai makes about 7000 baht a month and the average foreigner around ten times that.  Many foreigners make (and somehow find a way to spend) twenty or thirty times that amount. We are therefore willing and able to pay much more for basic services. Apartments in lower Sukumvit (a popular area for foreigners to reside) average about 30,000 baht for a modest place, while a Thai would pay 2500 to 4000 for his place. Thai food on the street costs 30 baht, but 150 baht in a restaurant catering to foreigners. It probably won’t taste as good!  The lesson is simple. Try to branch out a little and enjoy the “real” Bangkok and you will spend far less and probably enjoy life a lot more. See some of my earlier archived columns for suggestions. In addition, the US dollar is very weak at the moment which has hurt purchasing power for many. It seems weak at 30 baht to the dollar, but when I came here in 1995 it was 25 baht to the dollar! Let’s hope it doesn’t get back to those “good old days!” 

Livability has improved ten fold.  I manage my entire financial life on the internet now.  Impossible in 1995.  The entire range of services from ATM machines, laundromats, maid service, great restaurants, bookstores, shopping malls etc. has improved so much that I feel like I am living in a different city.  Bangkok 1995 was a little like the Wild West!  Every little thing that needed to be done was a minor (or major) challenge.  I feel a little nostalgic when recalling those first few years as even the most simple errand often turned into a debacle!  I guess I don’t miss it that much! 

Transportation is excellent and VERY inexpensive. The most significant change is the rail system. The BTS and MRT are cheap, clean, air-conditioned, and go to many of the most important points in Bangkok.  The trains are also full of some of the best eye candy on the planet!  To demonstrate how the rail system has completely transformed the city I would like to offer the following example: in 1995 I stayed in Siam Square and met a friend who worked nearby.  She offered to meet me on her day off and gave me directions to her home in Ekamai, which is about 10 kilometers distance.  I boarded a taxi at NON-RUSH HOUR and it was a horrific 1 hour and 40 minute ride!  I thought I would fry in that taxi for sure.  Today, I reach Ekamai from Siam Square in 14 minutes on the BTS!  

One absolutely HUGE change from 1995 to present is the situation involving foreign men and the “good gals.” In 1995 I was obviously 13 years younger, quite a bit more handsome (or less homely depending on your view) and a lot more reckless in my spending habits to say the least.  However it was quite difficult to get dates with the local lasses as the perception at the time was that only “bad girls” would be seen with a lowly foreigner and the normal gals were very shy about being seen with us.  I must admit it was not just my own situation.  I very rarely saw Thai gals and foreigners together outside of the nightlife areas in those days.  Today the situation has improved dramatically.  Thai ladies from virtually every segment of society are open to meeting foreign men and some (a somewhat smaller percentage) actually prefer foreigners.  

Ooooohhhhh baby it’s so good to be a single guy in Bangkok today! 

Somewhere out there is a German gentleman who owes his life to the fact that I am one of the horniest cats on the planet!  Last week I was walking up Sukumvit soi 4 at 3AM  and there was the usual mob scene of night crawlers out and about.  By chance I happened to glance quickly to my right and this guy was drunk and falling from the sidewalk onto the street, right in the path of a speeding taxi! I swung around 270 degrees and just managed to grasp his wrist and pull him up from a certain death.  He was literally 1/10^th of a second from being run over by this taxi.  It was so close that he was in shock and couldn’t speak for thirty seconds or so.  Then the horrified taxi driver pulled over and walked back to make sure all was OK and they both just stood there in shock staring at each other.  The driver then went about his business and this lucky gentleman with a very thick German accent hugged me five times and kept repeating “thank you, thank you, thank you, Oh my God thank you.”  The next day I returned to the scene and realized that if I tried that rescue 100 times I probably would have been successful in grasping his arm maybe five percent of the time.  It was truly luck.  Or was it??  At 3am I am nearly always in bed and if I am still out I would not have been SOBER enough to have pulled off that maneuver.  Why was I sober that night?  Oh yeah…..I ran into a HOT Thai gal I have had a crush on for years and spent three hours chatting her up instead of my usual beer drinking antics with my mates.  Make no mistake about it my fortunate German friend; you are alive today because I am one hopelessly horny individual!

Read Khun Lee’s other WoWasis columns for more advice on navigating the adult dating scene through the backstreets of Bangkok