Because I am Poor, a Letter from Plaa
There is a moment when we know
we
will leave this earth forever.
The
flowers, glowing blue in the dark
form
into a perfect circle.
We
treasure at those moments
every
small joy and realize
they
are as important as the largest.
Flowers
perfectly form into a circle
glowing
blue in the dark
I
flew into Bangkok, drank a Chang beer
with
a naked lady, slept beside her,
smoked
some reefer, and walked
through
the crowded streets of Patpong.
The
rain caught me by surprise.
I
sat for a long time in one place,
ready
to go somewhere,
to
go, but the rain . . .
Buddy, I love you a lot
Plaa
Can she erase years of memories,
erase
encounters and moments of pleasure,
of pain,
of joy, of sorrow, the swiftly flowing
river
through which we have passed?
Once
the river has wound through
our
lives, we will never walk
these
streets again. The truth.
A lot you
Don’t cry
Don’t cry
If you have a lover
I don’t care
I am same
Why not? How?
Because I love you a lot
Living on the edge
takes
the edge off it,
for
a while.
You can hope we some evening
But I can love you for now
I am poor
I don’t know your way
I live with you
Why not?
Poor a lot
I am very poor
Don’t cry today
Because you have me
The
flowers are glowing blue in the dark.
We
will walk through the perfect circle.
Bad Boy -- Eric Fischl
Patpong, two parallel side streets between Silom and Surawong Roads and one side street running from the opposite side of Surawong, gets its name from the Patpongpanich (or Patpongpanit) family, immigrants from Hainan island, China, who purchased the area in 1946 when it was an undeveloped plot of land on the outskirts of Bangkok that had a small klong (canal) and a teakwood house. The family built a road (now Patpong 1, the main street, with many bars of various kinds). Patpong 2 (with many similar bars) was added later, and both roads are private property, not city streets. Next to them is Soi Jaruwan ("Patpong 3"), which has long catered to gay men, while nearby Soi Thaniya has expensive bars with Thai hostesses that cater almost exclusively to Japanese men; neithr street is owned by the Patpongpanich family. By 1968, a handful of nightclubs existed in the area, but during the 1970s and 1980s Patpong was Bangkok's premier nightlife area for foreigners, famous for its sexually explicit shows. Patpong is still the only official entertainment zone decreed by the Thai government in 2004, which allow venues to legally stay open until 2am, instead of the 1am legal closing time in other areas. Many venues have shows featuring women doing stunts in the nude. Go-go bars feature women dancing on a stage; generally, they are available to customers willing to pay a bar fine to take them out. Several upstairs bars still feature sex shows such as the Ping Pong show which features women performing exotic feats involving their genitalia and table tennis balls. Some of the establishments employ kathoeys ("ladyboys").
ReplyDeleteChang, a pale lager which started production in 1995, is Thailand's top-selling beer brand. "Chang" is the Thai word for elephant, an animal with cultural and historical significance in Thailand. In 2000 Carlsberg and Chang established a 50/50 joint venture, Carlsberg Asia, to create a significant brewing company in Asia, but in 2005 Carlsberg terminated its licence agreement due to Chang's non-fulfillment of contractual obligations, resulting in Chang claiming US$2.5 billion in damages; Carlsberg eventually settled for US$120 million. Chang is a subsidiary of Thai Beverage, one of Southeast Asia's largest beverage companies, with over distilleries in Thailand, Scotland, Ireland, Poland, China, and France; in 2013, the firm announced a US$11.2 billion deal to take over the Fraser and Neave, a food and beverage, brewing, property, and publishing conglomerate in Singapore.