I am Than

This is my first feature-length piece, so please bear with me for a written-while-drunk entry!

So, if you’re reading this, I guessed you’re one of those hardcore bangkokian party animals who’s looking for a place to go for more thai-styled partying (i.e. not Khao sarn), after the cops raided your regular partying venue!

Well, let me start off with the most famous Bangkokian’s after hour place (after Renovate closed down of course): Scratchdog

Scratchdog is located behind the lobby of Windsor Suites Hotel, Sukhumvit 20. Scratchdog used to be a swamp or something, but they’ve been gradually improving over the years. The place serves you with regular upper-middle class drinks (i.e. JW’s Red/Black Label, Smirnoff). The place will rock you with technos and hiphop music with some fancy laser lighting. Usually the place started to get crowded after 1am, when the RCA, Nana, and some Ekamai crowds crawl up to the place. And on a sidenote, the hotel’s noodle stand just in front of the club’s entrance is awfully delicious for a drunkard like me! Expect lots of wasted expats and 20-22 years old Thai partygoers! Scratchdog usually shuts down around 3-4 am.

Next up is Noir, located at The Emerald Hotel, on the middle of Rachada road. This place is “THE” after hour place if you love trance and house gigs! Blinding light and the good ol’ drunk “skoi” chicks will cheer you up (Skoi: vanz, a.k.a. loud motorcycle dudes’ lovers). The crowded there are usually from Rachada soi 4 and soi 8, so expect them to be around 16-18 years old, even though their ID cards said otherwise! Noir closes sometimes around 3 am, or if the cops are generous: 5-6 am.

And if you’re around Ekamai or Thonglor, you’ve probably heard of this place: Wip, it’s the only after hour place that’s pretty much like a regular club. Located at the old “Liberty” building at the far end of Thonglor (at the foot of the bridge, on your right). The place will give you a standard Thai live band, and standard hiphop. Don’t underestimate this place, it gets so wild after the Ekamai crowds from Funky Villa and Nunglen fill in, dancing on the stage or sometimes the table are pretty mandatory for this place! You’ll see a lot of 17-24 Thai party animals there. Wip closes down around 3 am, or sometimes 4-5 am.

Moreover, if you’re drunk and hungry (for food), hit up Maldives (or Mao deep – literally  deeply drunk) at the famous “Mengjai” intersection. This place is in the middle of Rachada and RCA. You’ll be enjoying the awesome pool table, foosball, and open air atmosphere there. Delicious food and ‘chill out’ music are served throughout the late night, probably around 5-6 am, the place is registered as “pub and restaurant”, so cops normally won’t raid the place until 7 am. But beware of the drug checkpoints around.

Well, the last place I’ve ever been for afterhour is Wong’s place (no, it’s not a chinese restaurant, trust me), just off Sathorn soi 1 or Ngam Dupli, the place will fill you up with relatively cheap drinks, a bit retro (’70s) decor,and GAZILLIONs of Music Videos dated back from the ’80s! You’ll see lots of expats from everywhere and Patphong there!

So that’s it for this entry, I’ve just got a fried worm and grasshopper shoved down my throat by two farang girls so I’m trying hard (seriously) not to puke.

Peace!

ps. for really after-afterhour, go have some noodle, or some breakfast at 24-hour McDonald’s or some great Khao mun kai (especially at Pratunam!)

4 months ago I blogged about HOBS (or now HONOBS), just had one of the regular rants of how they couldn’t get the beer and the service properly.

And just when I logged in tonight, I saw these two comments on the approving queue:

“HONOBS” – House of No Beers???????

Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion but I believe that HOBS – House of Beers has the largest selection of Beers in Thailand in one venue!

They have 34 Belgian Beers where the following 4 are Draft Beers.
- Stella Artois
- Hoegaarden
- Leffe Blonde
- Leffe Brune

Ok, they was one point where they had a shortage of Leffe Blonde due to the Brewery in Belgium but there are still loads of other alternatives and Blonde Beers available to drink.

This is the 1st Negative Blog that I have seen on HOBS and I think they are trying to make a difference in Bangkok by making more available beers for us to try.

As for the Manager, he is a local and usually looks after everyone!

HOBS – House of Beers is a great place to have great beers! No where compares!

- Chris

and 1:30 hour later, the supporting comment came:

I think HOBS is great. Everytime I go there they serving me good. Manager and the staffs is very nice and friendly to me and my friend and take care us every time. I don’t know why you have problem. Maybe you should try to go HOBS again? If HOBS is bad, why it full of customer every day??

- Pluem

And surprise surprise, both comments share the same IP address:

Well, I had some great laughs about the content, and the fact that this is still the usual defense to customer complaints around here.

They’re just making fun of themselves, oh well, maybe I should give them another try.

But for now…

GO BAMBLU!

Yes, I’m meaning Hobs, House of Beers. My now ex-favorite place in Thong Lor, specifically, House of Beers at Penny’s Balcony, Thong Lor 16, opposite to J-Avenue. A couple of things upset me this evening, and there was nothing to impress me about the place anymore.

One Pint each, then we Left.

1. Service
I know that Hobs maybe short-handed, with oh-so-many customers (around 50% of the capacity), there are only a waiter and a waitress (the tall and handsome manager is simply useless, because he doesn’t care for local. It’s my fault that I don’t have a Nicaraguan passport). There were five of us, when we went in there, we had to stood like homeless idiots who couldn’t find a seat, nobody bothered seating five poor locals here. We had to arranged our own tables, gave out the coasters by ourselves, we almost had to go up and ordered the beer by ourselves.

2. No Beer
There are three brands of drought beer served sold at Hobs: Stella Artois (Sunday special), Hoegaarden (Tuesday special), and Leffe (Wednesday special). My favorite of those is Leffe, and since January 16th, I haven’t been able to get a glimpse of Leffe at Hobs. Last I asked, I was told that Leffe would be refilled next week. And just a few hours prior to this blog entry, I was told to wait until the end of June. BS’ed.

3. Shit Beer
Alright, so there was no drought Leffe for me, so I ordered Hoegaarden like my friends. When the beer came, I took a sip and almost spit it, the beer was stale and tasted like shit (fyi, I haven’t tasted shit before, but I imagined that it’d taste like stale Hoegaarden). I know what fresh Hoegaarden tastes like, and this isn’t it. Everyone agreed on this, the beer is old and stale, almost spoiled.

I wouldn’t step into Hobs at least until the end of this month. I wouldn’t bring my friends there, and I’d denounce the damn place. I don’t care if I’m wasting the damn 200 baht Gambrinus card. It’s better to lose 200 baht than drinking shit beer at the place with no favorite beer and almost no service at all.

So long Hobs HoNObs, for now, or forever.

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สรุปเป็นภาษาไทย

Hobs (ฮ็อบส์) ทองหล่อ ซอย 16 ที่เพนนีส์บัลโคนี่ กลายเป็นร้านกากแล้ว บริการแย่ เบียร์หมดช้านาน แถมยังเสิร์ฟเบียร์เน่าอีกต่างหาก

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