Bangkok Pat takes us to some vanishing places, including Soi Twilight and Babylon

 

Goodness! So many memories! I stayed at the Royal Orchid Sheraton several times soon after it opened in the early 1980s and had the hots for one of the pool boys He came from Khon Kaen and one day I took him on his first plane trip to and from his home town. Got to know him well and he was such a lovely young man in more ways than one!

One of those beautiful elegant buildings next to the hotel was and remains the residence of the Portuguese Ambassador where I once attended a reception. Portugal was the first European nation to come into contact with what was then the Kingdom of Ayutthaya. When the nation became Siam and the capital moved to Bangkok, it was granted the land where the then new colonial-style Embassy was to be located by the river. The present building remains the oldest diplomatic building and residence in the country. Some years ago it leased part of its land so the Royal Orchid could expand its always small pool area.

Never went to Noriega's in Silom Soi 4. Looks as though it was next to the Sphinx restaurant and bar which was popular mostly with expats and visitors. Above either Noriega's or Sphinx was a karaoke bar for several years. A long time before then that karoke was I believe Apollo, one of the original gogo bars where, as in Twilight, after a certain hour - around 10:00 pm or so - the mamasan would instruct all the boys to start dancing nude. Unlike Twilight where many of the many dozens of boys seemed a bit embarassed being nude up on its tiny stage, the boys in Apollo seemed really to enjoy prancing up and down the catwalk with no pants on. I really loved that bar!

He mentions Lumphini Stadium. Next to it bordering Witthayu was the old Night Market. I visited often, partly to buy small gifts if I was travelling, often to dine at one of the eateries but also to take visiting friends to one of the great Bangkok entertainments, the Joe Louis Thai Puppet Theatre, so named because the owner was a fan of the great boxer. The theatre had large half size puppets with the manipulators visible and dressed in black. Mostly the 'plays' were based on Hindu and Buddhist legends. But the performances were of a very high standard and all the guests I took absolutely loved it. When the Night Market closed, the Puppet Theatre moved to Pattaya for a while. It eventually moved to Asiatique. It seems to be closed but if not and if you have not seen the shows, I recommend them most highly.

And the flooding! In the small sub-soi outside my apartment, the floods would come almost over my wellington boots (gumboots) and remain long after the heavy rain had stopped. It was soon after the disastrous floods of 2011  that the city government finally raised the level of our soi and installed much larger underground piping. Since then flooding has been a thing of the past, thankfully.

Many thanks @fedssocr for posting. Now if only we could find some similar video of the early 1980s.

Thanks for alerting us to this, fedssocr.

I had seen some videos by Bangkok Park before, but that example was particularly interesting. I hadn’t expected that he would be so keyed in to the gay historical sites. It was fascinating to see the photographs from the Babylon Bangkok, which I went to once about 10 years ago. And see what the site of it looks like now.

If you have any interest in Bangkok history, the other videos in Pat's Vanishing Bangkok series are also worth watching.