I’ll probably check out Soi Cowboy tonight. Last night I had round after round bought for me at a little pub on Sukhumvit Rd called the Black Swan (how British is that) which offers free wifi Internet access and finds itself quite close to the Soi Cowboy. I had a great time talking to a Jewish Arab (yep!) who’s escaped from the UAE and a British expat who does “Risk Management Consulting”. The Arab, Suleman, was pretty cool but his English made for some difficulty in any good conversation. He’d also been drinking for many hours (it was 6pm when we went into the pub) which must have catalyzed his massive explosions of laughter at the slightest notion of a joke. I felt bad for everyone around us, it was THAT appallingly loud.

Felix (or the man we’ll refer to as “Felix"), the risk manager, proved to be quite the interesting character. If one believes him, he was one of a few hundred secret British soldiers on special operations during the Vietnam war. His experience doing so led to his specialization in hot zones around the world where he provides risk assessments for businesses like, say, Haliburton regarding risk of kidnap, firefights, land-mines, etc for business personnel. He calls himself something of a mercenary however, which suggests he’s not just doing assessments, but gets mixed up in things himself. Anyone seen the Matador with Pierce Brosnan? Yeah, sounds like he’s something like that. By the end of the night (9pm) he and I had moved onto a Thai bar with pool where we battled it out in 9 ball and 8 ball and I sampled some Thai steamed bass (quite good but expensive… oh wait, he paid for everything there too!).

Felix was full of advice about soooo many aspects of Thai life and a westerner’s place in it that I couldn’t list it all here in this one post. I also forget a bit of it… oops. Too many beer at 6%! I’m sure they’ll come back to me as I continue encountering Thai life and culture and I’ll note them as “Felix’s Wisdom Says”.

Felix’s Wisdom Says go to the Soi Cowboy. His wisdom also included knowing that the legal age of consent in Thailand is 15, but the legal age of prostitution is 18… I don’t think I’ll need to keep that in mind but for everyone else out there: now you know!