James Bond Island

This is the famous James Bond Island landmark in Phang Nga Bay, Thailand

Its fame came through its starring role in the 1974 James Bond movie 'The Man with the Golden Gun'.

Boats are no longer allowed to come into the bay, and we had to land on the opposite side and take a short walk across to view the pinnacle. Phang Nga Bay covers an area of 400sqkm and is home to some 100 islands, and is now a National Park. 

Cleo Bar, Patong, Bangkok

Patpong, in Bangkok, is where the Thailand reputation began. In the 1960s these two privately owned parallel streets opened as a series of R&R bars for visiting American GIs, who were serving in Vietnam. Patpong soon became the premier nightlife area in Bangkok for foreigners,  famous for its sexually explicit shows and bars.  

By the early 1990s its heyday was over.  Areas like Soi Cowboy had usurped it, and it became a tourist attraction. The owners cashed in on this, opening  a daily night market for the tourists, here Bangkok fakes (or "Same -Same's") could be bought.  

The photo shows the stalls being set up at dusk. Soon the area will be packed with families and tourists. 
But the bars still remain, and still do good business. 

The upstairs bars are the more raunchy, and are renowned for ripping off tourists with charges and drinks.  The street level ones are quite tame by Bangkok standards. 

Personally I enjoy finding the old historic corners like the Cleo Beer Bar.  The bar doesn't seem to have changed since those Vietnam era days, the old barmaid is probably the same, the bar girls are not pushy and are happy to accept a drink and share a joke or story, and the prices are reasonable. 

I have a soft spot for Patong. One of my favorite shows Miss Saigon, has its final scene set in the bars of  Patong in 1978.   At times I think of all of the Kims, sitting alone at the bar waiting for Chris.....

Bangkok Go-down

In modern high-rise Bangkok,  you can still see the old Asian go-downs,  nestling in clusters among tall buildings. 

These are traditional warehouse/shops, often with a split level floor for storage, and an upstairs living area.  

Once, not so long ago,  all of Bangkok was like this. Now they remain as curiosities. 

Patong sunset

On Patong beach Phuket, people stop and watch the sun set over Laem Lam Jiak point, slowly sliding into the Andaman Sea. 

Although Phuket has lost much of its charm due to tourism, and Patong is a sleazy commercial town of strippers, ladyboys, cheap bars restaurants, it is easy to see why this former tin mining are became the place to holiday in the early 1980s. The sunsets are still spectacular, and away from the tourist zones the scenery is beautiful. 

Phang Nga Bay Marine National Park

Somewhere off the coast of Thailand lies a group of rocky outcrops in the Andaman Sea.  These are now part of the Phang Nga Bay Marine National Park, and are popular with tourists and as backdrops to films, including several James Bond movies. 

Bangkok temple

Temples are everywhere in Bangkok.  This one is just behind a food court near Silom.

Bangkok 2008

Bangkok 2008 - a very different Bangkok to the one I first visited many years ago.  Hardly any motorbikes, no bicycles, no tuktuks but a LOT of cars,  5 lane roads, overhead railways and pedestrian walkways.

A sign of a growing affluent middle class.....

Bangla Road 2009

Phuket, once a tin mining island backwater, became a trendy holiday resort in the late 1970s.  By the 1990s the main areas like Patong were sleaze traps for tourists, with transvestites and prostitutes vying for trade in a thousand hole-in-the-wall bars.

But every night the sun still sets on the Andaman Sea in spectacular style.  As it slips below the horizon the sky bursts into mother natures light show.   Hookers and pimps, drug dealers and drunks, stop and admire in unison, before going back to their world.