Even without having been over there, it should take no rocket science to figure out what is going on over at the old BigBabyKenny.com site.

Whaaaaaaaaa!

• Kenny & Prufrock posting under the usual slew of multiple alias, impersonating contributors to our site, as well as contributors to the BigMangoBar.com blog.

• Prufrock endlessly posting multi-page dissertations about “knowing Daffy posts here”, while repeating that he never, ever, ever checks out the BigDummy site (those IP breadcrumbs must have been placed in our logs by some super-hacker, meant to confuse us). (so, Prufrock, ever dug up those incriminating quotes you threatened to dig up? still digging?)

• Kenny posting the occasional article, pontificating like the proverbial MotU, and getting most of the critical information wrong. When called out about it, he posts under alternate alias’, attempting to discredit the isolated commenter who tried to correct his misinformation (so, Kenny, how’s 3G treat in’ ya?)

• Keith Summers going on like an Energizer Bunny, deluding himself that Kenny is his buddy allowing him to post on his “free speech” site. (I bet Keith has no idea that “Daily Dose of Truth” is actually Kenny, repeatedly putting him down).

• The usual BBK sycophants participating and posting pedo accusations against whoever they pick on that week; the  usual posting of people’s real names in association with libelous accusations;

Kenny & the sycophants

In short, the usual – Kenny breaking various laws, flaunting it, and thinking he is getting away with it, while his blog sinks into further obscurity.

I’ve sent about 6 -mails to him, so far, requesting he intervene at least regarding the most grievous libel on his site, but predictably, Kenny is simply not man enough, to “man up” and even reply – thus, if you or anyone you know has been implicated in these accusations over on the other site, please contact me, as I will be taking this to the next level, and I can represent your voice as well.

Degas Bar – Soi 33

I had a couple of drinks, then found myself in a disagreement with one of the girls. I don’t want to go into detail, but I was dissatisfied with things and spoke to the cashier about it. She dialed the phone and a few minutes later “the boss” showed up.

He was European, and from his accent I’d guess him to be French or maybe Belgian. I’m not known for my keen ear for accents, though, so he’s as likely to be from South Africa or New Zealand.

He listened to my mild complaint, asked a few questions and handled everything professionally and to my satisfaction. Any business can have a problem – the test is how the problem is handled. In Thailand they often aren’t handled well at all. Degas was a class act. Go there and buy whiskey – New Zealand needs the profits.

Papa Bar (also Soi 33)

I had never been to this bar before. A friend and I stopped in there one night because we liked the look of the girl standing outside telling us how handsum we were.

As we sat down, my friend offered a drink to that girl.

I might have felt slighted, but I looked around and spotted a girl I liked better. Apple cheeked with a noticeable cleavage, she caught my eye from across the bar. Soon we had a little 4-person party going. My girl turned out to be fresh off the farm, while my mate’s girl was quite a bit more experienced.

We’d been to a few bars before Papa’s, so I don’t think either of us was capable of having sex. After two hours of drinks, cuddling and a bit of pool we wisely went home without either of the girls.

I did, though, go back a few nights later to renew my acquaintance with my girl. I went in straight after work, sober. I realized that she was a bit fleshier than I’d thought when I met her the first time, and when we were both sober she was nowhere near as much fun. She was more interested in the TV than in me, and the fifteen minutes it took to finish one drink seemed to take forever. I paid my bill and took off.
Still, the crew of girls in this place is young and attractive enough, they generally seem pretty friendly, and can shoot pool decently too. Worth a look if you’re on Soi 33.

Tina – Soi 22

Tucked in the back of a small square behind a few restaurants, a massage shop and a guest house, Tina is pretty hard to find. Basically, it’s the second driveway on the right if you come from Sukhumvit Road.

I’d wandered into this bar once years ago, so this was a return visit.

Nothing much had changed. It’s dark, has a crew of very marginal girls who focus on putting their hands all over you.

The guy I was drinking with got a massage from a girl who resembled a tank.

I drew the long straw. The girl who took an interest in me was the best of the bunch (though the bunch didn’t set the bar very high). She was short and fairly cute. She was also from Chiang Mai. She had at least three tattoos, her navel was pierced, she has two children, and she smokes. She didn’t smoke in front of me, but I could taste it on her breath while she spent twenty minutes with her tongue down my throat.

I can’t, in good conscience, recommend this place, but if you like getting groped in a dark bar by second (or third) tier girls whose main recommendation is willingness, then you might want to pop into Tina.

Titanium – Soi 22

I had a pal in Bangkok from the US, and he wanted to go somewhere other than a go go bar. I suggested Titanium.

He’d never been there, and my last drink in Titanium was in December 2006. After going there with him I’m not sure why I stopped going there. The décor is above average, as are the girls (though they’re not the youngest crew in Bangkok). The drink prices are slightly over the mark, but they pay for the excellent live music.

Titanium features two bands. The all-girl Unicorn Band has been playing there for years. They are a pretty good band with a sexy little tambourine player.

Better still is the new band called the Big Boy Band (they’ve been playing there for about a year). The Big Boy Band is an English-language classic rock cover band, but probably the best one in Thailand, with a play list that has a bunch of titles that you don’t hear every day in other Bangkok bars.

Titanium features a freezer room on the second floor where you can do vodka shots. My pal and I dragged two Thai girls in for a round of shots. Not really my favorite thing to do, but it can provide a change of pace.

I enjoyed my visit to Titanium so much that I’ve been back two more times since. Each visit has been good fun.

Titanium is highly recommended if you like good ole’ Rock & Roll.

The Pent – Wireless Road (Ploenchit)

This is a member club (g-club) that I hadn’t been to in three years or so.

After we’d spent a couple hours at Titanium, my friend and I were ready for another bar. We initially took a cab up to Resort on Ratchada 13, but the place was dead. When we asked, we were told that they don’t have a band or coyote dancers on Sunday nights, so we decided not to order, went outside and grabbed a taxi to Pent instead.

Pent was about 40% full, with a good band in the front room and coyote dancers in the back room. One thing that had changed since I was there last was that there were very few white faces to be seen. The crowd was mostly Thai, with a sprinkling of Japanese.

Having been away for three years, I didn’t expect to see anyone that I’d remember, but as we stepped in the door of the back room a tall, white skinned coyote dancer raced across the room screaming and threw her arms around me, saying how much she’d missed me.

Incredible.

We moved out to the front room where the Thai band was playing Thai music. My pal, who was very drunk, had chosen a slender hostess from a 4-girl lineup based on her having the most noticeable cleavage.

He chose well. She was tons of fun, and they were dancing, while my girl and I sat on the sofa and got reacquainted.

If you like member clubs, the Pent is a bit different because it has three rooms – the front room with the Thai music, the back room with coyote dancing, and a quiet middle room with a swimming pool where you can enjoy a bit of food and some quiet time with your girl of the night. I like this club, and I like the girl there. I’ll be back soon.

Queens Park Plaza – Soi 22

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I’d been to QPP and it seemed busier than in the past.

I made a return visit two weeks ago and it still seems to me that it’s enjoying something of a revival in business. While it doesn’t compare with NEP or Soi Cowboy, the bars all seem to have customers and the customers seem to be having a good time.

The Hairy Pie Club – Washington Square

The name of this bar is a little more complex, but I can’t remember the longer name, and – honestly – there’s no reason to. A friend and I were talking about this place – just about the name really. We paid bar at another bar a few blocks away and walked to Washington Square just to go to this bar.

We peeked in the door and decided it wasn’t worth going in. We left without entering.

Not recommended.

I have received several e-mail asking if I am behind the Big Baby Kenny “New and Improved” blog.  The simple fact is I am not.  I simply don’t have the time and more importantly, the interest, in reviving the BBK v1.0 blog.

The obvious answer would be Professor Kenneth Ng himself.  Seeing that the activity on his blog has dwindled to comments between the Keith and Anti-Keith crowd it’s understandable why he’d republish his content.  To counter the argument, for Prof. Ng to do so would be quite risky to his career.  It was the California State University Northridge campus administration which pressured Prof. Ng to remove all content which could be construed as promoting sex tourism.

Rather than leave content which was not sexually oriented remaining, Prof. Ng shuttled his entire site and rebuilt it from the ground up.  Perhaps this was his strategy all along: waiting for the right time to revive his blog and shift readers to the new site.  Since it’s been over a year that he gained notoriety for his blog and the traffic on his site has been steadily dwindling it appears that time is now.

Sometimes less is more

Just another installment

Who cares about smart phone models?  These are the type of models I’m interested in.

AIS

If AIS is your service provider, there are some cool things you can do to manage your account via the internet. Through their E-Service web portal you can do a number of things: change calling and data plans, service options such as call forward, turn off the caller ring tone option and a number of other things. In my opinion one of the best things you can do is extend the number of days before your phone number expires. If you have a considerable amount of cash on the account but the expiration is coming up you can extend the expiration date for some of the Baht credit. Another interesting feature is the ability to transfer a balance from your number to another AIS number.

These services are available at: http://www.ais.co.th/eService/en/ – if you happen to get the page in Thai look for the “EN” icon which is on the top right hand side of most pages. Click it and the page will reload in English. Enter your Thai phone number 08xxxxxxxx and click the “Get One Time Password” image link – you’ll get a text message with a 4 digit password that you have 15 minutes to use to login to the AIS portal. Type in your number and the password again and you’re logged in and able to manage the services on your number. This will work even when you’re out of the country if your home carrier has a roaming arrangement with AIS.

For example, I’ve done this on both my AT&T and T-Mobile phones while in the USA. I insert my AIS SIM into my unlocked phones and wait a minute or two for network authorization to take place. I get the 3 or 4 (free) SMS messages about IR (International Roaming) and data plans and after requesting the password on the AIS website the SMS with the password is received. Hasn’t failed yet.

I give AIS top marks concerning the number of things you can do on their website to manage your account although I found it a bit difficult to find everything.

DTAC

DTAC has some of the same services available online as AIS, but you need to speak to DTAC’s customer service to get a permanent password beforehand. Check out the DTAC e-service portal (note that their translation to English effort needs work and their flash graphics are huge): http://www.dtac.co.th/2009/eng/e-service/index.html

For plans: http://www.happy.co.th/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=34&Itemid=68〈=en and for the type of SIM cards with the plans already set go to http://www.happy.co.th/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=3&Itemid=66〈=en

TRUE

I couldn’t find a way to manage services online through an e-portal, but services are available through a call to their customer service. They are doing quite a few things through ATM’s, kiosks and partners and via interactive text, but their online account management is non-existent: http://truemove.com/en/home.aspx

For those of you who need to call other countries frequently, or don’t want to have your Thai girlfriend calling you every few days for topup money, check into True’s interSIM. It’s a regular SIM card, but special promotion packaging advertises a 1baht/minute rate to the USA, Canada and a handful of other countries. I saw these special promotion SIM packages at several of the phone stalls at MBK. Look for the longer, rectangular shaped packaging (not the square packaging format shared by AIS, DTAC and True).

For more information on the interSIM: http://www.truemove.com/en/Inter-SIM-Prepay-condition-1.rails

Comparing the three networks for 3G service, TRUE’s is the best right now and they are the best positioned to provide nationwide 3G service.

Unlocking

I mentioned that you can get phones unlocked in my Smartphone post. Unlike some people, I don’t make things up for the sake of being right. Several months ago I had to purchase a prepaid smart phone from AT&T (they market their prepaid phones and SIM packages as GO-Phones).

The model I purchased was the LG-Thrive (Unbranded model number LG-P506 with AT&T model number LG-P506GO).  Smaller than an iPhone and most smart phones, it’s a very nice Android smart phone with a massive battery. The phone was a SIM and network locked phone on the AT&T network, meaning when I inserted a valid T-Mobile SIM card into the phone and it wouldn’t connect to T-Mobile’s network. Even when I popped the AT&T SIM card into the phone it wouldn’t connect. It was necessary to go to the AT&T website listed on the GO-Phone instruction manual and activate the SIM card with the card in the phone.

On my last trip to Thailand I took the afore mentioned AT&T LG-Thrive for some work related activities and also wanted to see if the people at MBK could in fact unlock this phone. Along the way there were some surprises.

I arrive in Thailand and once checked into my hotel I make way to the 7-11 and purchase a DTAC SIM card and an AIS topup card (I already had a fully loaded True SIM card).

I get into my room and turn on my phone with the AT&T SIM in the phone but didn’t expecting much since the phone is using a pre-paid SIM and is network locked and I haven’t signed up for any roaming services. The first surprise is the phone successfully handshakes with the True network and I get a signal.

After another minute I get a couple SMS’ about network and data roaming and surprise – 3G connectivity. AT&T has roaming agreements with both AIS and True, but at $1.29-$1.99/minute I’ll keep the SIM in just to see who’s trying to reach me and call back on my True SIM.

So I know the phone works with the AT&T SIM and I get 3G on True. What will happen when I insert each of the 3 SIM cards from the Thailand carriers? DTAC? Nothing. AIS? Nothing. TRUE? Same message. I get the same message with all 3 SIMs in the phone:

Enough for that particular afternoon. Time to line up more R&R, commencing with a foot massage. Tomorrow I’ll make my way to MBK and see if they can unlock the phone.

The next day at about noon I take my phone over to MBK. After walking around to inspect prospective shops I make my decision on sophistication of the tools on the workbench and the number of computers they have available for unlocking iPhones. One shop looks like it has potential, with a guy testing a cell phone hooked up to a frequency analyzer/oscilloscope. Yea, I think there’s at least one guy who knows what he’s doing. It’s probably overkill but I give it a go. I ask the girl at the counter if the phone can be unlocked as I show it to her. I tell her I want a firmware unlock and not a SIM unlock (note that some places have the capability to reprogramme the SIM chip so the network code is different on the SIM, thus the phone thinks the correct SIM is installed and will handshake with the network but with that SIM only) She asks oscilloscope guy and he takes a quick look and says, “chai”. I ask how much and how long. We settle on about $15.00 USD and she says come back in 1 hour.

Walking around during my wait I’m amazed at the number of good quality, used cell phones available. Blackberry, iPhone, HTC, Nokia. You name it, they’ve got it. Now I have an idea what many Thai girls do with their expensive phones once their farang boyfriend of the week leaves the country. Most phones are in excellent condition. They should be, as you can find almost any case for any phone made.  Want a new white 32GB back for your black 3GS 16GB iPhone? No problem. Watch out about the phone pricing though, as I found the prices most places wanted for second hand smart phones on the high side. An example: used 8gb 2G iPhones were listed between 5k and 6.5K baht. You can find them on Craigs list in the USA for $70-$100. I check my watch and I’ve been gone 90 minutes, so time to get back.

I get my phone back with dtac SIM installed…3 bars showing on the phone. She calls, phone rings, I answer. I call back, no problems. Money is paid and I’m on my way back to the hotel. Now time to satisfy my curiosity before I test some LBS apps.

AT&T – Still get my connection by roaming on TRUE with 3G service
AIS – Connection and Edge
DTAC – Connection and Edge
True – Connection and Edge followed by SMS message about registering. Delete message. What going on here? 3G with AT&T SIM but no 3G with TRUE SIM on TRUE network? Check TRUE website. Nothing I can find there of help. Turn off phone. Remove battery, remove SIM. Reinstall SIM, battery and turn back on. SMS about registering again. OK, why not. Register. Just agree and say Yes. A few minutes later, 3G.

(BDK – Insert 3 photos here – Thrive_AIS  Thrive_DTAC and Thrive_TRUE_3G)

Sorry to those of you who find most of this uninteresting, but there may be readers who have locked 3G-850Mhz capable phone outside of Thailand or other tri/quad band GSM phones who prefer spending around 400.00 baht to use that phone (with all their contacts and customizations retained) as opposed to 16,000.00 baht on a phone that still isn’t 3G capable in Thailand.

I hadn’t been to Bada-Bing! since just after it opened (2 years ago?), so I agreed to go with him.

Can’t say I really enjoyed it. They allow smoking inside, and nearly every customer was lit up, including the guy at the table next to me, who held his cigarette in his hand, stretched out on the bench in my direction. The place stank like a stale ashtray.

The girls were generally fit. The one heavy girl had a curvy body with bodacious tatas and a nice face when she smiled. The rest of them were lean, but with a single exception they just didn’t inspire me. A couple of them had obviously been to the surgeon to get chin implants. The surgeon recommended a “size-3″ but the girls insisted on a “size-7″ and the effect on both of them is rather like the Wicked Witch of the West — waaaaay too big.

Most of the girls were on the wrong side of 25, and a few on the wrong side of 30. There were plenty of flat tummys, but when I looked at the whole package I could only find one girl in the place that really appealed to me, and her not enough to even bother to offering a ladydrink.

My friend was having a great time with a girl that he obviously knew from his last trip in, so I was hanging patiently. When we’d been there an hour, though, and the dancers were into their third rotation, I told him that I was going to take a walk. He could stay and play with his girl; I’d come back later.

He told me that he was ready to go too, so we paid the bill and left.

It turned out that he was not just ready to leave Bada-Bing!, he was ready to go home.

I wasn’t. I said goodnight to him and I headed for Club Electric Blue, where I hadn’t been in more than a year.

It was bad. Empty of customers. Obnoxious mamasan. The crew of girls was about the same quality as the ones I’d just left at Bada-Bing! but they were generally under-25. One very slender girl with short blond hair was smiling at me and trying to make me laugh. She was topless and bottomless, with just a piece of lace wrapped around her hips to defend her modesty. She was cute, and probably the best of the bunch, but again, not good enough for me to want to buy her a drink. I downed my drink and hit the street.

I walked up and down avoiding the touts and checking the gogo bars, but just didn’t feel inspired by anything I saw.

My pal, before he went home, had told me about a new go go in Nana Plaza called Las Vegas that was open on the top level. He said that he’d been there earlier in the week. He told me that it was reasonably upscale, that they had a good crew of girls, and that they put on choreographed shows — “even fan dances”.

This sounded like a good place to go, so at midnight I hopped a taxi to Nana Plaza.

I went straight to Las Vegas. The decor was probably not quite as nice as my pal had suggested, but it was nice. One side of the room had a glass-ceiling-ed mezzanine dance stage, though there was no on dancing on it. The center stage had a dozen girls on it; all of them topless; all of them under 25; all of them appealing. They had a good selection of different body types, no obvious scars, no cream cheese tummies and a minimum of tattoos. The one unfortunate thing was that about half the girls were wearing large white panties topped with black garter belts. The effect was to look rather like they were wearing babies diapers. The girls wearing black briefs looked fine. The costume designer may need to re-think that one.

The mamasan and staff were a bit pushy but I handled that quickly and easily. It was clear that it was a new place because it is being over-managed. That won’t last, but there was a bull-dyke in a man’s jacket and a too-short haircut that was directing the girls very obviously, pointing to them where they should stand, signaling when they could come of stage and when they needed to stay. She looked like one of those guys at the airport in the orange jumpers that directs the jumbo jets from the taxiway to the terminal with exaggerated arm movements, using his whole body to indicate direction. She was obnoxious, but harmless.

Ten minutes after I arrived the dozen topless girls exited the stage to make way for the 8 show dancers.

They did, in fact, come on stage with large feather-fans.

The show ran fifteen or twenty minutes and it was tightly choreographed and well-rehearsed. The girls had obviously been recruited for their dancing skill. They moved with grace and with almost perfect precision. It was a professional looking show that involved several costume changes and even some simple props (for example, large picture frames painted black; the girls each danced behind a frame with a fairly artistic effect).

The show was very well done. When it was finished, the show girls left and the go go dancers returned. The crew was full of 8′s and 9′s, but there was also a pretty good crowd of customers and I was getting tired. As the clock spun round to 1:30 a.m. I realized that I’d been up since 5:30 in the morning, and tomorrow is a work day. I decided I should head home.

As I walked out of Las Vegas, the next bar is also fairly new — Billboard. I had been there once before and enjoyed it, so I decided to stick my head in again. I walked into the center of the bar. Three girls were completely nude and eating each other’s pussies on the revolving stage. Another crew of 4 girls who looked like university freshmen were all naked and soapy in a jacuzzi — bumping together and soaping each other up.

It was a lively scene, and I almost sat and ordered a drink, but good sense prevailed. I left Nana and went home.

On a few other nightlife area notes:

Robert above asked about Wild Country. Another friend of mine mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago that it is now closed. I watched that friend have virtually the identical experience to Robert one night… lady drinks for the older girls, blow job under the table in return, and one of the older hookers saying that she was the model for the painting. It must be the standard program.

Walking by Apache Beer bar in Soi Cowboy yesterday it was closed and the shutter pulled down, with construction materials piled out front. Apache is gone.

For 24-hour eating, the little square where Sunrise Tacos is now has an American “1950′s diner” in the back part of the complex. It’s been there for a few months and is open all day every day. I noticed that the original Sunrise Taco takeaway shop is now a french place, though it wasn’t open late at night. The new Sunrise Tacos on the opposite side of the parking lot is always busy, and open all the time.

And for cheap drinks in Nana Plaza, The Balcony Bar, located at the top of the escalator in front of Mandarin Go Go Bar has a big banner up advertising a 59-baht special on all drinks all night long. I didn’t try it, so not sure of the deal, but it seems like a good option if you want a quick cheap drunk in the Plaza.

[This was originally a comment provided by Raider and with his permission is presented as a post. Thanks for the excellent report Raider. - BDK]

Nana Plaza was another story: Lolipop, Pretty Lady, the Rainbow Bars (to name a few) had plenty of good looking girls. Unlike Soi Cowboy, of the 10 or so bars I stuck my head in I would have stayed for a few drinks in 8 of them. The only thing missing were the attitudes (in a good way). During the few nights I was out with a couple guys I know, we noticed that Soi 4 has a better vibe than Cowboy. There’s a more interesting assortment of characters on Soi 4 that makes hanging out at a place like Big Dogs and shooting the breeze with friends more fun. Then you have the many new pool bars and beer bars up and down the Soi that gives you more to do and explore. If you’re hungry and want something different, there’s a guy running a cart with 2 giant skewers of meat selling gyro’s near the entrance of Nana Plaza that you may want to add to your rotation of chicken/beef kabobs, fruits and the bug cart.

I’ve read several stories predicting the demise of the bar industry on Soi 4 should Nana Plaza close. I don’t see it happening. There’s so much available real estate for bars, pubs, restaurants and gogos to be developed. The development outside Nana Plaza has been moving fairly quickly during a time that business has not been good. Look at the bottom 1/2 of the Soi where there are very few night life venues. That area is larger than all of Soi Cowboy and if developed I can imagine what it will look like in another 2-3 years. I just see more new places opening in the area, whether Nana Plaza closes or not.

Speaking of closing, those of you who like Apache Beer Bar best get your last few drinks while you can. A friend who frequents the place told me it’s closing down in the next couple days. Apparently the Beer Bar theme isn’t working. When I was there last night a couple girls confirmed they’re closing down and the girls are moving to Shadow Bar and Wongs. One girl said it would be reopening bigger and better as a gogo bar with the bar next door. At least that’s what I thought she was telling me. She may well have been telling me she wanted to go with me and the girl in the gogo next door as for whatever reason she was quite wasted.