It’s 5:30 pm in Bangkok as I’m polishing off a couple beer Chang’s and a plate of chicken and rice at Mikes Corner bar and Restaurant. Mikes is an open air spot at the end of soi 18, Sukhumvit Road. I’ve been here before, for no other reason than I just end up here. As before I’m looking at the “Maxims Inn” sign – proclaiming “quality, budget accommodations and good food” and wondering if I’m really in Mikes or Maxims? Kind of like when you see a cat staring at the wall and you wonder what they are thinking, that’s me on beer chang.

The cat analogy fits well because at the time a cat was messing around under my chair. This is Thailand and maybe a Buddhist thing but cats and dogs seem to be welcome everywhere and of course restaurants are especially popular hangouts for them. In the process of disentangling the cat I glanced across to the Tequila Dragon Bar and lost interest in the sign dilemma and the cat and to see 8 bar girls sitting out in front of the bar. Preparing for the evening with a bar set up off bottles of Mekong whisky and cokes. My beer Chang drained I wonder over to be greeted with “Welcome, please come in”, and my night begins.

Sukhumvit is one of the main roads in Bangkok and off of it on the soi’s is where the action is. A soi is like a side street off a main road but instead of having individual names, are numbered, odd on one side and even on the other. The main action spots are on Soi’s but are not know by name, Soi Nanna and soi Cowboy but wonder down most and you’ll find some thing happening.