Trip Report 6: Night Club Photos, Soi Twilight

A panorama view towards Suriwongse Road from our table at Maxi's on what's commonly known as Soi Twilight

A Soi Twilight tout invites me
upstairs to his club

After his detour through Bangkok Nursing Hospital earlier in the day my friend Ben was both weakened and weary, but around 18:00/6:00pm informed me that the siren song of the clubs had been powerful enough to drag him out into the night - and let's hurry up about it, thank you very much.

I reminded him that the siren songs of olden times weren't a positive force; in Greek lore they came from females who enticed passing sailors to stray off course close enough to their islands that they'd wreck their ships on the rocky shore, but evidently he was already under the spell.

As for me, I was rested and in fine form, so when my office worker friend arrived we were both happy to go out for dinner and an evening of people watching with him.  Knowing I'd be busy out and about with Ben I'd more or less put my usual rounds of interviews on hold for at least the first couple of weeks of the trip, but that was fine as it freed up more time to take pictures.

Available light photography has interested me for years, and although I don't have anything close to a fine digital SLR instrument I've come to accept that I can practice and learn with most anything that will allow longer exposures. I'm also encouraged that what are lauded as "excellent photos" on some sites actually aren't, so although my images are sometimes hit-and miss in my own eye I'm not all that far afield.

The three of us made our way from the Sala Daeng BTS station to dinner at Maxi's, where we sat and enjoyed a mild breeze until it was opening time and Ben was ready to make a beeline to the Tawan Club on Soi Thantawan. We walked along with him and went in for a drink. I had no interest in staying long, so I reminded him of his doctor's advice before my Thai friend and I left him to his wiles, going out to try taking a few more images of the area.

Originally there were to be four of us coming to Thailand this trip for a conference, but two had to cancel out close to our departure date, so the two days booked in Bangkok weren't spent seeing the Grand Palace and other newbie sites, but it had been a pleasant stopover, regardless; even with the hospital stop.

My friend and I took our time walking back to the BTS station, stopped at a 7-Eleven for water and a couple of other things and returned to my room for the night. Tomorrow Ben and I would be making the scheduled move to Pattaya, and I wanted some rest.

One last thing today. Please remember that merely because someone appears in a photo taken in a public place (such as the club area featured today)  it's by no means fair to imply anything about their beliefs or lifestyle, any more than a photo of me in a mosque makes me a follower of the Muslim faith.