One Night in Bangkok - FD Story
Main lyrics from the song by Murray Head
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me
This was the 4th leg of their journey. For the group of five Americans, coining themselves ‘the Fab 5’, Bangkok represented their last chance at real sexual excitement, for the last stop would simply be a sightseeing of the Buddhist temple at Angkor Wat and then they’d be flying back to Hawaii and from there back to home.
The youthful group had been together now for almost 6 years and some friendships went back farther, prior to high school. What had brought the clique together? Originally, it had been sports – all being soccer players. What kept them together? They shared similar interests and hobbies. This trip marked the group’s second major excursion together – the previous year had been a tour of western Europe’s major cities.
Andy, Carlton, Eddie, Mack and Jujuan had very much enjoyed their eastern Asian vacation adventure. The first stop had been in the Philippines, where they’d spent 2 days in Manila before heading to the white sandy beaches of Borocay and Cebu City, spending 2 nights at each spot. Those nights had been wild.
Next had been Singapore, which was mostly a cultural sight-seeing 3 days to allow them to wind down a bit. They enjoyed Merlion Park, the National Museum and Gallery, and the Marina bay with the futuristic-looking Helix Bridge and the wondrous Gardens by the Bay.
Having recovered their sexual stamina, the group hit Phuket island for 3 days, enjoying the beaches and seaside resorts, spas and restaurants. Patong, in particular, had especially awesome nightlife. They’d also bought a few cool souvenirs to return home with.
As the group walked through the Nana Plaza section on Phloen Chit Road, making for Soi Cowboy, they bragged about their sexual exploits thus far and who had the better selection of women. Carlton was dead set that the Filipina women were the best – in his mind, there could be none better. Mack and Andy were sold on the women from Phuket. As Jujuan listened, he rolled his eyes. He and Eddie had only received a modicum of attention, while the other three had had multiple encounters. In Jujuan’s mind, all cultures had very attractive women. He wasn’t prepared to make a blanket statement on any one particular grouping.
Walking further up the busy and brightly lit street beset with many babes in bikinis, as the others were embroiled in their contentious, but fun debate, Jujuan, who was in the lead, stopped on a dime, causing the others who weren’t paying close attention, to bunch up and walk into his back.
There in bright lights across the street was written in both the native language and in English was Forbidden Dish.
“Holy crap!”, said Eddie, the youngest of the group, “I wasn’t expecting to see one of these here.”
“It must be new”, said Andy, “I was just looking at their locations a few months ago and I didn’t think they had any locations in Asia yet.”
“Well, surprise, surprise”, said Mack, “I bet pretty soon, there will be a Dish in every major city in the world.”
“Wanna go?”, asked Jujuan, tweaking his mustache. The tall, well-built black man bore a striking resemblance to Idris Elba, though without the English accent.
This question brought about several different looks from the others. They all knew about Forbidden Dish, the place where (mostly) men went to hang out with beautiful women prior to getting shrunk down and swallowed. Of course, one had to agree to be shrunk down before that could happen, so plenty of men had survived visits to Forbidden Dish, though the temptations were often dangerous. Still, it was a great place to meet hot women.
“I…I dunno”, said Carlton, nervously.
Mack shifted nervously, staring down at his feet. Andy looked deep in thought.
“Sure…I’ll go”, said Eddie cheerfully. Eddie was the only one who hadn’t been to a Forbidden Dish location. Jujuan nodded to him and looked around at the others.
Andy broke his silence, “Ya know, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. I mean – Soi Cowboy is just down the street a bit. From everything I’ve seen online, the women there are ‘hawt’!”, he emphasized the last word, saying it with panache.
“What are you guys afraid of?”, said Jujuan, smiling, “just a minute ago, y’all were bragging about this girl and that girl. Now, you’re afraid to go into there. Aren’t you curious at all?”
“Curiosity got the cat killed!”, said Mack matter-of-factly, “hey look, if you two wanna go in and check it out, be my guest. Just come over to Soi Cowboy when you’re done looking around.” Mack was the de-facto leader of the group, if there had to be one, and his words held a certain sway with everyone.
“Yep, you guys go ahead Jujuan, we’ll meet up with you after”, Carlton concurred. “I’m sorry, it’s just…I’m a bit nervous to go into those places. Don’t trust myself not to give in to the temptations.”
Listening to Mack and Carlton, Eddie felt a pang of doubt. “Maybe we should just go with the fellas…?”
“Nonsense. Come on, buddy”, Jujuan said, putting his hand on Eddie’s shoulder, “we’re gonna have some fun. We know these guys have had their share already.”
“Go on”, encouraged Andy, “you two have some fun. Be careful. Think with your big heads.”
The group split up, Andy, Carlton and Mack continuing down the street as Jujuan and Eddie looked for a way to cross the street. All felt they had plenty of seed yet to spill.
--
As they approached the entrance, they were aware that, unlike most of the ‘hot’ spots in Bangkok’s more risqué settings, there were no girls standing outside in bikinis set up to recruit men to come inside. Instead, they were met with an ornate thick wooden double-door surrounded by overhanging vines.
Giving each other a glance and a smile, they pulled the door open and entered.
Stepping inside, the two found themselves in a small curtained foyer, where they were met by a tanned, petite brunette at a podium who greeted them. Her nametag read ‘Rose’.
“English?”, she asked, a pleasant smile on her face. They nodded affirmatively.
She spoke fairly good, though a bit halting, English. “You have reservation or come for pleasure?” She emphasized the last word, stretching it out into two syllables.
Eddie and Jujuan had expected to only be in the location for a relatively short period of time before joining their compadres for dinner. “Uh, pleasure”, he said, with Jujuan nodding in agreement.
“Good. You must pay entrance fee to enter. Get one free drink.”
Jujuan gave her a confused look. He hadn’t remembered anything about an entrance fee for Forbidden Dish. Eddie started to get his credit card out.
“Ah…entrance fee?”, said Jujuan.
“Yes. It is $xxxxx”, she instructed, taking Eddie’s card.
“Whoa, that is expensive”, said Jujuan, pushing back, “how come there is an entrance fee? The Forbidden Dish I went to before didn’t charge anything.”
A middle-aged elder Thai lady came out of an apparent side room. She was pleasant looking, though her hair, which was up in a bun, was graying. She spoke to them in perfect English, her voice syrupy in nature. “Can I help you young gentleman?”
Indicating that she was the manager, she explained the reasons behind the entrance fee. She said that this was indeed the newest Forbidden Dish opening and that business was still slight as of yet as they tried to build up a clientele. Things hadn’t quite taken off with the local populace and thus, to offset business expenses, they charged an entrance fee. She explained that she believed the entrance fee would eventually be waived in the coming months, once the tourist industry to which they catered picked up, along with the local women becoming more comfortable with the restaurant and lounge.
As the hostess handed the handsome latin man back his credit card, she took Jujuans card next. The manager waited for the transaction to finish before escorting them into the restaurant proper.
--
It was like a scene out of a lush green jungle: there were plants and potted trees everywhere, the walls covered in greenery, some of exotic variety. The furniture was all made out of wood. There was a lounge area and bar to the side, complete with overhanging vines and foliage. The large dining hall had several rows of circular tables, staggered for spacing, between which fish tanks or terrariums stood, mounted on tables covered by shrubbery. It was like the Rain Forest Café on steroids .
A tang was in the air. It was the distinctive smell of Thai food. The two had eaten their share the previous night and also in Phuket. It had take some getting use to, but they both really enjoyed it now. The only one who hadn’t was Carlton, who was a bit of a picky eater – Thai food seemed to upset him stomach.
“Please make yourself comfortable. Have a seat anywhere, at any open table or at the bar”, said the manager with a warm, but professional, smile, “I’ll have a girl bring you your Confidence shots.”
The two took a seat at an empty table, roughly a third of the tables being vacant. Eddie gave a glance to a waitress walking to the bar, holding a tray and she returned the look with a friendly wink.
As they watched the girl at the bar, they were surprised when a light-skinned Thai girl set a tray down on their table. On it were two large shot glasses filled with a reddish liquid. They looked up to the the girl, who had straight black hair.
“Confidence Shot!”, she announced, then left the table in the opposite direction without another word, going to a table with a family of four, all apparent locals.
Eddie followed the brusque waitress as they drank their shots, watching as she picked a small white object from one of the terrariums and handed it to a local girl, aged 9 or 10. The small girl smiled and popped the object in her mouth, than tilted her head back and swallowed, letting out an ‘ahhhh…”. The waitress said something to her and patted her on the head as she smiled, then walked away.
“That’s pretty good”, said Jujuan, looking at the bottom of the shot glass. It brought Eddie’s attention back from watching the family.
“Yeah”, Eddie agreed, picking up the small menu, “should we get another? Maybe an appetizer?”
“Yes. You like fried Calamari, right?”
“Yep. How about some seaweed?”, Eddie asked, rolling his eyes.
“Uh…no”, said Jujuan, “I see they have some Chili-garlic shrimp.”
“Sounds good. Let’s go with the shrimp and Calamari and another round of shots. Then, maybe we can scope out this place and have some fun. I thought it looked bigger from the outside.”
“I think it is bigger. There’s a lot of area besides just this hall, I suspect.”
They put their order in and then took a look around the restaurant as they waited for a few minutes for their food. It looked to be populated almost exclusively by locals – couples and families – all seeming to enjoy their evening dinners. Looking up at the nearest terrarium, they saw that there were little planks and ladders built within, as if to allow tiny people to live therein and move around, although no tiny was presently within their vision. As they looked around, they caught an occasional passing glance or smile by some of the other servers – there seemed to be 6 to 8 on the floor at any one time. While the servers were quick to respond to their or another customer’s requests, they didn’t seem overly friendly to interact with. It was unlike any Forbidden Dish either of them had been to or heard about before.
They noticed that on the times they attempted to talk to one of the servers, they had attracted the attention of several of the diners. While most stared at them with blank expressions, there were certainly a few frowns mixed in.
“What gives?”, said Eddie
“I dunno”, Jujuan answered. Let’s go have a seat at the bar. The manager’s sitting over there. Maybe we can get a few answers. Otherwise, I say we pay our bill and scootch up the road to meet the guys.”
“Yeah”, Eddie agreed, a tinge of frustration evident in his tone.
The manager was pleasant as she talked with them while sipping on a glass of red wine. She explained that this franchise was recently built and still trying to get their legs under them financially. However, they did cater to the tourist crowd, mentioning that if they want to have fun, they should go visit the special area - the Fantasy Lounge.
"It's what all young foreign boys want”, she purred. She handed them what appeared to be another menu, except this menu listed a series of women, with their pictures and names and specialties. A few were denoted as unavailable this night. One in particular caught Eddie’s attention – a girl who went by the name of ‘Angel’ who’s specialty was ‘wave motion swallowing’.
“I gotta see that”, whispered Jujuan, who gave him an agreeing look, raising both eyebrows, a glint in his eyes.
“I leave you gentleman to it. Just let Dara here know when you’re ready for the Fantasy Lounge and she will get you squared away.” With that, she drank the remainder of her wine and left them with a polite smile.
They took one more round of Confidence Shots, then told Dara they were ready to visit the Fantasy Lounge. She nodded, then bending low, she brought out two small sets of forms and pens from behind the bar which she placed in front of them.
“What’s this?”, asked Jujuan, gesturing with his hands at the papers.
“Must sign form. That is rules – no sign form, no enter special place”, Dara said with a serious expression.
“I dunno man”, said Jujuan, looking at Eddie, who was clearly more ready to sign the forms, not having been to a Forbidden Dish before. “I’m not in the proper mood to get shrunk down.”
“No have to get shrunk”, Dara responded insistently, “form just allow enter.”
That was enough to alleviate Jujuan’s concerns. They signed the forms and, after they gave her a good tip, Dara escorted them down the hall past all the tables and towards another set of curtains.
As she pulled the curtains, back, she motioned them to enter, then gave them a mischievous smile “You see - you want get shrunk” before pulling the curtains closed behind them.
***