Iraq: The view from Washington - Washington Square that is

April 08, 2003

Iraq: The view from Washington - Washington Square that is - Bangkok Thailand

Washington Square, Bangkok Thailand, while central, is a bit off the beaten track for the mass of business travelers and tourists that invade Bangkok daily. Business people tend to congregate around the Silom area and visit the up market trendy bars and restaurants. The horny toad brigade, intent on injecting thousands of dollars into Thailand's black economy in a fortnightly annual illicit splurge of hedonism prefer the well known 'entertainment' areas such as the slowly decaying and pricey Patpong and Nana girlie and go-go bars for Westerners and the traditionally highly priced 'traps for those who can't keep their dick under control' such as 'Japanese Patpong' or similar areas for Koreans, Chinese, or locals.

Washington Square however, is an eclectic mix of attractions that still keeps it's 'neighbourhood' atmosphere. Most famous on the square is the well known "Bourbon St" American restaurant - always a leader in our Best Restaurants in Asia survey and boasting a long time regular patronage of mainly US expat families and businesspeople, attracted to its home-style Louisiana-inspired cajun-creole menu. Second most famous is a largish completely "on the board" (no-extras) massage parlour, well known for its 500 Baht massages and its mainly Thai local regulars who pop in and out from the back seats of chaeffeur-driven Mercedes and Volvos. A recent addition is the famous Mambo Katoey show that relocated from down the road and took over the ageing Washington Cinema, attracting bus loads of almost exclusively East Asian tour groups nightly.

Look beneath the surface however, and you get a rare treat. It's a glimpse into the Bangkok of yore, before cheap air travel delivered increasingly larger amounts of short timer tourists into the wider mix. For scattered around the square are a dozen or so small "foreigner" bars frequented by a colorful variegated bunch of local regulars featuring veteran journalists and media, bankers and stock brokers jaded with their stock of over-priced trendy cafes and restaurants, CIA spooks, ex-Soi Cowboy bar owners whose Thai wives divorced them and took off with the money, ex US policeman and retired crims, poorly paid English teachers, and traders.

But clearly the dominant demographic is ex US military, many who have made Bangkok their home and never really went back to the US from the Vietnam (or even Korean) wars. With a war pension, you can just about live comfortably supporting a local wife who is smart enough to eschew the short time glamour of down the road apiece and kids during the day, and imbibing 50 Baht draft beers with mates at night time. Thailand remains one of the closest allies to the US for security purposes, reflected in one way by the various benefits offered to American citizens in particular to establish businesses or reside in Thailand.

There are still the ubiquitous bar-girls of course, somewhat older though no less attractive. As one told me, for I am indeed one of the regulars for the last 8 years, these bars are for customers "who know too much", and she added - also for staff who "know too much". They will "go with you" if they like you, but its a rare occurrence compared to the more well known flesh-spots. The trade here can better be characterised as "company" for "ladies drinks". Customers come here not for boom-boom but mostly to spin yarns with other customers. ...OK, so it's a boys place...

During my time in these establishments, I have experienced old diggers jumping on the bar reciting verse for verse a fiery rendition of all stanzas of the "Legend of Gunja Din" to an appreciative cheering crowd. A weather and experience-worn Australian did the same for "The man from Snowy River". I've sat down to hear war stories aplenty, from recounting of famous Vietnam battles, to seeing tears stream down the face of a vet who survived the Vietnam war, only to see his mates gunned down by bar-girls at a GI bar in the old Saigon when the war was, for all intents and purposes, well over. I've heard, though never can truly experience, the horrors of war and the efforts still being made to bring back POWS in Indo China. One of the bars, though now renovated and featuring a bar that no longer sags at 45 degrees due to years of bar leaning, used to sport a crude sign at the entrance enscribed "the Oliver North Shrine".

Customers can bring their own CDs these days, so the prevalence of ALL kinds of music (Country AND Western) can be toned down. Yes, Hank Williams, Chet Atkins, and Hank Williams are still heroes down this way. At one bar, regularly "ringing the bell" results in being able to dominate the background music and turn it up to "11". Luckily a couple of these regulars, an Indian merchant seaman and a US military man share my own and other's tastes. Lou Reed, Leadbelly, Muddy Waters, BB King, and even old Irish folk tunes and the OZ classic "The pub with no beer" are favourites.

I've attended scores of birthday, Christmas, and Independence day parties here over the years where the bar owners put on free food and sometimes drinks, and sometimes, with the encouragement of a few "ladies drinks", one of the more lively staff may be cajoled into doing a giggly though more clothed and far more entertaining version of the go-go entertainment being offered to short-time tourists down the road. In a city better known for fantasies, Washington Square features real people - and real stories.

Over the last few weeks the variously aging or brand new big screen TVs - depending on the establishment - have been broadcasting images from the Iraq war constantly, apart from one bar where the staff insist the tellie should be tuned to the "Animal Planet" Channel at every opportunity.

The view on the Iraq war from Washington - Washington Square that is - Bangkok Thailand - is at once predictable and surprising.

There is much agreement on the 'need' or 'justification' for the US triggering a war that many thought unnecessary for example. After all many regulars here have suffered from risking their lives and seeing mates lost in the cause of 'freedom' and 'democracy'. The various protestors are generally viewed with disdain, for after all, what can you know about the complexities of life and war at a young age from very protected backgrounds? Old diggers avert their eyes when the Iraqi information minister makes his frequent propaganda appearances, and many wonder why CNN even allow it to be broadcast.

There is little appreciation for the long term implications of the war however - of the views of commentators on the APMF for example that see grave dangers in a new world order governed by the most powerful state rather than a consensus of all - and of a possible Muslim backlash.

Many laugh off the "entrenched reporter in the battlefield" reality TV as being nothing of the sort, causing armchair viewers to think they have experience real war and conflict, while it is in fact offering a very sanitised peripheral view of war. Many wonder about the credibility of the "armchair strategists" featured on the TV.

However, the ex military here have also grown wiser with age. They recognise US and co-alition propaganda as well, but see it as justified for the greater good. But most of all this wisdom is reflected by a significant number in a genuine sorrow that war is now upon us again. There are no smarty-pants humourous comments in Washington Square about the Iraq war. War is a serious thing, and these men - much more than others - know it and have experienced it.

There will be no mass celebrations at Washington Square when the self-annointed warriors for freedom, democracy and anti-terrorism prevail eventually in Iraq. There will be more likely be quiet gratification that the war has ended, gratitude to those who have continued the fight for the "American way", and that the world, in their eyes, is once more a safer place...

Chao Phraya River Rat in Asian News on April 08, 2003 11:22 AM

Sponsor APMF Member

Comments

Enjoyed reading this piece as I intend to visit Bangkok soon.

My plan is to stay at the Bourbon Street hotel for a couple of months while I get a lay of the land and decide whether or not I will stay.

Also thought of using GI bill to learn some Thai at one of the universities there (surprisingly that has been done before). I am retired US military, an expat and have been living abroad most of my life. Currently living in Panama and it is time for a change.

If you have any advice or comments on my plan, I really do appreciate any insight which you could provide.

I look forward to visiting Washington Square, drinking beer and listening to both kinds of music. Although, I too am a blues fan.

Regards,

Dave Walker

Posted by: David Walker on June 8, 2003 01:47 AM

Myself a "Squaronian" of nearly 10 years standing, owner/ webmaster of a site obstensibly devoted to all of Bangkok but in reality centered upon Washington Square (near or in which I have lived and worked my entire time here), and publisher of a highly erratic humorous newsletter about Squaronian Foibles, I truly appreciated this piece. It captures the truth about the very nature of Squaronians excellently, a comment I feel well-qualified to make as I type in the Square's famous Texas Lone Staar Bar in the company of the owner, Big George -- himself legendary after 40 years in Bangkok -- and American Army retiree Burt, late of the artillery and a 5-tour veteran of Vietnam.

I'll be reading here again, and mentioning this column in particular in my own column on my web site. Great writing here. (Another comment I feel qualified to make, after teaching nonfiction writing at university level for nearly 20 years.)

Mekhong Kurt

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