How I Became A Go Go Bar Manager In Bangkok

Hi, I’m John, a 42-year-old man from a town called Shirebrook near Mansfield in the East Midlands.

I’d first like to say how much my friend Ray and I enjoy listening to all your stories.

My story is rather long, as I’ve been going to Thailand since November 2009, and obviously, back then, I was only 30.

Heading To Australia On A Work Visa

It was the time of the financial crisis, and as a self-employed plasterer, there wasn’t a lot of work around due to the housing market slowing down.

I was working in Mansfield at a fire door production factory.

I had recently broken up from a long-term relationship in 2007, feeling a little insecure and very bored with this factory job.

A few of my newfound work friends at the factory also wanted a little more from life than making fire doors for a living in boring Mansfield.

We all regularly chatted about getting a work visa for another country and leaving this dull factory life behind.

All four of us decided we wanted to go to Australia to work, so we applied for work and holiday visas, and we all got accepted.

Stopping Off In Thailand For A Short Holiday

I was very excited about the whole new experience I was going to have.

I started doing some research about having a holiday stop on the way.

One of the guys had already been to Thailand before but not for a long period and had told me a few stories about the kingdom.

Our departure day of November 9th, 2009, had finally arrived.

We flew Thai Airways.

Three of us had never flown long-haul before, so we made the most of it with all the free drinks and stuff.

We met a guy on the aircraft also going to Thailand but with a lot more experience than us.

He told us lots of stories about Thailand, the bars, the girls, and how to treat the Thai people respectfully.

To be honest, I did not find out until being in Thailand for several days, but a lot of the guy’s advice was pure fantasy rather than fact.

The First Time In Bangkok Is Unreal

We arrived in Bangkok and made our way to our hotel, which was located near Khao San Road.

I don’t think anybody will ever forget that first feeling of walking out of the heavily air-conditioned airport into Bangkok and into an almost furnace of heat, humidity, and pollution.

Still, we had arrived in Bangkok.

Like any other newbies, we made some mistakes.

Firstly, being talked into booking an expensive airport limo—live and learn.

After reaching the hotel, we got showered, changed, and headed off to the famous Khao San Road.

Thailand Had Everything

The feeling was like no other—the sounds and the smells of the street food.

Even though one of the group had been to Thailand before, as I mentioned earlier in the story, we fell for the old tuk-tuk scam to the ping pong shows.

That was mistake number two.

I’ve heard many nightmare stories about those venues, about people getting ripped off for thousands of baht.

But we actually had a great time and never got bothered once while we were there.

Our first three days in Bangkok were really good, both the daytime and, of course, the nights where we went out partying.

In the day, we went out visiting the temples and doing all the touristy things you do in a new city.

On our last night in Bangkok, we decided to go for a nice meal in a restaurant near our hotel on Rambutri.

I’m sure a lot of your listeners will know the one, right at the start of the street that has all lit up with the Thai-style lanterns outside.

Asking A Thai Waitress To Join Us

We sat down for dinner, where we were met by a beautiful Thai serving girl who looked no older than 18 but was actually about 27.

We continued to enjoy our evening with lots of food and lots of Chang beer.

All four of us were flirting with the Thai girl that worked there and asked her to join us for the night when she had finished work.

She accepted, and we hit Khao San Road for the third and final night in Bangkok.

It was a usual crazy night with lots of Chang beer and lots of Thai food.

The night finally came to an end, and I found myself with this beautiful Thai girl in some random hotel lobby drinking beer while she was eating Thai food.

Adventures in Thai Hospitality

We ended up getting a room in this hotel as I was sharing a room back at my hotel and wanted some privacy for the upcoming bedroom fun.

We had a great evening, and she never asked me for anything, which I thought was great.

If this is Thailand, I can live with it.

Not spending too much money was not to last, however.

Many thousands of baht have exchanged hands since then.

I guess I got lucky and being much younger than today, I probably looked a bit more appealing to the girls than I do today.

Island Hopping Adventures with a New Friend

The following afternoon, but before we left, I popped into the restaurant and exchanged Facebook contact details with my new girlfriend from last night.

We visited Koh Samui, Phuket, and Phi Phi Island.

We joined in all of the full moon and half-moon parties.

It was great fun.

Back then, I wouldn’t dream of doing that stuff now.

It was all fun to me back then.

From Thailand to Australia

After four weeks of what had been the absolute best time of my life, meeting and making friends with lots of people, and some who I still keep in contact with today, it was time to fly on to Australia.

We landed in Sydney, and I was feeling very sad at leaving Thailand.

There I was in an amazing city like Sydney, and all I wanted to do was to get back on a flight straight back to Bangkok.

Nonetheless, I went with the flow of the group and continued to enjoy my time in Australia.

We spent three weeks in Sydney enjoying Christmas and New Year on Darling Harbour.

We then rented a camper van and drove to Melbourne, driving along the coast, stopping off at a number of places to spend the night.

We all enjoyed the beautiful southeast coastline of Australia.

From Budget Woes to Unexpected Work

My funds were getting very low at this point, and as I arrived in Melbourne and having paid for a week’s rent in a hostel, my funds had finally run out.

I went to an internet cafe across the road, as smartphones weren’t really around that much back then.

I searched online for a job and luckily started work the next morning.

The job scene was much better back then than it is today.

I was enjoying my time in Australia, but I could not get Thailand out of my mind.

I just wanted to be back there.

The Australian girls are stunning, but I’m not the most handsome man on the planet, so I never really stood a chance of getting together with a beautiful Australian girl.

Australia’s Outback and Job Hunts

Around this time, most of our group of guys from Nottingham had agreed to split up and go their separate ways.

After a few months of installing loft insulation in Melbourne and earning a very good salary, I had managed to save a little money and was planning another camping trip up to Darwin.

It was a huge shock to the system coming from Thailand where 20 pounds can go a long way if you’re careful, compared to Australia, where it is very expensive for everything.

Me and another guy headed up to Darwin, again stopping off and camping along the way.

We had another amazing time experiencing the Australian Outback with all its wildlife, totally different to England.

And all the time, never forgetting about Thailand and constantly talking about Bangkok at every opportunity that I could.

Again, I was getting very low on funds, so I started looking for another job.

From Backpacker to Pearl Diver in Darwin

Someone mentioned a couple of pearl boat companies in Darwin but had said you don’t stand much chance of getting a job with them as every backpacker in town is after the same job.

Nonetheless, me and one of the other guys tried our luck and headed off to the office of the pearl boat company.

We walked in, and the guy at the desk asked what we wanted.

“A job” we replied.

It was then that the phone rang, and the guy at the desk continued to have a conversation with a man on the other end of the phone.

Just before he hung up, he asked if they were going to replace the two backpackers that had recently been sacked for stealing pearls.

He put the phone down and said, “This is your lucky day, boys. When can you start?”

This job was just what I was looking for: six weeks on, three weeks off.

And on my three weeks off, I was going to fly back to Thailand.

his job wasn’t just ideal for me to get back to Thailand; it was one of the best experiences of my life working in the Northern Territory on a boat in shark-infested waters.

The wildlife was unbelievable.

Reuniting with Southeast Asia

So, the first break I got, I sailed back to Darwin and booked the first flight to Phuket via Singapore.

I had to spend the night in Singapore, which I didn’t mind at all, as it’s a beautiful city with lots of fun things to do.

While working on the boat, I made friends with a really cool German guy named Marcel.

I introduced him to Thailand for the first time, and we returned on every break we had.

After a year of being away, I returned to the UK.

I started back at work in the UK and saved up to go back and travel some more.

I was always interested in going back to tour Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

So after a few months of saving up, I flew back to Bangkok and had some more trips planned in Southeast Asia.

Embracing New Opportunities in Phuket

Vietnam and Laos were great fun, but I couldn’t wait to get back to Thailand.

The Thai girl I told you about earlier in the story, who we had met in a restaurant, had now moved to Phuket and opened up her own little travel shop.

You know the type, they’re all over Thailand for booking your trips to the islands, bus, boat, and train tickets, and so on.

We had kept in touch all this time on Messenger, and she offered me a job working in the travel shop.

I was interested in staying in Thailand for a longer period of time and thought this could be a good opportunity to do that.

Living on a Shoestring in Thailand

I made my way to Phuket by bus, as I was again getting a little low on funds.

After finding an apartment and paying for a month’s rent near the travel shop, I was literally broke.

I wasn’t really worried about this, as I was making a little bit of money at the travel shop, just enough to eat and drink.

It wasn’t about partying at this point; it was just about staying in Thailand and living the Thai lifestyle.

I was probably the poorest farang in Thailand at this point, but I didn’t care.

It was just great to be there and wake up every morning in the country I’d love so much.

I was also waiting for a tax return that was being processed from my time working in Australia, so I knew eventually I would receive about 1,500 pounds transferred to my UK bank account.

I was living on around two to three hundred baht per day, but having the best time of my life.

From Travel Shop to Bar Job

I didn’t really enjoy working in the travel shop, as the Thai girl I was working for didn’t really have the same happy-go-lucky attitude she had when we first met in Bangkok.

In fact, she’d turned into a real misery and wasn’t pleasant to work for.

After finishing work one day, I decided to have a walk down Bangla Road and see if I could find some other kind of job.

Most of the bar owners laughed at me when I asked them for work, but I continued to try.

I decided to turn up a soi off Bangla Road called Soi Sea Dragon.

I’m sure a lot of your listeners will know the street.

I walked slowly up the soi, just looking for a friendly-faced bar owner to approach, when I came to a bar called the Coney Bar.

A Chance Encounter Leads to Opportunity

The bar was covered with balloons, with food laid out, as it was one of the girl’s birthdays.

The owner of the bar invited me to sit down and eat, so I did, and I ordered a drink.

The owner came and sat with me and asked all the usual questions: What’s your name? What have you got planned for the night?

I replied, “I’m looking for a job.”

Looking at me a little confused, she asked, “A job? But you’re a farang. Why do you want a job?”

After explaining my situation to her, she said, “You’re serious, aren’t you? I’ll try to help you. Wait one minute.”

I carried on drinking my beer, not expecting anything spectacular to develop.

Gogo Bar Manager

When the lady returned with an Asian guy, I first thought he was Thai, but after speaking with him, he told me he was Malaysian and he owned four gogo bars in Soi Sea Dragon and was looking for an English-speaking manager.

I told him I would be interested.

So began to follow him inside one of his gogo bars.

We walked inside, and as you would expect, around 20 scantily clad girls were dancing on stage.

I thought, “Oh, my Christmases, I had come at once.”

He showed me around a little and said, “You can start tonight if you like.”

Gogo Bar Insights

I worked there for about three months all in all, and it was an awesome experience.

I was still very new to Thailand at this point, but this job taught me a lot about what goes on with the girls and how they have numerous farang sending them cash.

I literally witnessed every scenario with these girls in the time I spent there.

But I had lots of fun, and all the girls made me feel very welcome.

I actually still keep in touch with a couple of them to this day.

A Salary of Experience and a Holiday with Loved Ones

My salary was laughable if I’m honest, just nine thousand baht a month, but I wasn’t there for the money.

It was all about the experience.

As soon as the tax rebate I spoke of earlier in the story was debited into my account, I finished the job and enjoyed three weeks’ holiday.

And of course, I went on to spend time with my favorite girl in the bar.

I’d been watching her for the last three months, but she had been off-limits to me as I worked in the gogo bar.

Since 2009 and my first time leaving Europe, I’ve been all around the world and would say travel is by far my biggest passion.

I have plans to go to many more countries and want to experience many more adventures, but Thailand will always be my go-to place.

After all the countries I have visited, Thailand is by far my favorite country.

No disrespect to any other country, but Thailand is just something else.

I also introduced Thailand to my father at 60 years old, and let’s just say after endless amounts of advice before his first trip, he made every rookie mistake in the book.

But that’s another story.