Boozing in Thailand this week!

[Fred O'Lisby]

I am on vacation for a week in Bangkok! It's raining though, so I am at the hotel going online. I posted a while back about drinking in Korea (http://www.drunkard.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=60635) so this is kind of a short follow up. Basically I haven't been here long enough to get that saturated into the culture/drinking options, but they seem more limited than in the west and Northeast Asia. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of drinking going on here. Beer is pretty popular, and most beer brands are imported from China, Japan, or the west. Of course the local brews are the most common. Singha and Chang are pretty decent macro brews and go for about $1 a can/bottle at 7-11 (which is everywhere). Thailand has some weird laws about when alcohol can be purchased. You can only buy at bars midnight - 11am, and strangely enough 2-5pm.

For locals the most popular and cheapest option is Thai "Whiskey." Thai whiskey is actually spiced rum made from rice it goes for about $3/.350 liter and is 70-80 proof. The more common of the two major brands is Hong Thong, which is a little weaker and more flavorful. Samm Song is not bad either, but a bit harsh for drinking neat. I had the pleasure of downing a few bottles of Hong Thong with some crazy middle age guys on the street yesterday. Between 4 people we shared one drinking vessel, the bottom of a plastic coke bottle - turned shot glass. Proper etiquette is to pour out the first cap-full for your ancestors ("One for my dead homies" as we sometimes say in the States.) A couple of popular ways to drink this stuff are mixed with soda water (my favorite option) or a syrupy energy drink. There is apparently a clear version of Thai whiskey, but it's harder to find.

So, what to do when you're drunk? EAT! Real Thai food is amazing and super cheap. Tourist restaurants can cost almost as much as they would in America. Restaurants with air conditioning and actual Thai food run about $3, and you can eat a decent portion of street food at a plastic table for $1. The variety is mind blowing, and the flavors are very strong and aromatic. They use a lot of fresh vegetables, lemon grass, peppers, herbs, pork (yes!), and whatever else looks and smells good. I also had Durian for the first time, which was good, but apparently Thai Durian is a watered down commercial species compared to what grows wild in Indonesia (think of it as the Iceberg Lettuce of Durian). It's a bit lighter and fruitier than the real deal. Still good though.

Other things: Thai people are really friendly, even if they aren't selling you something. Many Thai people speak some English, even poor people. Tuk-Tuk drivers get paid commission for taking you to overpriced stores, so take a cab. Cabs start at $1 for the first 2 kilometers. Massage parlors are everywhere, and legitimate ones are quite cheap. You can get a one hour foot massage for like $6. "Special" massages cost more, but how should I know how much, I'm being a good boy (really~). The temples are cool. Hotels are super cheap. My room is $35/night for a 4-star hotel and complimentary breakfast. I had poached eggs, French toast, creamed spinach, bacon, and melon slices this morning. Thailand is hot. It's September and the highs are mostly in the low 90's. It's a good place to buy clothes as well. Cheap tailors are everywhere, t-shirts can be had for about $3, and there is plenty of fake name brand stuff.

[Negromancer]

Hey, that was an interesting read, especially as I hope to visit Thailand withing the next couple of years. My girlfriend is half Thai(or rather; her mother is half thai/ half chinese), and she makes amazing food(Traditional Thai AND Traditional Norwegian), I barely understand a word she says though, so I usually just go "Yes, mhm? Uh-huh? oh!" When she talks. I'm fascinated by their culture of ancestor worship and regard for animistic spirits, which I consider a good thing. I tried making my wench bring me whatever thai booze she could get her hands on when they visited their family this summer. She didn't want to though as she, like my mother, don't want to encourage me to drink... I think actually I would have had better luck asking her father instead, as he's (aparently) a great drunkard. But then again he would probably take his share of tax-free booze for himself.

[Fred O'Lisby]

I barely understand a word she says though, so I usually just go "Yes, mhm? Uh-huh? oh!" When she talks.

Haha, I know what you mean! In a situation like that one thing that helps to keep an electronic translator on you. Fortunately, as with most Korean phones mine has a built in translator for 한굴 to English. The girl I'm seeing in Seoul speaks pretty well, but yeah... language barriers can be difficult. Specially texting, as that's confusing enough with other native speakers.

[Mayhem]

I've only been to Phuket, and I can't remember much.

[ThirstyDrunk]

Sounds like fun, and cheap! Nice write up there, Led Frisby.

I want a Tuk-Tuk.

and I want some Hong Thong, and some Samm Sung

and King Kong went to Hong Kong to play ping-pong with his ding dong

[Fred O'Lisby]

UPDATE: White "Whiskey"


I am going to try out the Thai white whiskey (rum) right now, having braced myself with one large and strong beer over dinner (with ice strangely enough). I have been able to find very little info and no picture on this drink online, except that is either made from rice or molasses and varies between 28%-40% abv. There is absolutely no English on the bottle, and it's about half the price of the gold colored stuff I mentioned earlier. No ice in the room, so let's try...

Neat: NO NO NO NO GOD NO! ugh :( That's terrible. This one is not full strength, but maybe if it were the alcohol taste would cut out what is clearly molasses and not rice. No wonder no one in the west would drink this. Just... terrible. Usually with molasses the kind of bitter,strong, and unique "molasses" taste is balanced out by massive amounts of sugar. The sugar in this case has fermented to booze, and no longer softens that punch. I'm not a liquor snob, I made it through college on McCormick's various offerings and gladly swill all of the various rice drinks liqours from around the east, but this is on the short list of things I won't drink. Perhaps the only thing I won't drink so far that is not sickeningly sweet or just plain gay.

W/ Soda water: Still bad, dilution does little to help this. If you're looking for a good way to slow down your progress over the night, this may be it. It's like switching to the cheapest cigarettes you can find, and then asking for menthol.

W/ Thai vitamin/maybe energy drink: The mixer is really syrupy, to the extent that it sits even more poorly in the stomach, but changes the taste from bad to just weird and not good.

In summary, this is one of the more unusual drinks I've had. Much more interesting and terrible than the gold whiskey. The good news is that this is hitting a lot harder than I thought it would, and it costs about $1.66 for a 350ml. I've read a rumor that there is poppy seed in this kind, but no reliable evidence. Well, anyway, hope your drinking something nice, and drink one for me.

Seriously, someone have a 20 year scotch on the rocks for me. plz!

[Negromancer]

Great research! I haven't really had any asian booze except for the pale lagers, and some strange green tea beer that was gruesome. I've tasted some of the soft drinks though, and some of them are sickly sweet. And they obviously have some obsession with having things floating around in it, like coconut pulp in the coconut drinks, which is okay- I can dig that. But what's with those extremely sugary drinks with fucking jelly floating around in it?!

[Fred O'Lisby]

Great research! I haven't really had any asian booze except for the pale lagers, and some strange green tea beer that was gruesome. I've tasted some of the soft drinks though, and some of them are sickly sweet. And they obviously have some obsession with having things floating around in it, like coconut pulp in the coconut drinks, which is okay- I can dig that. But what's with those extremely sugary drinks with fucking jelly floating around in it?!

Yeah, as far as that goes, there's a nice Korean Aloe Vera drink that has the stuff floating around, except for the sugar it's quite healthy in small doses. Their version of tomato juice/V8 as well as the carrot juice is sickeningly sweet. There was some Thai drink I had off the street that was a sort of green tea slushy with glutinous rice balls in the bottom about the size of the straw, a bit different, but good. Where abouts did that Coconut drink come from?

[Negromancer]

I've seen the Aloe Vera stuff in the stores, but never had the guts to taste it- is it any good? I think the coconut stuff was thai but I'm not sure, my girlfriend recognized some of the products from her visits to Thailand at least, though that doesen't necessarily say it's thai(I don't remember if the writing on the can was thai or not). I do weekly prowls around immigrant grocery stores, looking for cheap and good food and exotic soft drinks, and sometimes when I come across something interesting and weird I give it a try.

[Fred O'Lisby]

I've seen the Aloe Vera stuff in the stores, but never had the guts to taste it- is it any good? I think the coconut stuff was thai but I'm not sure, my girlfriend recognized some of the products from her visits to Thailand at least, though that doesen't necessarily say it's thai(I don't remember if the writing on the can was thai or not). I do weekly prowls around immigrant grocery stores, looking for cheap and good food and exotic soft drinks, and sometimes when I come across something interesting and weird I give it a try.

The Aloe stuff is very good. I think 90%+ of western people would like it. Also try the herbal/grain/mushroom tea called 17 or the less popular brand by Lotte. Corn tea, barley tea, and black bean tea are also decent, but a bit of an acquired taste. Not sure about US availability. Sparkling Cider is worth trying, but just another soft drink when it comes down to it. Kind of a less sweet Mountain Dew. All of these are Korean, not Thai though.

Another booze recommendation is Chinese Er Guo Tou (the pronunciation is nothing like the spelling though), and it requires a mixer for most westerners including myself. Chinese bamboo liqour (which I don't know the name of) is also good. If you are perusing the immigrant stores, you should really pick up some dried squid if it's cheap. Tear it in strips and eat with mayo and maybe some ketchup, perfect with beer, and usually served that way.

Speaking of unfamiliar foods, Bankok's China town is full of it. I barely recognized half the food there. Some things that were recognizable: large slaughtered fish that were still moving, countless dried shrimp, pickled brains (probably pork), and some less unusual fruits. It says something about China, when the Chinatown in Bangkok is clearly the strangest part of town...

[Negromancer]

Thanks for the tip! Here in Norway there is a great deal of asian markets, I wish they would stock more drinks though. My girlfriend isn't much of a fan of the Chinese, for some reason. I don't know if it's because of how her mother raised her or if it's because they eat dog there, the latter might be half the reason though, I've never really gotten a proper explanation for that. Personally I'd love to taste it.

I haven't had squid since I was a kid, so maybe I should check it out. These markets are great for getting stuff you usually don't get in Norwegian stores at all.

I hope that when I finaly get the chance to visit Asia, that it will be something like a tour of it, starting with India and ending up somewhere east of Thailand. How I would find the time and how I would organize it is a completely different matter.