I remember coming across Stickman around the time I was preparing my first trip to Thailand – back in 2003 (and what a life changing trip it was!) At that time, Mr. Stick himself had been in the LOS for 5-odd years, was still laboring by day as a teacher and his weekly dispatches were, to me, somewhat funny and illuminating for the lifestyle in the (then) exotic country.
How, and why, Stickman has changed over the years might be an interesting story unto itself, but this is not what I am interested in right now; starting with the mid-2000’s and peaking in about 2009, a whole series of Bangkok-based blogs cropped up, and I was a devotee (and very rare contributor) of most. Followers of the “Asian circuit” (to use Karl Taro Greenfeld’s phrase) would certainly be aware of Bangkok Bad Boy, Werewolf, Bangkok A To Z, the Big Mango, Dean Barrett, Bangkok Eyes, Pattaya Days or even Morally Diminished; and there are others I can’t even recall now.
With my frequent trips to (and then living full time in) Thailand, I got to know most of the faces behind the blogs, and most of the pseudonymous posters. Many became friends, drinking buddies, or Thailand/Indonesia/Singapore adventure partners. They were from all over the world and having such an exclusive group of friends, whom I would meet on occasion, in one of Bangkok’s venues or another, and share our “secret” knowledge, certainly made for an interesting double life. I remember wondering at the time how come Bangkok had such a vibrant “blogger” life whereas other cities such as Jakarta didn’t have that much going on (Blog M? then Warren’s Singapore for the city state), despite offering an expat lifestyle not dissimilar to Bangkok’s.
Sure, for the most part, these blogs were dealing with girls, partying, nights out, alternative/”designer” lifestyles, but also were on occasion venues for serious multicultural discussions, and they played no small part in encouraging me to move to Asia eventually. For someone like me who until then had only met people moving in one direction (Eastern Europe à Western Europe or USA) the idea that people would actually move to unfathomable Asia wasn’t even on the map; until I met such people and realized we had a lot in common.
But good things don’t last forever, and over a 12-18 month period starting in 2009, most of these blogs went away. Today, only Stickman (slightly boring and not so readable anymore, but perhaps it is I who changed) and A To Z (but Kurt’s focus has always been on the Washington Square crowd, which I never found interesting; and his site is a mess to read – not that Stickman’s is any better!) and Pattaya Days are still active (and perhaps some new ones I am not aware of). Here is what I think happened:
- (at least) 2 feuds started in the virtual realm that became very real (the Mango boys vs BigBabyKenny, and Stickman vs NotStickman). I think the BKK blogosphere had been “innocent” until that point, and these nasty, and long-dragging fights (some of which ended up in court and with very real threats) opened people’s eyes to the dangers of the written word. People all of a sudden realized their virtual personas could negatively affect their real jobs and lives;
- Thailand’s unending troubles (yellow shirts, red shirts, and now floods) sombered the moods of many expats who found they were not immune to real life drama in this otherwise most welcoming country. People traveled less to Thailand, those with businesses in the country found themselves in trouble, and the overall mood just wasn’t what it had been. Maybe Mr Norris felt the same way in 30’s Berlin, or those last Westerners out of Shanghai in 1937. Open, free cities do fall prey to dark forces and happy times vanish;
- The world crisis itself made people worry about other things and made the easy times in Bangkok seem unreal.
Some people moved on, most stopped blogging altogether and went on with their lives, in and out of Thailand. Don’t get me wrong. Troubles or not, life is still good in Bangkok. There still are many foreigners who live happily in the shadow of the Baiyoke tower, and who don’t blog, don’t necessarily go to Soi Cowboy; and a lot more Westerners seem to have found their way semi-permanently to Asia, to Bangkok and other places. So perhaps the “exclusive” club of Bangkok-based farangs “in the know” isn’t that exclusive anymore, and a new breed of Westerner, with a different profile, is the typical farang in Bangkok.
Will the Bangkok bloggers return? Perhaps the true question is, will Bangkok ever become what it briefly was, a Paris in the ‘20’s, Berlin in the early ‘30’s, or Shanghai in the late ‘30’s? Or has it gone too somber or too upmarket? I don’t know, but I am curious to find out; as for me, I still find it an immensely freeing city, although I’m certain that the me who is in Bangkok nowadays isn’t the same me who took that wide-eyed first walk at midnight around Asoke in March of 2003.
