Kicking it Old School

Last night I went out with a bunch of friends to a club called 808 on Royal City Avenue (RCA). The one and only Grandmaster Flash was the featured DJ. For those of you too young to remember Grandmaster Flash he was one of the original pioneers of hip-hop and DJ’ing way back in the day. He is also the first hip-hop artist to ever be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

RCA is a little street outside of the main tourist areas filled with nightclubs and discos that’s a favorite amongst the young and beautiful Thai crowd. Clubs are usually overflowing with university students and 20-something Thais. That makes it even more amusing that this old-school hip-hop legend was playing there as I’m sure half the people didn’t even know some of the songs he was playing.

We arrived somewhat early not sure if the event was going to sell out. At 9:30pm we were the first people there and the staff wasn’t quite ready for us. When we asked how much the cover charge was they showed us a flyer saying it was 750 baht or you could purchase a bottle of whiskey and you got 2 free admissions. If I remember correctly it was 3500 baht for one bottle or 4000 baht for two bottles. Obviously the 2 bottle option and 4 free admissions was a bargain.

We told them that we would take the 2 bottles and they said that that was the wrong price despite that it was clearly written on the flyer. We asked what the correct price was but nobody knew.

While my friend haggled with them at the door I received a phone call from my friend Offy who was wandering around RCA looking for us so I stepped out into the street to flag her down.

When we caught back up with our friend they had given him another price and after he accepted it they told him once again that that price was wrong and had to go get management to figure out what the real price should be. In the end I think we ended up paying the 4000 baht for 2 bottles which had been originally advertised.

Normally back home tempers would be flaring at this point. Such a level of incompetence would have more than a few people seething. I mean, this is your business! How can you not know what the price of admission or the cost of drinks are?

But this is Thailand so all you can do is laugh and chalk it up as a funny story to tell people. Aggression, anger, and rude behavior are a recipe for trouble in Thailand as the Brit in this video found out the hard way.

Mind you, violence against farangs (foreigners) is very rare in Thailand. When it does happen it’s usually in situations like these where some twat looses it and he crosses the line. Thais are normally very confrontation-averse so it takes a bit of pushing but once the line is crossed they show absolutely no mercy.

Anyway, apart from that minor annoyance at the door the rest of the evening was absolutely fantastic. Great music, great friends, and a great time.