Billions

Day Four :

Day Three :

Day Two :

Here's a batch of photographs from Klong Toey wet market in Bangkok,taken in July. I tried to post these earlier,but was inhibited by an unreliable internet connection so postponed the presentation. I was in Bangkok for four days,and took the short taxi ride from Soi 4 each day to have a look around.On the first day I just mopped up whatever I saw,but on other days actually went looking for particular scenes. To kick it off,I've resized fifty pictures from each days visit,and will present them accordingly rather than by subject or creature. I even dropped by on the morning of my departure,as it is only five minutes from Nana and was worth another look around.Much better than going to a temple. Camera was a Canon 5d Mark 2. I started off using a 24-105 lens,but reverted to a 100mm macro. Long focal lengths are wasted here,as are slow focusing lenses. The market is busy,not tourist friendly,and you can't block the narrow aisles trying to get a good shot. If you like them,please say so,as I can add plenty more. I'll write about the market,and comment on my experience after loading up the pics. I had no idea that Thais eat rats,or that frogs are so popular. So,here's 250 photos then. I'll load in bundles of ten. From Day One :

You could be right,that the bar is more of a time capsule,preserving the hooligan memorabilia and artifacts that adorned the walls when it was under headhunter management. Still a strange place though. Is Phil the bloke on the right hand side of this picture,in the striped shirt?

BM you are right..I was told that lots of stuff has been taken down. There's still lots left of course!

I've just been on Google,seeing what comes up when Chris Henderson and Steve Hickmotts names are entered,as in where are they now. SH seems to have been last seen running a fish'n'chip shop called London Underground (fosh and chops to the New Zealanders on here!). However it looks like it was closing down "because of bills to pay". http://mmcg968.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/when-chips-are-down.html SH got a bad write up in the UK tabloid "The People" in 2005 too. http://www.preda.org/en/newsitems/worlds-vilest-brits/ As for Mr Henderson,well it seems he was thrown into jail in January 2010 for not having a passport,got a foot infection and due to poor medical treatment HAD IT AMPUTATED! http://www.moj.go.th/th/blog/detail.php?id=77 It seems like some Chelsea lads organized a whip-round to get him back home. http://boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tno=132&fid=77&sty=2&act=1&mid=2120348123 Pattaya is known for its happy endings,but not in these two cases.

I've just watched the Pogues rendition of House of the Gods,as posted by Cheshire Tom in this thread (post #72 http://www.pattayatalk.com/forums/topic/59279-eyes-wide-open/page__st__50 ) and saw a character wearing a Dogs Bollocks t-shirt,which reminded me of some photos I took a month or so ago.So,with a short preamble,here they are: The first time I wandered passed the Dogs Bollocks I thought it was just another bar with a football theme and some tribal loyalty. The kind of stuff you see all over Benidorm where expats promote their affliliation to the town they were born in. The next time I was trawling up the Soi (Yamoto),I popped in and was amazed that it was basically a shrine to British football hooliganism! I've never seen anything like it. I took a few photos of stuff on the walls. I'll add a few more details later. Two members of the Chelsea Headhunters opened this bar,both are notorious football hooligans,and both published books of their exploits.Chris Henderson wrote the book "Who Wants It?" and Steve Hickmont "Armed For The Match". Football hoolie books are a popular genre in the UK....there's loads of them,detailing tear-ups in the 70s,80s and 90s. I think one of these blokes is now in the PI (no extradition?) whereas the other was deported back to the UK. A new bloke owns the bar now...he was asleep upstairs when I last dropped by,so didnt get to talk to him. You can pump their names into Google and get the low down. Although theres a fair bit of Chelsea stuff here,thats by no means all.... There are scarfs,shirts and photos now of other teams.Maybe these have been introduced by the new owner,but lots of older and more interesting stuff remains.The woman in there give me a commentary of some of the faces on the walls. Phew!! By all accounts,this Soi used to be dodgy even by Pattaya standards.. Another UK hooligan was reported to have opened the Lazi Pig,whilst some extreme nationalists had another venue. The term "Soi Hooligan" was used somewhere. Some details might confuse non Brits,so heres a very quick glossary of some characters whose names or faces are on the walls : Ronnie Biggs is one of our (UK) Great Train Robbers. A villain who broke out of the Big House and absconded to Brazil where he taunted the police as he was outside their juristiction. He is partly famous for singing "My Way" with Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols. Mad Frankie Fraser is a old school London gangster,the enforcer of the Richardson Gang. A good friend of mine worked for him. Bear was a leader ("top boy") of Arsenal football clubs hooligan firm The Herd. Name Denton Connell.Three thousand wrong uns went to his funeral. Johnny Wilkinson won the Rugby World Cup for England a few years ago by scoring the points with his accurate kicking. More info of course on Google and Wikipedia. In the first group of photos,I had the wrong aperture set on the camera so they might look a bit grainy as I boosted them up. Anyway,here's some of the decorations.........

The sound of the automatic doors at 7-11s and Family Marts. That sound stays in my head weeks after I've left Thailand.