Celebrity fun and games in Chiang Mai

Porn Ping Hotel, Chiang Mai, choice of Bubbles - a kind of teenage (or so it appears to my generation) disco, where they beat your eardrums to death with aptly named 'trance' music until the early hours - or the club next door, Hot Shots. I opted (eagerly) for the latter. Not so eagerly that I wouldn't have gone for a beer and a quiet night in front of the footie had I been given the choice, but it wasn't to be. A night club with live music from Thai bands, not exactly my thing but anything's better than 'trance'. At least Hots Shots has a succession of scantily-clothed and very attractive singers succeeding each other on stage. And you can even take part in a conversation, without having to scream in each other's ear.

Not that I minded getting close to some of my companions in order to hear them speak, especially as they had some fascinating stories to tell.


A few of the young ladies in our group were retired 'exotic dancers' from a nearby go-go establishment. Party time tonight, a bottle of Black Label was ordered, and whisky and mixers were consumed by the tumblerful. Time to reminisce, it appeared. Celebrities were the subject of the conversation.

Little more than a year ago, a certain gung-ho American actor, getting on in years, was here in Chiang Mai filming sequel number IV or V... or VI? Who knows, the first one came out a couple of decades ago. You can guess the script - involves lots of Oriental-looking nasty commie baddies in the jungle, invincible American super-hero comes out of retirement to the rescue, rescues captured white Christian missionary girl... etc. Anyway, he and his wife, so the story goes, were staying in two separate luxury 5 star hotels - he in the Four Seasons, she in the Dara Dhevi. My ears pricked up. Two young ladies present were at work one evening when the go-go club was closed for a private function - it had been reserved for a select few from the film crew and cast.

Deluxe colonial suite, Dhara Dhevi, Chiang Mai

The limo quickly whisked them away (we'll call them "Reality" and "Z", which is as far away from their real nicknames as I can get ;-) to the wife's hotel, and an extremely good time was had by all three ladies, while the star looked on.

Just one comment was made about the super-action-hero... "He is very VERY old, you know!"

What a tough time these celebs have, eh? Such sacrifices they have to make in the interests of their art, too. The threesome cost set the star back a huge 6000 baht (approx 120 USD) short time, per girl. One almost has to feel sorry for him. A deluxe colonial suite at the Dhara would have cost him the pittance of 500 USD per night, as well. It's a hard life for some...


Back to 'Hot Shots'. These girls must have some stories to tell. But my baby-sitting rota was shortly to begin, and I'd done my bit introducing a farang newcomer to some of the delights of the Chiang Mai nightlife. Time to leave him to his own devices, while I happily headed back to my life of domestic bliss...