I could EASILY spend all weekend watching the entirety of this channel, from start to finish, so many parables with my own experiences , what a magic ✨ time to have discovered paradise ..... 🙏🏻🏴
Great trip down memory lane Karl. Thanks for sharing. I too arrived in Thailand for the first time in 1987 as a 23 yr old, but in the month of December, as I was on a round the world journey and in Italy when you and your mates arrived there in August. It was an awesome time and I remember a great sense of freedom as every day was an adventure back then. As you say, travelling was a learn as you go happening back in the 80s. Sun, sand, bikes, sweet gals and traveling around on a whim without ever over-planning. Much obliged for allowing me to re-live the experience.
Hi Karl, Thanks so much for bringing your adventures from Thailand back in the 80s The photos are fantastic and a real window in to the past Thanks again Buddy
Your series of videos of 1987 are great. Imagine how it was for the first backpackers in the mid 60’s… about 20 years earlier than the time you went. I can only live in Asia.
Yes, I often think about that, even in the 80’s people thought it was a strange and distant destination, it must have been much more so back then. Cheers
Soi Cowboy always seemed to have retained it's character the most over the years until about 10 years ago. I only go there rarely these days but still enjoyed my last visit there last year
There is nothing like great memories. You must have had a blast as it shows with the glow on your face when you are telling the story. I am landing in Bangkok in 13 days for my 19th trip & I too have great memories of Thailand but my 1st trip was 2008 & I would loved to have experienced the earlier times. The whole world was much happier & carefree back then. Cheers
Great memories indeed and I think that applies to most of us regardless of when we first visited. You can never replicate that feeling of everything being new. Cheers
Great stories, I've watched enough of your "1980's Thailand reminiscing" videos to hear bits and pieces repeated in different spots. The quality of storytelling could easily be on television, very engaging. 👍
Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed those videos. Truth is that my pictures back then are a very limited quantity so there's bound to be a bit of repetition in there. Cheers
What a great trip down memory lane and it struck me whilst listening to you recounting that you never forget the names of the first people who make the trip truly unforgettable. I too have vivid memories of my first trip in 2005 but they got a bit blurred after, the names forgotten and the times just melted together - must have been the heat! What a p[lace to be and surely the best place to settle after a hard life elsewhere. Thanks for sharing.
Karl Soi cowboy is in Soi 7. I was there a few years ago 2020. There are some old buildings/ titie bars nestled in between the more modern bars which are open. You can see some really old looking closed down bars from the past with the old glossy signage still up. They look like very old bars from the 80s and 90s. Its like a time warp walking down soi 7, a mix of the old and new.I bet those walls have seen some shi# over the years.
Cheers Dave. btw SC is actually between Sukumvit Soi 21 and 23. I have checked out Soi 7 for years but have fond memories of the German Beer Garden there.
Wonderful memories there Karl. Never boring even without the internet. I loved nineties Koh Samui despite being laid low with food poisoning for a week from the moment I got there the first time. Stayed at IKK Bungalows in Chawang right round near the airport. So was it Samui Highland that set off your love of hiking? I guess the 5 baht cookies were lacking in certain ingredients! Looking forward to part three.
As stated before, 1990 for me... only got a handful of photos so this was just great to see 👍 I stayed on Koh Samui , Chewang Beach, Coconut Grove bungalows I returned 30 years later and the same family still run the place all be it a little richer. It's now a great big resort next to the famous Ark bar. If you ever go back to Samui you'll be shocked at the place now. (ruined)
I’m almost scared to return Mick, too many memories that could be shattered, I thought the changes were crazy the last time I returned in 2005. I will return when I get the chance though
I know that feeling of being totally pissed off at the thought of going home . when you've got to go to the air port, I could see it on Adams face on one of the last pics.......👌🏻🙌🏻
You got it lol. For me the biggest shock was waking up the first morning after I got back to the UK thinking I was still in Thailand and the realising I was in fact back home! Cheers
Love your story Karl❤️ Thanks so much sharing your memories of Thailand from the very beginning! Gosh wasn’t it awesome to be young and in a foreign country back then? Bet you boys had a blast after eating those cookies 😉 I look forward to seeing more of your videos:)
Great merories.I first went 1985.But them days only had 2 weeks holiday.Great to watch this because i remember very little.I went with someone who had been many times before,so i just followed him.We stayed one night in bangkok and then down to pattaya.Always remember cowboy and bar with pool table and girls playing without underclothes.I hated bangkok.so numerous years after went straight to pattaya or phucket.Was not untill 2004 that i could go for nearly the whole year.Stopped going 2017.Attitude has changed so so much now that i dislike the place.
Thanks so much, Samui and Phangan are still beautiful place but I don’t recall seeing water this clear there since. Glad that you enjoy my content, cheers
Really enjoyed watching these recollections… you can tell in how you describe the photos that much fun was had at the time …. I discovered Thailand only recently and I was still a school kid in 1987 … but this video makes me nostalgic for a time and place I never knew
Thanks for your thoughts Paul. That series of Thailand recollections videos have been very popular. I'm just glad I had the foresight to take those pictures. Looking back I think I was 'vlogging' it in the only practical way I could back then. Cheers
Most enjoyable. So what happened in the intervening years? How long were you away from Thailand... Another video please: 'Karl The Wilderness Years'.....Unless you've done one already
There weren't really any wilderness years, my camera developed a fault about 1992 so I stopped taking pictures that's all. At the time I thought well I have all the pictures I need anyway. Of course with hindsight I'd rather have carried on but I didn't. I've spent time in Thailand every year since my first visit. Cheers
❤ Your talking about Soi Nana, first time I come there was 1995...bizzy and cosy, not like now at all.. stay there most till closing time aroud 2 or 3 o clock, walking back to my hotel with some girls, Sukhumvit very quiet that time, I stay at Soi nung..😅1. In something like Golden Palace, some chinese owners hotel on the grond floor, water come up in the room during raining seison... first took a swim before I entered my room, and my lady was sleeping, that are some awesome memories I never forget...😊😊
Great !The 80s / 90s were the best fun.The likes of Thailand Bound don't compare - their "content" - Mongers/Pervs & a few Sickos - Far prefer the older content - HOPE to see some more of this /Thanks for the Video. YES 100% returning to the UK can be a real Downer too !
There are plenty of cheaper beachfront places at Lipa Noi than Waimarie. 43,000 Baht is about 1200 USD You can get yourself a place at (the admittedly less fancy) Samui House for about 50USD.
Thanks for that, I just searched for Tong Yang Beach accommodation and saw what came up. It’s been 17 years since I was last on Samui, It’ll be interesting to get back there and see how it’s changed, I know that even the changes I saw in 2005 shocked me
Brings back memories karl , sue and yung owners of sun flower Bungalows brother in law owned ding dong bar at soi cowboy, my self , sister and brother-in-law had an absolute ball at the bar , pole dancing with the girls , anyway 1am close time, go go girls finished working, boss man was such a funny thai Chinese guy invited us to stay partying, free beers , music flat out, drank our selves sober until 7am, we had an absolute ball , boss man drove us back to Malaysia hotel. Great memories of bankok in 1988 , when you could have so much fun . We went to the movies another night , thais luved the propaganda war movies, at the start of the movie, everyone stands for the king😂 👑 , movie starts ,😂 just relax drinking whisky , smokin'cigarettes, mai pen lai, everything was so cheap in them days and so free to do almost anything. I remember that girl , absolute honey. Cheers mate Frank from Australia.👌👍🙏
Some of those pictures may have been taken in Ding Dong Bar Frank, I know the outside is shown in one of them. Soi Cowboy was pretty wild back then and I used to know someone who owned a bar there myself. Yes, standing up for the National Anthem surprised me a bit too, even the joggers in Lumphini Park would stop running. Cheers buddy
Another great video! Superstar was still going in 2020, but I'm not sure if the pandemic finally killed it off. I wonder what happened to the jukeboxes from the Blue Fox, they would have been a good find.
Cheers, I did make a video where I returned to Patpong last year as it happens. I will put a link at the end of this reply. Yes, those jukeboxes were a piece of local history, if they could speak then who knows what stories they could tell ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1lu2gMiV_wI.html
I use to have 100s of pics from 1986-1989 Philippines Thailand and Korea but I don't have them anymore. Be nice If I could find a box with them in it at my brothers house attic which I beleieve is where they have gone. Got like 3 VHS tapes to up there of Philippines Korea and Thailand on it. The attic has not been rummaged thru in 25 yrs so who knows what we might find if we ever clean it out. one day might have to pull out the old VCR and tapes and start watching them see whats on them.
People love to see that stuff as photography tended to be much more limited back then because less people travelled that far and just the expense of film etc. Cheers
My pleasure, I hope the video brought back some good memories for you. Btw, there’s a playlist on my RU-vid channel featuring all the videos I made using my old slides, they’re quite popular
Hang on to those pictures, they are valuable. BKK nightlife in the 80's and 90's was amazing, now really just a rip off place for the Japanese. The night market has gone from Patpong but most of the bars are for gays now. I don't think the lovely Vena is a girl somehow.
Even though I live in Thailand it’s been many years since I visited Patpong. That’s actually the first I had heard about the night market being gone, thanks. I’m pretty certain Vena was a girl, perhaps not the most flattering picture of her though.
I remember staying at the same beach in a hut that looked close to identical to the one in your pictures back in 2002, i think it was about 280b back then, but well, time flies it's close to 22 years ago already. Thanks for a great video
if you found Soi Cowboy sooner Karl you'd have defo been skint. Are you still in touch with your friends that you travelled with? Thanks for sharing, top memories and pics
That’s for sure Mark. I lost track of Adam a few years later and have never been able to find him since. I am still in contact with Phil very occasionally. My pleasure
We were on ko Samui 1986 then went up north for water festival then up to the boarder. Glad I kept the photos and stories - risky time hiking but lived to remember the details
That’s great and especially that you still have the pictures to go with the memories. Photography was so much more expensive back then, a limited number of frames on the roll of film, the fact that you had no idea what you had until the film was processed and the fragility of the final media means that getting anything more than the odd snapshot from that time is pretty hard today.
No internet, no digital cameras, no Google maps! Travel way more fun back then. With all the information available now, when you go somewhere new, the trip ends up being some amalgamation of everything you researched beforehand and the experience on the ground. More pure pre digital everything.
Thanks James. When you think about it it’s no surprise that pictures from back then are a lot rarer. There were less travellers in general and film was expensive and required processing
I used to go there often but haven’t been since 2005, like you I wonder what changes have occurred? I’ll have to get back there and do a ‘Than and Now’ video
yea had such a hat for 40 Baht also, on what is today the bustling and hustling Chaweng Beach. and they switch off the generator at 10 pm. nothing more to do...
It's strange but having all those pictures has helped me to remember their names. Yes, I sometimes wonder and sometimes did meet/hear from them many years later. Cheers
Karl, such great pictures and tales of your youth. Those photos of Samui -- the natural colors of the water, the unspoiled flora -- incredible. Your girl on Samui looked "sun-kissed (13:00)." Skin used to pure, unpolluted air, and a bit of sun. Sometime you'll have to tell more about that "luminous crab" that chased you! Cheers!
youve got some great memories to take to your maker, watched you on paddy Doyles Pattaya vid the other day , you come across as a genuine bloke, im in thailand in dec, if i bump into you ill get you a ice cold beer mate
Actually it was about the same as it is now. It was 42 Baht to the £ in the late 80’s. It was only after the currency crash of 97 that the exchange rate was really good for 10 or 11 years. Thanks very much for your comment Pat
I love these stories! I was born in 1991 so obviously I missed the golden time and when it still was cheap. These days prices in Bangkok are quite similar to here in Sweden, obviously taxi is much cheaper, but food and coffee is almost the same. What a shame.
@@karlsthailand Haha yeah that is true. I wonder if in the future, Thailand will catch up to Europe even more than it has done, or if we will pull away again. For the Thai people, its obviously good when their standard of living increases. But that also means for us in Europe, that its not as easy to travel there a long time. I wish I could retire there one day, but not looking likely unless I am 70 years old or so.
The trend seems to be towards globalisation and dilution of individual cultures. Like you say you can’t blame individual natures for wanting some of the perceived benefits of the West but perhaps they shouldn’t be so fast to give up what they already have? Cheers
Unfortunately I haven’t been in touch with Adam for over 30 years now. I did hear that he moved to Spain once. I went back to his home town (very small place) about 10 years ago and made enquiries but although they could remember him nobody knew his current whereabouts
Hey Karl, I had to stop watching your vids recently, having been subjected to a servere attack of nostalgia. At the age I am today it is hard to get my head around it all. People and places. Yes it is hard to describe what is was like back in those days, pity I wasn't a big camera person like you were in those days but I do have a few. Was talking to my Thai WIfe the other day about it, when we first found Samui at the end of 82. Thanks mate, AlthoughI wish I never felt like this though. Simply great times and great days, so glad I did it! Never any trouble, nothing like you hear or read about today. Take care.
Things were definitely more innocent and less complicated back then weren’t they? I still enjoy Thailand today and for me that’s the most important thing. Cheers
The upstairs bar was rose🌹 and the bar next door was the star of love it was a place that was truly fun along with the kangaroo club both became infamous patpong landmarks.the star of love was the star. later on it changed name and location to patpong 2 and became star of light. 🤫🤫🤫🤭 ok
Thank goodness there's someone else who was in Bangkok back then! My first trip was in June 1987, and what a wild time it was. 17:18 Ah, the Grand Prix, sadly long gone. If there is such a thing as a "local" in Bangkok, then that was mine, and I met a great girl there. We ended up seeing each other for the next three years. Funnily enough, I got in touch with her again recently and found out she's a grandmother now. Time flies.
That's great Mark, I'm just happy that I have some pictures left and a clear enough memory to share a bit of those times with people. I still enjoy Thailand a lot but I also like a bit of nostalgia. Thanks for your own memories of Grand Prix Bar.
Thanks. It was an honour to see it when having a paradise beach to yourself could be an everyday thing. I’m sure it’s still beautiful today although I haven’t been for 17 years now but there’s no turning back for sure
He might well have been back Mark, we lost contact about 2 years later. I did actually drive to his hometown about 10 years ago and asked after him but my attempts to contact him got nowhere
I was there at the same time, and been there since, at least twice a year. I can not wait to retire in Bangkok! I know, most people like the old days, but now ... dude everything is just better... but Koh Samui is not...
I still love Thailand but there’s no denying that it’s changed. I haven’t been to Samui for 17 years now, I’ll try to keep an open mind when I go back there.
@@karlsthailand Wow, prompt answer ... thank you! Well it has changed and I honestly do not want to go back to Koh Samui, but Thailand in general is getting better and I love the modern city of Bangkok! Just to make something clear, I love the Far East and am currently living in Tokyo, since 1998 ;) but comparing to Bkk it is boring here ;))))
I haven’t been to Samui for 17 years now and it’s somewhere I used to go a lot. I really want to return there and make some videos including a ‘then and now’ using my old pictures. Unfortunately my budget can’t manage a trip there right now but I will take the first opportunity I get to go back there. Hope you are enjoying my channel and thanks
@@karlsthailand When the time comes I'll look forward to your perspective. I've been to Thailand 4 times. Twice to Phuket and twice Samui. I'm a bit of an enigma with others I meet that have been to Thailand as they have visited Bangkok & Pattaya. Strangely I'm curious to visit Chaing Mai as I'm interested in road cycling but allergic to hippies 😆
this was a very interesting and unique perspective. as a photographer, i appreciate the images with the commentary. it allowed me to visualize more what it might have been like. perhaps you can confirm something im hearing from other vloggers. are the thais getting heavier in general? if so, do you think its because of western influences?
Thanks Neil. The answer to your question is a definite yes but I think it’s a Worldwide phenomenon that’s just more noticeable here because they adopted the ‘Western Diet’ a bit later
@@karlsthailand hmmm. Well i guess they have another good 10 years until an obesity epidemic hits them. Its sad because Thailand has some of the best and healthiest food.
@@karlsthailand Been going back every year since 93. When I retired in 2000, would spend 6 months in Thailand, 6 months in the USA. Then covid hit. Just got out tickets to return in November. Looking forward to getting out of the US (it is bad here) & seeing how Thailand & Chiang Mai has changed, if any, over the last few years.
Another Wonderful video from the glorious 80s Thailand, Koh Samui was such a beautiful island back then as I mentioned previously I was on Lamai February 88 Thailand is your whole world Karl and will be with you forever❤
I 1st had drink in the blue fox March 1985 on my 1st day in bangkok,was married to a Thai in November 1986 ,still married to the Same girl now,I am going to live in bangkok this October,I sent your video part 1 to a lot of friends,they all loved it,keep up the good work thanks,
Thanks Luds tours. It’s a nice thought that my video has brought some of your happy memories from the 80’s back to you. It still makes me sad to see that the Blue Fox is now a 7-11
Love these Karl … looking back for you must be !!.. I dunno but must be utterly amazing, keep posting your history and memories.. but what a life you are having 🙏🙏❤️✌️
OMG Karl, I need to meet up with you when I come back, I was there in the same time period. Your last two vids have been amazing. I'll bring all my pics, it's like a carbon copy. So impressed, the good old days, the freaking Awesome experiences an memories... You really get it, you really get it. I really hope when I get back, I can share what I have with you, all those pics... The memories people only wished they experienced. Thank you for sharing... OMB!!!
Brilliant video ,been splurging the cash the passed decade or so when I go to Thailand, nice hotels ,not haggling etc...there's something about travelling on a shoe string that adds to the character of the memories/experience....my next trip ill set myself a budget for the holiday as a whole ...on seeing the pics of you leaving I had that leaving feeling you get everytime you leave thailand 🇹🇭 what a place it is ,i feel grateful for my travels and to have found thailand the people and culture 💖
Absolutely adored this episode! If my memory serves me correctly (I saw a video with you in it 2 years ago), and seem to remember that you speak fluent Thai correct?
Thanks, you can’t beat your first visit and my first visit was a long one so plenty of stories to tell. Yes, it’s pretty fluent, at least for the purpose of every day conversation
