Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and taste. Actually, I’m far from wealthy and as to the question of taste, I’ll leave that for you the readers to answer as you get to know me.

Nevertheless, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Jack. I’m one of the new owners of Stickboy along with Tom and Neal.

I wanted to introduce myself and let you all know a little more about me.

I am from the United States and have worked in a traditional office setting for many years. I’m now moving towards location independence and purchasing a share of Stickboy was one step toward leaving my desk job behind.

I have travelled to SEA and many other parts of the world over the years but those were vacations. My goal is to make longer trips to Thailand and SEA starting this year with the goal of establishing a life outside my home country.

My Stickboy beat, to borrow an old newspaper term, will be those areas outside of Bangkok. Hua Hin, Phuket and a little Pattaya with a slice of Vietnam and perhaps even some Philippines info thrown in.

Let me know in the comments which areas you’re most interested in and any particular subjects you’d like me to dive into a little deeper.

Hope to see you all here in the future and meet some of you face to face soon.

Thanks Jack.

A stroll down Khaosan Road at 10PM on Friday night would have anyone thinking that everything in Bangkok is back to normal post-Covid.

And it was. At least after 9 at night.

Street full, bars bouncing, drinks flowing, music pumping, hawkers galore, elephant pants aplenty.

The customers were 50% Thai, and 50% foreigners, most of whom were tourists but not what you’d see on Sukhumvit right now.

The overwhelming majority of visitors were farangs.

Lots of families, young couples, groups of guys and gals in their 20s enjoying all this backpacker paradise has to offer.

But here’s the kicker – there weren’t very many “real” backpackers about.

Everyone was well-dressed (ignore the elephant pants fad), showered, looking good and not skrimping on the abundance of cheap drink deals on offer.

Large bottles of beer ranged from 80b to 150b with 120b the most popular price pick for bars and even then many do buy 3 get 1 free making that 360b for four big bottles.

Who can complain about that? It’s a steal.

Gas and grass are also big business with locals and tourists sucking it up and in until sunrise in some places as there is a different approach from police and authorities in this part of town when it comes to getting things back on track after two years of nothing.

Not everywhere is open all night but plenty of places are on both Khaosan Road itself and round the corner on Soi Rambuttri with the party still going in some at 4AM.

Even at this late hour, the crowd is still a mix of locals and tourists.

When you do realise all is not as it was before Thailand closed down is during the day.

Pre-covid Khaosan was fairly busy in daylight hours with stragglers wandering around and tourists looking lost not knowing what to do or where to go but that right now is missing.

Lots of the shops on surrounding streets are still closed making the place look far from normal – that is, until after dark.

Everything will take time but for now, Khaosan Road is killing it at least at night and long may it continue on the road to recovery.