Project Runway at EMC2 – Partay! March 22, 2007

For all you fashionistas, Singha was present at Emmett McCarthy’s opening line party at his store in SoHo, EMC2. The former Project Runway star was of course there in prime form greeting guests, selling clothes and drinking Singha (afterwards at least).

The party’s final Singha Beer count in cases came to a whopping three, mostly due to our buddies at Cachaca Fazenda Mae De Ouro who were on hand flexing their cachaca muscles with their ever-tasty caipirinha drinks being made in the back.

In attendance were about 80 to 100 socialites in their mid 20s to a few in their 40s mingling over free drinks and telling us stories about their various adventures to Thailand.

The best was the one guy who told us about how he got “separated” from his group at Pat Pong and lead into one of the infamous “pussy shows”. Once up the shady stairway and into the show area, this guy’s brain flickered back on and decided to leave before he got ripped off. Prying himself away from the nagging host he finally made it down the stairs and out the door only to be smacked in the head by the host, who was according to the storyteller about half his size.

“I turned around and watched the little guy run back up the stairs behind two huge bouncers,” he says, “and for a minute I thought about going after him, but I let it go since I was in his country- and also because of the two bouncers guarding the doorway too.”

All said with a chuckle of amusement, the man declared his fondness to his first trip in Bangkok. Moral of this story: Don’t get lost, drink Singha in a group.

Another story came from an older, self-professed Asiaphile intermittently lurking around the party in circles and stopping at our booth to refuel.

In between inquiries of how cheap it would be to buy a house and if women would like him there, he asks us about Thailand.

“You know about the ‘levels’ in Thailand, right” he asks.

“Levels of what,” I ask back.

“How could you not know,” he asks almost in shock. “My buddy tells me so much about it.” I was only able to respond with a blank stare.

“It’s like a sex den and each flight of stairs you go up specializes in a different styles. You can get an orgy with two girls one level, two girls and two guys on the next, and every level is something different,” he explains with an eerie glee.

At this point our friend Dave Cachaca walks by handing out caipirinhas on a tray. I grab one of the drinks and make him pose for a photo. Afterwards I go to the back for some limes that were conveniently lacking in my drink.

above: Cachaca Dave saves the day

Moral of this story: Don’t become a sexpat in Thailand, otherwise you won’t have any interesting topics of conversation when back in your home country drinking Singha Beer.

The Celebration of the Suds March 13, 2007

The Atlantic City Beer Festival was held this past weekend and Singha Beer represented one of the nearly 200 other beer and beer-related brands in attendance.

The first session Saturday from noon to 4.30pm was tame. Beer tasters wandered about swishing 2 0z. gulps from one booth to the next in a calm, orderly fashion. The second session on the other hand, from 6pm to 10.30pm, the place turned into a zoo. A meat head in his late 30’s threatened to have us “wear our beer” in response to not filling his tasting glass over the 2 oz. mark, girls asked us to put Singha stickers on their T’s and A’s, dudes tried to finagle free Singha merch and most disenchanting were the people walking by exclaiming, “oh, this beer is pretty good, it’s from China.”

They were either trying to impress their dates with false pretenses of “beer knowledge,” or Tsing Tao, who had a booth several isles behind us, sounds a bit too similar to Singha.

“How do you pronounce it, shing-ha?” asked one. Is there an sh in the word Singha somewhere?? Anyway, although it is pronounced sing in Thai, we like to keep the pronunciation phonetically as is, Singha, so as not to confuse the already confused audience.

We went through 6 cases the first session. The second session we went through 10. Conserving our stock for Sunday’s session (we only had 21 cases for the entire fest), we cut the crowd off at 9.30pm, not bad as last call was 10pm, but tell that to hundreds of beer swiggers “tasting” beer for the past five hours.

There were other booths there promoting other goods and services besides beer. There was the Taiwanese massage station across the way, Mr and Mrs Beef Jerky giving out gamy samples, 103.1 FM Shark Radio – the Classic rock station – and best of all was the pretzel/ mustard booth where everything was made with hemp as the main ingredient. The mustard was good. Spicy, rich and nose cleansing, they sold out before I was able to get a sample bottle for myself.

The beer fest wasn’t all bad though. People came by and shared the mustard with us, talked about recent and past trips to Phuket and Corat, and people who genuinely enjoyed the crispy hops of Singha Beer. We salute thee!

This Singha Beer fan poses for us with his Lambo outside the Borgata. This is how our clientele rolls.

Singha Singles in Boston March 12, 2007

This was supposed to be a Chinese New Year celebration along with the Hong Kong at Harvard Square’s 53rd Anniversary party. Alas some lady spewed out an invite to her email list for a “Single’s Party”. You know, those parties where you have to label yourself with colored name tags – Green means go, red means stop…and no means yes.

The party was at the Hong Kong. The Hong Kong opened 53 years ago and was the first Chinese restaurant in Harvard Square. There’s even a plaque across the way dedicated to Paul’s father, San Lee. The Hong Kong is a Harvard Square landmark and about 200 people showed up to this Singles thing.

We had signage up all around the room, tabel tents, pos lying around, and a huge banner out front. Singha was promoted at 2 per bottle from 8pm – 11pm. the account ran out of beer at 9.30pm. We went through 10 cases…

Some people drank Heieneken and the Bud, some drank the scorpion bowls,
but singha was about 80% of the crowd. We gave out keychains and
matchbooks. The waitresses and bar staff wore singha logod tees and polos.

There was a huge line outside the hongkong when i left at 10.30pm.
they were getting ready to open the dance floor on the 4th floor where their infamous scorpion bowls run amok with the late night and no where to go crowd. On
line, people were saying how excited they were to see Singha there… Paul
liked this and decided to keep it on as a mainstay. Go Singha!

Bar staff and waitresses wore Singha T’s with pride and a pair of scissors

beerless initiatives March 7, 2007

The Royal Initiative Discovery Reception
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Cafetasia on 38 E. 8th St @ University St.

There was a chilling -10 degree windshield factor last night and getting to the event with ears, fingers and toes in tact was a feat in itself.

Arriving during the cocktail hour, the first thing noticeable was the bar. And the abscense of Singha around the room. Sangria’s, fruit cocktails, wines and even bourbon glasses fill the room with warmth. i of course order a cold Singha beer and put table tents up on the bar so people don’t forget there’s chilled beer available. Onwards with the event.

Launched by TAT, The Royal Initiative Discovery is a project aiming for rural development, poverty alleviation, and obviously Thai travel and tourism. At least from what i googled.

The mics weren’t working properly and all the speakers were drowned out first by static and then murmuring side conversations spreading across the room. Food was spectacular with shrimp cocktails, fresh oysters and thai staples like pad thai and satays not too far behind.

People talked, people ate and people drank. It couldn’t get more Thai than that.