Belgian Beer in Bangkok

I had a plan to sample the Bangkok nightlife for foreigners, so I set out for the Sukhumvit area, which is just a long road with lots of bars, restaurants, shops, and tables of illegal DVDs, CDs, and clothing that cater to foreigners. I hoped to stop into a few pubs looking for a non-watery beer or two. I even heard a rumor that there might be a brewpub or two hidden along the way. I never found a brewpub, but I did meet some crazy people and lots of Belgian beer.
My first stop in the early evening was at a English style pub with a few pool tables called Bullys (on Sukumvit near Soi 2, I think). I almost never left. Part way through my first beer I was befriended by a rather boisterous American currently living in Hong Kong and in Bangkok for some obscure reason. Come to find out he used to be a band dork – played trumpet and was hard core into the marching band. One of his acquaintances showed up soon after, and he too was a trumpet player, though gave up on marching band after a year. So here I was, at a bar in Bangkok drinking beer and talking about marching band, favorite trumpet players, and jazz band. It was an excellent start to the evening. Sometime later, the group grew into a crowd of about eight (no more trumpet players, though) and I came to find out that the goal of the evening was to check out the Belgian beer festival going on at some bar down the street.
We soon headed out to HOBs (House of Beer) which was more than just around the corner. It was several kilometers down the road (at Soi 55, maybe). A couple of cabs were flagged down and off we went. HOBs turned out to have quite the nice selection of Belgian beer on tap. Though about 10 had already floated, they still had another 30 or so available. I didn’t try anything new, but a couple of Chimays were a refreshing change from the light lagers that I had been consuming all week. The bar, into which I never actually stepped, had taken over the parking lot and set up a nice beer garden with live music. I could have done without the lounge-style music, but it was a cool night for the tropics, and an overall nice surprise experience. After a few rounds of beer I found out that I missed the last train back to my part of town, so I headed back to Bully’s for one last beer and after closing time found a cab ride to my hotel.