In the year 2002, Thailand anticipates that it will play host to more than 10 million tourists and a quick breakdown of the statistics shows that this is made up of 60% men and 40% women, quite an imbalance. Yes, it is a fact that for the last 25 years or so, Thailand has been one of the world's favourite destinations for sex tourism. The commercial sex industry has been around for a long time in Thailand, but I am not going to go into the history of it, simply because I do not know how it all started. But as far as foreigners go, that is foreigners of Western descent, it all started in the late '60s when the US was at war with Vietnam. Thailand, a long time ally of the US was home to many squadrons of the US air-force and was also the preferred spot for the R&R breaks from the war. With so many Americans in Thailand, most of them with a few dollars in their pockets, the commercial sex industry for farangs started popping up. There were lines of brothels along the roads where the air-force was stationed up in the Isaan region and as more and more soldiers started coming to Bangkok and Pattaya, so too did the commercial sex industry catering specifically to foreigners started to flourish in those two cities.After the Vietnam war ended, a lot of those people in the military came to Thailand, and many of them never left. Word must have spread west as after this time it was the turn of the Germans and the Swiss to come to Thailand, and this is probably where the stereotype of the sex tourist being German came from. As already mentioned, this stereotype is no longer valid - that is if it ever was. Word started to spread about Thailand and people started coming in from all over the world, many to experience the country's commercial sex industry. At this time, the commercial sex industry for foreigners was still just Bangkok and Pattaya.
It was around this time that the Arabs discovered Bangkok, particularly the men of Saudi Arabia. Plane load after plane load of Saudi men flew into the Thai capital almost exclusively for the purpose of sexual gratification. However, it didn't take too long for the word to get out amongst the girls that the guys from Saudi Arabia were trouble and huge numbers of problems were reported, girls being stiffed, girls being beaten up - in many cases badly, and in some cases girls were raped. In fact the problem became so big that the Thai government eventually banned Saudi men from coming to Thailand unless they had a specific invitation to come i.e. a letter from a Thai business stating that they are coming for the purpose of business or trade.
During the '80s, as Thailand started to become more and more popular for sex tourists, the industry started to spread to other areas such as Phuket and Ko Samui, areas where tourists were starting to go. As tourists found, and continue to find new places, and these places become more popular, thus the farang oriented commercial sex industry will open up in these new locations too. Even seemingly off the beaten track places like Ko Chang now have establishments in the commercial sex industry that specifically target foreigners. In the late '80s / early '90s, when the purported AIDS crisis really featured in headlines worldwide, and numbers of AIDS cases in Thailand started to leak, the industry took a hit and tourism numbers dropped. But Thailand's popularity as a holiday destination refused to diminish, the industry soon recovered and the spread of the commercial sex industry in Thailand continued with more and more girls entering the world's oldest profession to meet the soaring demand from the ever increasing numbers of Westerners travelling primarily for commercial sex. The tourist numbers increased even more rapidly after the Thai baht and the Thai economy took a hammering in the second half of 1997 and tourist numbers have increased at around 10% a year from then on, many of these people coming to Thailand, primarily and apparently unashamedly, for sex.
So why do so many people choose to go to Thailand for the pursuit of sexual pleasure? Thai girls are certainly very pretty and Thais are a particularly well made up bunch of people - meaning that most of the female population are in great shape physically. Thai girls typically have very small frames compared to Westerners, with typically straight, long, dark hair, smooth light brown coloured skin and they can at times be very, very demure. There is a perceived docility about some of them that many foreigners find attractive - though really this is a misconception as Thai women are very strong willed girls when they want to be. There are also many folks who seem to think that Thai women often have an insatiable sexual appetite - though again this is another misconception.
With the West becoming more and more politically correct, many Western men consider farang females to be brash, opinionated and downright arrogant when compared with their more feminine, Thai counterparts. It really does seem that Western women want equal "rights" - but without equal responsibility. Many Western men claim that however you compare it, Thai women come up trumps when compared with Western women.
But, perhaps more importantly than anything else, the Thai girls are able to overcome and transcend the Western stigma that is associated with prostitution. Come to Thailand and enjoy time with the women of the night and it simply doesn't feel like prostitution, or at least the Western perception of prostitution. It is more akin to renting a girlfriend for the night - and that is what makes it so special, enthralling and for many, downright addictive. It's not just the sex that makes time with a Thai bar girl great. The whole experience is far more than just plain old sex. As a friend said, "I have tried to explain it to my friends and they just look at me as if I'm some sort of weirdo - they just don't get it!" These Thai girls can really make you feel special and although you need to be aware that they are doing it for money, it can still be very enjoyable.
While the farang oriented commercial sex industry is very small compared to the industry for the Thai men, there is still a huge variety of options available for the sex consumer ranging from the world famous gogo bars and massage parlors, to bars with literally hundreds of freelancing girls to streetwalkers to boutique establishments and more.
Thailand has a reputation the world over for being the international sex tourist's favourite destination and in the eyes of many who have either lived or visited the country, it is well deserved. Certainly in the bar areas of
Sukumvit Road where much of the sex industry catering to foreign men is located, one can find themselves admiring some of the most beautiful girls imaginable, while in the company of men from every corner of the globe. People come from everywhere to Bangkok to meet the sweet, attractive, demure and most importantly, warm hearted Thai girls. Poor backpackers, rich Japanese, American executives, well-heeled Europeans, even richer Arabs, crooks and cons, prudes and sex tourists, the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the handsome, the ugly and the deformed - the entire spectrum of nations and socio-economic groups represented - all finding themselves in Thailand. Some of them may come to Thailand specifically for sex, while others may come for other reasons, but as so often happens, they find themselves falling into the commercial sex industry. The industry is full of sheer excitement and while some of the Thais in the industry are not the most wholesome of people, they will always make you welcome and make everything very easy for you, which serves to put your mind at ease and allow you to forget that it is prostitution that you are getting involved in. People coming to Thailand find that the whole industry can be very satisfying - that is a lot more than just plain old sex, and year after year they return to Thailand and continue to partake in the industry.
The age of consent for sex in Thailand is 15 but for those working in the sex industry, or soliciting sex, it is believed to be 18. However, in early 2002, the Thai Minister of the Interior has indicated that the age is 20. With this in mind, one would perhaps be better advised to limit any misbehaving to girls who are aged 20 years of age and over. The law is not clear on this issue and 18 / 19 appear to be a very grey area. Do not test the law! Remember that many Thai girls actually look a lot younger than they really are so a girl of 20 may look a lot closer to 18 than 20. One always hears rumours of these sick people who come to Thailand for the purpose of having sex with underage Thai girls (or boys). If you are one these such people, you should consider the serious consequences if you are caught. One does not want to get in trouble with the authorities in Thailand as the penalties can be very harsh, and many expats often joke how the authorities like to make an example out of foreigners. While the police often turn a blind eye to the farang tourist's unruly behaviour, if you do something considered to be serious, or catch cop having a bad day, they will have great pleasure in arresting you which would without a doubt result in the local press splashing your name and mug shot everywhere. If you are foolish enough to get in trouble with the law for something of a sexual nature, expect to see your name and photo spread all around the world, particularly back in your home country. And then there are the laws that some Western countries have that make sex with minors, even outside their country, to be an offence punishable by their own country's judicial system. If you want underage sex, do it in your own country. Thailand doesn't want you! I am totally against child prostitution.
When I first came to Thailand I was told that all of the girls in the gogo bars and massage parlors, the more organised sector of the scene, are of legal age but sadly, this is not the case. As mentioned later in this page, underage girls are not a rarity, though neither do they appear to be that common. One night back in January 2000 when I was at a ground floor Go Go Bar in Nana Plaza, there was at least one 16 year old and three 17 year olds there - all of these girls openly admitted their age to me, seemingly oblivious to the potential problems it could cause. Even worse than this is one Soi Cowboy bar that back in mid 2001, had six underage girls, one of whom was 14 - but started in the bar when she was 13. Even in mid 2003, there was a bar in Soi Cowboy with at least two 15 year old girls working there. Be careful! Really, this is a nasty situation as one may be under the impression that because it is a bar, a bar with operating licenses no less, that the girls will be of legal age. Never make this assumption!
If you were to have a sexual encounter with any underage girls and for whatever reason they later went to the police and disclosed their age, you would be in DEEP SHIT! To verify a bar girls age, you could ask to see her ID card which while not being conclusive, is at least something to go by. Note: The year in the Thai calendar is different to the year in our Western calendar. The year 2003 in the Christian calendar is actually 2546 using the Thai Buddhist system so a girl with a birth date in the year 2526 is 19 or 20 years old depending on the month of her birth, a girl born in 2520 is 25 or 26 years old etc. And even if you do like young girls, remember that these Asian girls usually look younger than they actually are so a girl of 20 may look more like 16. If you are caught having sex with a prostitute of 15, 16 or 17 years of age, you face 1 - 3 years imprisonment and a fine between 20,000 - 60,000 baht. If you are caught with a prostitute under the age of 15, you face 2-6 years imprisonment and a fine between 40,000 - 120,000 baht. "I didn't know she was under age" or "I got her from a legitimate bar and not off the street" is no excuse and would no doubt be laughed at if used as a defence.
In addition to it being against the law and obviously morally questionable to indulge in extracurricular activities with Thai girls under the age of 18 / 20, it should be noted that these girls are not nearly as developed mentally as a similarly aged Western girl. A typical 20 year old Thai girl may have a similar maturity to a 15 year old Western girl though a lot of the Thai girls have real street smarts and a strong survival instinct. With this in mind, perhaps one should consider 20 as the minimum aged girl in Thailand.
If Asian women are your thing, then Bangkok will no doubt be a place that you would like to visit. In the various bar areas all over the city, there are armies of girls here just waiting to meet you! And don't worry if you're not Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt! Thai girls are not as concerned about age and even ugly fatties can do all right. They are more concerned about someone who is clean, polite, can make them laugh and who most importantly is jai dee which translates as something like a person with a good heart. (Hell, I've seen a couple of old timers around the bars who looked like they were on death's doorstep, walking frame, oxygen tank and all! One poor guy, though gotta admire him for being in the Thermae as you may as well go out with a smile on his face...but the poor fella couldn't even walk up the stairs so who knows how he was going to do anything else with the young lady! It took about six young lovelies to help him out!) Obviously, if you are Tom Cruise, you'll be a bit more popular than the ugly fatties.
Thailand is a very popular country and tourism is a huge industry.
The best weather is from December until February and this used to be the high season for tourism. However, with the increasing numbers of tourists arriving, the high season now runs a lot longer from around the middle of November through to the Songkran festival in mid-April. Many people coming to Thailand to meet the young ladies for romantic liaisons may prefer a greater selection of girls and consider avoiding this period. Just like other things in the tourism high season, the girls will be more popular and may try and charge higher prices, though this varies from lady to lady. The weather may not be so good at other times, but you're probably not here for that, are you? Having said all of this, you can still meet plenty of nice girls during the tourism high season but there will simply be more people chasing them. Incidentally, in the tourism off season, some girls simply return to their villages if / when trade drops off too much.
It is important to note that this article merely summarises the commercial sex industry for the farang. There are many, many more locations in Bangkok that cater primarily to Thais, Japanese or those of Asian extraction. For whatever reason, many of these bars don't promote their establishments to farangs. I have little knowledge of such places and therefore there is only a very short section on that part of the industry. It should be noted that the sector of the sex industry catering to foreigners is very, very small compared with that catering to Thais. Note: Some of the clubs that promote themselves specifically to Japanese actually bar farangs - and even Thais, from entering.
The sex industry in Bangkok catering to foreigners can largely be divided into four main types of venue: gogo bars, massage parlors, beer bars and freelancer bars. Strictly speaking, bars in Thailand are supposed to close at 1:00 AM - and are usually given an hours grace until 2:00 AM but this is not always the case. If the bar has arrangements with certain influential people, the bar can stay open beyond 2:00 AM. It is quite funny wandering down Soi Cowboy at 2:15 AM and all the bars except for one notable establishment have closed... And there are some bars that do not even get going until this time such as Marine Disco in Pattaya. Then there are those bars that open early such as the Beer Garden in Bangkok and the Winchester Club in Jomtien, Pattaya. Whatever the time of day, it is quite possible to find some female company in Thailand...
Important note: Since August 2001, there has been a very high profile crackdown on the closing times of all entertainment venues in Thailand which has been led by the Interior Minister of the country. This has resulted in a huge upheaval of the industry with a lot of bar areas being forced to close at 2:00 AM, and on some nights, as early as 1:00 AM. In some cases this has been enforced by crack police entering bars and virtually forcing the staff to turn all of the lights on and stop serving alcohol. It has also meant that some late night venues, busiest between around 2:00 and 6:00 AM have been virtually deserted. The crackdown seems to be worse in Bangkok than in other parts of the country, particularly Pattaya where it largely seems to have returned to business as usual.
Gogo Bars
Perhaps the most famous venues and certainly the most visible establishments in the farang oriented sector of the industry are the gogo bars. These bars vary in size from small pokey bars with as little as a handful of girls to big bars with up to three different dance floors, DJs with fancy sound systems and as many as 150 dancing girls. The girls dancing sort of shuffle around as opposed to actually dancing, for about 4 - 5 songs, usually up on an elevated stage. The lighting is usually dim and there are disco style lights flashing around. All of the gogo bars are well air-conditioned so that you can easily escape Thailand's relentless heat - in fact the girls may often complain that it is cold as they stand around in their bikinis. The girls dance in varying degrees of dress ranging from those with a full bikini through to those who are totally naked. Different bars have different rules and different standards but generally, the less a girl wears, the more her monthly salary will be. Contrary to what the often errant, sensationalist Western media reports, the girls working in gogo bars are not bonded labour, they are free to leave at any time.
It is generally accepted that in the farang orientated gogo bars, beer bars and freelancer establishments, the gogo girls are the most attractive of the bunch (but they do not come close to the more attractive girls in the Thai sector of the industry - more on that way later). However, even though the gogo girls are generally considered the most attractive working girls, there has been a drop in the standard of the girls working the gogo bars in the last few years. Back in the old days, most of the girls would at least be in fairly good shape but these days, there are a fair few fatties bouncing around and there are a lot more girls with stretch marks, where we can see the unfortunate scarring that the girl suffered after dropping a sprog or two. Still, most of the girls are fairly attractive and quite a few are downright gorgeous.
The prices for drinks varies from bar to bar, area to area, but generally speaking, beers run around 75 - 110 baht and the same for top shelf drinks. Some bars have happy hours, generally early in the evening, so if you are on a limited budget, you can shop around and save a little bit of dosh. Soft drinks run from 50 - 95 baht. There is no charge for watching the girls dance and it is no problem to go in, have a few drinks and leave. Remember, most people are there to look, and not necessarily to take a girl home. There is ordinarily no charge for watching the shows in the gogo bars - though in some of the upstairs bars in Patpong, the bars may try and charge you for watching a sex show. This will usually be in the form of a rip-off - more below in the Patpong section.
The usual system in a gogo bar is for the girls to be grouped into three separate groups and they are usually separated according to how much, or perhaps more accurately, how little they wear, while they are dancing. Depending on the bar and the area where it is located, this may mean one lot of girls dancing with full bikini, another lot with just their knickers and the last group in their birthday suit. Depending on the bar, the girls will usually dance for about 4 songs and then come down from the stage while the next group goes up. The system may vary a little from bar to bar. When the girls finish their set of songs up on the dance floor, they will put on at least a full bikini and often a little more, perhaps a sarong or a short skirt. The odd bar, like G Spot, in Nana Plaza, has girls sitting around topless, all of the time.
In a gogo bar, girls who are not dancing may approach you and introduce themselves along with a handshake - no, don't worry, it's not a particularly formal environment. The reason they do this is that in Thailand, when one person approaches another, they will usually wai (a prayer like greeting whereby the hands are pressed together at or below chin height) and the girls see the handshake as a sort of farang replacement for the wai. While some girls will just be happy to sit and chat with you, others will ask you to buy them a "lady drink". This is a very small glass of coke, though sometimes they may order something alcoholic. The lady drink costs between 60 an 100 baht and the girl gets a cut of this, usually somewhere between about 20 and 40 baht per glass. Thus, if you buy her a drink, by sitting with you she is generating some income for both herself and the bar. If the girl happens to request an alcoholic drink, she doesn't usually get a cut from the cost of the drink. It is not obligatory to buy a drink for a girl although the pushier girls will give you the impression that it is. Some girls will even request a second drink after the first one has gone - this is strictly a way for them to make money, it is not because they are thirsty. If they are actually thirsty, most of the bars will allow them to drink Coke for free - fringe benefit city! Whether you buy lady drinks is up to you - remember that. When I am out and about, I'll buy the lady a drink if she is fun to chat with but as I seldom actually do anything more than simply chat with girls, I often won't bother. If you do buy the girl a drink, that pretty much guarantees that she will sit and chat with you for a while. However, when it is her turn to go up on stage and dance, she will go and the fact that you bought her a drink does not allow her to stay talking with you - she can return when she has finished dancing. You are NOT obligated to buy her a drink though some bars are quite pushy when it comes to you buying drinks with waitresses annoying the customer by poking their unwelcome faces in and saying something to the effect of "buy cola for lady".
Some guys are happy to sit and chat with the girl while other fellows are more interested in trying to perform a gynaecological procedure on her, right in the bar. What is the gogo bar etiquette and what is allowed and accepted? Well, although these girls may dance around in a highly provocative manner, and may even make fairly obvious sexual gestures at you, they would prefer it if you didn't try and grope them in the bar. Yes, a few girls may appear to allow it, and while some may even smile at the same time, most will not and in fact 99% do not like it at all, though they allow it, thinking it will help to entice you to take her out of the bar - and she will then be able to make some money that night. Plenty of guys grope the girls' tits and again, many girls will allow it but really, they are not so keen on it. How you handle the situation is up to you, but do you really want to do things that make the girl uncomfortable? How would you feel if she tried to ram her fingers up your ass?
Now, there are a few bars where it is possible to grope the girls and indeed, the girls will try and grope you too! These bars do not have any sort of official title but groping bars would be a fairly sound description. Toy Bar and AfterSkool, both in Soi Cowboy are two classic examples of this type of bar and if in AfterSkool, keep a look out for the naughty boys corner under the stairs in the back left corner of the bar where you may see customers getting a handjob, or possibly even more. In such bars, it is necessary to buy quite a few drinks for the girl to keep her attention - or to discretely offer her a few hundred baht to be a naughty girl right in the bar. The trick is to know which bars it is ok to misbehave like this, and which bars it isn't!
If you decide that you really like a girl and want to take her away from the bar, you must pay the bar fine which is usually around 400 - 500 baht, though you may find the odd gogo bar where it is less. This is money that you pay to the bar that "compensates" the bar for the loss of income that that girl may have generated had she not left the premises. You can't just take her away from the bar without paying the bar fine unless you agree to meet her after the bar has closed. Some girls are willing to do this and others aren't - it really depends on the girl. This money goes to the bar with some bars giving the girl 100 baht of the 500 - it varies from bar to bar. This bar fine is not the cost of sex. That is a quite separate transaction and you need to talk to the girl about that (more on that way down the page). The cost of the bar fine simply allows her to finish work early from the bar.
In the gogo bars, every girl is given a number and in some bars the girls will have this number on a small disc attached somehow to their clothing - some bars do not require the girls to wear the numbers. Somewhere in each gogo bar, you should be able to find a board that has all of the numbers of the girls listed on it. The board will usually have four columns on it. The three columns on the left will list the numbers of the girls from each of the three sets of girls dancing. The column on the right, sometimes with the word "off" at the top, lists all of the girls who have already left the bar by way of someone having paid their bar fine that evening. If there is a particular girl that you like and you know her number, you can go and check the board to see if she is still there, or if someone has paid her bar fine already that evening. If her number is nowhere to be seen on the board, it is quite possible that she never came into work that day.
When in a gogo bar, there are different categories of women. These include the gogo girls themselves who dance and sometimes, depending on the bar, will be allocated with a number on a small disc, usually attached to part of her skimpy clothes. There are also the hello girls, the waitresses, the mamasan(s) and the cashiers. The hello girls stand outside and try to entice you inside - sometimes they are very attractive and sometimes they are just average looking. The waitresses obviously serve you drinks etc and are often referred to as dek serve. Waitresses are usually available for extra services but often the bar fine can be more expensive than for a gogo girl. Waitresses may be gogo girls who got fed up with dancing and changed roles to waitress. In some other cases, waitresses may go on to become gogo dancers, no doubt motivated by the high earnings that they see their dancing colleagues making. Hello girls are sometimes up for it, sometimes not. However, if you see someone that you really want, remember that in Bangkok, the phrase 'every girl has her price' often rings true. Just don't go paying exorbitant amounts that increase expectations and push up the prices for everyone else! The mamasans sort of act as the manager for the girls, although the bar may well have a manager to whom the mamasan reports to. Bigger gogo bars may have up to five mamasans. Basically, the mamasan manages the girls and organises everything. She will also provide liaison between the girl and the customer in instances where the girl is new and speaks little or no English or the customer is new and doesn't really know how the whole system works. Some people maintain that the mamasans are very useful to know but I have found them largely to be an incredibly insincere bunch and prefer not do not deal with them.
On the subject of tipping in Thailand in the bars, it really is up to you. It seems to me that a lot of people tip although it isn't really necessary as it isn't really a Thai custom - some Thais tip but many do not - or at least not in the same manner as Westerners do. Leaving the loose change is considered polite and anything more really isn't necessary. I will tip if I get good service though in all truth and honesty, that happens very rarely. What does annoy me however is that a lot of the waitresses ask for a tip if you do not tip and some get quite rude about it - reinforcing the my decision to not tip. Change is often returned to you on a small tray and anything that you leave in the tray will be divided up amongst all of the service staff in the bar including the waiters / waitresses / bar staff / mamasans / hello girls etc. The dancing girls will not receive any of it. If you have received particularly good service from someone specifically and would like to reward them, put the tip firmly in their hand and this way they get to keep it all for themselves.
You will often also see girls hanging around the bars in their clothes, not dancing but still chatting up the customers. Often these are girls who have been taken out short-time, have done the business and have returned for another round. As they have already been bought out, they do not have to dance again and in fact they're not even obliged to return to the bar again that evening. Some girls will do a short-time, return to the bar and resume dancing again - they may well get another customer too! If you are not comfortable with a girl who has just been bonked an hour earlier then the fully clothed girls hanging around the gogo bars are probably not for you. If you want to take one of these girls for a bit of hanky panky, the bar will want you to pay another bar fine for her! Carefully explain to the girl that you are not so keen to pay the bar fine but are still very keen on some fun with her. If she likes you, she will usually be happy quietly slip away and you can follow. As a bar fine has already been paid for her, she is actually free from the bar for the rest of the evening.
Photography, either still or video, is not allowed in the gogo bars and many of the bars have big signs with a message to this effect. Having said that, many people have still managed to successfully take photos inside various bars. Search the 'net and there are many folks who provide such photos online, some even selling this type of video. The one video tape of this nature that I saw was of fairly low quality. However, one should be very careful about this as back in early 2000, a local Bangkok expat foolishly took some photos inside the bar that was then known as Pretty Lady Bar in Nana Plaza. The bouncers said that this wasn't allowed and asked for the film from the camera but he refused and this ended up in them taking the film using force and giving him a good seeing to. Why did all of this happen? Well, the gogo bars are technically illegal (though there are application forms to apply for a gogo bar license!) and the girls are often scared that people who know them might eventually see photos of them working in the bar. With all of this in mind, bars simply do not allow shots to be taken.
The three major gogo bar areas in Bangkok are Patpong, Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy although these areas also have some beer bars, discos etc. There is also an area called Clinton Plaza although as at October 2002, the very future of this area is up in the air due to problems with the leaseholder of the land. Gogo bars with nude or topless dancing are, strictly speaking, illegal. They of course still manage to operate. Gogo bars in Thailand are basically for the foreigners and while there are a few gogo bars in Thai areas for the Thai men, they would most likely not really appeal to foreigners.
Patpong
Patpong, located between Silom and Suriwong Road in the heart of Bangkok's commercial district, is the original "farang" area of gogo bars in Bangkok and Patpong Road as it is often mistakenly referred to as, (it's actually two privately owned lanes and not a public road at all) is perhaps the most famous stretch of tarmac in Thailand. Dating back to the early '70s, "the Pong" has been entertaining, delighting, upsetting, mesmerizing - always leaving an impression on those that have visited it. In recent times, the area has seen a steady increase in tourists numbers and this has brought the accompanying street vendors to the stage that there's now a busy night market running down Patpong 1 and along the Silom Rd end of the soi.
Unlike the other red light districts of Bangkok that are frequented almost entirely by men, Patpong receives a large number of regular tourists including couples, females, backpackers and even families and their children. This tends to give the area a very touristy feel to it, a feeling that to some masks what goes on in the bars that are in full view of these tourists. Everything is available at Patpong from gogo bars to massage parlours, beer bars, discos, blowjob bars and sex shows.
You can separate the two main sois, Patpong 1 and Patpong 2 by what is available at each. Patpong 1 is predominantly gogo bars at street level where all of the girls dance with either a bikini or if with no bikini top, they will have star shaped stickers covering their nipples. This is because there is now a lot of tourist traffic in the area and Thailand is conscious of retaining some sort of dignity, notwithstanding that the country does have the reputation for sex tourism. The bars upstairs, one floor up from ground level are a whole different story and that it's where you will find all the full nude ladies and the famous sex shows. Patpong 1 also has a night market running down the middle of it and it all gets going around nightfall - and during the evening traffic can not travel up and down; in fact it is a mission to make your way from one end to the other due to the crowds. Patpong 2 is largely free of the market and has a greater variety of bars with some open air beer bars, gogo bars, lounges, blowjob bars and even a gay bar or two. (If you are concerned about accidentally walking into a gay bay, do not worry as they have fairly obvious names such as Screwboy.) There is a lane of gay bars in a small side street on Suriwong Road, just opposite Patpong. I gather there is another cluster of gay bars in the area but I'm not sure where they are.
The first thing that one notices at Patpong is that it is full on, an area
of real energy. Walking down one of the Patpong sois, you will be subjected to a barrage of somewhat forceful invitations by touts in pidgin English barking out ?you want fucking show", "you want cheap beers", "hello handsome man", "welcome please" etc. You won't and can't escape it so if you want a hassle free evening, this may not be the place for you. Although harmless, the touts can be annoying. You will continuously be presented with a "menu" outlining all of the shows available in that particular bar (as seen on the right) and they have menu such as this translated into several languages. It doesn't matter if you are a man, a woman or a child, they'll do their best to get you into their bar and separate you from your money!
Inside most of the gogo bars in the Patpong area, the staff will be all over you, asking you to buy them drinks, putting pressure on you to pay barfine for the girls and generally making you feel that you have got to spend every last cent in your wallet. Rififi and Safari being two notable exceptions. It can get a bit much and for this reason, the gogo bars in Patpong are not the best place to meet friends for a quiet chat - it's much more hardcore and you get the impression that every Thai in this area is there to do their level best to get as much money out of you as they can. This is quite different to other areas where a lot of the Thai staff seem just as interested in having a good time as they are making money. As mentioned, Rififi in soi 2 and Safari in soi 1 are places where you can have a quiet drink, without being constantly pestered, if that's what you want.
Many of the bars in the Patpong area, particularly in Patpong soi 1, are operated by the King's Group. The King's Group has been running bars in Patpong for many, many years and is a chain that prides itself on actually maintaining some sort of standards within this lawless industry. The group runs a well organised and purportedly above board chain of establishments. Bars within the Kings Group can be identified by
their name usually having "king" or "queen" in it such as King's Corner and Queen's Castle 2. In addition to this, you can usually see the group's crown motif somewhere around the entrance way to any of their bars. For those people who have heard stories about being ripped off and / or anyone who is perhaps only interested in having a quick look at the famous industry, you can visit any of the King's establishments without fair of heavy handed hassles, hidden charges or any other worries. The only questionable practice of the King's Group that I can see is the number of katoeys that they employ in some of their bars. The King's Group places girls in one of their bars according to the girl's looks. The prettiest girls end up in King's Castle 1 and 2, and to a lesser extent Camelot Castle. The average looking girls end up in King's Corner along with a lot of katoeys. The really average looking girls, i.e. the older and or bigger girls often end up in Queen's Castle 2, which is one of the upstairs bar where they do all of the famous sex shows. There are several other bars in the group, each bar with a group of similar looking girls working there.
In some of their bars such as King's Disco, King's Corner and King's Lounge 2, there are more katoeys (trans-sexual, usually pre-operative) than there are genuine females! King's Corner has many, many attractive katoeys so be extremely careful if you decide to take a "girl" out of here! The King's Group used to insist that all girls working in their bars have an STD test the morning after they have had a customer - but I believe that this is no longer the case. The girls carry a little book with them and it makes interesting reading - one can find out how many customers they have had and how frequently they have performed their services! Apparently if a girl has an STD, she is not allowed to work until it has been cleared up - whether this actually happens or not is anyone's guess. The problem with this system is that STDs do not necessarily show up immediately with some STDs taking quite some time to show up - and some do not even have any symptoms. A friend checked a King's Group girl's little book and verified that she was apparently clean. He had sex with her and STILL ended up with an STD. Condom or not, the book was misleading. The same friend who is medically trained also had the pleasure of viewing one of the King's Group STD checks which was performed in the back of a hair salon on Patpong Soi 1! There was no vaginal swab taken and it sounded as though it was little more than a dousing to clean the vagina. So basically, these STD tests and the girls' little books as used by the King's Group (and many other bars) are no guarantee...
One of the interesting things about the King's Group is the uniform prices that they try to impose upon the girls working in their bars. Since about October 2000, mamasans and management in any of the King's Group will quote exactly the same price, 2,000 short time and 4,000 long time. They even have cards with these prices on in English - and also in Japanese. It seems that the management really does try to reinforce this on the girls, be they the really attractive beauties or the less than attractive girls. Many of the girls will not budge on these prices but there are plenty who will give in to your pleas of a more reasonable price. There are those folks, particularly the Japanese, who will pay even more - which is totally unnecessary! In the King's Group of bars, barfines for the gogo girls are 400 baht and for the service staff and cashiers (if they are willing to go), 600 baht and finally, 1,000 baht for the mamasan. Funnily enough, the regular 400 baht charge is about 100 baht less than most bars in Nana Plaza. Patpong used to have the reputation of being the most expensive area, but I don't think that that is quite so true any more.
Katoeys, or lady boys as they are otherwise known, are quite prevalent in Patpong, especially in the King's Corner and King's Castle 3 bar, both of which seem to specialise in these folks. Often stunningly attractive, they can and do fool all but the sharpest observers. While most folks want to avoid them, there are certainly punters out there who are not impartial to a night of passion with a creature that was formerly, or possibly even still is, a man. The biggest give away with the katoeys is their height - they usually stand well above your average Thai girl. The shape of the face, particularly the squarer jaw gives them a look that can hardly be described as feminine. The tits often look too
good to be true - the genuine item has seldom looked so good! Any sign of a voice box is a sure give away. All of the aforementioned can be cosmetically changed and if they have been taken care of then you may have more problems distinguishing a katoey from a bona fide female. Failing the above indicators, the next biggest give away is the size of the hands and feet - "genuine" Thai girls, especially the girls who work in the bars, typically have tiny hands and feet and katoeys cannot hide these features. If you are really sharp you will also notice the deeper voice, lack of hips, aggressive behaviour and mood swings too! Good luck avoiding the katoeys - unless of course you don't want to avoid them! The King's Corner Bar has some of the most attractive katoeys working in the nightlife scene. Other than in the red light districts of Bangkok, there are quite a few funny shows featuring the lady boys, as the Thais call them, specifically for tourists. Some of the katoeys are very hard to pick and if you take one home, don't worry because you're definitely not the first guy who has had one slip through the radar. Unless you have a fetish or are bi-sexual, katoeys should really be avoided. They are notoriously light fingered and trouble seems to follow them wherever they go. At the end of the day, katoeys manage to combine the worst traits and characteristics of both males and females and roll them all up in one package.
Patpong sees the widest range of prices asked for sexual services. Because of the high number of tourists that frequent the area, many of the girls will try and charge as much as they can - and often get it. Back in my misbehaving days, I had my eye on a cute lady and she said that she wanted 5,000 baht. I eventually negotiated her down to 3,000 baht and she simply wouldn't go any lower. Far too much for me so I said thanks, but no thanks. But then as with other areas, if the girls want or need money, they may accept as little as 500 baht. There are a huge number of determining factors as to whether the girl will accept a lower amount but as a rule, the more popular girls are less negotiable. Drinks currently run at about 80 - 100 baht in the Patpong area and while this area used to be dearer for drinks than the other gogo bar areas, most Patpong bars have not increased their prices at all in the last two years meaning that a beer in Patpong is now about the same price as other gogo bar areas.
As Patpong is located right beside the financial centre of the city, some of the expats working in the area frequent this particular nightlife district. These locals know the routine and will not usually pay the prices that the girls want, hopefully contributing to keeping some of the prices at more reasonable levels. Having said that, these are the expats with the most discretionary spending money available to them...
Of the three major gogo areas in Bangkok, Patpong has traditionally been the most expensive. It is definitely worth a look but I reckon that with a few exceptions, there is little available at Patpong that isn't available elsewhere. There are some really stunning looking girls, particularly in the King's Group bars, but they often want a premium. If you have money to throw around in the gogo bars and want the most attractive girls in the farang industry, then go to Patpong and you won't be disappointed. The cost of drinks is a now much the same as the other areas with the prices listed here still current as at October 2002.
Patpong used to be the best place to go if you wanted to see one of Bangkok's famous sex shows - but now you can see these shows at Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy as well and to me, they are all much of a muchness. At Patpong, the sex shows are located in the "upstairs" bars, one floor above ground level. Usually you walk up a flight of stairs and through another set of doors to enter the lair of sin. You can witness girls putting all manner of objects into their vaginas and performing feats that I'm sure the vagina was never designed for. The flying banana show is the one that really opened my eyes, a girl inserting a banana into her vagina and then swinging her body backwards and forwards and launching the banana towards another girl who catches it. There are all manner of shows and one you need to be very careful of is the balloon show. The girl will stick a small tube into her vagina and fire "darts" out of the tube right across the room attempting to pop some balloons that are being held up by other girls around the room. These darts are in fact long pins with a piece of paper, sort of like a wing attached, to help them fly. Cop one of these in the eye and it'll be the last show you ever see. Sure, these shows are technically illegal, as is a lot of the nightlife industry but the whole industry is such a big foreign currency earner that the government seems to tolerate it. A lot of the bars have an alarm system so that if the police raid or come to do an inspection, the doorman presses a button, lights start flashing in the bar and the girls quickly jump from the stage and their clothed friends jump up and start dancing around - and the cops seemingly see nothing!
For me, these shows and actions are totally degrading to the girls and it's one of the aspect of Bangkok nightlife that I really don't enjoy. In the past, there were many stories of tourists being presented with bills for ridiculous amounts of money in the upstairs bars at the end of the show but fortunately, this is not such a big problem any more. The girls in these upstairs bars with the shows are not usually as attractive as the girls in the bars at ground level and some of them are very average looking, at best. In fact, Patpong once had the reputation of having the nicest gogo girls in Bangkok but I find nowadays that although there are some beauties there, on average many of the girls in these upstairs bars are nothing so pretty. One of the aspects that many folks like about these upstairs bars is that the girls usually sit around and walk around topless, some even totally nude.
There are a handful of blowjob bars in Patpong such as the Star Of Light
bar, and perhaps the most famous blow job bar of them all, the Kangaroo Club. After climbing a short flight of stairs, you will find yourself in a typically small bar with very basic surroundings. Within 30 seconds, girls will be grabbing your crotch and suggesting that they have a snack on your hot dog. I have only ever been in these bars for a drink and have never partaken but understand that the cost ranges from around 350 - 700 baht - BUT, prices are negotiable! The girls in these bars don't tend to be that attractive at all and blowjob bars are sort of the last stop before one becomes a prowler, hunting for streetwalkers, the girls plying their trade in the city shadows if the city's many dark alleys. If you choose to indulge in a blowjob bar, you are given the option of getting your rocks off in one of three places. You can select either a private room (not usually an extra charge for this), a seat at the bar where a young lass sits on the other side behind a curtain or simply stay where you are, unzip your fly in the middle of the bar and let her go to it - in full view of all and sundry. A midday beer and a blowjob in these bars used to be known as the Bangkok slimmer's lunch. Without wanting to be crass, yes, the girls swallow and afterwards they rinse their mouth out with mouthwash. On the few occasions that I have been into one of these bars, I like to count the number of bottles of mouthwash there and try and work out how many days until the bottles have all been used up. I have always felt that blow job bars were a little mechanical, a place to get yourself off - and nothing more, and they are most definitely not my cup of tea. They're one of the types of establishments where I really do feel sorry for the ladies working there. "So Nok, what do you do for a living?" "I suck many farang's cocks each and every day." Not nice, is it.
Rip-offs or attempted rip-offs are not uncommon in bars at Patpong, though they do not seem to be as big a problem as they apparently used to be. The most common rip-off is finding yourself being presented with a bill for a ridiculous amount of money in one of the "upstairs bars". The cost of your drinks may be up to 100 baht a drink but if the bar tries it on, you may get a bill for 10,000 baht or more "for the show". The best approach is to refuse to pay for the show, pay for the drinks and leave. A refusal to pay part of the bill, may in unscrupulous bars, result in the bar staff calling for reinforcements. If the "heavies" come out, you may be forced to pay the bill - assuming you have that kind of money on you - which you shouldn't if you're sensible... In this instance you are best advised to pay the bill and then go to the tourist police immediately. The tourist police are very efficient and will rectify the situation for you. The Tourist Police often have a van parked at the Silom Rd end of Patpong 1. Fortunately, with the Police presence, such rip-offs are becoming fewer and fewer and I have not heard of any in the last year or so. Whenever I am showing friends around Bangkok and they insist that they want to see a sex show, I take them to Queen's Castle 2 in Patpong. Some interesting shows and I have never been hassled or received dodgy bills. Don't listen to any of the touts who try to take you to a bar and say there is a cover charge - they are doing this to get a tout's finders fee. Stick to the King's Group and you shouldn't have any troubles.
Another common scam is getting mis-changed. Try and avoid giving 1,000 baht notes to pay for a couple of drinks as you may find that you will get change as if the note you gave was a 500. This situation can get a bit messy and arguments can often prove fruitless. (This is also a bit of a scam some taxi drivers run. You give them money and they pretend they have no change - it's not uncommon.) Having the right money or lots of smaller notes is far more important in Bangkok than in the West. There are many pickpockets around Patpong and while in Bangkok on holiday in 1997, a friend had an unpleasant experience with one. In his words, "I went to put my hand in my pocket and when I did, someone else's hand was already there"! Often the best approach is to put your wallet / valuables in your front pocket, as many Thais do.
There are a few interesting bars in the Patpong area that are a little different from your typical Patpong gogo bar. These bars, located in Patpong soi 2, include Cosmos, Crystal Palace, Executive Lounge and the Patpong Cafe. Cosmos is a sort of English style bar come hostess bar and for me is the pick of the three. Cosmos is tastefully decorated and achieves what many of the bars at Sukumvit Soi 33 fail to achieve by having attractive ladies in evening wear with a more upmarket, yet laid back feel. The bar has the usual numbers of beautiful girls but unlike many other bars, they aren't particularly pushy - or at least haven't been when I have visited. Combine this with a nice atmosphere that manages to avoid the sex-in-your-face approach of the nearby gogo bars and you have an alternative to some of the raunchier venues. Many of the girls that I have spoken to speak good English although that is more likely a sign of having worked in the industry a long time as opposed to being well educated. There are two or three other bars in this same style but Cosmos is in my opinion, the pick of the bunch. If you were disappointed by Sukumvit Soi 33, this is well worth a go. And unlike soi 33, the drinks are standard bar prices.
I continue to maintain that the gogo bars in Bangkok with the most attractive girls are Kings Castle 1 and King's Castle 2 in Patpong. Although you may not agree with this, I'm sure you'll find the girls there to be very attractive nonetheless. If you would like to misbehave with the girls in these bars, expect to pay top dollar. The girls in Patpong, especially the prettiest girls, regularly ask for - and get - 3,000 - 5,000 baht for sexual services. The less attractive girls working in Patpong may quote high prices initially but more often than not they will come down to far more realistic levels.
If you do go to Patpong as a tourist, be warned that the night market at Patpong is very, very expensive. You could do a lot worse than go to Pratunam Market, Mahboonkrong Shopping Centre or Chatuchak, the weekend market if you are after cheap knock off goods. The same goods you see at Patpong are available in all of these places. With this in mind, Patpong is open every day of the year as it is as much a tourist attraction as anything else. On top of this, some of the restaurants in the immediate area are very expensive and getting a taxi driver to turn on his meter in this area is not the easiest task in the world.
About 75 metres up the road from the two farang oriented Patpong sois is a soi with many Japanese style hostess bars called Soi Thaniya, pictured here. These bars are for the Japanese expats and Japanese tourists. Rumours abound that these bars bar entry to non Japanese including farangs and even Thais! It may be true with some of the bars but on the occasion that I went to check out these bars, the girls were more than happy to allow entry to a farang.
The first thing that you notice about this street is that it feels like a street right out of Japan, transplanted directly right into Bangkok. The street is much wider than the Patpong sois for farangs and is also a lot cleaner. Most signs outside the bars are in three languages - Thai, English and Japanese. (Always a danger sign - any place anywhere in the world that has signs in Japanese instantly tells you that it's overpriced!) Outside of the bars there are many Thai girls standing or sitting, and unlike the farang orientated bars, they are NOT pushy at all. You do not hear the "hello handsome man" cat calls that so often irritate one in the other areas. Asian men tend to have different tastes to farang men and the girls in this street are fairer skinned and generally taller than the girls in the farang areas.
The whole scene is quite different and instead of just walking into a bar, most of the entrances see you walk straight into a lift! Up the lift you go and when you arrive at the top, you come out into a lounge area. Now this is where the biggest difference becomes apparent - the places are far more tasteful than establishments in the farang areas -but they are also far more expensive. If you want to buy just one glass of beer, the price ranges from, wait for it, 300 - 600 baht PER GLASS! Who the hell wants to pay that for a beer! Now, the kind proprietors also give you another drinking option. You can have a lovely girl sit with you for an hour and you are entitled to drink as much as you want in that hour for 1,000 - 1,500 baht PER HOUR - varies from club to club. Now even if you managed to throw back say 6 beers in the hour, you are still getting RIPPED OFF BIG TIME! Oh, you get a plate of fruit too - hooray, fruit's only 10 baht a portion out in the street! With all of this in mind, all I can say is that this street is for the very well heeled. When it comes to actually taking the girl away for a bit of fun, I have no idea what it would cost but hell, it's going to be ugly... But, if you know a Japanese businessman who is going to pick up the tab, why not join him?!
One thing to note about Patpong is that it is the only bar area that is open every day of the year - because it is considered a tourist attraction. There are a handful of public holidays when all of the other farang orientated bar areas close for the evening but Patpong is open every day!
I believe Patpong is featured in the 1978 Robert de Niro classic, "The Deer Hunter", but it has been so long since I saw that movie that I can't remember. Many Bangkok expats see Patpong as another tourist attraction and Nana Plaza now as the premier location for the best girls but I digress. Patpong still has far and away the most attractive girls in my eyes and if I had a somewhat higher income, I'd be down there more often.
Getting a taxi from Patpong to elsewhere can be a real problem in the evening. Knowing that most people who visit Patpong are tourists who have no choice but to get in a taxi to return to their hotel, many taxi drivers will simply reuse to turn on the meter, often quoting 200+ baht for a fare that would otherwise be 60 or 70 baht on the meter. This won't break the bank, but it gets damned annoying nonetheless. The easiest way around it is to walk about 200 meters away from the main Patpong area and you should have no problem getting a driver to turn the meter on.
Stickman's Patpong bar recommendations:
King's Castle 1 & 2 and Camelot Castle: Three bars lined up next to each other on Patpong soi 1, these three favourites usually have lots of very attractive girls - more lookers here than most other gogo bars in Thailand. For a piece of the action, the girls ask for a lot of money - and they usually get it too, from tourists here for a short period of time who are not going to complain over an "extra $20 or so"..
Safari Bar: This place actually has a real DJ who plays a lot of older music on vinyl! This bar is far more relaxed than any of the other gogo bars in Patpong. If you want a more relaxed bar in the mayhem and chaos that is Patpong, try the Safari.
* Patpong warning. Firecats bar has been running a ripoff for a long time and in 2003 the scam is still going! I believe that it has now changed its name to Wild Cats. The warning remains - Avoid this bar at all costs - it is a ripoff joint!
Pros: Some very attractive girls, many, many bars, "best" and varied sex shows. There is a lot of history and tradition at Patpong.
Cons: Girls ask (and get) HIGH prices, EVERYONE is downright pushy, many katoeys, many bars are small and overcrowded, market is full of tourists who purport to look at the market goods but are really window shopping at the gogo bars, overly aggressive touts, pushy service staff in most gogo bars, some bars common practice to rip off customers.
The Bottom Line: If it?s your first time in Bangkok, you must go to Patpong to see it for yourself. Patpong is now as much a tourist attraction as a place to meet a pretty girl. Soi Thaniya is way overpriced - leave it for the Japanese!
DIRECTIONS: To get there, take the Sky train on the Silom Line to the Sala Daeng station. When you exit the station, walk down Silom Road on the right hand side. Patpong is about 250m down - you know you are close when there are many street vendors selling all the usual stuff.
Nana Plaza
Dating back to 1985, Nana Entertainment Plaza, located on Sukumvit Soi 4, opposite the Nana Hotel, is the choice of many Western locals as both the place to meet friends for an after work drink and a place to meet girls for a bit of fun. With Patpong now as much a tourist attraction as anything else, Nana Plaza is now also the most popular choice for sex tourists coming to Thailand for their two week shag fests. Commonly referred to as NEP or sometimes just the "entertainment plaza" (though this could be confusing as there is a massage complex of the same name), there are more than 30 bars in this three story sex shopping centre that range from open air beer bars to gogo bars to short time hotels. As you walk into Nana Plaza, using the only entrance way (pictured below), you see a small square at ground level with several beer bars in the centre which are surrounded by three levels of gogo bars, all brightly lit up by wall to wall neon, as is typically the Asian way. The bright neon lights and ideal layout make it all very welcoming and you feel like you have just walked into a life sized pinball table with all of these flashing lights and crazy sounds all around you. Nana Plaza offers adult entertainment and commercial sex in abundance and no attempt is made to hide it as a traditional massage venue or any other supposedly legitimate enterprise, as is the case in the Thai orientated naughty nightlife industry. These girls have no delusions about why they are there.
The neon sign gave up the ghost a long time ago! And
the gold shop to the left of the only Nana Plaza
entrance is now a very popular beer bar. Nana is sprawling out!The bars in Nana Plaza are spread over three different levels. On the ground floor, there are gogo bars around the outside and beer bars in the centre area. The next two floors up are all gogo bars and one short time hotel. On the upper two levels is a walkway that runs its way around past the entrances to the various bars and a lot of the girls sit outside on chairs watching the world and trying to woo customers into their bar. On some stretches of the walkway are vendors selling a variety of items from skimpy clothes and mobile phone accessories for the girls to hamburgers for the guys. Unlike the bars at Patpong, the Nana Plaza bars don't have overly aggressive touts trying to entice you inside. The people doing the welcoming are often the dancing girls themselves standing outside for a breather. All of this contributes to giving Nana Plaza a more laid back and pleasant atmosphere than its more famous cousin, Patpong.
Nana Plaza has been very popular over the last decade or so and many now consider it the best place to meet the best selection of attractive gogo girls in Thailand. Two of the better bars, and certainly two of the more popular at present, are Rainbow 1 & 2 on the ground floor. Ladies come and go and bars go through phases of being popular and less popular, but these two bars have been good for a long, long time. In 1998, Pretty Girl bar was the pick of the bunch but for whatever reason, many of the nicer girls left, the bar was renamed to Pretty Lady bar and then Bottoms Up bar, the whole interior was revamped and sadly it's now only a shadow of it's former self. In '99 it was Rainbow 1 for sure. After that G Spot had a period of popularity and in 2003 it has been Hollywood Carousel that has arguably had the prettiest girls and the most customers.
In the past, the bars of Nana Plaza would run various shows, some lewd and some tasteful but since mid 2003 the bars have been prohibited from running such shows. Who knows whether they will return or not? There used to be a very good "shower show" in G Spot up on the first floor, tasteful and not crude, where about six or seven girls give themselves a good scrub down in a fish-bowl like shower. Good the first time you see it but like many things in the naughty nightlife, it can become boring quickly. There used to be this crazy "pussy licking" show in Carousel Bar on the third floor. I'm not sure how long it ran for but I haven't seen it since 2000 or 2001. At about 11:30 PM, five girls got up on stage and the carousel would stop rotating. The girls spread their legs and patrons were invited to take a lick - yes, really. I personally found it to be a huge turn off but witnessed many customers and even some grotty friends partake in the action. They tried a couple of girls and thought that some substance had been sprayed on to the girl's vaginal areas - to keep them clean or prevent infection perhaps? Carnival Bar on the third floor used to have a sex show every night at 10:30. Four girls would get up on stage and after a shower show, you would see two girls strap on big black dildos and yes, there would be full penetration in both the front AND back doors. This show was for a while replicated in Voodoo and Fantasia as well, which are both part of the same Crown Group of bars. Such shows used to be very popular but since there has been a fairly major crackdown on what goes on inside the bars, these shows seem to be a thing of the past.
There was a mad period, even by Bangkok standards, when the latest craze at Carousel Bar was the live fish show. A girl would stand over a fish bowl with her legs together and slowly opens her legs. After a little wriggling around the vaginal area, a LIVE fish would fall out of her vagina and into the fish bowl and start swimming around. I don't care what anyone else thinks, but this is TOTALLY SICK! It is amazing that word didn't get out because this really was bizarre. Dancing girls is one thing but these shows went WAY too far for my liking. Don't the bars realise that as long as they have attractive girls, they will get customers in the door. These shows are totally unnecessary and most people that I know do not like them. My other pet hate in the bars is the beer bottle show. Once popular in Fantasia and Voodoo, amongst others, a couple of girls danced together for a while on stage, usually with a solitary piece of clothing draped over them. Somewhat conspicuous are the two small bottles of beer sitting beside them... After their robes have been removed and the beer poured all over each other, they then proceed to insert the bottles inside themselves. Good God. I really do not want to see this sort of thing... This is one of those times when I get that "knight in shining armour syndrome" and really want to reach out and help these poor girls. No one should have to be subjected to this. And worst of all, the girls in the Nana bars that do these shows get a supplementary payment of between 75 and 100 baht each for doing them. Not a lot, is it?
But there is one show in the Nana Plaza bar that does get Mr. Stickman excited and that is the "fluorescent paint show". Two or three girls get exotic pictures painted on their naked bodies in bright fluorescent colours and only the lights in the bar that illuminate this type of paint are turned on. The music changes from dance to slow, soothing music and the girls gently and sensually slowly dance to the music, the wonderful shape of their feminine bodies accentuated by the exotic painted designs adorning their bodies. Where can I get a job as a fluorescent painter?
So how much money do the girls at Nana Plaza charge for a naughty night? Like everywhere it varies from girl to girl but usually they will ask in the 1,000 - 1,500 baht range for short-time and 2,000 - 3,000 baht for long time. Back in my misbehaving days, I found that you could easily negotiate the price down with most of the girls and one needn't pay more than 1,000 baht for short time. Long time can be had with some girls for
1,000 but it should be noted that quite a lot of the girls will simply not go with you long time. Other girls will insist on, and in fact have no trouble getting 3,000 baht from free spending tourists. Many girls will go with one guy, do the deed and then return to the bar to look for another customer, another round and another pay out! The best looking, most popular girls do not have to drop their price because if you do not pay what she asks, the next guy probably will. There are a small minority of girls who do not like to go back to the apartment / hotel of someone they do not know so you are forced to go to a short time hotel, usually costing around 300 - 500 baht to use the hotel's facilities. I chatted with a girl in Rainbow 1 bar late 1999. She claimed to have lost (sold?) her virginity to a customer for 20,000 baht so yes, if you want a virgin, even in this extremely popular sex shopping centre, you may just find one. that is one of the crazy things about the naughty nightlife industry in Thailand. More than a few poor girls have lost their virginity with a paying customer. Yeah, things like this make me realise that prostitution is not too nice at all.
Directly across the road from NEP is the Nana Hotel. This very popular sex tourist hotel has a beer bar facing Nana Plaza called The Golden Beer Bar that opens out onto the road. The hotel also houses Angel / Nana Disco on the ground floor. The beer bar is a nice place to sit and watch the world go by - or more specifically, the customers coming and going from NEP (though the beer bars right at the entrance of Nana, Big Dogs and Lucky Lukes, are even better for this).
Angel's, or as it is more commonly referred to as, Nana Disco, is located inside the Nana Hotel on the ground floor, just through the lobby. This is another late night freelance joint, not dis-similar from the Thermae which is described below. Frequented by freelancers and the girls from NEP, Nana Disco doesn't usually get busy until after 11:30 PM, and peaks at around 1:00 AM. In the past it used to get busy a lot later but with 2:00 AM closing enforced Bangkok wide, this is not quite the late night venue that it used to be. Nana Disco is the place where can meet ladies from the bars in NEP who didn't get a customer or those who want another customer for the night! It's an expensive place to drink and they introduced a cover charge at 160 baht which entitles you to one free drink. After that you will be paying 100 baht for a glass of coke and alcoholic drinks start at around 140 baht. The staff can be a bit pushy so if you are not so much interested in drinking, but more in looking for a nice lady friend, you may want to nurse your drink. Whereas at the Thermae you can just wander around without a drink for a short period if you so desire, the staff at Nana Disco will literally harass you until you buy a drink so do yourself a favour, buy a drink and make yourself legal. Although it doesn't seem to get going until about 11:30 PM, it can be a really good place to meet up with a freelancer who isn't a hardcore, out every night kind of girl. After a sexy dance with one of the girls on the crowded dance floor, it is only a eunuch who won't want to make an expedient exit back to their apartment / hotel. This bar doesn't suffer from the smoky atmosphere that the Thermae exudes, but then again it's not nearly as interesting either. As the music is loud, it is not as easy to chat with someone as it is in say, the Thermae. Although it varies from night to night, the girls at Nana Disco seem to be younger and more attractive than at the Thermae. The girls here seem to be a bit more fun than those at the Thermae. One downside is that this place is a disco and some may not like that. If you meet a girl you like, she may be more interested in dancing than anything else and if you do not want to get up on the dance floor with her, she may not consider you a lot of fun and then it may be more difficult to develop a rapport with her. While you may look at the girls merely as prostitutes, Thai girls working as prostitutes do not necessarily see themselves as prostitutes and like to have fun too! It is not at al unusual for a Thai girl to refuse to go with a guy if she considers him dull or boring! The idea of sanuk, or fun, to Thais i very important!
There are quite a few beer bars at ground level in Nana Plaza. These bars have slightly cheaper drinks, some serve food - well actually they usually source it from the food vendors in the area - and these bars tend to be more laid back than the gogos. All of the outside bars have satellite TV and can be very popular spots on Saturday nights when many people come to meet friends for a beer and to watch sport, typically the English football Premiership.
Nana Plaza doesn't yet suffer from all of the tourist associated bullshit that plagues Patpong. By this I mean the aggressive touts, sky high prices and zillions of vendors selling all sorts of junk - but how long will this last? With the tourist high season stretching out a little further each year, expect to see more and more tourists visiting the plaza and local Thais following in search of quick, easy money.
Whereas a lot of the bars in Patpong seem to be Thai owned, the majority of bars in Nana Plaza are farang owned and you can often see the owners in the bars, working away, doing their best to reduce the amount of employee theft that they claim is so prevalent in Thailand. If you get a chance to have a chat with one of the owners, I'm sure they'll be able to tell you some interesting stories about the industry. A consortium of investors own a group of seven of the Nana Plaza bars called The Crown Group which includes Fantasia, Voodoo and G Spot. This is not to be confused with the King's Group of Patpong which is Thai owned.
Unlike Patpong, there are not too many bars with katoeys in Nana Plaza. Casanova on the second floor is a katoey only bar and you do get the odd katoey in other bars but really, not too many. Obsession on the ground floor seems to have gone that way too - are katoeys really this popular so as to command two prime spaces in Nana Plaza? Note: Cascade, The Crown Group's white elephant on the top floor seems to have become a katoey bar too. This bar, that promised so much (more was sent on this bar than any other in Nana) never took off as it should have.
In the time that I have lived in Bangkok, I have noticed a slow decline in the physical attractiveness of the girls at Nana Plaza. Back in early 1998, all of the bars on the ground level had a big selection of really attractive girls. But now, it has changed, big time. Since early 2000, there has been a noticeable drop off in the quality of the girls and there seems to be a more persistent attitude of the service staff who constantly hassle you for drinks - something which didn't happen so much in the past. I don't know where all of the nice girls are going (overseas with former customers?) but Nana does not quite have the selection that it used to. It's still good but just not as good as I thought it was a while ago. Most people that I know that have been in Thailand for a long time (say several years or more) all agree that the girls are not nearly as nice as they used to be - right across all of the bar areas from Patpong to Nana to Thermae etc. Still, one must reconcile that with the fact that as a new entrant into the scene, it can be almost mind blowing and after you become used to it, it takes a bit more to get one excited.
I believe that G Spot on the middle floor at Nana Plaza is the biggest gogo bar in Thailand. Bars like G spot, Rainbow 1 and Rainbow 2 sometimes have up to 150 girls dancing on the busiest nights - typically Friday is the busiest night. Given that the service staff are often up for it too, this can mean more than 170+ available girls in the bar early in the evening. However, with the exception of Rainbow 2, quantity does not mean quality and a lot of these bars that have gone for sheer numbers have some real dragons dancing alongside their more aesthetically pleasing counterparts.
Funnily enough you can actually get some decent food within Nana Plaza - worth grabbing something to fortify yourself if you're a big drinker. Woodstock on the first floor (second floor for you Americans) has won the annual best burger in Bangkok award at least a couple of times. There used to be a French fellow selling French bread rolls with all sorts of French pates, cheeses etc on the ground floor just after you have walked in. They are expensive but shit, it's the genuine article from France so it's worth it! There was also a Middle Eastern fellow selling kebabs outside Pretty Girl bar on the ground floor and outside the entrance, there are various vendors selling Thai style snacks. But these vendors seem to have disappeared, but I'm not sure where and / or whether their departure is temporary or permanent.
At Nana Plaza, when an international event is taking place in Bangkok (such as the Asian Games in December 1998), the gogo girls will revert to dancing in their full bikinis. It seems that Thailand does not want the world's press and dignitaries to see what really goes on...
To me, one of the things that differentiates Nana Plaza from the other major Bangkok gogo bar areas is that people seem to go to Nana Plaza primarily looking for sex. I guess this should not come as a great surprise for that is the main commodity for sale alongside alcohol. While a lot of people do visit the bar areas to just cruise around a few bars, have a few beers and a laugh with their friends, Nana Plaza seems to be becoming more and more a place to find a girl for the night. It does seem that of all of the farang oriented gogo bar areas, Nana has the highest number of girls - and the highest concentration of pretty girls. With this in mind, the pretty girls often get barfined earlier in the evening and on a busy night, even the biggest bars might find that 2/3 of their girls barfined by midnight.
There was a big storm amongst customers, particularly locals, in mid 2001 when the Crown Group of Bars plus a few of the other independent bars (Play School, the Hollywood bars) colluded on drinks prices and put up the prices of drinks by about 25%. The price of a beer in these bars shot up from 90 baht to 110 - even for a draught beer - and Coke was suddenly being sold at 95 baht! But there are still plenty of bars charging a lot less than this so you do not have to pay these prices in all of the Nana Plaza bars, yet. To make matters worse, in September of 2003, another round of drinks price increases has seen the price of a standard drink soar in many Nana Plaza bars to 125 baht for a standard drink. While this may not be a big issue for someone who has flown half way around the world to sample the delights of Nana, it has nonetheless reached the point where drinks prices in this bar area have reached unreasonable levels. The price increase came about with no value added to the bars or the services in any way, and no apparent increase in the bars' expenses either.
Stickman's Nana Plaza bar recommendations: (updated 15/10/2003)
Hollywood Strip: This bar used to be on the avoided list for a long time when it was full of older, less attractive ladies and a martial artist doing a show that lasted for what seemed like ages. No-one told the management that punters don't go to such bars to see martial arts! Anyway, the biggest bar in Nana with two rotating dance floors is now home to many pretty ladies and the atmosphere is fun too. Its gone from one of the worst to the best bar.
Angel Witch: A lot of pretty girls and a very pleasant atmosphere which reminds of how bars used to be 3 or 4 years ago.
Pros: This horseshoe shaped complex full of bright neon signs and three floors of attractive girls is the best laid out gogo bar area in all of Thailand. Many gogo bars, beer bars and even a short-time hotel all in one convenient location - it's all well laid out and has even got a nice atmosphere too. There are now a lot of other bars in the soi 4 area too, giving the punter even more options of places to eat, drink or relax.
Cons: Girls don't come cheap and bar fines aren't cheap either at around 600 baht. It's getting busier and busier. Some bars charge up to 125 baht for a beer making them the dearest gogo bars for drinking in Bangkok. There has been a decline in the atmosphere at Nana Plaza in the last year or two. It used to be a lot more fun and more relaxed but now it seems like it is all business.
The Bottom Line: Worth a visit, either if you just want a beer or are actually seeking attractive company. I guess it still holds the crown as the Bangkok expat?s favourite after work venue, but only just.
DIRECTIONS: To get there, take the Sky Train on the Sukumvit Line to the Nana station. When you exit the station, walk up Sukumvit Road towards The Landmark Hotel. When you get to the main intersection where sois 3 and 4 meet the main road, turn left on to soi 4. Nana Plaza is about 40 metres down the soi on your left, directly opposite the Nana Hotel.
Soi Cowboy
Soi Cowboy has been around for 25 or so years which makes it older than Nana Plaza but not quite as old as Patpong. Cowboy is generally considered to be the least popular of the three main gogo bar areas in Bangkok. Mainly frequented by locals, the 100 or so metre long soi located between Sukumvit Sois 21 (Asoke) and 23 is a short strip of about 25 or so gogo bars along with a handful of open air beer bars too.
To me, there is a certain old world charm about Soi Cowboy and I really can't put my finger exactly on it. Maybe it's the fact that it is all a little decrepit where you get the feeling that this street has been there, just like this, seemingly unchanged for a long, long time. This makes me think about the history of the place, the tens of thousands of girls that must have worked there and the hundreds of thousands of customers that have walked up and down one of Bangkok's' more infamous locales. I really like the stroll down "the street", just checking out what is happening, watching all of the girls at work, but doing my best to avoid those girls who hang around outside the bars and try to entice you inside, sometimes even making an effort to physically drag you in - but in Cowboy, its always in good fun, and not high pressure like Patpong. Even after I have left SE Asia, whenever that will be, I will never forget the calls of "hello handsome man, welcome to my bar please" etc that you get from all of the girls outside the bars in this soi.
The changing face of Soi Cowboy. This photo taken in early
2000 shows the signs of many older bars that are no longer.Unlike Patpong and to a lesser extent Nana, you can usually walk into a bar in Soi Cowboy and get a seat without a problem. (The exception being Long Gun bar which is always packed.) Cowboy is generally quieter and a lot more relaxed and it is this that separates it from the other gogo bar areas. This is the main reason why some people like it - and others don't. In my opinion, there is nothing worse than being in one of the popular Patpong or Nana Plaza gogo bars and not being able to get a seat or getting a seat jammed next to a bunch of smokers or drunks and feeling like you are trapped in a sardine can. And with the exception of the Long Gun, Tilac, Dollhouse and Bacarra bars, the bars in Cowboy don't seem to have the sheer numbers of girls that the Nana and Patpong bars have. A lot of the bars in Cowboy are fairly small with an average of perhaps 20 girls per bar.
Many of the publicans at Cowboy complain about their bars being quiet when Patpong and Nana are booming but perhaps they should have a closer look at their establishments because some bars are downright dingy. Very few of the bars are nicely decorated and many are shabby, having not seen a fresh coat of paint or set of new decorations in years. Some bars even have lousy sound systems! Tilac which was renovated in 1999 with the addition of new seats, tables and lots of flashing disco lights and voila, it suddenly became one of the more popular bars in the soi, as is Bacarra which opened late 2000 and is all new and nicely laid out. Note 2003: This has changed and a lot of the bars have been revamped, or totally new bars built. Cowboy is no longer the decrepit place with old bars that it used to be.
The girls at Cowboy tend to be a lot friendlier and generally less pushy than those at Patpong or Nana Plaza. However, the girls here don't tend to be as attractive as those at Nana or the Pong. Long Gun bar really seems to make an effort and this bar deserves a special mention because a) it actually has attractive girls and b) the girls wear more diverse outfits and often perform various raunchy dance routines. It may not be brilliant but it's good to see some bars actually making an effort to deliver a better product. The girls at Long Gun are easily the most attractive in the soi, to the point that that bar almost feels like it is out of place in Soi Cowboy. It used to be that apart from Long Gun bar, the girls in most of the other Soi Cowboy bars danced with their bikinis firmly on. This has since changed with several bar owners openly admitting that they have paid off the police to allow them to turn a blind eye to the nudity and sex shows going on behind closed doors. This all seems a little weird when you consider that most bars in Nana Plaza have topless girls dancing - and in many bars, some of the girls dance in their birthday suit. This is because Soi Cowboy falls into a different police district than Nana Plaza and the police in that district, Thonglor, are less willing to allow the girls who fall under their auspices to dance in their birthday suit. As an anecdote that may or may not be true, a well connected friend swears to me that some of the girls working in Long Gun bar are convicts who had an option to either go to prison or hook themselves in this bar. It could be nonsense or it could be true - I really don't know!
For anyone who wants a real taste of filth, try Toy Bar. This Cowboy institution challenges the smut and bad taste of some of Patpong's filthier bars. You can have a beer and a hand job whilst sitting at the bar for less than 500 baht - appeals to some but not to me. For whatever reason, the girls at Cowboy, in the author's experience, seem to be more adventurous sexually than those in other areas. There are at least a couple of other bars in the soi where this sort of hanky panky is available. Often, the girls will all surround you in the corner so that other customers cannot see exactly what is going on as they grope you and do unmentionable things to you! You could also try Pam's Bar, Fannys (previously known as Shirtz) and AfterSkool for a bit of hand relief, maybe more!
Where Patpong and Nana Plaza gogo bars tend to have a lot of sex shows, there isn't much of this sort of thing at Soi Cowboy. Long Gun has a lengthy show that can go for more than an hour and they often have incredibly sexy dancers and show girls. The 2001 version of Midnite Bar had shows going on and off all night including all of the favourites from Patpong such as the dart and dildo shows, plus a few new original shows - but for now they seem to have been shelved.
A lot of the bars in Soi Cowboy have satellite TV and live sport such as British / German soccer, international rugby and the formula one. Cowboy is a nice place to go and watch sports without any hassles. If you want to watch a specific sports match, the bar will usually change to that channel for you so long as no other customers are watching something. Some of the bars have blackboards outside with a list of what sports they will be showing and at what time. Personally, I quite like watching big sports matches at Cowboy.
Many of the girls at Soi Cowboy live above the gogo bars in the soi - cheap digs I guess. Now, this is mildly interesting because it means that if the girls have a boyfriend, then the boyfriend must be upcountry and is not living with her - yes, a good percentage of the gogo girls do have boyfriends, or even husbands! People who want to get a girl at a reasonable price at Soi Cowboy may hang around until most of the bars close at 2:00 AM. After 2:00 AM, many of the girls empty out into the soi and mill around, often catching up with friends from other bars or buying food from one of the many late night street vendors. A lot of them will take the slow stroll a few hundred metres up Sukumvit to the Thermae. Others may hang around in Country Road Bar on the corner of the soi. If you are on a budget or are an underpaid and overworked English teacher, this is the time to meet a girl and negotiate a more agreeable price. After 2:00 AM, you should be able to approach almost any girl and get her for 500 baht short time and 1,000 long time. Interesting Story March 2001: One bar that shall remain nameless has imposed a rule on the girls who live upstairs from the bar. Under no circumstances are the girls living there allowed to go away from the soi unless a guy pays bar fine for them. This means that they can't even go to freelancer places like the Thermae or Nana Disco to meet someone if bar fine wasn't paid for them earlier in the evening. Harsh, very harsh...
A word of warning about the girls of Soi Cowboy which could probably be applied to girls in all of the other gogo bar areas too. I have wandered through this area during the day on quite a few occasions and there are always plenty of the girls milling around. Without their make up on and their hair done, some of these girls are not exactly dolls. It's interesting to wander through during the day to see what it's really like - but it sort of put me off my meal, if you know what I mean! Wandering through this soi during the day, the whole soi is almost like a little Isaan neighbourhood and has a quite different feel than it does in the evening.
