Sawat Dee Bee Mai… Happy New Year!

(photo by Randy Magnus)

An Early Report of New Years Eve at Nana Plaza:
It was about 9 pm, so I figured I’d check out the action around Nana. I had a drink in Fantasia, but it was lame. I walked into G-spot and back out. I went upstairs and had a look at Carousel and Hollywood, but they were empty. Rainbow 3 was a ghost-town with three dancers on stage and no customers. The bars on the ground floor (at least the outdoor beer bars) were rocking, and Mandarin Club had been busier than usual, but everywhere else I went was deathly quiet.

Maybe it would pick up later, but between 9:00 and 9:30 it was death valley in these bars.
Werewolf

Another Nana Plaza Update:
It is true: some bars at Nana have made the move to let us say less apparel - and more! The Mandarin Bar upstairs girls seem to have forgotten their skivvies and seem to have forgotten to button their blouses. Shades of Baccara and Erotica! Hollywood now has some good shows involving showers and very scantily clad women (and very good looking women) indeed.
Angelwitch, the bar I believe who dared start the trend, is also right up there in the why not show a bit above the waist category and as always the shows are daring and fun. Angelwitch, even on a Sunday, was doing fine for business.
Dean Barrett

Angelwitch Goes Topless At Nana Plaza

Angelwitch decided to give punters a gift on Christmas night when at precisely 11:40 PM Angelwitch Nana started to resemble its Pattaya sister branch and the girls on stage became topless!
It was all very tastefully done and the act was accompanied by the rock song "It’s been a long time" perfectly underscoring the significance of the event. Punters could see that a fair number of sponsors have paid for the girls to have boob jobs. If they defy gravity, they probably aren't real! And what makes it even better is that the girls are topless in many of the shows. I can tell you that the Thai classical dancing routine performed topless is now not just a show, it's now the stuff of pure fantasy! Yeah, with Hollywood also on top form, Nana is on the comeback path.
Stickman
(photo from Thai-Pix)

The Difference Between A Coyote Dancing Club and A Go-Go Club in Bangkok

What’s the difference between coyote dancing and gogo dancing?
Is it that gogo dancing has a pole?

Are the coyote dancers freelancers?
Is the dance floor different?

Or is it a license thing? Limited number of gogo licenses available,
so they bill it as a coyote club?
(photo by Aung@)

smitty says:
go-go is like a half english breakfast,
coyote club is like a full english breakfast.
one costs more.
takes longer to eat and is a more complete meal.
really depends on your goals.

William says:
Here we go again - just as we are beginning to understand what Coyote Dancing is all about, they throw Sao-Za-On Dancing at us....

werewolf says:
I’m not sure I can explain. The owner of the Magic Table has been quoted as saying his bar isn’t a go go bar because it doesn’t have chrome poles.

I’d say that my experience in Bangkok is that on a practical level:
* go go bars have poles; coyote bars don’t
* coyote dancers are high energy dancers with a lot of skill; go go dancers may or may not be talented or energetic
* go go dancers usually dance in bikinis or less; coyote dancers dress in sexy and skimpy clothes, but they are dressed in shorts, etc rather than bikinis
* Coyote dancers are USUALLY employed by the bar where they work and make pretty good money
* Go go dancers are ALWAYS barfinable; coyote dancers usually aren’t.

All that said, I’m no expert. I hope that helps. Maybe someone else knows better than me and can be more exact.

Asian Sweetheart says:
This silly craze called Coyote Dance continues to grow at the Bangkok nightclubs. The idea came from that movie released back in 2002 called Coyote Ugly about a group of trashy girls who run a New York nightclub. The Thais have latched onto the scenes of those tramps dancing on the bar and now some of the clubs do a so-called "Coyote Dance" show. And now they even have a Coyote Dance contest, as in the photo here where the contestants wearing numbers dance for prizes. Apparently the trashier the look the better the chances are of winning.

Private Clubbing in Bangkok

About the member club lottery.
I figure you have to play it to win. Become a member.
Go every once in a while.
Buy ladydrinks, but not a ton.
Yes, the girls will drink out of your booze but will still ask now and then for a proper ladydrink. Buy one.
Then tell her the next one is on the fat Singaporean dude in the corner and that as soon as she drinks his drink, she should come back and sit with you.
Works fine. Anyway. U go a few times. Buy drinks. Perv ass. Enjoy. Bag a few numbers. Eventually you will win the member club lottery.
The Farang Speaks 2 Much

Christmas Greetings from Sharky's Bar, Patong, Phuket, Thailand

Happy Holidays.

Inactive Bangkok Nightlife Websites

Seems that Bangkok Bad Boy can be added to the list of inactive websites pertaining to the Thailand Nightlife.
For as an intense scene as this, its hard for a person to sustain oneself on a regular basis. I know that after two or three weeks of going out every night, I start to pay less attention to the stimulus and excitement of the scene before me and become more concerned about what all of the secondhand smoke, overly loud music, and alcohol is doing to my body.
Its a lot like the girls in the business. I've seen quite a few who were enthusiastic the first time I met them, but after a year or so of dancing to the same loud music, drinking the same lady's drinks, night after night after night, and saying the same come-on lines, all the nights start being the same.
Just more unfulfilled promises.

Here's a list of some of the website retirees, which includes:
Bangkok Bad Boy
Mango Sauce
Bangkok Girlfriend
Two Fat Farangs
John Galt

Getting the Girl You Want in a Bangkok GoGo Club (One Approach)

“It’s all about body language. If you look too friendly,
you get bothered by the ugly ones because they know they can get away with it. They sense weakness.”
“You must never cause them to lose face,” he agreed. “Use expressions and gestures to get the message across in a non-confrontational way."

We had no sooner sat down than a minger wrapped herself around Sam. When the girl tried to grab his unit, he politely but firmly moved her hand away. When she tried to kiss him, he turned his head away.
When she asked for a Cola, he smiled and told her to take her time. Eventually, Sam moved his knees into a defensive position so that she could not get too near him.

Sam’s tormentor climbed on stage and started dancing next to an absolute stunner.
This was the girl Sam wanted and he began smiling at her and his minger simultaneously while making a drinking gesture to the babe. At the end of their shift, the babe sat down next to him. He bought her a drink and also rewarded the rejected girl with a Cola.

“Everyone is happy,” said Sam. “I have the girl I want and the other girl hasn’t lost face and has a drink. There was no need for any confrontation or rudeness."
On Nutter

(Editor's note: If I'm not interested in a girl, I just gently shake my head, slightly raise my palm to her, and say "no thank you."
My friend would give a 100 baht note to our server and ask her to give it to the girl he wants to see. When she's available she comes and sits by his side, and the relationship begins.)

Shark Bar at Soi Cowboy

Got to Shark bar around 9 this time. Got a seat and admired the lineup.
So many good looking girls, great happy hour prices and awesome music.

Someone makes a point of getting fresh UK/US top pop songs which are fun to listen to but more importantly - the girls are into it as well. This makes all the difference with the girls enjoying the songs and actually dancing a bit on the stage.
I easily saw 10 girls I would barfine at first glance. Shark is great but go early.
I noticed dancers from playskool, r2 and voodoo on the stage. The exodus from Nana continues.
Farang Speaks 2 Much

New Pattaya Video - On Walking Street

Another video by our friend Chris Wood of TF Films, I think.
Actually, its a re-release of the same video that came out last May under a different name.

The Bangkok Bargirl Grapevine

A friend visited Bangkok recently, and was astounded to receive a text message from a gogo girl, admonishing him for visiting Nana Disco, when he’d only been in there for two minutes.

At the time, I chuckled and warned him that the Bangkok Bargirl Grapevine is far more efficient than the internet for transmitting information instantly.

But even I was surprised when the same friend, now in the UK, informed me exactly what I’d been up to in Bangkok the night before, courtesy of his girl’s network of spies.

The Bangkok Bargirl Grapevine has gone intercontinental.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Bangkok Bad Boy

Nana Plaza - Hollywood 2 Update

Hollywood 2, that's the smaller of the Hollywood bars, is very much lacking in numbers of girls, but surprisingly the girls they do have are pleasant on the eye.
You also may get a chance to see things not seen for a while in Nana... nudge, nudge, wink, wink!
Apparently it is up to the girls to choose the amount of coverage, ranging from bikini top, to stars, to no stars.
Beer runs a very reasonable 100 baht.
Stickman

The Slang of Bangkok Nightlife

(sample)
Tourists looking for ST action hit Nana and Soi Cowboy.
Clueless tourists head to Patpong.
Japanese guys and their arsenals go to the Thermae to meet TG’s FL’s who are into Japanese guys.
Longballers looking for GFE go to Sukhumvit Gullivers.
Ball Massage aficionados looking for a tune up and flush head to Orchid Massage.
Arabs who love middle aged overweight over mascara’ed Russian mothers in debt to Thai pimps head to the CM2.

BigBabyKenny

Translation:
ST - short time
Nana - Nana Plaza
arsenals - sex toys
TG's - Thai girls
FL's - freelancers
Longballers - longtime relationship
GFE - girlfriend experience
flush - happy endings
Thermae, Gullivers, CM2 - bar names

Pattaya Is More Affordable, More Fun

In short, Pattaya is more fun.
For some hard statistics, take my recent weekend in Pattaya as an example. I stayed in a comfortable mid-range hotel run by a large group in a double air-con room. The hotel had a swimming pool, restaurant, coffee shop and good security. The room rate was 550 baht per night, including breakfast. A similar place in Bangkok would be the Nana Hotel, whose rates for a standard room have gradually crept up to the current level of 1,290 baht.

Perhaps because there is so much competition, bars in Pattaya try a lot harder. Happy hours are everywhere. One bar on Second Road doesn't have a happy hour as such but charges just 45 baht at all times for bottled beer. Try finding a similar deal in Bangkok.
We crawled from beer bar to beer bar at both ends of Beach Road. The hostesses were lively, fun and engaging company. Most waited for customers to offer them a drink, unlike the many Cola addicts 150 kilometres up the road in Bangkok.

If you decide to buy a lady-drink, they are rarely more than 100 baht in Pattaya, even in the best gogo bars. Contrast that with Bangkok, where a Cola can set you back 150 baht and water masquerading as Tequila (an increasingly popular scam) will dent your wallet to the tune of 200 baht. Beer guzzlers will find Pattaya prices up to 50 baht a bottle cheaper than in Bangkok at beer bars and gogos.

Then there are the relative demands of the ladies. Most Pattaya bargirls will stay overnight with punters for 1,000 baht in addition to a barfine of 300 baht. You can at least double both those prices in Bangkok, assuming you aren't negotiating with those Rainbow gogo girls who now value their services at 4,000 baht. The mercenary attitude of the capital's entertainment providers has persuaded many farangs to head east for their pleasures.

We dined at La Cuisine Au Beurre, a French restaurant that has been getting rave reviews. For 220 baht, I had spinach soup, sensational braised veal shank with vegetables, Camembert cheese, French bread and coffee. I don't know how they make money and am not aware of any French restaurants in Bangkok offering such great food at that price.
The plain fact is that party time in Pattaya is more fun and a lot less expensive than in Bangkok. More and more people are coming to that conclusion.
BaronBonk

Quote of the Week - Soi 33

The Soi 33 (dead artists' bars) girls
look down on the Soi Cowboy girls.

Soi Cowboy looks down on Nana Plaza
and they all talk bad about Pattaya girls.

Arthur

Soi Cowboy was Soi Gold Label (A Little History)

Started in early 1975, the Gold Label was the “seminal bar” in every sense; aside from being the first bar on the Soi; it was the first bar aimed at expatriate custom; it was also the first double-shophouse wide bar, and it was also the first multi-story bar, and it was the first A-Go-Go and “Show” bar (later, upstairs), while downstairs, it remained a lounge.

But mainly, it was the bar that realized -and made others realize- that the Soi was an ideal location for a night entertainment area. The Gold Label enjoyed an approximate three-year run of popularity. At first, only the first and second floors were used, but for a brief period the third floor was opened to accommodate the custom. The regular expatriate clientele treated it as if it were a best-kept secret - and for the most part, it was. It has since been replaced by several other bars, the latest being the Baccara Bluebird A-Go-Go . During those early years the Gold Label was not only the first, but for a long time the only bar, so naturally enough, the soi was referred to as Soi Gold Label .

But times were changing; within the next three years, the Gold Label would fade from the scene and a number of smaller, single-shophouse bars would open. By 1978-1979 the Soi reached a nominal ‘critical mass”, and as time passed, it was becoming clear that the leader of this new pack was the Cowboy Bar.
The Cowboy Bar was opened by another then-recently retired US military veteran. Everyone knew him, unsurprisingly, as “Cowboy”. This upsurge in numbers of entertainment venues on the Soi and the resultant increase in popularity were not lost on Bernard Trink , then with the Bangkok World. The Soi was often mentioned in his weekly entertainment page. He dubbed the soi, “Soi Cowboy” and the name immediately ‘stuck’ - today you won’t find a taxi driver who doesn’t know where Soi “C’boi” is.

Only a few die-hards remember it as Soi Gold Label.

Richard D. Hartman from
Bangkok Eyes

Soi Cowboy on YouTube

Some of the videos feature Dean Barrett, the Soi Cowboy Poet

Bus Stop Update

Then I went into Bus Stop. As I entered through the gateway, two lovely Thai girls greeted me with a traditional “wai.” (The wai is the prayer-like gesture). I like the way the Bus Stop Cheerleaders still don traditional Thai dresses. The Bus Stop girls also greet you with that inimitable Thai smile.
Bus Stop was very busy with most of the tables occupied. I spotted an Aussie mate and sat at his table. Aussie John had a little cluster of cuties around him. After I briefly browsed through the menu, I ordered a Coca Cola, which cost me all of 55 Baht. For a very tasty bacon cheeseburger, I was charged 95 Baht. I am pleased to report that it is still excellent value-for-money at the Bus Stop. However, make sure that you are not in a rush, because service can be slow.
Dave The Rave

Soi Cowboy's Neon Thru Bangkok Eyes

The neon lights of Soi Cowboy, it's looking more like Vegas all the time. Check out the rest of the photo essay of the Soi at night thru
Bangkok Eyes.

Guess Bar

Rumor has it that the upscale ladyboys bar, Guess, is closing its doors on November 1st after being open for 1 year. May be worth a stop on Halloween for a feel of the place before it closes, its right down the street from Nana Plaza, located at the end of the first floor (upstairs) corridor in the dreary building known as Sukhumvit 1 Plaza. It has been mentioned as the best katoey bar in Bangkok.

Update:
I read it was closing December 1, then re-opening near Rajak Hotel.
Penfold

Update II:
For those who prefer the third sex, the new Guess Bar and all the staff are now located in the car park area of the Rajah Hotel, the space that used to be the Red Dragon, just two doors away from the Metro Pool Bar.
Stickman

Setting Up For Business - Looking Back at The Big Mango

Following is our experience with getting a simple food license.

We had already filed all the needed paperwork and had opened the bar already but had yet to open the kitchen. We already had all of our other licenses and were told the food license would be pretty easy but that it might need a little greasing. Yes folks - we probably needed to pay a little money to get the license. At first this bugged me since we had the proper permits, a clean kitchen and on paper there would be no reason to pay a “bribe” but supposedly the word was the food guy for our district was on the take. Meaning even if there was no reason to pay a bribe he was expecting one anyway. Welcome to Thailand.

So inspection day dawned and our lawyer met us to discuss the plan. He said we needed to agree ahead of time how much we would pay because he felt no that no matter what the inspector did he would be expecting to make some money - even if there were no reasons not to pass inspection. Yes - folks. No corruption here. So we readied our bribe device and waited. In Thailand all the under the table payments “sinbon” is done with simple white envelopes. U can pick yours up at 7/11.

The inspector came and the lawyer gave him a tour. He proceeded to check out all the floors and spent very little time if any in the kitchen. We assumed he was looking at everything so he could figure out how much we spent and therefore decide how much to charge us for something that we deserved to receive anyway. The funniest thing was him asking to test the stereo and asking us to turn it up loud. He then deduced that we had a stereo with a capacity over and above what we needed and calculated that the stereo could output more decibels than needed. I did not know the average food inspector was a sound expert. God knows all the gogo bars don’t have any high capacity sound systems.

So the inspector finished his inspection and talked with the lawyer. The lawyer came over and said that our place was unacceptable for food production. He had a list of about 25 things written in Thai. Our lawyer went on to say though that with, a figure quoted in Baht, that we could have our license anyway. Nice. I figure the salmonella cart downstairs that some people refer to as the burger cart was in much better shape to be serving food than our kitchen. Okay cool. Basically the lawyer went on to say that the items meant nothing and that if we did not pay something we would never get our license. So we cut the proposed figure in half and said we would pay.

He went back to the inspector who looked somewhat perplexed but countered. Lawyer returned with a new number. We cut it down again and the lawyer went back. Inspector frowned, talked some more and went out. I thought we might have had a problem but it turns out he had accepted our number but would not take the money onsite. Cool. Can’t be a bribe if u don’t pay it onsite? We added money to the envelope since we ended up paying about 2000 baht more than we had budgeted. In Thailand the under the table payments are a regular part of business that u have to factor into your expenses and budget accordingly. My buddy used to say that even if u started a vacation bible school in Bangkok that u would still pay the cops.

We handed over our money and the lawyer said we would get the license soon and to disregard the list. We watched as the food inspector walked around the plaza, lit a cigarette and waited in front of Cassanova. So telling to have the shakedown go down in ladyboy corner. Our laywer met him - handed over the envelope and the meeting was adjourned. License arrived days later. We have never seen the guy since but we always make sure we don’t turn our sound up too much. The joys of Thailand.
The Farang Speaks 2 Much