Jack Shepherd View of Nana Plaza

The infamous Nana Entertainment Plaza, a three story U-shaped structure crammed with flashing neon lights, go-go bars, cold beer, and beautiful young Thai girls.

If Nana Plaza had been in L.A., it would have been called a strip mall. On the other hand, if Nana Plaza had been in L.A., it would have been just another crummy collection of video rental stores, falafel stands, dry cleaners, tanning salons, frozen yogurt parlors, and discount luggage shops.
It would not have been, as it was in Bangkok, the world’s biggest cat house.

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Jake Needham

Pattaya - No Smoking Rule In GoGo Bars

I see by these shots from Your Pattaya Photo Blog that the no smoking law is not being enforced. The dancers would be much cutier if they didn't smell of cigarettes.

Patpong's Electric Blue GoGo Bar

Bikinis handed out, bellies full and high on bottled confidence, the girls strut their stuff on stage as punters begin arriving. It's just another night at the office in Electric Blue GoGo Bar in Patpong.

Read the rest of the story by clicking on
Stickman

Editor's Note: Where Have All The Bloggers Gone?

When I started this website about Nana Plaza, and Soi Cowboy, Werewolf was always losing his wallet and cell phone, Bangkok Bad Boy was bringing dirty girls to short-time hotels and writing about it, Mango Sauce was talking about who-knows-what (I rarely understood what he was saying, but he had interesting stats.)
Pattaya Ghost was getting in trouble with bar owners for commenting about something or other that they didn't like.
Dean Barrett was either photographing a friend's wife upcountry (Fon), or hanging out with his favorite Coyote dancer (he even went to her university graduation,) or just getting wonderfully distracted by some gogo girl who walks by thinking he's too old and Dean thinks that she just hasn't realized their short-time love yet.

Elephants were seen at the entrance of Nana Plaza at night, or walking through Soi Cowboy looking for tourists to pay to feed the animals.
I never did really know if the blog Bangkok Girlfriend was written by a real Thai girl, or some white girl, or some white guy. The English was too good, talking about things that guys wanted to hear.
I've forgotten what twofatfarangs were writing about. The Big Mango Bar use to be inside Nana Plaza, before moving down into my old neighborhood on the sub-soi, and their blog had the address of 'Farang Speak 2 Much.' Hog's Breath was a neighborhood bar inside Nana Plaza for expats, until Spanky's took over the space.

Baron Bonk would write about what he saw when he made the rounds of the Bangkok clubs. No more.

Dave The Rave is still giving us updates on his blog and managing Angelwitch. Stickman is still doing his weekly column on his website with photos. (The Not Stickman anti-Stickman site came and went with some uproar.)
Bangkok Eyes is still going with its commentary and photos of entrance ways.

Many of the blogs about the nightlife of Bangkok are gone. We need more blogs to be written on this subject to provide a more rounded impression of the scene.

Does anyone know of any good blogs that are currently being written on the subject of the nightlife of Bangkok, Nana Entertainment Plaza, Soi Cowboy, and Pattaya? Let me know.

Soi Cowboy Closed For Holidays

Soi Cowboy in Bangkok, Thailand was found closed for the Buddhist holidays recently by Stickman, who mentioned that Soi Cowboy was in complete darkness and unlike Sukhumvit soi 4, it didn't have anyone hanging around, looking lost, like what we found outside of Nana Entertainment Plaza.

Nana Plaza Update

The top of soi 4 is changing with two beer bars closing last night. Stumble Inn has closed - and the girls can now be found just inside the plaza in Lucky Luke's. Strikers Sports Bar is also no longer in business, and should be relocating down to the Rajah Hotel car park.

The latest is that the group which was said to be the master lease only has subleases for some of the plaza and not all of it. What sort of bearing this has on the mooted plans for the much-needed sprucing up the plaza remains to be seen.

Some of the properties that make up what was known as the Crown Group of bars, a group which was bought lock, stock and barrel by the Nana Group, have been doing miserable business. Fantasia and Carnival are as dead as the dodo. It would be great to see the bars in this group return to their former glory. Start with G Spot and resurrect the shower show. That used to pack the bar and there's no reason to think that formula couldn't be successful today.

Read more about
Nana Entertainment Plaza
check out Stickman's column

Stickman

Stumble Inn Closes, Nana Plaza Changes Hands

The big changeover happens next weekend when the Nana Group will finally take control of the new master lease for Nana Plaza. It's a huge deal worth millions of dollars. Expect a new sign that's in the works as well.

A reminder that one of the bars on soi 4 (Soi Nana) out in front of Nana Entertainment Plaza, Stumble Inn, will turn off the lights for the final time next Saturday night. Swing by for the final night's shenanigans.

Tom from Stumble Inn has regrettably decided that he will close his doors early in July. This is no doubt due to the excessive hike in the rents on properties at the top of Sukhumvit soi 4.
He will be holding a last night party on Saturday July 7th, and would like all past and present customers to drop in to say hi. Not all is lost though. Tom will take over Lucky Luke's beer bar inside the entrance to the plaza on July 1st, and most of Stumble Inn's girls will move over with him on the 8th, following the party at Stumble Inn.

Stickman

Nana Group Buys Out Crown Group

The Nana Group (operators of Billboard, Angelwitch, Las Vegas plus a few other venues as well as being the new landlords of Nana Plaza come next month) has picked up all of the Crown Group. At this stage they will run the bars themselves. They may sell off one or two venues in the future, but for the time being it's business as usual in the old Crown Group bars.

Stickman

(Bars managed by the Crown Group include Lollipop, Voodoo, Hollywood Rock, Fantasia, Obsession, Temptations, G-Spot, and Carnival.)

Prices For Beer Going Up at Nana Plaza

With rent increases both inside Nana Entertainment Plaza and in the surrounding area outside on Soi 4, the prices of your drink will increase to help pay the increased overhead. And if you're watching your pennies, then you're probably taking advantage of the happy hours at Soi Cowboy and not a Nana Plaza regular anyway. Stickman

Songkran in Bangkok

Photo by Lim CKof Songkran water fight in Bangkok. See more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrianbangkok/sets/72157629442041854/

Songkran in Pattaya

To see many more Songkran in Pattaya images, check out: Your Pattaya Photo Blog

"Katoeys of Nana Plaza" Book Review

“The Katoeys of Nana Entertainment Plaza” By Randy Magnus.

You’re out of your mind if you thought that I would see this book and not instantly click the ‘buy’ button. A photograph book dedicated solely to photographs of Ladyboys working in the Nana Entertainment Plaza Complex on Bangkok’s Sukhumvit Soi 4. How much more specific can you get than that?
Where in Korea would I ever find such a book? Some of the characters in this book are Nana fixtures. I’ve seen and talked to many of the people pictured in this book over years and years of going to Bangkok and staying at the notorious Nana Hotel on Soi 4.

The Expat

You can preview and order the book at
The Katoeys of Nana Entertainment Plaza

Water Taxi in Bangkok

The Bangkok water taxis aren’t much used by tourists, but they’re popular with the locals – which is just one more reason to hop on a Bangkok water taxi and go along for the ride. As this video demonstrates, however, you’d better be quick about it – there’s no dilly-dallying here!
Perhaps the best part of the trip on a water taxi in Bangkok is that it’s a fast and fun ride for 16 baht – or only about 50 cents!

* Tha Phanfa - Visiting The Golden Mount Temple (Wat Saket), KhaoSan Road, Giant Swing, Democracy Monument, Grand Palace & Wat Phra Kaew
* Tha Bo Bae - Shopping at Bo Bae clothing wholesalers market
* Tha Saphan Hua Chang - Shopping at Siam Square, Siam Paragon, Siam Discovery, MBK and visiting Jim Thompson's House
* Tha Pratunam (Interchange) - Shopping at Pratunam Market, Platinum Fashion Mall, Panthip IT Mall, Central World, Gaysorn and visiting Erawan Shrine.
You can buy a ticket either at the pier, or a conductor will come by and take your money just like they do on the buses.


Go Thailand

Pattaya

A view of Pattaya by
http://www.yourpattaya.com uploaded in January, 2012.

Soi Cowboy Night Shot

Soi Cowboy at night.

Nana Update 2-2012

photo of Nana Entertainment Plaza from the Bangkok Eyes archives.

There seems to be something of a second wave in the high season at Nana Entertainment Plaza with the better bars booming. Try and get a seat later in the evening in Billboard, Rainbow 4 or Angelwitch and you might have to do a lap of the bar before you find an empty spot.
Down the road at Soi Cowboy, it's a little different. Friday nights are as busy as always, and Saturday nights the cash register is turning over fast enough to keep bar owners happy, but from Sunday through to Thursday the same highs aren't being seen and locals are getting the sort of attention from the girls they hadn't seen since late last year.
Nana, which gets more of a tourist crowd than Cowboy, seems to be much more constant, night after night, whereas Cowboy seems to peak at the end of the work week.

Previously referred to as The Billboard Group now has an official name, The Nana Group. Keep a close eyes on these guys as they are one of the big players and are actually doing things right in the industry, investing money and getting Western bar managers involved, all of which contributes to a much better experience. Their bars include Angelwitch, Billboard, DC10, Las Vegas and Nana Liquid.

Added note: (What can now be confirmed is that just this week the master lease for the plaza for the next 10 years was purchased by the Nana Group and they will be the new landlord of the plaza from July 7th. All of the venues *inside* the plaza will have a new landlord.)

The clutter of vendors and beggars in Soi Cowboy has a very welcome consequence. Along with the crowds, they make the soi too difficult to navigate for the orange-vested folks who are forced to find another route to traverse between Sukhumvit sois 21 and 23.

To read more, check out
Stickman

In the end, the main point of this story is that instead of being “cheating whores” or “poor victims” who should "learn how to sew," bar girls and professional girlfriends are resourceful and entrepreneurial people who use the tools around them to improve their lives and find enjoyment in a sea of constraints and uncertainty.

Rather than needing to be saved by those who think they know best, these clever young women are essentially saving themselves.

Heidi Hoefinger
The Phnom Penh Post

Remembering Rio Bar in Soi Cowboy

I think this gogo bar in Soi Cowboy, Bangkok got taken over and made into a new bar, or was used to expand another one. No, that was the Joy Bar, which is now a Ladyboy bar.
Rio was formerly Our Place Go-Go Bar but was completely renovated about a year ago or so.

Party Tonight at Nana Liquid - (Feb. 10, 2012)

Tonight there is a party in Nana Liquid Disco located inside Nana Hotel on Soi Nana in Bangkok. The Nana Group who also own Billboard, Las Vegas, DC 10 and Angelwitch, are hosting a party from 10:00pm until closing.

Special VIP discount cards will be handed out to VIP customers during the night and there is also a special discount card for Thai girls. Some FREE beer will also be flowing, until it is all gone.

During the night two talented bands will keep the crowd entertained, along with some coyote dancers. I'm am sure there will be more than just a few familiar faces attending the party at Nana Liquid tonight.

Entrance is FREE and all are welcome. It’s party time!

Dave the Rave

Chinese New Year in Patpong

The King's 3 (the King's Castle III) in Patpong I gets high marks for their Chinese New Year spirit. A note to our readers; this is a Ladyboy Bar.

Bangkok Eyes