Under-Aged Sex in Bangkok, Thailand

First, if sex with minors appeals to you, don’t go to Thailand. Sooner or later you’ll be caught.

Second, check the girl’s ID card. Thailand uses the oriental calendar. This year (2012) is 2555. Therefore, the girl’s ID card must show that she was born in the year 2537, or earlier. Any number higher than 2537 means the girl is under-age. No matter where you meet the girl, whether it is at a bar, on the streets, at the beach, or anywhere else, make sure to check her ID card before you take her to a room with you.

If she claims she doesn’t have one, don’t take her. Perhaps the girl is Laotian, working illegally in Thailand. That’s not your problem. That’s her problem. However, you still need to be sure that she is at least 18. Don’t rely on simply asking the girl how old she is. Some girls will lie about their age.

If you have any doubt, don’t take her. The law still applies, whether she is a Thai citizen or not. If she has no ID card, but you wish to bar fine her from a bar, at least verify her age with the bar owner or the mamasan. If there is no kind of documentation available at all, then you are at serious risk. If you take her anyway, make sure to have the desk clerk at your hotel question the girl. The desk clerks know all the bullshit that takes place. If the desk clerk says there is no problem, you can believe that. If he says that there is a problem, get rid of the girl . . . quick.

It also couldn’t hurt anything, even if the girl showed you what you perceived to be a legitimate ID card, to have the desk clerk check it anyway. If the girl is carrying a fake ID, the desk clerk will know it. The police will not be sympathetic at all, even if you were duped by a fake ID.

If it were me, and I found that I had innocently bar fined an under-age girl, or a girl carrying a fake ID, I’d be right back at that bar demanding the money refunded.

Consorting with minor under 18 years of age, with or without the consent of the minor, is a criminal offense. Section 319 of the Penal Code reads:

“Whoever takes away from the parent a minor over fifteen years, but not yet over eighteen years of age, guardian or person looking after such minor for financial gain or indecent purposes with the consent of such minor, shall be punished with imprisonment of two to ten years and a fine of four thousand to twenty thousand baht.”

If you engage in any kind of sexual activity with anyone who is even one day younger than age 18, then you are committing an extremely serious crime in Thailand. The consequences will be devastating, and your life is quite likely to be absolutely destroyed. At best, if you are caught, you might be able to bribe your way out of it if you have enough cash with you, and we’re talking about a minimum of US $5000, and probably much more than that by the time you’re through. Don’t count on being able to bribe your way out of it at all, though. As they say in the west, “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.” Whether you agree with it or not, the laws about sex with minors in Thailand are quite strict and if you are caught, now you have a big problem.

My recommendation is: stick to those over 18 years old for your own sake.

Big Baby Kenny

Nana Entertainment Plaza Sign is Gone

The iconic sign at the front of Nana Plaza is history. The neon letters have been removed and presumably the frame of the sign is about to be dismantled and taken down. The pace of renovations at the plaza has picked up as workers race to get everything ready with the high season just around the corner. By day the plaza is full of workmen painting the plaza yellow, carrying out various repairs and installing a new electrical system. With the plaza being painted yellow throughout and the iconic sign removed, the question on people's minds is whether the plaza will undergo a name change.

Stickman

Getting Back to the Big Mango

The airline website tells me what time the plane gets into Bangkok and I stupidly believe them. The industry standard size carry-on luggage ensures that I don’t pack anything that is not essential. And if it is essential but won't fit, then sorry, like a wounded soldier, it gets left behind. I would rather buy it in Bangkok than have to wait for my luggage on the conveyor belt. Valuable time saving.

Fortunately, having a fast track pass allows me to not have to queue up at immigration that just so happens to be processing the latest 747 from India. With the heat of Thailand disguising my running induced sweat, I double time it trough customs, trying to blend in with a bunch of other people who have been waved through. Not that I have anything to hide, but if they were to open my case, I am sure it would take more that 15 minutes to re-pack all the items, and without my geometry set and theodolite, I would just have to put everything on that wouldn’t fit. – Thus making me sweat more.

I could stand and wait in line at the public taxi rank, but from upstairs, I can’t tell if I am going to waste valuable time going down the travelator only to end up in a huge queue of back-packers heading for KS Road, negotiating how far from KS road they could be dropped off from, and be able to walk the rest of the way, saving 20bht. Or dinner. I could try my luck and hopefully get a cab that is dropping off, but then I could have a problem like NR, who’s cab wouldn’t go on a meter and returns me back to the airport. Again.. I am in a clock here. But then, fuck the clock.. if I give him a 1000 will he put his foot down and run red lights like they do in the movies?

Only when I get to my final destination does it hit me that my schedule is worthless. Well, worthless being in such detail that takes me to specific hours. AM or PM are even too restrictive. The best I can hope for is to plan something, anything on a specific day. Usually my plans end up being pinned to a first or second half of a week.

Daywalker
You can read more about his adventures at
The Big Mango Bar blog

Nana Plaza Update 10-2012

It might not be high season yet in Bangkok but business has picked up in Nana Plaza with the plaza having a booming Friday night. Many of the big name bars are so full that groups entering the bar quickly found that there were no free seats and had to head off into another bar.

Carnival on the top floor of Nana Entertainment Plaza has picked up since it reopened following renovations. It's still fairly quiet, but not as quiet as it was - which shows just how bad things were. It seems that the group that acquired the Crown Group of bars (of which Carnival is one) will go through the venues and do them up one at a time.

There might be an idea to rename a couple of the gogo bars in the Crown Group which have been doing miserable trade for years. There's no value in keeping a damaged brand name. There are two bars in the group whose name I would not tinker with though - G Spot and Voodoo. Long-termers remember when each of these bars had a legitimate claim to being the best bar in the plaza.

In Voodoo's case it was in the mid to late '90s and for G Spot it was around the turn of the century. These two brand names should be retained and wouldn't it be great to see the original concept of each bar return? Voodoo was jammed with the most attractive girls in the group and G Spot had the famous shower show.

Nana Plaza has been home to packs of cats for as long as I have been in Bangkok, although with the clean-up of the plaza that started a couple of months back there do seem to be fewer around which, again, might be due to fewer vendors more than anything else.

Read more by clicking on
Stickman

Burger Stand at Nana Plaza is Gone

The entranceway of Nana Plaza remains clear of vendors and the days of Nana burger, the popular hamburger vendor at the mouth of the plaza, would seem to be a thing of the past.

A new currency exchange booth sprung up this week at the mouth of Nana Entertainment Plaza with Bangkok Bank losing the space to the rapidly-growing CIMB Bank.

Stickman

photo from The Street Food of Bangkok.

The Girls of Bangkok, Thailand

The Strip on Silom Road end of Patpong soi 2 features a shower booth, a swing and booths. Unique to The Strip, the tall booths along one side of the bar have curtains which can be closed if those inside would like a little privacy. Closing the curtains incurs a 400 baht fee. (Ed note: Can this be considered both the barfine and shorttime hotel fee?)

I find myself in Patpong's Electric Blue where the girls are having a party to celebrate the arrival of their brand spanking new bikinis.

Spanky's sits next door to Angelwitch in Nana Entertainment Plaza and also features shows, although they are lighter, less polished and sometimes a little zany - like the beach ball show where the girls throw a giant beach ball around the bar. The venue has its share of pretties.

Photos and comments by
Stickman

Nana Plaza Food Vendors Will Be Hidden

The food vendors at Nana Plaza who have operated in the plaza for years have been moved with explicit instructions that vendors are no longer allowed to operate within the corridors in the plaza. Existing vendors are being relocated to what they are calling a food court in what was the enclosed beauty salon on the top floor. The corridors feel wider and the plaza is that little bit easier to navigate. It should also mean fewer food scraps which may help with the rodent problem.

(Editor note: This is discouraging news, for the food venders helped to identify the different sections of Nana Entertainment Plaza for me. I took great pleasure in showing up around 5pm, grabbing a bite from my favorite food vender, and having dinner with the girls; seeing what they were eating, and sharing.
There was a route I would take to see what the food venders had prepared for that day, and since most of the food servers did not speak English, some of the girls from the closest bar would translate. Each corner of Nana Plaza has different bars, different girls (or ladyboys,) and different food venders to interact with before showtime.)

And, Nana Plaza now has a uniformed security guard who is posted near the steps leading from the ground floor to the middle floor. His duties aren't clear, but he is there, in uniform with a large security badge and is officially on duty.

Stickman

Dinner at Angelwitch before showtime.

Photos from the book - "The Street Food of Bangkok" by Randy Magnus.
(check it out by clicking on the link.)

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.

Read more at:
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