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

Soi Cowboy Looks Busy

Soi Cowboy was absolutely heaving on Friday night, probably the busiest I have ever seen it. Really, I mean EVER!
Walking down the soi was such a challenge that there was no hope for motorbikes to use it to cut between sois 21 and 23. There were hoards of mainstream tourists walking up and down, outside bars were full and many bars were packed inside. The atmosphere was not indifferent to Pattaya's Walking Street.

A bar manager said January of this year was the best month ever in terms of his bar's takings.

Read more Stickman comments on this,
and on his interview with some Ladyboys,
click on his name here: Stickman

Remembering Hogs Breath Saloon

Remembering back in the day when Hogs Breath Saloon was a gathering place and watering hole for the expats on the second floor of Nana Entertainment Plaza.
It was the first place many would go after arriving in Bangkok, just to see who else was in town.

Soi Cowboy - Bangkok

Soi Cowboy - Bangkok, originally uploaded by Asiacamera.

No wonder they call it a "red light district."
photo by Asiacamera.

New Year's at Nana Entertainment Plaza

The Nana Plaza is probably Bangkok's only "community" Night Entertainment Area. Last month we noted they had a communal Christmas tree, and now this month - free musical performances on New Year's Eve - that is if you call look thoong music.....
Take note - they went all out on the New Year's decorations. Good work, lads.....

Bangkok Eyes

Ladyboys Coming Soon to Soi Cowboy

The flavor of Soi Cowboy in Bangkok will change next month and what I hinted at several months ago will soon become reality.
Joy Bar will be replaced by Cockatoo, and with a name like that it can only be Soi Cowboy's first.....drum roll.....ladyboy bar! I believe there is (was?) a ladyboy or two in Midnite but there's no dedicated ladyboy bar in Cowboy so this will be a first.

Stickman

Be Nice to Your Hotel Employees

When I'm in Bangkok, on my way back from the 7/11 (after I’d bought my supply of Red Bull for the day) I’d stop at one of the carts selling fresh fruit along the sidewalk on Sukhumvit. I’d spend 20 Baht and bring back a bag of fresh cut mango for the ladies working the front desk in my hotel.

The ladies were very surprised and very happy at my small gesture of kindness. I figured they would all still talk behind my back about what a horrible, bar-fining farang I was for bringing bar and massage girls back to my hotel room at all times of the day and night but at least they’d think I was a “kind-hearted, horrible, bar-fining farang!"

Bangkok After Hours

Foodland on Soi 5 in Bangkok Has Reopened

Foodland on Soi 5, home of the branch of Took Lae Dee that is so popular with foreigners on Sukhumvit, has reopened this past Thursday. The diner's lay out has been redesigned and now it is shaped like an island with seating all around the outside as opposed to the food prep and cooking section being up against the wall as it was. The number of seats has just about doubled.

I still maintain that the Foodland at Soi 16 is a much more pleasant experience with a much better standard of patron.

Stickman