Nana Plaza, Through The Years

With a roof that keeps out the monsoon season rain, modern neon everywhere you look and a commitment to being the cleanest and safest nightlife destination, Nana Plaza is Bangkok’s premier bar area. But it has not always been the comfortable place it is today. The plaza was the most popular bar area when I first arrived in Bangkok, but it was also a bit of a dump. And over the years things just got worse. Sure, it had the best bars but at the same time it deteriorated into a terrible state. It was a long wait until 2012 when the plaza was sold and the new owners undertook a massive project, fixing the plaza up and improving it. What follows is a collection of photos I have taken over the years. This is not a complete history of Nana Plaza, rather it’s a look at the complex and how it has changed over the time I have known it.

I had planned to include around 15 photos chronicling the plaza over the years, but things sort of got out of control and I ended up with more than 50 photos, from the very first photo I took in the plaza with my first digital camera to a photo I took of the plaza when I was in town a few weeks ago.

December 26, 1999.  The very first photo I took of Nana Plaza.

In the late ’90s, Nana Plaza was the premier bar area. It had usurped Patpong and could boast being the most popular area with both expats and tourists.

It hadn’t always been that way. Patpong was the place to go for a couple of decades. It’s generally agreed that sometime around the mid-90s – the exact time is not agreed on – Nana Plaza would become more popular than Patpong. Soi Cowboy was very much a quiet backwater at that time and had nothing like the foot traffic of Nana or Patpong.

December 26, 1999.  The second photo I took in Nana Plaza (with a very old digital camera).

Stopping by bar areas during the day is kind of like waking up with the wrong girl in the morning. They don’t look quite as  good as you remember.

I have forgotten just how rough Nana Plaza was. Were those trees on the ground floor there year-round or were they there for Christmas? I really can’t remember.

April 13, 2000.  Songkran at Nana Plaza, vendors sell water guns.

The plaza didn’t change a great deal over my first few years in Bangkok. The top floor was under-utilised and there were a few empty / under-utilised spaces throughout the complex.

Bars didn’t change hands nearly as often back in the day. When a bar did change hands, it was a big deal. One of the reasons things felt so settled may have been because there was one very large bar group – the Crown Group run by David Walls – which operated around a third of all the bars in the plaza.

But there is a reason why bars didn’t change hands so often. Back then, a bar in Nana Plaza was a goldmine. Yes, some bars packed the punters in but there was another reason. For a long time, rents were really, really low. So low that in many bars, less than one day’s trade would cover a whole month’s rent.

August 2, 2000.  A sign in the stairwell on the left-hand side.

While there may have been fewer bars (remember, the top floor had a lot of empty space), some bars had huge numbers of girls. Signs point to bars with 300 people but that is not actually correct. That number of girls was spread over a few bars in the same group.

But plenty of bars did have well in excess of 100 girls most nights. I distinctly remember Rainbow 1 which I was a regular at in 1999 and 2000. On weeknights there would be 100 – 120 girls and there could be close to 200 girls in the bar on Friday and Saturday nights. Rainbow 1 – what is today Bunny 2 – is not the biggest bar and it was awfully cramped with girls falling over one another.

August 3, 2000.  Pharaohs was the first bar you saw when you entered.

For more than a decade, Pharaohs welcomed you to the plaza.

January 10, 2001.  Just like some of the girls who worked there, the plaza didn’t look great in day-light.

The Pharaohs structure took up a lot of space. Its removal in mid-2010 was resisted at the time but would be a major improvement, opening the plaza up and making it feel much more spacious.

Do you remember the food vendors out front of Pharaohs? The stand on the left sold French sandwiches and the one on the right sold hot dogs. Off to the left – where Lollipop is today – was a kebab vendor.

April 11, 2001.  A friendly lady clutches the phone most of us once owned, a Nokia 3310.

Of course the plaza is not merely the bars, it’s the people, and Nana Plaza has had plenty of characters over the years.

The question that is forever debated is whether the ladies were more attractive back in the day than they are today. Most people say yes – and I used to say yes, but my photographic archives show otherwise.

In hunting through the archives for photos for this collection, I came across plenty of snaps of myself and friends fooling around with ladies in Nana, the Thermae and Pattaya. Let’s just say that looking at them with fresh eyes, not one of these ladies strike me as especially attractive. I do remember they were lovely ladies with a warm nature, but beauty queens? Hmmmm! I shared these photos with a mate who came over to Thailand and hung out with me for a couple of weeks and here’s his response: “Bloody hell! These birds certainly aren’t A grade! I must have been drunk as a camel when the paparazzi took these shots. I want a refund from Stick Tours!”

May 1, 2001.  A number of bars inside the plaza were open in the afternoon.

In those days, a number of bars opened during the day time. It was not just bars on the ground floor, but a good few on the middle floor, some of which had a real following.

At that time there weren’t any beer bars on the soi immediately in front of the plaza. The more popular beer bars back then were further down Soi Nana.

May 1, 2001.  The pussy of Nana Plaza.

One of the features of the plaza was the pussy, with Nana Plaza home to many cats. Not just a few, but dozens and dozens!

For many years there was also an obese dog that was so big that I wouldn’t be surprised if every bar had a dog food budget and was feeding it.

May 1, 2001.  The plaza looked tatty in 2001, but it would have to wait 11 years to be tidied up.

It might look tatty, but in 2001 when this photo was taken, Nana Plaza was booming, and indisputably the most popular and best bar area.

This was a time when some punters would travel around the world multiple times per year to party in the plaza. I can remember Americans spending 30-odd hours in the air to get to Bangkok, partying for a week, and then flying back home. Some would do this a few times per year.

June 11, 2001.  More Nana Plaza beauties.

If I had one word to describe the ladies in Nana Plaza from the photos I took back then it would be “natural”. There were far fewer tattoos – and those who did have tattoos tended to get something small and discreet. There was far less cosmetic surgery and if this photo is anything to go by, the ladies dressed a more conservatively than they do today.

June 11, 2001.  250 girls? Not in 1 bar, but 3.

It’s only 2001, but had the decline of the bar industry started? A few photos earlier the sign said there were 300 ladies on the top floor. A year later it’s 250.

September 30, 2001.  Another rainy day in Bangkok.

Think of Nana today and you probably think not just of the plaza, but of all the beer bars out front. For many years, the shophouses out front of Nana Plaza housed non-nightlife businesses including a tailor’s store, a photo lab and Tom’s Quik, a diner.

September 30, 2001.  For so long, Woodstock was the place to meet on Friday nights.

One of the most popular spots in the plaza was not a gogo bar, but a bar and restaurant. Many of us would meet up in Woodstock early on Friday evening, grab some dinner, have a few drinks, and then a couple of hours later when the bars were getting going we’d head out in to the night.

And, yes, the walkways around the plaza used to act as storage areas for the bars and were a right mess!

September 30, 2001.  All of these bars have changed hands and changed names, some multiple times.

Notice all the crap strewn around everywhere, the storage containers, the rubbish bins, the pot plants etc? The worst place was under the stairwells where there were piles of uncollected waste which used to reek.

November 6, 2002.  Fantasia, my favourite bar for a period in 2000.

Part of the Crown Group, Fantasia was fantastic and a favourite of mine through 2000 and early 2001.

December 10, 2002.  It almost looks like just another soi….almost!

In an era where most still used film cameras, word was that the photo shop out front of Nana would print your nasty in-room shots, no questions asked. I can imagine the employees who worked in that photo shop would have some stories!

June 12, 2004.  Angelwitch has been in the same spot for more than 20 years.

Angelwitch started life on the middle floor, at the top of the short escalator on the right-hand side. When a larger space became available, it moved across to the other side. Angelwitch went on to become one the most popular bars in the plaza. It was sold in 2011 or 2012 and the group that purchased it continues to run it today.

January 12, 2006.  Cathouse, where English teachers loved to drink (and fight).

The Cathouse got its name from Aussie expat Blackie who won a competition to name the bar.

The bar was best known for its happy hour which other bar owners called the crazy hour. From 4:00 PM through until 8:00 PM, for just 200 baht it was unlimited Chang beer. English teachers raced to the plaza after work and chugged Chang down like there was no tomorrow. Drunk teachers ended up fighting and plenty were so drunk they fell down the steps, and a good few were taken away by ambulance.

In later years, 4 hours would become 2 and the bar settled on unlimited Chang from  7:00 PM until 9:00 PM for 250 baht.

At that time, the best seat in the plaza was in The Big Mango Bar – where Bunny Balcony is today. You had a prime view of Cathouse and all the crazy stuff that happened there.

March 8, 2008.  Vendors take up most of the space on the soi outside the plaza.

I joked to a friend that if you have a photo of the old Nana Plaza with all the neon working it might be worth something. It always seemed that the neon had died on at least a couple of the letters.

The area out front of the plaza still looked much the same in 2008 as it did when I first arrived in early 1998. But things were changing and it wouldn’t be long until all of the shophouses out front would be converted in to beer bars.

June 22, 2008.  How long did this diner last?

Nana Plaza has had a few eateries within the complex over the years but only Woodstock really worked in that format. In searching through the archives, I came across this shot of the short-lived diner on the middle floor. It didn’t last long.

June 22, 2008.  The Landmark Hotel towers over Nana Plaza.

When you’re top of the pops, you get your detractors. When Thermae was the best freelancer bar, those who – for whatever reason – didn’t like it would say that there was more AIDS in there than in the rest of Bangkok combined. In the case of Nana Plaza, the haters used to always say that those of us who liked it had better enjoy it while it lasts because it would make way for a car park for the Landmark Hotel. That talk was, of course, total nonsense.

June 22, 2008.  Seemee, the friendly doorman was a fixture in Nana Plaza until his disappearance.

It is not a customer, a manager or even one of the girls who I think of as one of the great characters from the golden age of Nana Plaza, but one of the doormen. To be clear, doorman and not security. “Take care your wife“, he would say with a characteristic smile, in his distinct, raspy voice. I didn’t know his name at the time and simply referred to him as “Voice”.

I would later learn that his name is Seemee and that he claimed to be Indonesian. He worked for Johnny The Clock at the Hollywood bars and had a short stint later on the door at G Spot. He was actually something of a conman, selling magic powder to naive bargirls. This so-called magic powder was actually talcum powder, much to the hilarity of the bar’s owner and manager.

Seemee also made arrangements for customers to meet girls without paying a barfine – for a small tip, of course!

He was a fixture in the plaza for many years and a popular figure with regulars. And then one day he didn’t show up for work. He disappeared. No-one knows what happened to Seemee, and he would never be seen nor heard of again. The last time he was seen in the plaza must have been around 13 or 14 years ago.

July 28, 2008.  Early evening and it’s rot-did on Soi Nana.

I don’t know if it was the Global Financial Crisis that was the catalyst for change, but as the world’s financial markets were in turmoil in 2008, Soi Nana would go through a period of change. Bars out front of Nana Plaza on the soi became more popular as drinkers went for lower priced drinks. The photography shop would disappear, and the original single-shophouse Stumble Inn would join the fray.

At the entrance to the plaza, Big Dogs may have been small but it was busy from morning until closing. It largely stayed under the radar as one of the most successful bars in the plaza.

In mid-2008., the long-running tailor’s store Raja’s Fashion was still going, but wouldn’t last much longer in that location.

December 17, 2008.  Nana Plaza looked almost exactly the same as when I first visited, 10+ years earlier.

Year after year, the interior of Nana Plaza remained largely unchanged. Pharaohs welcomed you. Carnival mischievously promoted itself as Asia’s only double carousel, when it wasn’t. The bright white neon from G Spot illuminated the rear of the plaza and the darkness of the stairwell leading up there was a favourite spot for ladyboys from Casanova to bother punters whose radar was off.

2008 was a year of change for the bar industry and the toughest year since the ’90s. Many bars changed hands. Customer numbers dipped as Thailand’s political battles scared some away. The airport was closed for 10 days in late November and early December. And as the bar industry struggled to maintain momentum, it seemed like there was no budget for maintenance. The plaza had looked rough around the edges, now it felt like the whole complex was decaying.

January 3, 2009.  The old Nana Burger stand used to be located right outside the entrance to the plaza.

There used to be all sorts of cheap bites available inside and around the plaza. The original Nana Burger stand was located right outside the entrance.

Today, the new Nana Burger – in the car park of the Nana Hotel – sells hamburgers for 100 baht.

January 3, 2009.  Pretty Lady was consistently one of the best bars in the plaza for more than a decade.

Pretty Girl bar on the ground floor would become Pretty Lady and then revert back to Pretty Girl. It was consistently one of the best bars for 15 odd years until Swiss Peter sold it.

If you remember spending time inside a bar on Nana’s ground floor which showed pornographic German cartoons in a loop from a VHS tape, that was Pretty Lady.

February 7, 2009.  Spanky’s arrives in Nana Plaza.

The bars did a better job of maintaining the neon than the owners of the complex did on the sign out front.

In this wide-angle photo of Nana Plaza from early 2009, only Spanky’s is still going today.

March 15, 2010.  A makeup artist’s studio is set up on the balcony on the plaza’s top floor.

A makeup artist does the girls’ makeup at the balcony on the top floor, outside what is today Billboard.

Many entrepreneurs ran small businesses in nooks and crannies throughout the plaza. In 2010, you could get your hair set, your makeup applied, grab some som-tam, other Isaan-style food and snacks, all without leaving the plaza.

March 15, 2010.  The corridors of the plaza were commandeered by various entrepreneurs.

This hair salon used to blow dry and set the girls hair, making them look good for the night ahead. It was located at the top of the stairs on the right-hand side, just around the corner from what is Butterflies today.

March 17, 2010.  Happy hour at Mercury, back in the day.

Nana Plaza has never really been known for happy hours in the way that Soi Cowboy has, but if you hunt around there are always one or two bars with happy hour pricing early evening.

March 17, 2010.  A snack vendor operating on the middle floor of Nana Plaza.

Most of the vendors operating within the plaza were older Thai women who were almost like a mother figure to the girls, many of whom had come straight from village life in to the bright lights of the capital and weren’t streetwise at all. The girls would sit on stools in a semi-circle around these old aunties who would share their wisdom.

April 2, 2010.  Erotica had quite a following.

The location of Erotica, at the top of the stairs on the left-hand side, always felt like an after-thought to me.

April 21, 2010.  The stairway to heaven?

Live XXX shows? Signs like that would get people in trouble today.

Nana had all manner of shows over the years. Arguably the best was the sensual shower show in G Spot. The best choreographed were the original shows in Angelwitch. And the worst had to be the frog show on the top floor. Yes, a frog! The poor thing must have thought it had been locked in a warm, damp cave.

April 21, 2010.  Over the course of more than a decade, little changed in Nana Plaza.

Compare this photo of the plaza with the very first photo in this collection taken 11 years earlier. Over a decade, the plaza really didn’t change that much at all. While money was spent on the bars, the common areas were run-down and the whole complex was in desperate need of a facelift.

May 16, 2010.  At the height of the 2010 political protests, soldiers protect Soi Nana.

During the height of the political protests in April and May of 2010, the Red Shirt protestors had taken over parts of the city and Patpong was shut down by the authorities. Protestors set up camp in the middle of Ploenchit Road and were edging their way towards the plaza, so the army sent soldiers to protect this national heritage site.

June 1, 2010.  The iconic Nana snap, a tuktuk out front of the plaza.

The sign outside Nana Plaza looked sadder and sadder as the years passed by.

July 31, 2010.  Goodbye, Pharaohs!

Pharaohs Bar and all the structures in the centre of the ground floor were removed in July, 2010. There were various rumours as to why this happened. The order was made to remove the ground floor structures by the Fire Department which said there couldn’t be any fixed structures on the ground floor of Nana Plaza as it prevented a fire truck entering the plaza in the event of a fire.

September 16, 2010.  Nana Plaza is opened up for the first time in decades.

For a while, the plaza was even more of a mess than usual. It should have been a period of transformation for the plaza but the then owners had little interest in putting money in to the complex and it looked terrible.

At the same time, Soi Cowboy was rapidly growing in popularity.

August 31, 2012.  The plaza was home to generations of stray cats.

By late 2012, Nana Plaza had fallen in to total disrepair and truly was a dump.

Soi Cowboy had featured in the Hangover movie, and overnight had become a hit with mainstream visitors. On Soi Cowboy, new blood had come to the soi, money was invested, and we had the neon wars as bars competed for the most beautiful frontage on the soi. Expats were leaving Nana in droves for Soi Cowboy.

August 31, 2012.  The Hollywood Inn was a goldmine and there was usually a bit of a wait for a room.

The Hollywood Inn operated from the space that today is Balcony Bunny. The sign says that rooms are available for 350 baht an hour or 890 baht all night.

Amazingly, quite a few people used the Hollywood Inn as accommodation for their entire holiday there until the owners realised that they could turn rooms over multiple times per day and it made no sense to sell a room for 890 baht for the whole night when you could turn it over several times a night at 350 baht / pop. The hotel made bucket-loads of money and there was more often than not a queue to use a room. It used to be fun sitting in the small lobby / reception area, chatting with the owner and watching the comings and goings.

Many years later, when things opened up after the pandemic, short-time rooms were banned from Nana Plaza – and it’s unlikely they will ever return.

September 7, 2012.  Freelancers brave the rain, opposite the entrance to the plaza.

The view out the back of the Hollywood Inn, looking down on Soi Nana.

September 12, 2012.  Did the old owners of the plaza have no pride?

By 2012, Nana Plaza was in a right state. There were piles of rubbish throughout the plaza, the rats were almost as big as the cats and even the sign for the office had stickers all over it that no-one thought to clean off. My 2012 photo essay A Dump Called Nana was perfectly titled.

Nana – the complex, not necessarily the bars – was a mess and a bit over a kilometre down the road, Soi Cowboy was going gangbusters.

It has to be said that despite its decline, there was conjecture as to which was the busier bar area. Nana had far more bars than Soi Cowboy, bigger bars and the square footage of the complex and all the bars is much greater than Cowboy. While Soi Cowboy was busier early evening, come prime time there were likely far more punters in Nana Plaza than Soi Cowboy.

September 12, 2012.  Meat on a stick for sale at the entrance to the plaza.

Where the security checkpoint is today was for a time space used by yet another vendor. While vendors brought colour to the plaza, they couldn’t operate like that today. The plaza is just too busy with so many people walking around that the walkways need to be kept free of clutter.

October 28, 2012.  See why I coined the name “Banana Plaza”?

And then the plaza changed hands. The new owners came in and didn’t waste any time doing what needed to be done. The entire complex was given a complete overhaul.

Much of the plaza was painted yellow, prompting me to refer to it as Banana Plaza. The power system throughout the plaza was completely rewired. The water system had to be upgraded, and there were many improvements under the hood, so to speak.

The plaza was cleaned up. Game on!

October 31, 2012.  Under new ownership, the plaza would be transformed.

There’s something wrong in this photo. Can you guess what it is? Scroll down two photos for the answer.

November 6, 2012.  Much of Nana Plaza would be painted yellow. Why yellow?

It took a few months for the first round of work to be completed and if you stopped by during the day-time, it was a mess.

I never did understand why yellow was chosen. There must have been a reason for it but I never heard what it was.

November 7, 2012.  The new sign goes up.

To answer the question above, the distinctive Nana Plaza sign at the entrance had been taken down; in that photo there is no sign.

This is the very first photo I took of the new sign. Look closely and you’ll see it’s only partially installed and not complete.

The current design of the sign has stood the test of time well. At the same time, it’s been 12 years and I wonder if it’s time for a refresh?

June 6, 2013.  Dave The Rave AKA Mister Nana.

Any historical account of Nana Plaza must include its characters, and there was no greater farang character than Dave. For more than 20 years, Dave The Rave was a fixture in the plaza.

Over the years, Dave managed various bars including Pretty Girl, Hollywood and Angelwitch. For weeks on end, Dave would never leave Soi Nana. He lived further down the soi. Friends would pop by to see him in the plaza every night. The soi has heaps of food options and convenience stores. Soi Nana was his home, his workplace and his playground. One time, I remember Lecherous Lee saying to Dave that you don’t need a passport to leave Soi Nana!

March 8, 2015.  It’s hard to believe that in 2024, Nana Plaza’s new frontage is already 12 years old.

Nana Plaza’s frontage looks much the same today as it did several years ago. It has stood the test of time.

March 9, 2017.  The view from the short-lived Bangkok Bunnies, looking out towards the entrance / exit of the plaza.

Unlike the early days when a bar changing hands was a big deal, it has felt like musical chairs in the plaza over the past several years. Some bars have changed hands multiple times in a calendar year. There has been so much change and so many owners that I sometimes forget that a bar I am thinking of no longer exists.

March 8, 2018.  The roof over the plaza can be clearly seen from out front.

The biggest change to Nana Plaza was the addition of the roof in 2016. It was transformative. Of course, you can take a small umbrella out with you in the rainy season but inevitably, after a few drinks you forget it and leave it somewhere. And even if you don’t forget it, those little umbrellas don’t help much if you’re caught in a monsoon season downpour.

August 12, 2024.  Looking down on Nana Plaza from The Landmark Hotel.

Nana Plaza has ruled the roost for most of the past 30 odd years. Soi Cowboy and Patpong have had their moments but it is Nana Plaza which remains firmly as Bangkok’s premier bar area. What changes and further improvements can we expect in the plaza over the years to come?

Mystery Photo

Where is it?

Last week’s photo was taken on Yaowarat Road. In the foreground was the 20 baht boat noodle shop, and blurred in the background you could see the Grand China Hotel. Less than 10 of you got it right. We’re back to somewhat easier photos this week with today’s photo very much in the zone.

Stick’s Inbox – The Best Emails From The Past Week

Thailand’s changing visitor landscape.

You are right about the surge in visitor numbers. I’ll be heading to Chiang Mai in a couple of days for a week, so I contacted Movenpick Hotel, a 4-star hotel in a great location, to book my stay. No luck. The place is booked out and their system wouldn’t let me reserve, even as an Accor gold member – which isn’t supposed to happen. After enlisting help from a mate who’s an Accor diamond member and subsequently contacting the hotel’s manager, they finally offered me a suite (the only one left) at a reduced price. And this isn’t even the high season. Movenpick Hotel in Bangkok is bursting at the seams with mainly Middle Eastern and Indian tourists. There is also sad news for sleepy Hua Hin, where the government is planning the airport’s upgrade so that it can deal with international traffic and – surprise, surprise – direct flights from India in its effort to divert tourist numbers from other over-crowded destinations. Thailand as we knew it is changing.

Pumping tourism for all its worth.

What you’re seeing with tourism is a deliberate effort by the government to boost tourist and collateral economic segments (medical tourism, cannabis, long-stay visa, and soon gambling) to keep the economy afloat. It is the only lever they have left with the manufacturing and industrial base quickly losing competitiveness, lagging agriculture, unsophisticated IT, and a lack of financial services development. It is why you’re seeing poor economic growth, such high consumer debt levels, rising automotive repossessions, and almost daily reports of massive scams (crypto, multi-level marketing, bank fraud, forex). They need to pump tourism at all costs or the economy will stall into recession, which risks social unrest.

Thailand is quiet.

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Bangkok memories.

I remember Crown Hotel. In the early ’90s, I used to come on vacation to Thailand; I was a student at the time in my early 20s. I started going to Soi Cowboy. Back then, I liked a bar called Pam’s Bar (long since cannibalised by Baccara). It was open in the afternoon and the evening. At 7 PM, the music would start and everything would light up. It was truly another era. Better in my opinion, so much better. I had a girl I frequented regularly and we often went to Crown Hotel for a short time. At that time, it was well-maintained. Time passed, and in 2005, I was working in a multinational corporation in Bangkok. I took a co-worker out to RCA on a Friday night. After a few drinks we wanted to spend the night together. Since I didn’t know where to go, I took her to Crown Hotel. It was completely run-down and horrible. We did not care and spent an hour there. I haven’t been back since, but it brings back good memories! I miss Pam’s Bar.

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More Readers’ Emails

Thailand over Farangland.

I couldn’t agree more about Thailand being too hot for many outdoor activities. Playing golf, bush-walking, bicycling, jogging or gardening is my definition of ‘hell on earth’ and I feel sorry for those who have to breathe the polluted air. Fortunately there are work-arounds! Air-conditioned indoor golf driving ranges and air-conditioned cars, shopping malls, cinemas, bowling alleys, restaurants etc. are my solutions to escaping the oppressively humid, day-time furnace. When not out and about, my air-conditioned condo is used to enjoy my air-conditioned home-gym, reading books and watching movies as my air purifiers purr silently in the background ensuring maximum air quality. Having adequate funds provides me daily 2 hour foot massages (in air-conditioned comfort of course), weekend inter-provincial getaways with my girlfriend to ridiculously-cheap 4 or 5 star hotels / resorts and quarterly overseas trips to any number of countries, all located within just a few hours flight time of Bangkok. Swimming is an excellent outdoor activity in Thailand – when air quality permits – and having a slim, attractive (medical professional) girlfriend 22 years younger than me is out of the question back in the homeland. I briefly return to Farangland often to visit family and friends and on each occasion cannot wait to return back to Thailand to escape the cold and very high cost of living.

Not quite everyone.

You say everyone loves Thailand? I say everyone except hardened whoremongers from the past.

Don’t judge a book by its cover.

Regarding the Indian invasion of Thailand and their general bad reputation and negative stigma, have any of your readers actually tried to engage with them? A few weeks ago I was in a bar / restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 8, waiting alone for a friend to join me. Across from me was an unkempt Indian man. For whatever reason we made eye contact and struck up a conversation. It turned out he had attended university 15 minutes from my home in the UK. He knew my small town well and spoke highly of his time there. He was intelligent, engaging and given his line of work, I assume wealthy. Fast forward one week and I was in Pattaya for a couple of days. I was sitting in a Thai restaurant and got talking to a female Indian and her elderly mother. Neither would have looked out of place in a Bombay street market. I learned that they were from Austin, Texas. The lady worked for Google and had attended MIT. Her mother was in Pattaya for medical treatment. She moved seats and joined us. We had a great time talking about travelling and other topics. Don’t judge a book by its cover.

It’s the height of the rainy season. Expect some rain most days in Bangkok.

This Week’s News, Views & Gossip

Bangkok bar owners were moaning about the state of business this week with rain interrupting trade – as it does throughout September, every year. Even some of the most popular bars had lots of empty seats some nights this past week.

Who will replace Dollhouse Dennis – as he had become known, at Dollhouse? Dennis quickly became popular, not just with customers but with the staff. Finding a replacement won’t be easy. With that said, one bar manager I rate right up there as one of the best in the business has shown interest in the position. (And no, it’s not my old pal, Dave The Rave. He’s happy in his new life as a professional football photographer in the UK.)

It is often said there are no new ideas in Hollywood. Movies today are all sequels, superhero pabulum and video game adaptations. The same could be said of gogo bars, which, when management sees something working well in another bar, copies it! And so it is that Tycoon A Gogo in Nana Plaza on Tuesday will launch its own Full Moon Party. The same themed party will be happening across Nana Plaza at Red Dragon and Mandarin Club (as well as Shark Club on Soi Cowboy). Tycoon is putting its own unique twist on the concept. Soi Cowboy’s body-painting specialist will take the night off from Suzie Wong and Long Gun to paint up Tycoon temptresses in glow-in-the-dark body paint and offer the same service for customers. Could be messy – and could be a lot of fun too! All the Full Moon frolics at Nana Plaza begin at 8:00 PM this coming Tuesday, September 17.

The party of the year – Billboard’s 9^th Anniversary bash – is less than two weeks away and, while I may have mentioned it previously, I neglected to point out that the birthday party is bringing back its most popular highlight: The Billboard Babe Of The Year Pageant. There is no prescribed theme for this year’s party, so the ladies can choose how they wish to dress up. Expect high glamour and wild creativity as the ladies vie for the winner’s prize of 25,000 baht.

I mentioned earlier that Dennis had left Dollhouse. This might not sound like a big deal, but the resignation of a bar manager can have a profound effect on a bar. There are more than a few examples over the years of bars which almost collapsed when the manager moved on. The best example would be Secrets in Pattaya where manager Larry was a huge part of that bar’s success. When Larry left, the bar’s popularity plummeted and it never recovered. And funnily enough, the bar that Larry went to – Babydolls – had huge success. Bar managers are much like football managers – just look at how disappointing Manchester United have been since Sir Alex Ferguson left.

A change in bar ownership can also change the course of a bar, especially if the change in ownership is unexpected. Over the years, there have been quite a few instances of bar owners – as distinct from bar managers – passing away. In most of these cases, ownership of the bar has passed over to the owner’s wife. And in most cases, it has been a disaster. The wife – in many cases previously employed in the industry – thinks she knows everything and is determined to throw her weight around. Inevitably she makes decisions that ruin the bar to the extent that it is not even saleable. In the worst cases, the deceased owner was a partner in the bar and the remaining partners suddenly find they have a tyrant for a new partner. It’s happened many times and it never ends well!

The finishing touches being made to the frontage of the new Shark on Walking Street.

Walking Street is about to get a new gogo bar this week with the opening of the huge new, relocated Shark Gogo bar. Moving from Soi 15, the new Shark bar has a 3-storey façade, making it impossible to miss. Shark’s French owners scored a coup, grabbing the prime location before their fellow countrymen who run the Pin-Up group. A soft opening had been planned for yesterday but licensing delays pushed it back. It is now expected to open by Wednesday. The original Shark Club will close, with its staff moving to the new location. The expanded space will feature three stages and aims to employ 100 – 120 girls, more than twice as many as the previous location. The new Shark spans three shophouses wide and five deep, with a downstairs bar area spread over 230 square metres. The layout features two parallel low stages, VIP areas, and ample seating. With plenty of complaints about bars on Walking Street these days, particularly those with a largely male service staff, Shark promises a customer-friendly experience and vibe. The lighting, sound system, and pricing are said to match the quality offered at Shark’s sister bar, Fahrenheit.

Still in Pattaya, Space of Billabong Bar and Beer Garden opened earlier this week on Soi Made In Thailand, off Soi Buakhao. It features live music with a mix of popular oldies as well as Thai music. It sounds like it might be competition for the Las Vegas Beer Garden although the latter has a superior location on Soi Diana.

While cheap beer is as easy to find as a baht bus in Pattaya, lady drinks deals are rather more difficult to find. Long-gone Babydolls off Walking Street was probably the most famous for lady drink deals, offering customers a free drink with the purchase of a lady drink. Now Buzzin’ Lounge on Soi Chaiyapoon has a Lady Drink Happy Hour. Every day from 5:00 – 7:00 PM, lady drinks are just 99 baht (excluding bottles). And the discount is not incumbent on the purchase of customer drinks.

Some Farangs love to scorn other nationalities visiting Thailand. Be it Indians, Chinese, Russians, whomever, it is something of a pastime for many. But are farangs the first-class visitors many see themselves as? Chatting with a Thai business owner when I was in in Pattaya (not in the bar business), she commented that she particularly liked Russians. Why? Because many Russians who live in Pattaya speak Thai very well. I’ve not come across many Russians in Thailand myself but it was an interesting observation.

A heads up that the week of October 1st – 7th might be a busy one for the tourism industry. It’s a big holiday in China and there are heavy bookings for trips abroad. The Chinese love Thailand so if you’re going to be in Thailand during the first week of October and have yet to book your accommodation, it might pay to get that sorted.

A strange sight on Soi Cowboy.

One of the things I miss most about Bangkok, and Thailand in general, are the strange sights you see out and about. Don’t you just love coming across things like the fellow in the most elaborate robot (Transformers?) suit, in the photo above?! Say what you want about Thailand, it’s seldom boring.

In last week’s column opener I talked about how many popular places in Bangkok were over-run with tourists. This included some of the most popular shopping areas like MBK, Siam Square and Central World. I notice YouTubers all around the world visiting famous / high-end / downtown shopping areas showing many prime retail outlets empty. At first glance, this doesn’t seem to be happening in Bangkok. In the aforementioned malls along with the likes of Terminal 21, there is hardly any space available for lease. But then you get to EmQuartier and there are heaps of empty spaces on the prime ground floor. And you don’t have to venture far from Sukhumvit to see empty shopfront after empty shopfront. Drive along Petchaburi Road – just a mile or so from Sukhumvit – and there are long stretches of buildings where all of the shophouses are empty. Many buildings look abandoned. Post-Covid, there was space available for lease everywhere. Most prime space downtown has been filled – but look closely and there are still quite a few spaces for rent in some malls. That said, it doesn’t seem to be nearly as bad in Bangkok as it is in some other capital cities.

One of the things I notice in Thailand when making comparisons with life in my homeland of New Zealand is that the population in Thailand seems to feel like they are together as one. I find this amazing when you consider how different so many Thais are. In Thailand, rural folks are very different to those who have spent their whole life in the city. There are very well-educated people and lots of people who only had 4 years education. And then there’s the huge disparity of wealth. In New Zealand, there was a time when we’d all be on the same page about most stuff. We’d talk about the same TV show from the night before in the office and everyone from the boss to the girl Friday watched it. When the All Blacks won we’d celebrate together. When the All Blacks lost, the next day was sombre and we’d all collectively sulk. In New Zealand today – and I suspect this is the case in much of the developed world – it seems like we all do different stuff, we don’t have the same things that bring us together and it almost feels like we’re segregated in to groups such as age, sex, race, ideology etc. In Thailand, despite the massive difference in lifestyles, it seems there is still something of a “collectivity”. During the Olympics, it was like the whole country was cheering together. Go back a few years, and the entire country was on edge (and going to the temple and praying!) for the 12 boys and their coach trapped in that cave. We’ve lost that in New Zealand and I suspect most of the Western world has lost it too. But Thailand, despite all of its political division and huge wealth disparity, retains it.

Is the Thai word kreng-jai which translates roughly as deferring to someone of significantly higher status used much these days? I don’t think I’ve heard this term used for several years. And that made me wonder, if it’s not used so much, is this an indication of a change in culture? Are modern day Thais prostrating themselves to older / senior Thais with the same enthusiasm they once did? Do Thai nongs still stay late in the office until the big boss leaves, as was so common in the past? I’m asking you as I genuinely don’t know.

Phnom Penh, this week. It looks like it has really grown up since I was last there.

I enjoyed taking trips around the region to the likes of Vientiane, Saigon, Hanoi, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Being able to easily visit another country is one of the things I miss most about living in Thailand. When I first visited the likes of Vientiane (1998) and Phnom Penh (2001), these places were real backwaters. They may have been the capital city, but each had very few high-rise buildings and felt desperately poor. I was amazed at how much more developed Vientiane was on my last visit several years ago and I am told that Phnom Penh has developed hugely since I was last there, which is, admittedly, more than a decade ago. I was aware that there had been a lot of Chinese investment and many high-rises had gone up but this aerial photo taken by a friend this past week shows how much the city has grown up. It’s hard to believe it’s the same place I visited not all that long ago.

Speaking of Cambodia, the Khmer440 website and forum is no longer. It was disconnected from the Internet this week. I don’t know the back story as to what happened. The forum was one of two major English-language forums for expats in Cambodia and had been around for a very long time, perhaps 20 odd years.

It begs the question of how much longer Stickman has to run? Obviously I no longer own the site so I am not the one who makes the final decision. Let’s see.

Thailand opened up the visa system a couple of months ago, a policy about-turn that surprised many. I wonder now whether the Thais might look at making residence or, possibly even citizenship, easier to attain? Only a very small percentage of foreigners residing in Thailand long-term get residence and an even smaller number become Thai citizens. From memory, I have only ever met two Westerners who managed to get Thai citizenship. With Thailand’s population predicted to decline in the years to come, could the country look at encouraging foreign residents to become citizens? There’s nothing to suggest it will happen any time soon, but at the same time I wouldn’t completely rule it out.

I note the baht is getting stronger. It’s around 5% stronger against most major currencies than it was when I was in town just a few weeks ago. You still get plenty of baht for your greenbacks and Euros, but Aussies and Kiwis are feeling a bit sick when they see what their weak currencies get. Exchange your money at the wrong place and you’ll get less than 22 baht for an Aussie dollar, and less than 20 baht for a Pacific Peso AKA New Zealand dollar.

I really don’t understand the retail cannabis market in Thailand. There are so many stores and most that you walk past seemingly never have any customers. And some of these stores are in really high-rent locations. How does it work? Do they sell a lot of their product online?

Thailand-Related News Articles

A Brit joins Thailand’s 2024 road fatalities after succumbing to injuries from a motorcycle accident on Koh Phangnan.

On Soi Nana, a freelancer bravely takes on some ladyboys.

In Northern Thailand, Chiang Rai is hit by terrible flooding.

In Jomtien, a 28-room building is being transformed in to a gentleman’s club and resort.

Bangkok’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel is voted the world’s best hotel by The Telegraph.

The Thai cave boys‘ football coach is forced to spend a night on the roof of his house.

Moo Deng, a baby hippo at a zoo near Pattaya, has gone viral.

A roof over the Bali Hai Pier in Pattaya should be completed before high season.

Closing Comments

Last week’s column had no naughty nightlife news or gossip. Publishing a column with zero bar news was deliberate – I wanted to see what sort of response a column without any nightlife content would get. Would readers complain? No. Not one reader mentioned it. Which all simply confirms what I have long suspected – that most of you are not especially interested in the nightlife. My best guess is that many of you once enjoyed it, or are perhaps merely fascinated by it, and that’s why you tune in. Don’t fret, nightlife fans, that was a one-off experiment and there are no plans to refrain from publishing nightlife news. As always, your feedback – be it positive or otherwise – is always appreciated.

Your Bangkok commentator,

Stick

Stick can be contacted at : stickmanbangkok@gmail.com