Stickman Weekly, December 15, 2024

Mystery Photo

Where is it?

Last week’s photo was taken from near the Asoke intersection, with the photographer in the shadow of Terminal 21, looking across the road at the building next to the entrance to Soi Cowboy. Just as I struggled to recognise that location when a friend first sent the photo to me, so too were many of you confused. A day after the column had gone live, just 10 of you had got it right. This week’s photo is central Bangkok and I would consider it moderately challenging.

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

Cashless nonsense.

I had to laugh when you wrote that some bar staff might have been linking QR codes to their own bank accounts. If there’s a way of ripping someone off then you can be 100% sure that Thais will find it. As for businesses not accepting cash – legal currency – I go elsewhere. And in my area there have recently been some lengthy internet breakdowns, too. Pretty tough on those businesses that only accept online payment. I asked a new high-end bar in Bangkok which only accepts card payment what happens if there is an ‘electronic problem’, which isn’t unknown by any means, and they can’t get payment. They refused to answer. I guess they do accept cash in certain circumstances, but don’t want to publicise the fact. How widespread is the use of QR codes now? Even small market stall holders use them now.

Recommended credit card.

I have been using the “Wise” credit card for a number of years. It’s very flexible, uses market rates when converting funds from your home currency to another currency etc. You can find out all about it from their website. When you use it at a merchant’s premises or to pay for hotel bookings, they send you a WhatsApp message within seconds to confirm said usage. It’s as secure as any other card and you have the option to freeze / unfreeze the card any number of times. I move around different cities and usually book hotels or pay for airfares on the run. Using a home credit card attracts a foreign fee charge. They give a lousy exchange rate and SMS you with a security code which is not possible to get unless you have roaming on your phone.

Soi 11 report.

I didn’t notice that much of the supposed crackdown on African hookers, and still saw plenty of them on lower Sukhumvit and Soi Nana. Their numbers seemed a bit less than usual though. Their male counterparts are still around in large numbers at their usual spots, the odd side of Sukhumvit Road, and up Soi 11. Soi 11 especially has so many hanging around. How long will it take before that soi is renamed Soi Africa? I still wonder if there’s sufficient demand for their merchandise that all of them can make a living. Or, in the case of a Mr. Big that collects all the money, is there enough demand to keep all of them around? Most of them hang around, not doing much. They have to live somewhere and they have to eat, so having them around costs money. Talking about soi 11, the 200-metre stretch at the beginning where the beer bars used to be which has been boarded up is quite a mood killer for the soi.

Where are all the Indians?

About Nana Plaza, and Soi Nana in general, there have been reports of herds of Indians hanging around. These rumours are pure nonsense! I’ve been in the area for a few days, and never seen any proof of it. I would say that of all the people around, just 10% – 20% are Indian. It’s closer to 10% in the soi, and 20% in the Plaza. They are far outnumbered by East Asians. So we’re talking here about people from a country with a population of about 1,5 billion, just a few hours’ flight away from Thailand, and they make up for about 15% of the clientele right now of Soi Nana and Nana Plaza. I think some people have been exaggerating.

More Readers’ Emails

Japanese and Farang, same same.

I’m a rare case of a Farang working for a Japanese company near Bangkok. I often go drinking with colleagues after work, and money for entertainment is tight. Believe you me, they are as attuned to prices as the most stingy Farangs. The problem I see is when certain individuals get obsessed with one particular lady. That’s when you hear of 8,000 baht + prices being paid for short-time. These ladies aren’t stupid.

Indians enjoying Pattaya.

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Indian gogo dancers for real?

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Playing the game.

An active Bangkok monger I know insists that the 8,000 baht price quoted by some ladies is to send a strong message, “I don’t wanna go with you!” If a sucker agrees then she has hit the jackpot and won’t have to work for a few days. He insists most gogo girls are available for 3,000 baht short time. He gets to know the girls, buys them drinks and even says a few that know him go for 2,000 baht short time. If only guys would take the time to earn the girl’s trust. He even has regular freelancers for 1,000 baht a pop. It’s about knowing how to play the game like the bargirls do with us guys.

The Dior Gold House Concept Store.

The Dior Gold House Concept Store you included a mystery photo of recently looks like a big, multi-storey store, but it isn’t. It’s deceiving. It’s just a single, ground floor shop, but they’ve put those golden walls around it, 5 storeys high, with nothing behind the windows of floors 2 – 5, but air. It looks rather fancy though, and the greenery around it makes it look even better. And, as was to be expected, it’s a real babe magnet. There were plenty of ladies posing in front of the building, their friends taking pictures, and I have to say that most of them were very attractive. Now this comes from a very fussy old git like me, so I think it really means something if I say they were very attractive. Before Stickman readers run over to the Dior Shop, it has to be said that those ladies looked like ladies with expensive taste, and a pocket full of money is the first requirement if you want them to just look at you. There was a queue if you wanted to go in. I had no intention as I don’t care about designer clothes, expensive watches, jewellery or fancy cars.

Santas, hanging outside Spanky’s, middle floor Nana Plaza.

This Week’s News, Views & Gossip

There is often a dip in trade in early December before things really ramp up, the so-called quiet before the storm. And almost like clockwork, the roaring start to the high season fell into the traditional pre-Christmas lull, right on schedule. December 10 marked the start of what’s expected to be a 2-week or so drop-off. To bar managers and owners, it was a jarring flipping of the switch. Thursday night in Nana Plaza was described as “dead”, “just normal” and “meandering” while Friday saw people clog the walkways, and plenty of seats in every bar. “Thursday wasn’t dead, but it was just a normal Thursday night. Not like a big high season night,” said one manager. The lull is expected to last through the weekend before Christmas, with December 21 – 22 likely the point at which it picks up again.

Add Spanky’s to the list of bars saying November was their best month, not just this year, but the best month ever, as in the month with the highest revenue in the long history of the bar. Things are crazy in there some nights. A customer opened a bottle of Moet champagne in the bar and proceeded to give the girl he was with a shower with its contents. What will a bottle of Moet set you back in a bar? It has got to be several thousand baht.

And said bar owner’s next sentence touched on something I have mentioned recently, “I don’t know if it’s the bitcoin price.” Yep, crypto bros have well and truly discovered Bangkok and with the Bitcoin price recently breaching the $US 100,000 mark, these guys have got money to spend – and they love to be really showy about it! Customers spending large amounts of money freely is what the girls love best. The question, of course, is what does it do to the girls’ expectations?

Nana Plaza’s next gogo bar, the much-anticipated venue from the creators of Billboard and Butterflies, is called On Top and is set to open around New Year’s Eve. A teaser video for the new bar, built in the shell of the former short-time hotel next to Butterflies, went live on Friday night, finally revealing the name. The owners said on Friday that On Top might open before New Year’s. Completion is nearing rapidly, with newly installed air-conditioning units tested yesterday. The next steps are to install the half-million-baht mixing board and computers to power On Top’s signature feature: its massive video screens.

“On Top” refers not to the bar’s location on the top floor of Nana, but the view patrons will have once inside. The walls around On Top will feature high-definition video screens offering an immersive view of skylines around the world, from Bangkok and New York to London and Tokyo. Sitting in one of the bar’s plush sofas, you’ll feel like you’re sitting on top of that city’s tallest skyscrapers with a 360-degree bird’s eye view of the world.

While the outside view at On Top may be expansive, the bar itself is small – smaller than Lace Lounge with seating for around 40. Nearly all the seats will be in sofa booths with some stage-side seating. Luxury and a VIP experience is the order of the day, from the (on) top down. Even the stage seating will be comfortable armchairs. It’s clear that this is going to be something very special. Aimed at the VIP bottle-service crowd, On Top may end up serving as the default VIP lounge for Billboard and Butterflies’ many “whales” or millionaire big spenders.

From the Billboard owner’s birthday party, these have to be the best tips in the business.

As we wait for On Top to open, there are plenty of parties to keep you busy. Tonight is the final Full Moon Party of the year and both Tycoon and the Mandarin / Red Dragon / Shark group will be celebrating with wild costumes, body paint and shows. At Tycoon, there will be paint available for customers, so it could get messy. And Red Dragon and Shark on Cowboy, expect body paint, fire and candle shows.

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A new venue is coming to Soi Cowboy. A gogo bar? No! A weed shop? No! A massage parlour? Yes! To be called Vicky’s Choice, it is located in what used to be the convenience store. Expect it to open before Christmas.

So what should you expect in the gogo bars at Christmas and New Year? While everyone says they’re having a Christmas party, it’s often the dreaded “party in name only” with some balloons and maybe a poster. Christmas is not usually a big night in the red-light areas. It’s never bad, but it’s certainly not gangbusters. New Year’s is better than Christmas and is pandemonium at midnight, but while the bars are allowed to stay open until nearly dawn, many don’t or those that do don’t have many customers that late.

Never one to do a party in name only, the Red Dragon group is rolling out several nights of planned entertainment for Christmas and New Year’s, both of which will be celebrated over multiple nights. On December 24 & 25, the three bars will have three shows set for the stage: Sexy Santa, Jingle Bells and the Santa Lesbian show. On New Year’s Eve, it will be the “Memories Sexy Show”, “We Miss 2024 Show” and “We Love New Year’s”, plus the big countdown.

I never used to hear a lot about the freelancer trade but it would be the second biggest trend of 2024 (the rise in Indian visitors would be the top trending news) and more readers are commenting on what is happening with those ladies who linger on the street. Is it a sign of the times? Are Stickman readers trying to save money by picking up street-walkers? Who knows, but everyone agrees that Soi Nana has more freelancers than ever. Maybe it’s a time of the year thing, but there seems to be something going on because I keep hearing about this.

And on the subject of freelancers, the Black girls continue to spread their wings. Some are offering their services on the most popular local websites where you find listings of ladies for hire.

With talk about the ladies’ asking prices, perhaps it’s time for a reminder that there is almost no correlation between how much you pay and the performance that follows. Are you looking primarily to bed an attractive 20-year-old, or are you looking for a porn star performance? If it’s the latter, consider going for a lady with a few more miles on the clock. Think 30 years of age at a minimum, preferably north of 35. How much you pay has almost zero bearing on whether it will be a good experience. Her age is much more relevant, as is taking the time to make a connection. As a good friend who ran a bar in soi 33 for many years used to say, just taking a lady away from her place of work to a nice bar for a drink or two will almost always result in a much better experience later in the evening.

The rainy season may have come to an end some weeks back – and there will be some who will tell you it won’t rain again until April. What they mean is, it won’t rain very often at all. It will rain between now and then and contrary to what some say, that would be totally normal. And so it was on Friday when it was cloudy in the morning and there was some decent rain. And then again around 7:00 PM on Saturday evening, it rained again.

A long time ago I reached the conclusion that moaning and groaning is largely a generational thing. Some punters grumble about the security checkpoint at Nana Plaza, and rant about their personal freedoms being breached. Some speculate that it would take forever to get in to the plaza – this has never been an issue – along with some other silly nonsense. It’s invariably the grumpy old guys – more often than not Thailand-based expats – who complain. Contrast this with younger punters who are asked to show ID to prove they’re aged over 20 – and they seem comfortable with the checkpoint. There is, however, one group who grumbles about security more than others, albeit they do it quietly amongst themselves. Who would that be? Believe it or not, it’s the girls who work in the plaza. Girls employed in the plaza have their own lane at the checkpoint, sort of like flight crew do at an airport. Irrespective of age, ladies working in the plaza are required to show ID. The issue is that these girls are not always organised and sometimes they forget to bring their ID card with them. When that happens, they have to go all the way back home to get it and make the trip all the way back again. This can make them late for work……and then the penalties kick in as the bar deducts money from their salary for being late!

Down in Pattaya, things still haven’t hit the fervour that high season has in Bangkok. Walking Street saw lacklustre trade mid-week with even the street itself easy to navigate without throngs of tour groups or stalled packs of Indian men blocking the way. Shark, Fahrenheit, Sapphire and Skyfall all had decent crowds between 10 PM and midnight, but none were full.

Word is that Penthouse X, the gogo bar on the ground floor of Soi Pattayaland 2, can feel somewhat out of place. In its heyday, Soi Pattayaland Soi 2 was a destination soi with some of the most popular gogo bars in town like Classroom, and the original Misty’s. Today? The soi is full of gay bars which is great if it’s your thing. But if it’s not, you might not be so keen on gay guys making suggestions for massage or more as you traverse the soi to Penthouse X.

In last week’s column I mentioned that anyone wishing to visit Penthouse X had to submit to a search of your person and being patted down. I’m afraid that wasn’t a one-off and the nonsense continues. Given the bar is Indian-owned and the customer base is majority Indian, is this perhaps what our Indian friends expect / the norm in nightspots in India?

The newsbyte in last week’s column about the history-making first of its kind Indian gogo bar coming to Walking Street is something I did a bit of thinking about this week. Is the concept flawed before it gets going? Would it work? India does not have a culture of gogo bars, so how are they going to find Indian girls to get up on stage and dance? And then, as I asked last week, who will the customers be? Indian men? They have plenty of options back home. Westerners? If my email inbox is anything to go by, most readers have little interest in Indian women. Local men? Japanese? Koreans? Chinese? That’s an emphatic no, no, no and no! The more I thought about it, the more I thought that this is going to be an Indian-themed gogo bar with Lek, Noy and Ploy on stage in Indian garb, a red dot on their forehead, swaying back and forth with confused looks on their faces to Indian music.

And then not long before this week’s column was to go live, I heard that the bar will not feature Indian women but, as I suspected, Thai dancers. So why is it being termed an “Indian Gogo bar?” Because Indian customers will – unlike many other places – be warmly welcomed, instead of turned away with nonsense about a bar being “members only” or “closed for a private party”. Jalwa’s bosses would be justified in turning the tables, barring entry to white guys but management – which also runs the Penthouse Hotel and the Penthouse X gogo bar – are taking the high road and welcoming all. However, given its location, inside the huge Jalwa complex with no external entrance (for now), it’s unlikely (m)any farangs will venture in. In the opulent Jalwa Disco, management say non-Indians comprise less than 2% of all patrons.

Like the nightclub, the Jalwa gogo bar is done out beautifully with the walls, ceiling and stage turned into LED visual spectacles. Colour is everywhere and the seating is more comfortable and of superior quality to that offered in most chrome-pole bars. The sound system has been described as “immersive”, and is not deafening. (Side note, the common complaint about Penthouse X is that the music is beyond loud.) Contrary to the stereotype of Indians in Pattaya, Jalwa oozes money. There are three floors of VIP levels in the nightclub – Silver, Gold and Platinum – with few tables for Cheap Charlies. White men, many of you might not be able to afford this Pattaya bar. I can’t help but smirk!

The Indian theme continues, and from the owner of one of the top / best-known gogo bars in Bangkok – which shall remain nameless – comes more feedback about Indian customers that, again, suggests to me, there are going to be issues in the near future as more Indians visit the bar areas. The bar has a loose, seldom-enforced policy whereby punters are asked to order another drink if they have not finished their first drink after 45 minutes. (As a side note, just in case you’re wondering how staff know how long you’ve been sitting on your first drink, the drinks system in most bars is computerised and service staff can see the exact time each order was made.) When some Indians are asked to buy another drink they often refuse – as is their right. However, at that point they are asked to leave. Some don’t take this well and get stroppy. That’s one thing, but it doesn’t end there. Inevitably, a nasty 1-star review follows on Google Reviews the next day. As this gogo bar owner said to me in an email this week, this is the number 1 reason why more bars are making the decision not to allow entry to Indians.

Here’s the latest from the construction site that was previously the location of the Honey Hotel. The Honey was hugely popular back in the day and those who were around back then have some great stories. One good one concerns a couple of rooms on the same level as the basement car park. It was common knowledge amongst ladies that a ghost resided in these two rooms. Apparently, no amount of money could persuade ladies to go back to either of those rooms. This was not lost on regulars at the Honey – it was very popular with oil and gas industry workers – who would never accept either of these two rooms. They weren’t scared of ghosts, rather it meant there was little chance they would get any company.

Construction continues on what was once the Honey Hotel.

A funny story was posted on social media this week by a Thai woman whose relationship with her American fiancé took a turn for the worse. The lovebirds met in Thailand and before long they were engaged. They talked about the future and decided they would be better off in the United States. They applied for a fiancée visa for her which was eventually issued, and they travelled to the USA with plans to get married within a few months. Everything had been great when they were in Thailand, but in the USA there was a problem – and for the lady it was a big problem. Where her American fiancé had showered twice a day in hot Thailand, in the cool climes of USA in Winter he didn’t shower twice a day. In fact, some days he didn’t shower at all. This didn’t work for her. She explained to him that Thai people shower at least twice a day. He countered that they were now in the USA, it was not hot like Thailand and in Winter in the USA it was not necessary to shower twice a day, or even every day. Thai women can be very sensitive about personal hygiene and for many, an unclean man is the ultimate turn-off. He was given an ultimatum – shower every day or I go back to Thailand. He didn’t, and so she did! Back in Thailand, she posted about her experience – and pretty much every Thai agreed with her.

Thailand-Related News Articles

Four foreign men and three Thais behind a popular porn site have been arrested on charges of producing pornography in Thailand.

A shirtless Russian tourist chases away a police officer amid crazy scenes in Phuket.

A Singaporean dies during a traditional massage in Phuket.

A 14-year old Australian / Thai kid is stabbed to death in Chonburi.

Dave The Rave takes a more in-depth look at the soon to open Nana Plaza gogo bar, On Top.

In Pattaya, a 31-year-old Brit is arrested and charged with stealing expensive jewellery from foreign visitors.

Closing Comments

Reading back over this week’s column before writing my closing comments, there’s one thing that stood out. Indians. This week’s column has many references to Indians. I haven’t gone back over emails from the past week, but I’d guess that perhaps one in four of you who sent a note this week happened to mention Indians. Bar owners are commenting on Indian customers too. The number of Indians in the bar areas has become a talking point. Is it really a big deal? Most complaints about Indians refer to the stereotype that some are very tight with their money. Who cares?! That hardly seems worth complaining about. On the other hand, if a group of customers were throwing so much money that the girls’ expectations were rising, that might be worth a few comments. But with most Indians, that doesn’t seem to be the case. I really don’t think more Indians visiting is really that a big deal.

Your Bangkok commentator,

Stick

Stick can be contacted at : stickmanbangkok@gmail.com