Stickman Weekly, March 9, 2025

 

 

Mystery Photo

Last week’s photo was taken at the bottom of Soi Nana, just before the entrance to Bejakitti Park / what was once known as the Tobacco Monopoly. Soi Nana might be a hotspot for Stickman readers but only a small number of you got it right which sort of confirmed what I already know – many of you stick to the plaza, the Nana Hotel and the top of the soi.

This week’s photo is another of those which might look obscure at first glance, but I almost guarantee you’ve walked past it many times. You’ll be kicking yourself next week if you don’t get it right!

 

 

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

A known tourist draw.

Whether at Hamburg’s Reeperbahn or the known districts of Bangkok and Pattaya, the spectacle of publicly solicited sex work is a known tourist draw. With that in mind, it’s pointless to speculate on the percentage of tourists who qualify as “naughty boys”. There are plenty of naughty-curious uncles and aunties who enjoy the beaches, temples and whatever else constitutes mainstream YouTube fodder these days, but also want to check out the neon alcohol barns – and the sleazier the scene, the better. That said, there are more than a few men who suffer their existences in chilly Farangland with a calendar on the wall marking down the days until their next Pattaya blowout.

Sin City no longer revolves around sin.

About the percentage of visitors to Pattaya who are sex tourists, if you take out the expats, Pattaya- and Bangkok-based, I think it’s less than 5%. And if you look at the greater Pattaya area, including Naklua and Jomtien, even 2% would be on the high side. For Pattaya itself, 2 – 3% might be about right. One thing is for sure, Pattaya HAS changed significantly. The nightlife is still there and there’s plenty of it (although not as much as 20 – 30 years ago), but nowadays it’s just a relatively small part of everything happening in the city, where it used to be the case that the city revolved around it.

You grow out of it.

Regarding the ratio of naughty boys to mainstream tourists in Pattaya, I believe there are many reasons for the change.  1. Speaking for myself, and most of my friends, nearly all of us are now either married or have a long-term girlfriend.  2. The expense of female company has rocketed since the Covid lock-down.  3. The quality of the girls in terms of looks and attitude has deteriorated.  4. Most expats / long-term visitors feel they have been there, done that and got the t-shirt. None of us are getting any younger. The noise, loud music and screaming women get on my tits. It was great at one time, not so much now. I’d much rather sit in one of my mate’s quieter bars or watch football in a sports bar with no hassle. It’s always there if you want it.

What some will do for heaven tokens.

I once watched a young Mormon missionary at the gates of Nana. Despite disagreeing with his message, I had to admire his tenacity. It must be a thankless task. But he stood there for more than an hour, sweat rolling off him while achieving absolutely nothing, except maybe gaining some Heaven tokens.

Celebrity sex.

Renting sexy time with a celebrity? I once dated a Thailand beauty pageant contestant. It turned out that she ran a ring, booking high-rollers for a number of models and actresses. This was many years ago and an overnight visit cost 100K baht.

 

 

More Readers’ Emails

A night on Soi Nana.

I’m staying a night in the Nana Hotel. It’s like a pilgrimage here. The geriatric shuffle at breakfast. Guests in wheelchairs. One guy unable to walk without a carer. Outside last night, the whole soi was pumping. Nana Plaza too. Full to the brim and it had a vibe like back in the early 2000s. The place was buzzing. Lots of bars were busy. Plenty of punters spending. The whole soi was jam-packed and difficult to negotiate. Bars full and buzzing. At 10:00 PM it seemed like the whole street was lined with freelancers. I counted a dozen black girls. There were also Eastern European ladies, other Asians and one lady in a complete Middle East Burka with headscarf. Whatever floats your boat. At Party Bar on the ground floor of Nana Plaza 2 drinks and one for the mamasan cost 660 baht. That’s 20 Euros! Very expensive. A beer costs 4 Euros in my hometown, Amsterdam. I’m with my girlfriend looking at girls on stage. Been there, done that. Soi Nana was really jamming with a nice vibe. Like old times, only I’m older now.

Phuket’s Bangla Road circus.

On the subject of unwelcome nationalities in Thailand, for me a far bigger issue are the trashy tourists who walk around shirtless, usually displaying the vast array of tattoos they are covered in, thinking we must all be terribly impressed by their muscles. In some cases they even go into 7 Eleven or a fast food joint like that. There really should be a crackdown on that. If you are not on the beach, put your top on! What sort of trash thinks that is acceptable? In Phuket last week, the most common (and I mean that in every sense of the word) nationality was Russian. They really are classless and definitely the main shirt-off, aggressive-looking brigade. Fortunately, they seem to spend their time parading around and don’t infest too many of the bars or eateries. There were also a lot of nasty-looking Brits letting the side down and generally being obnoxious. I get the impression that they would love to walk around with a Pitbull if they could find one. I went to Phuket from Sunday – Wednesday to see if Bangla Road might be less busy on weekdays. It wasn’t. It was absolutely heaving. As much as I like a lot of what the area has to offer, with the crowds and the noise it is becoming less and less enjoyable the older I get.

Landmark update.

The de-Arabification of The Landmark has been as good as completed. Following Covid, The Landmark moved quickly (within 1 year) to an almost all-Arab hotel. It came to the point where I gave it one last chance, and they certainly didn’t waste that. Where it felt like 90% of guests were Arabian, the room service menu showed many Arabian dishes and the majority of the TV channels were Arabian too, at this time all Arabian items have been gone from the room service menu list, there are just a handful of Arabian channels left on the TV and less than 10% of the guests now are Arabian. Did management get a wake-up call from the regular customer base? Did they see for themselves that the lobby, at a certain moment, resembled downtown Mecca? Did they stop targeting Arabs? Who knows? You recently wrote that someone mentioned that bacon was not available anymore at the breakfast buffet in The Landmark. This is the second time I have been to The Landmark after the renovations of the Atrium restaurant and both times there was plenty of bacon available.

 

 

This Week’s News, Views & Gossip

Rain fell early on Friday night, but hardly made a dent in bar trade. Rain at this time of year is sometimes called the mango showers or mango rains, colloquial terms to describe sporadic rainfall from March through May that helps to ripen mangoes. March tends to be the tail end of the tourism high season but things are showing no sign of winding down yet with everyone telling me that Bangkok is booming. There are visitors everywhere and the bars are rocking.

Asking one of Bangkok’s best known gogo bar owners how business is at the moment, his response made me laugh, “Low season is supposed to be approaching but no sign of it in my bars. The general crowd has changed a bit and there are a lot more pot-smokers coming in to the bar these days!”

Straps is back in Nana Plaza. The middle floor bar had been known as Star for the past few years but has reverted to its previous name, Straps. Straps is the only bar in Nana Plaza where all of the dancers are ladyboys sans their tackle. Apparently, ladyboy connoisseurs prefer the tackle to be intact so ladyboy gogo dancers sans tackle are very much the exception.

Mandarin, Red Dragon and Tycoon – all in Nana Plaza – and Shark in Soi Cowboy, will throw their monthly Full Moon Party this coming Thursday, March 13. Tycoon has body painting for all the girls, a body paint show and paint is available for customers who want it. The other 3 bars have Full Moon style costumes and special shows.

 

 

Dennis is throwing a “Forever 69” birthday party at Lollipop on the ground floor of Nana Plaza this coming Friday, March 14. There will be pizza from Gallery Pizza. All customers who spend over 1,000 baht receive a “Forever 69” baseball cap, while supplies last. Several prize draws will take place throughout the night. As for his age, Dennis is actually turning 70, but maintains he will be forever 69!

In Nana Plaza it’s a case of if you can’t beat ’em, copy ’em! Angelwitch is replicating the small things that have made Spanky’s – right next door to Angelwitch – so popular. First it was the ceiling lighting outside the bar which Spanky’s had first. Then they got a shower which Spanky’s has had for as long as anyone can remember. And now the door staff at Angelwitch are using rubber whips – which have long been a signature at Spanky’s.

Has the number of ladies freelancing on Sukhumvit Road surged? Multiple reports from readers have commented on the sheer number of freelancers, and a friend noted this week that the prime strip of Sukhumvit Road feels rather like Pattaya’s Beach Road after dark with freelancers found virtually all the way from Nana to the Asoke intersection.

Speaking of freelancers, late at night the Thermae is crazy busy with the crowd so thick some nights it can be difficult to move around inside. Amazingly, I still hear from readers who have never stepped inside the Thermae. Put that right – you will not be disappointed!

There has been endless speculation about what would replace The Huntsman in the basement of The Landmark Hotel. That space is now a health clinic and other health-related businesses.

 

 

Just as many of you predicted, the friendly African drug dealers are back and it’s like there had never been a crackdown. Some now operate in pairs. There aren’t so many about early in the evening but as the clock gets closer to midnight, more venture out. Their preferred area is not on the main Sukhumvit Road, but along Soi 11.

It’s very much a family affair on Sukhumvit with the number of African freelancers said to be higher than it has been over the past couple of weeks. This week, Stickman readers have reported groups of African hookers perched out front of the Westin, opposite Terminal 21. Late on Friday night, a reader estimated there were 25 – 30, maybe more, on Soi Nana.

African women monetising their pussy on Soi Nana made the mainstream news in Thailand this past week. They’re still doing their thing despite the Immigration Police visiting Soi Nana on at least two occasions the previous week, rounding some up, taking them away and presumably preparing them for deportation.

Still on Soi Nana, the rumour mill has it that Tom, the co-owner and manager of The Tavern, will take over the lease of the space that was The Tavern and re-open it. As mentioned in last week’s edition, relations became strained between the Farang and Thai co-owners and it ended up in court. The rumour mill has it – and I must stress that this is a rumour – that The Tavern might reopen on Soi Nana with the Farang half of the business running it, while the Thai half may set up a similar venue elsewhere, possibly in the general Sathorn area (which probably means one of the sois off lower Sathorn; rents on the main Sathorn / upper Sathorn Road are too high to sustain a venue like The Tavern).

Further down Soi Nana, ladyboy bars are lingering in the shadows and seem to favour the unlit areas. Beware….or venture down there if you dare!

 

 

This photo from Morning Night on Soi Nana taken a bit over a week ago is like any photo – it captures a single moment in time. At the same time, it offers more evidence of where the bar industry is going. The couple in the lower right corner perched in Stumble Inn appear to be mainstream visitors. And there’s another couple at the railing who may well be mainstream visitors too. Soi Nana is Bangkok’s premier bar area and where many naughty boys head. For a long time, it was Soi Cowboy that attracted mainstream visitors, attracted to the area following the release of Hangover II. Today, mainstream visitors can be found in decent numbers in all of the bar areas. Naughty boys have never been comfortable with the idea of their playground attracting mainstream visitors, but at the end of the day, bars need the income that mainstream visitors bring.

There’s one aspect of the naughty nightlife that almost no-one mentions these days, in fact it might be a year or more since I heard anyone talking about it. It’s one of those things that makes even the hardcore a little uncomfortable, but it’s a reality of an industry where some participants have many, many sexual partners. What am I talking about? HIV. I mention this because someone told me about a certain bar in Sin City where it is claimed (in other words, no-one really knows) that there are a lot of ladies with the dreaded disease. The last time I specifically remember anyone mentioning HIV was last August when the dirty doctor and I bumped in to a lady who was a dancer in Coyote Apache back in the late ‘00s. She gave us a run-down of what the ladies we used to know back then are up to now, and mentioned one was HIV+. You used to hear a lot about HIV and STDs in the past. These days, not so much. I wonder why that is.

The Mardi Gras party at Lollipop this week was said to be a great success. Fantastic costumes, as per the photo below.

 

 

From Patpong, recent reports suggest King’s 1, King’s 3 and King’s Corner are all doing well with lots of girls and plenty of customers. King’s 2 is quieter but is said to have plenty of attractive ladies. Apparently Virgin X is struggling and some are predicting it might not last much longer.

Speaking of Patpong, the manager of one of the area’s gogo bars has come in to money. She’s been bragging a lot on social media about getting plastic surgery which has some on the soi jealous. Staff in some other Patpong bars are speculating that she may be involved in something illicit as her bar doesn’t appear to be doing nearly well enough to support the lifestyle she’s currently enjoying. Thais just love to gossip and a rival doing particularly well and / or boasting is guaranteed to get them started!

What’s happened at Soi Cowboy where a number of bars appear to have outlawed smoking, amongst them Crazy House, Baccara and Suzy Wong’s. Has there been a crackdown on smoking at Soi Cowboy? It was not this way until very recently. Smoking was allowed in many Soi Cowboy bars. It appears, for now at least, that’s no longer the case. It should be noted that it is actually illegal to smoke in bars in Thailand – but what the law says and what happens are two very different things. Most naughty bars that attract a farang crowd allow smoking.

 

 

As far as I am aware, there are no restrictions on smoking in most bars in Nana and Patpong at this time. Each bar has its own policy.

Regarding smoking in bars, pretty much all the bar bosses I have asked about this over the years have said the same thing: they believe they would lose more customers by not allowing customers to smoke. As such, they allow it.

Speaking of Crazy House, I’ve never been a fan of the bar but I’ll be the first to acknowledge that many love it. I always felt the vibe in Crazy House was off – and the girls there never struck me as happy. To me, Crazy House always felt more like a Patpong bar than a Soi Cowboy bar. Why do I say that? Patpong bars were traditionally managed by mamasans with a very heavy fist. Mamasans were as pushy with the customers as they were with the girls. Cowboy – up until around 2010 or so – used to be so much more laid-back. Many of the girls and mamasans lived above the bars – and in many bars it really felt like a family. The bars were fun places and many staff genuinely seemed to enjoy themselves. I never felt that vibe in Crazy House for a moment and it’s one reason I avoid it. I know many disagree.

A few weeks back I reported on the shallow stream of sewer water on Soi Cowboy and the makeshift bridge built so visitors didn’t get their feet wet. The last couple of weeks that shallow stream had become a few puddles. This week it sounds like the problem is no longer with reports of a dry soi.

Corner Bar in Soi Cowboy prices drinks for the staff at just 10 baht higher than customer drink prices. That’s fair.

 

 

Down in Pattaya, Top Gun A Gogo in Soi LK Metro opens at 2:00 PM and it’s happy hour prices through until 7:00 PM. Good on the bar for making an effort to service the afternoon crowd, even if history shows that there’s limited demand for chrome pole bars before the sun goes down. Many bars have tried over the years – in both Pattaya and Bangkok – and for most afternoon trade hasn’t worked. With that said, good on them for trying something different and making an effort.

Who’s got a hard on for the Las Vegas beer bar complex on Soi Diana? A few nights ago the complex was ordered closed at 9:00 PM. What was that all about? The authorities stopped by after complaints from someone who appears to have a grudge. The complaint? Music from the complex was too loud! It was ordered to close early that night. The next day and very much business as usual, music at the usual volume and open until late. Just another day in Thailand!

Still in Pattaya, Club Electric Blue has made a comeback. I believe the people behind Windmill Club are running it. Windmill and Electric Blue are a good match – each has long been known for being spicier than your average gogo bar. If you’re in to all things spicy, you might like to stop by.

 

 

The Green Mile is being extended? What’s the Green Mile?, I hear you ask. It’s a walkway, painted green, which allows you to walk, jog or cycle between Lumphini and Benjakitti parks. “Mile” is a misnomer and it is, in fact, more like a kilometre than a mile. However, perhaps it will soon be a mile as it is being extended east. The photo above was taken from the bridge at the end of Sukhumvit soi 10, looking towards soi 12 and Asoke. The building you can see between the trees is The Lakes, a popular high-end condo just a few hundred metres south of Soi Cowboy. The Green Mile will be extended all the way to Rachadapisek Road which will be fantastic, making it easier to walk from that part of town all the way to Lumpini Park, or even on to Silom Road / Patpong, if you so desire. It might sound like a long way but it’s not really. I used to regularly walk from Soi 16 to Patpong and it took about an hour. Also, where the Green Mile crosses the bottom of Soi Nana, there are more pylons in the water (see photo at the end of the column) where it will connect with Soi Nana. Currently, to access the Green Mile from Soi Nana you have to go via the Benjakitti Forest Park skywalk. These extensions will make walking in the area so much more convenient.

Now is the hot season. So that begs the question, when did the high season end? Hang on, who said it ended? The high season and the hot season are two different things. High season refers to the tourist industry and hot season is related to the weather. So exactly when is the tourism high season? Funnily enough, what is such an innocuous question has been known to start arguments. Once upon a time there was an official tourism high season, which ran from December 1 to February 28. It was largely defined by hotel rates. Hotels increased prices on December 1st and lowered them on March 1st. As visitor numbers increased, the tourism high season started earlier, and ran all the way through until Songkran. Hotel rates stayed high until Songkran was over. These days there is no clearly-defined high season and it is simply the period when the tourism industry is busiest. Probably it runs from some time in November through until some time in mid or late-March. As for hotel rates, don’t count on them going down much with Bangkok busy year-round these days!

 

 

What’s the biggest difference between children born to a Farang father and a Thai mother and raised in Farangland, and children born to a Farang father and a Thai mother and raised in Thailand? If my observations are anything to go by, it’s that kids raised in Thailand are more likely to be fluent in both English and Thai whereas kids raised in Farangland tend to be fluent in the local language and their Thai may be little more than basic. It’s a great shame when a child is raised in a mixed race relationship and is not fluent in both languages. Fluency in English and Thai gives them more options.

The whole time I lived in Thailand, I didn’t cook a meal. Not once. Here in Farangland, I cook all the time, and only eat out a couple of times per week. Partly it’s cost – eating out in New Zealand is pricey and partly it’s that I enjoy spending time in the kitchen. In the town where I live there are nothing like the dining options you have in Bangkok. And as the years roll by, I place more importance on my health and what I eat. Bangkok has a massive variety of places to eat out and it just gets better and better. Back in the day, it always seemed that many expats – the single guys at least – were like me and ate out pretty much all the time. And just like me, plenty of my expat friends never cooked a meal in Thailand. Have things changed? Do many expats still eat out all the time? How many actually enjoy cooking themselves? Of course, it’s different for those in a relationship, and especially those with children. I wonder how it would be if I lived in Thailand now. Would I eat at home as much as I do now, or would I eat out most of the time like I used to?

 

 

Thailand-Related News Articles

Quote of the week comes from a friend, “You missed a lot of fun by only living in Bangkok which is boring compared to the Land of Smiles countryside.”

From The Stickman Archives, The Golden Age was published on February 6th, 2005.

YouTube video of the week is from Bangkok Pat, Srinakarin, Exploring The MRT Yellow Line.

A Thai woman was found dead by her Swedish boyfriend in a Pattaya condominium after hanging herself.

Not for the first time, a Thai security guard knocks out a British tourist outside a bar in Pattaya.

And the next day he makes a public apology with the obligatory wai at the press conference.

Thailand is proposing to allow limited sales of alcohol on Buddhist holidays to tourists.

Another Brit is in a motorcycle accident on Ko Samui, suffers terrible injuries and it is not known if he has travel insurance.

A 50-year old directive is overruled and now Thai students can choose their own hairstyle.

Chatter on social media about traveling to Thailand has surged following the release of season 3 of The White Lotus.

 

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Closing Comments

When you read this column, please try and keep things in perspective. Much of what I chronicle is very much a sub-culture and hardly representative of wider Thailand. These days, much of what this column looks at is concentrated in a very small area of the capital, from the Nana intersection to not far beyond the Asoke intersection. Sure, I do mention other places, touch on the culture and may make mention of Thais living abroad, but the nightlife portion of the column is very much a sub-culture. Please don’t go thinking that what happens in that part of town will fly elsewhere. It won’t. Thailand is complicated – perhaps nuanced is a better word. While Thais are generally tolerant, some stuff which may be acceptable on Sukhumvit would not be ok in much of the rest of Thailand.

 

Your Bangkok commentator,

Stick

 

Stick can be contacted at : stickmanbangkok@gmail.com