Stickman Weekly, June 8, 2025
Mystery Photo
Where is it?
Last week’s photo showed the stylish facade of Louis Vuitton’s flagship Bangkok store in the renovated Gaysorn Amarin Mall, on Ploenchit Road. The extra for experts photo at the end of the column was taken at the Silom Road end of Patpong soi 2 with the signs for the fetish bar Octopus and the Kinky Girls gogo bar in the background.
Ok, clever readers, what is the location of this week’s mystery photo?
Stick’s Inbox – The Best Emails From The Past Week
The joys of exploring Bangkok.
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Dude, you must be stoned!
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Cannabis to remain legal for much longer?
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Weed was never legalised in Thailand.
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Bird watching, and window shopping.
Now that Stumble Inn has become the most popular bar in Soi Nana among Stickman readers, the popularity of gogo bars has declined as people choose to perch on the Stumble Inn balcony. Its location near the Nana Plaza entrance is perfect to watch the comings and goings. Whereas they used to march into Nana Plaza, these guys now choose bird-watching at Stumble Inn as an inexpensive option. Some guys may still visit gogo bars, but many do not buy any lady drinks or pay a barfine. You can get your eye candy fix in gogo bars without parting with bundles of cash. The new hobby for certain guys these days seems to be window shopping. Dave AKA Mister Nana.
When the rain doesn’t stop.
You have chronicled the rain in Bangkok and shown photos of flooded streets. You have told of someone (no doubt one of many) unable to get to or from his condo. And we all know how badly Pattaya floods when it rains heavily. It has been well-publicised for years how Bangkok is sinking and will probably be under water within a generation. And what is the government, any government, doing about it other than putting their heads in the sand? It can be bad now during the soggy season, but how long will it be before wading through water (at the risk of electrocution from exposed wires, as happened recently to some unlucky soul) becomes a way of life?
Where’s the oil?
Near my condo is a big group of win motorcycle taxi riders. Often I see them disassembling and repairing a motorcycle on the sidewalk. When I walked past them this week, a guy was draining oil from a bike. It made me wonder where they discard the oil because very conveniently, right next to their ad-hoc sidewalk garage is a huge sewer grate. They can’t be doing what I’m thinking, right?
Hidden rooms and fake treasure.
I went to MBK. As you know, an “unnamed mall” in the city was raided a week ago in order to show compliance with international copyright laws and to get Thailand off the American watch list. I still saw a lot of fake products from shoes to watches, even imitation Canada Goose winter jackets (who needs them in Thailand?). But very few fake designer bags. Then a surprise. Two guys lured me into their “souvenir shop”. Once I was inside, they opened a sliding door which led into a secret room filled with high-quality fake Louis Vuitton bags. I had heard about these rooms but in my 20 years of visiting MBK I had never seen one before. I guess we can expect them to become more popular now.
The unseasonal rains continue.
This Week’s News, Views & Gossip
It has felt like yet another week of – to use that awful Thinglish phrase – same same. More rain. More working girls busted on Soi Nana. More complaints from white guys about Asian men in the bars. And more young Brits being caught smuggling large quantities of drugs out of Thailand.
The calendar may have ticked over from May to June, but any hope that the change in month would see the rainy period come to an end quickly evaporated. Rain this week meant more lousy nights in the bars and the same bar owners moaning and groaning. That said, there was less rain this week than previous weeks. As I keep saying – for those willing to brave the elements, fewer punters about means you’ll get a warmer reception.
Last week I mentioned that Stumble Inn on Soi Nana has become a favourite bar for Stickman readers. This week the rumour mill had it that the Soi Cowboy branch of Stumble Inn will change format to a gogo bar. It’s a bit of a surprise given that Stumble Inn on Soi Cowboy appears to be consistently busy. I put this to Stumble Inn but, as per usual, they chose not to respond. Another fellow asked the head honcho of the Stumble Inn Group about it. His reply? “No comment.” In my experience writing about the bar industry, no doesn’t always mean no, but “No comment” almost always means a resounding yes!
At the soi 23 end of Soi Cowboy, Kazy Kozy is no longer. Just like Stumble Inn, the rumour is that it will revert back to a gogo bar.
There’s some speculation in the 2 preceding paragraphs, but it could just be that 2 Soi Cowboy venues revert back to chrome pole bars. Who said gogo bars were dying?!
The boys in brown rounded up more ladies on Soi Nana earlier this week.
The boys in brown raided Soi Nana again this week as another bunch of working girls – Thais and foreigners – were rounded up and taken away. With the frequency of these raids in recent weeks, one wonders if any girls have been arrested more than once. Raids take place at the start of the week – so tell your favourite streetwalker to keep her eyes peeled on Mondays and Tuesdays for fit Thai men with a buzz cut in a tight white t-shirt. Alternatively, you might suggest she invest in a pair of Nikes so she can leg it if she sees the paddy wagon pull in to the soi.
Proof as if it was needed that gogo bar manager is a tricky gig. Popular Nana Plaza bar Spanky’s was interviewing for a new manager again this week. I understand that the previous manager lasted 2 months.
A bar I have heard much about – and every comment I have ever heard has been extremely positive – Lusty Lady, on Sukhumvit soi 11, will relocate from its location at the top of Sukhumvit soi 11 to elsewhere on the soi. I can’t say much at all about Lusty Lady as I have never actually been inside – but like I say, many of you have talked this bar up a lot, and some have called me out on not giving the bar more coverage. It has been described as a pool bar, a hostess bar and everything in between. To get some idea of what it’s like, take a look at photos from Lusty Lady. The ladies look more attractive than one expects in the bar industry today. The bar features choreographed dancing and shows. Will relocation thrust Lusty Lady, a bar which has long seemed to rather sit in the shadows, in to the big time?
Speaking of location, how many bars on the main Sukhumvit drag between the Nana and Asoke intersections do well? Most bars in the general Sukhumvit area are down side sois and there are few on the main road. It makes sense – rents on the main road can be crazy high. But you’d think the superior location of being on the main road would work. Not so, bar owners tell me. The bars on the main road that succeed are few and far between. The Game and the Thermae are amongst the exceptions. Plenty of other bars which have opted for a main road location have come and gone.
The Thermae, a Bangkok institution.
A new trend has been observed in some of Bangkok’s better gogo bars, with Baccara said to be ground zero. What is this new trend? A new group of Asian men is hitting the bars, one I don’t remember hearing much about before. Who is this new group? Men from Myanmar. Thailand’s least favourite neighbour (although Cambodia must be vying for that title, currently) may be a basket case but it has been noted that Myanmarese can be found in some of Bangkok’s gogo bars and Baccara is said to be their favourite.
Money – and looks, especially in the case of young Koreans – is not the only reason why, today, many bar ladies have a preference for Asian men. Part of the reason is that Asian men “get” it, whereas many white guys do not. Asian men typically don’t negotiate with the ladies. They prioritise having a good time and will pay whatever price is asked. The girls like it that Asian customers see the industry for what it is – entertainment. Asian men have zero thought of developing a relationship with ladies they fool around with in the bars. It’s a transaction, like buying a burger and fries. These days many girls don’t have time for white guys who want to take their time to get to know them, like they’re being chivalrous at the start of a long-time relationship. Think of the bars as places of entertainment and nothing more.
From time to time I like to play around with photos I took many years ago. Perhaps a couple of times a year I’ll crank up the music and spend a couple of hours browsing photos from the past and playing with them, seeing how much better I can make them look using all of the AI features in the latest version of Photoshop. This week, I was going through some photos I took on Soi Cowboy in 2008. Something struck me about them, and I had to cycle through various batches which confirmed my suspicions. There was a high percentage of Asian men on the soi. There’s a lot of comment these days about Asian men in the bars and it’s intimated they are a relatively new development. My photos from 2008 tell a different story.
A night out on Soi Cowboy, late 2008.
Down in Pattaya, word is that trade in many bars has been lousy, hampered by the frequent downpours. The big-name bars on Walking Street will always do ok, but I’m told the vibe in many bars is as grey as the sky.
The space on Walking Street that was the once brilliant Sensations is now Geisha, from the Shark Group. A friend had some positive things to say about the bar, describing the ladies as “tasty”.
Walking Street gogo bar Okeanos was mentioned in previous columns as closed – but it wasn’t clear whether this was temporary or permanent. It can be confirmed that Okeanos is closed for good with a For Rent sign out front.
Still on Walking Street, the bar with what I always thought was an awful name – Mamasan Club WS – is also closed.
One common observation on Walking Street today is all of the touts promoting ping-pong ball shows. They love to jump in front of you and push a sign with details of their awful shows in your face. It’s yet more proof – not that it was needed – that there has been a big change in the Walking Street demographic with naughty boys replaced by mainstream visitors.
Welcome to Thailand!
A friend was presented with this screen on his first attempt to get a TDAC – the Thailand Digital Arrival Card that we all have to complete online before we travel to Thailand. He’s the only person so far who has mentioned an issue so I assume the system is generally working ok. My friend added, “No joy on the laptop, the phone got through.” So if you can’t get it to work on your computer, try your iPhone.
We refer to Patpong as soi 1 and soi 2 (using the Thai word ซอย which perhaps best translates in to English as lane). Street signs in the Thai language actually refer to the Patpong lanes as thanons (ถนน) – which translates not as lane, but as street. Should we say Patpong street 1 and Patpong street 2? Nah, that just doesn’t sound right!
A number of friends in Thailand have suffered from a particular health issue that not a single person I know in New Zealand has ever been afflicted with. Best guess is that around 25% of people I know in Thailand have suffered from this at least once in Thailand, and for some of them multiple times. As far as I remember, only one ever suffered it back in their homeland. Care to guess what it is? I’ll give you a clue. It’s a condition that is more common in men than in women and there’s a fairly obvious reason why it could be more of an issue in Thailand than Farangland. And to be clear, it’s always expats who suffer from it rather than visitors. Have a guess what it is. The answer can be found underneath the photo below.
The fellow in the wheelchair in the photo below has been a fixture near the Police Traffic Control Box at the Nana intersection for at least 15 years, probably longer. It was almost reassuring to see him still going strong when a friend sent some photos from Bangkok last week. One of things I miss most about Bangkok is its many characters. The bar areas and its surroundings have no shortage of familiar faces. Some are still around, while others have disappeared. Whatever happened to the dwarf who used to be stationed at the entrance to CheckInn99? Are the Muay Thai guys who provide security at Soi Cowboy still about? The beggars like the guy in the wheelchair below seem to stick around forever. Perhaps my favourite character is Chanaporn, the photographer with the Polaroid camera who has been a fixture at Patpong since the Vietnam War. And we shouldn’t forget the farang characters either, like Big Dave who used to hold court at Jool’s. How many of these characters are still around today? I really need to make a note to do a photo essay when I am next in town on the characters who are still around.
This fellow has been a fixture near the police box at the top of Soi Nana for at least 15 years.
The health condition I mentioned a few paragraphs above which is a particular issue for expats in Thailand? Kidney stones! I sure am glad I have never experienced that.
Speaking of health conditions and thinking about comments in recent columns about the medical profession in Thailand, the other half and I have a very different view on annual / general health checks. I am happy to trot along to my GP here in New Zealand and get a blood test which covers the basics like cholesterol panel, PSA, kidney and liver markers etc. You can request a few other tests but generally, in the absence of specific symptoms they are reluctant to test for much else. Annoyingly, they refuse to test for a few of the things which my research tells me are useful, like vitamin D levels and fasting insulin. If you want to check these, generally you have to pay for them yourself. My other half isn’t impressed with the New Zealand health system and gets a comprehensive health check in Thailand each year. It costs around 10,000 baht and seemingly covers every affliction known to man. You spend half a day getting tested for all manner of things, the results are recorded in a book and at the end of all the tests you sit down with a doctor who reviews the results and makes recommendations. In her mind, this is the way to go. I raised this type of testing with my GP and he commented that if you look hard enough, you’ll always find something. And when you find something, it opens the door to appointments with specialists, further testing and investigation – and more $$$. The viewpoint of the medical profession in this part of the world and, I believe, much of the developed world, is that such comprehensive checks in the absence of symptoms are generally unnecessary. Over investigation can lead to overdiagnosis and, potentially, over treatment – which makes sense when you consider that private hospitals in Thailand are for profit operations. It seems to me this is one of the biggest differences between medical treatment in Thailand and Farangland.
Another rainy night on Soi Nana.
There’s been a lot of talk about the unseasonably wet weather in Thailand over the past several weeks. As a friend with almost 50 years as an expat in Bangkok said to me in an email this week, “Quite rainy so far, but better occasionally wet than always hot!”
With all of the rain Bangkok has had, what does this mean for the months ahead? Does it mean it will rain all the way through until late October / early November (when the rainy season typically comes to an end?) If so, will the ground become saturated? And if that happens, will widespread flooding become an issue? Will the river level rise and flood riverside communities? So many questions….but I’m not a meteorologist so I really have no idea.
A friend and his Thai Mrs were in Tokyo recently, and they kept bumping in to Thais in their travels. Over the past 10 or so years, Thais are travelling in greater numbers. More countries have opened up with the likes of Japan and South Korea – two countries which particularly appeal to young Thais – allowing entry to Thai passport holders without the need to apply for a visa in advance. As my other half says, when you’re travelling you tend to hear Thais before you see them. They often travel in groups and especially when it’s a group of females, they just can’t shut up! I guess they’re excited, so all power to them. When I travelled around Europe 30+ years ago I don’t remember coming across any Thais at all. These days, it seems like you come across Thais everywhere. Last year, more than a million Thais visited Japan alone.
Thailand-Related Links & News Articles
Quote of the week comes from Mega, “There are two types of Thai culture. One for Thais and one for foreigners. The one for foreigners costs more.”
From The Stickman Archives is one of the updates from my coverage of the Red Shirts Protests in Bangkok, in 2010.
A Sri Lankan man learns the hard way that it’s not a good idea to poke a ladyboy and refuse to pay!
The Thais love awards but I don’t think they’ll celebrate Phuket being awarded the world’s most overcrowded tourist hot spot.
Drunk foreign tourists are beaten up on Phuket’s Bangla Road after assaulting a lady in a bar.
A wild elephant wanders inside a convenience store in Khao Yai.
Yet another young British female is arrested on drug charges, after flying out of Bangkok with a suitcase full of illegal drugs.
An American is arrested in Pattaya after attempting to exchange fake US banknotes from a movie set.
Young Thais are turning to AI tools such as ChatGPT for answers about their future.
The Pattaya Mail looks at the complaints of expats resident in Pattaya, particularly the lousy service.
Stickman file photo from 2010. Soldiers protect Nana Plaza.
Closing Comments
A skirmish at a contested temple on the Thailand / Cambodia border last week saw shots fired and a Cambodian soldier killed. This past week, Thailand’s Channel 3 television morning news led with 20 minutes coverage showing the Thai military’s readiness. Stock footage showed troops lined up on an aircraft carrier, tank divisions with row after row of tanks, ground troops, heavy artillery divisions, special forces and so on. One imagines things won’t escalate over what at the end of the day is a small piece of contested land with a temple. What has me scratching my head is how this sabre rattling could be seen by those outside Thailand. Some nationalities get very nervous at the mere thought of military action and are quick to cancel or postpone travel. Japan comes to mind – but they’re not the only ones. Thailand has talked a lot recently about the importance of the tourism industry to their faltering economy. Word of military buildup at the border won’t help things. It doesn’t matter that the incident and the contested area is border hundreds of kilometres from Bangkok and nowhere near any tourist hot spots, dialling up the rhetoric on military readiness is a concern. Cambodia has apparently sent 12,000 troops to the border so I guess the Thais have to beat their chest and make a show of being ready. Here’s hoping this all de-escalates quickly.
Your Bangkok commentator,
Stick
Stick can be contacted at : stickmanbangkok@gmail.com
