Stickman's Weekly Column › July 20th, 2025

Stickman Weekly, July 20, 2025

Mystery Photo

Where is it?

Last week’s photo was taken of the curiously named Teens Of Thailand bar in Soi Nana. No, not the Soi Nana on Sukhumvit so popular with Stickman readers, but the Soi Nana in Chinatown. It’s an odd name for a bar, especially given the legal age to drink in Thailand is 20. Some of the side sois well away from the main drag in Chinatown are where you will find trendy, upscale bars that are especially popular with young Westerners. Feedback is that they are pricey. How pricey? Think Western prices.

This week’s photo is back downtown. Medium difficulty rating, I reckon.

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

Thumbs up for the Cherry girls.

Last Saturday I entered a massage parlour with Bangkok bathed in sunshine. I emerged an hour and a half later to a torrential downpour. Typical! The lovely ladies at Cherry Massage on Sukhumvit 22 said I could borrow an umbrella and return it another time, but as I was flying out that night, I declined, despite my aging years.

The resealing of Soi Pothole.

I have lost count of the number of times Soi Pothole has been resurfaced. It should be back to normal by December this year as the October rains will penetrate the tarmac and wash out the underlying soil material or whatever else is there and it will be back to potholes again. Basically, the soi requires being excavated, a hard core laid, concrete on top of that and finished off with a layer of tarmac. But that’s never going to happen. Soi Pothole is privately-owned and they’re not interested in making any drastic improvements to the road surface, for whatever reason, but don’t mind squandering money on tarting it up now and again. TIT.

Soi Bumpy?

I have an idea for a new name for Soi Pothole. While looking at the photo of the newly paved soi, it looks bumpy, not smooth. So how about “Soi Bumpy?”

Soi Smooth Ride?

Soi Pothole is no more! Is it going to be named “Soi Smooth Ride” now? Let’s see first how long the new tarmac lasts.

Soi Ladyboy?

It was to my great delight when on walkabout for the first night last Sunday that the potholes on Soi Pothole were no longer. Freshly-laid asphalt lined the soi. However, this has been a classic Thai quick cheap fix as there’s no new drainage on either side of the road, which means during the next big flood the road will start to deteriorate again. For now, at least, it’s a huge improvement. An obvious new name is Soi Ladyboy, as the soi is at least 50% ladyboy bars, with many beautiful third gender belles inviting curious han$um men in for a drink and perhaps a dalliance on the wild side. I know many of your readers seem terrified of ladyboys, but they are a lot of fun to party with! I ended up down the bottom of the soi near Third Road on Sunday night at an open birthday party at The Meena where there were live Isaan singers, free food and cheap drinks all night. A very friendly, welcoming atmosphere with no drink begging and the gorgeous Meena in a tight, red jumpsuit defying even the most uptight han$um man.

The regal Meena, owner of The Meena bar, Soi Pothole.

This Week’s News, Views & Gossip

Bar trade muddled along this week. It’s quiet because of the rain, right? What rain? It didn’t rain much at all in Bangkok this week so citing rain as the reason bar trade is down may be misplaced. So the bars are quiet because there aren’t many people visiting. While numbers might be down a little, as in a few percentage points from last year, I am not sure that explains things.

And if what I saw at the airport this week is anything to go by, plenty of folks are flocking to Thailand for a holiday. This year’s low season has been a bit of a shocker, but has the worm turned? At Suvarnabhumi, there were long queues. Have savvy travellers heard how quiet Bangkok is right now and are seizing the chance to visit? At Immigration, the queues were long and moving slowly. I wondered whether Immigration officers were under instruction to look at *everyone’s* TDAC even though, presumably, all those details are in the system already. Officers appeared to be asking everyone how long they would stay. Of course, this is no different to many countries and while the processing of passengers was professional, it wasn’t as quick nor as relaxed as it has been traditionally in Thailand. I do find it a little unusual that they asked visitors how long they would be staying given those details are provided when submitting the TDAC. Perhaps they are checking that what you entered on your TDAC submission is actually the length of time you will stay? Of course, the queues at the airport could be explained by a number of flights arriving at the same time, fewer Immigration officers on duty or any of a myriad of other reasons. But quiet at the airport? Not what I saw!

Perhaps a better gauge of just how busy Bangkok is at this time is to checking hotel rates online. Two of my preferred hotels each have the lowest prices I have seen in a long time. And a regular reader who likes to stay at The Landmark got a “Book 3, pay 2 nights” deal this week. He’s never had that before. That meant the average price per night was the lowest he has ever paid. So despite what I saw at the airport, maybe there aren’t that many people visiting?

Thursday night comparison: Left, the queue to get in to Nana Plaza. Right, a near empty Soi Cowboy.

The photos above show where things are at in the bar areas with these two photos taken roughly the same time on Thursday night. In the photo on the left, people queue to enter Nana Plaza. In the photo on the right from Soi Cowboy, girls stand around outside waiting for punters. So you’re better off visiting Nana Plaza, right? Possibly. Or possibly not. If you’re looking for the premium bar experience then, yes, Nana Plaza is the place to go. And that’s certainly part of the reason it attracts the crowds. Things were so quiet at Cowboy this week that the girls had to make an effort. They were friendly, engaging, appeared to be genuinely trying to make a connection with punters, all of which made it feel almost like the good old days. I’ll stick my neck out and say that at this time, Soi Cowboy is the best it has been for a long, long time. It’s like the light bulb was turned on, the girls are aware that the odds are against them and they’re really making an effort. They’re keen, not desperate, and that’s how it should be. This week, Soi Cowboy felt more like 2009 / 2010 / 2011 than 2025. I guess as long as the crowds stay away, there will be a window in which naughty boys can relive the atmosphere from 15 odd years ago. Now is a great time to visit Soi Cowboy. I don’t know how things are in the other areas but at Soi Cowboy, there’s fun to be had. Be quick, though, because if things follow the pattern that I suspect they will, it won’t last long. Come October and the visitor numbers ramp up, the equation will change again.

Soi Cowboy has a number of black spots at the moment with at least half a dozen shophouses out of commission. Stumble Inn Soi Cowboy in the middle of the soi is in darkness and has a small chain across what was the entrance preventing entry. Kazy Kozy remains out of commission as are a couple of shophouses towards the other end of the soi, being the space that was once Shadow Bar and the old-style convenience store next door. Whether all of these blackspots are part of the reason the number of punters is down, I couldn’t say – but with fewer bars, it’s got to be a contributing factor.

Two of the at least six shophouses out of commission on Soi Cowboy.

What’s the latest with the ill-fated Stumble Inn Soi Cowboy? I expressly state the following as a rumour while also noting that the source of this rumour is one of the three wise men. Who are the three wise men? The three Brits who manage the group. Word doing the rounds on Soi Cowboy on Friday night is that the rent shot up and Stumble Inn said enough is enough, and made the decision to close. Apparently, they are looking to downsize and move elsewhere on the soi. Word is that a revised, smaller Stumble Inn Soi Cowboy will be rebuilt in what is now one of The Arab’s bars. Sounds plausible except for the fact The Arab doesn’t like to let his bars go. Time will tell.

What would that mean for the large, abandoned space in the middle of the soi that was Stumble Inn Soi Cowboy? No word on that this week, but the inference is that it won’t have anything to do with Stumble Inn – meaning no Stumble Inn-operated ladyboy bar as was the rumour a couple of weeks back.

Outside Soi Cowboy’s 3rd ladyboy bar, Majestics, a temporary bridge was put in place on Friday night so one could enter and exit the bar without wading through the smelly, urine-infested water that was coming up from the ground and pooling out front of the bar. Sadly, it looks like the sewage / contaminated water issue is back. On Friday night, there were a few spots on the soi with contaminated water pooling, and the unmistakable stench of urine. And no, just in case you were wondering, it definitely wasn’t rainwater!

That’s not rainwater! The smelly water has made a return to Soi Cowboy with pooling at various points along the soi.

Soi Cowboy appeared moderately busy on Friday night and some bars had a good crowd on the outdoor patios. Inside, it varied from bar to bar. Baccara and Beach were doing well but many others were quiet. Overall it wasn’t great for a dry Friday night, even factoring in that it’s low season.

Soi Cowboy is slow to get going these days. Prior to Covid, a handful of gogo bars fired up the music and had the full troop on stage from 7:00 PM or 7:15 PM. Some bars did very well early evening, and were packed before happy hour finished. Dollhouse, Shark, Long Gun, Tilac and Lighthouse would all start early, and every one of these 5 bars had a happy hour with drinks under 100 baht. Shark and Tilac have done away with their happy hours altogether. Long Gun has a happy hour through until 9:00 PM, while Dollhouse’s happy hours goes through until 9:30 PM. Lighthouse is, of course, no longer. Bars opening later has changed the early evening vibe in the soi.

For non-drinkers, a bottle of water at happy hour in Long Gun is just 50 baht. That’s worth noting for non-drinkers, especially as some bars on the soi charge 180 baht for a bottle of water these days. At least in the case of Shark, you get a bottle of Evian for that price.

Of the bars I stopped by in Soi Cowboy, Shark arguably has the best line-up of ladies in terms of looks, as evidenced by a Friday night crowd that was around 50% North Asian. I note Shark has a disproportionately low number of mothers for a gogo bar.

Dollhouse had a fun vibe on Friday but the lineup wasn’t a patch on Shark’s. The crowd was typical Dollhouse and the bar’s customer demographic hasn’t changed. Upstairs, Dollhouse’s mezzanine floor is still cordoned off. That said, you have to go upstairs if you need to take a pee. I have written before that this is one of the biggest design flaws in any bar on Soi Cowboy. All the action is downstairs yet you have to venture up that perilous staircase to use the loo and then make it back down again. Even on Friday and Saturday nights, there is no dancing upstairs. There’s no shortage of girls, but with the bar’s lower level only half full for much of Friday night, there just aren’t enough punters to justify opening upstairs.

If you make it to Dollhouse, check out lady #2. If you like a lady who looks like she goes to the gym, she might possibly have the best body on the soi.

The perilous stairway to heaven in Dollhouse, the only way to get to the hong-nam.

Has Crazy House revised their lady drink prices? The current prices are 200 baht for a Coke / soft drink, or a Tequila shot, while it’s 400 baht for both. For a while, the 2-drink combo was the norm, unless you protested and insisted on just one drink – which may be fair enough from the customer’s point of view but is almost certainly a mood-killer for the lady whose commission just halved. Recent feedback from readers is that staff make it clear to customers who purchase a lady drink that a “single lady drink” is an option.

Ever since The Arab cancelled my planned interview with him for the column at the very last minute, I have continued to comment on his bars while being unable to get any comments from him. I’d love to get his thoughts on things but he’s not interested. Anyway, from Rio, one of his bars, 7% tax is added to the bill. I am in no way criticising this and he should probably be congratulated for doing things right. It will, however, result in customers getting more coins back in the change tray. I guess that virtually guarantees a tip. Who wants a pocketful of coins jingling as they roam the bars?!

Tax is added to the price of drinks in Rio, one of The Arab’s bars.

Fetish bar Demonia on Sukhumvit soi 33 will throw a masked fetish ball this coming Saturday, July 26th. Entry is 1,500 baht which might sound steep but that includes entertainment and all of your drinks.

Following on from the report last week that Geisha in Nana Plaza had been closed for a week, it reopened this week and is very much business as usual. Aside from an area of wall that’s been denuded of mirrors, one regular says it isn’t clear what work took place inside the bar. A new paint job was mentioned in last week’s edition but it’s not apparent and the interior of the bar is said to look exactly as it did before the short closure. Perhaps whatever work was done was under the hood so to speak and wasn’t cosmetic?

Super Ping Pong is the name of Patpong’s newest bar and can be found slap in the middle of the main Patpong soi. I thought these awful shows would have gone the way of the dodo by now. A desk outside the bar sells tickets. It is not known how much they cost. While the sign is in English, my understanding is that the market is mainly the Chinese. There’s a similar desk and sign outside Super Pussy, a little further along the soi. These awful shows have never been a secret on Patpong, but I don’t remember them ever being promoted quite so openly either.

I wish these shows had been left behind last century.

Are there too many gogo bars today? A friend made the comment that the best two nights he has had out in a long, long time were on the two public holidays on Soi Cowboy last week. Nana Plaza was closed and a limited number of Cowboy bars were open. That concentrated ladies (who were brought in from other bars) and punters into a small number of bars. He described the atmosphere as electric. In a message, he wrote, “These two nights were actually more fun than anytime that I remember. It was almost like the Covid days when there weren’t many bars open and the bars that were open were really, really fun.” This begs the question – are the bars more fun when they’re busy, or when they’re quiet? I’m the first to acknowledge that I am not the life of the party and for me, the bars are a place to relax, enjoy the atmosphere, watch the dancing and chill with friends. Barfining – or even buying a lady drink – ain’t happening. So I very much prefer bars that are not thronging with punters. But some like the party vibe where the bar is packed and it’s wall-to-wall girls, and customers. What about you? Which do you prefer?

The Thermae is going gangbusters and is packed most nights. Peak time seems to be around 11:00 PM. Last night the crowd was around 97% North Asian and my best guess is that no more than 3% of the punters were Westerners. It’s hard to say which nationality was most represented – Korean, Japanese or Chinese. And it’s a young crowd too. Average age I would have put at mid-30s, maybe lower. There were plenty of attractive ladies in there and many are open-minded to farangs. My pal was quoted 2,500 baht by one lady, 4,000 baht for another. What stood out to me was that the ladies really seemed to be on the clock. I chatted with a few for a laugh but they really weren’t interested in engaging and their manner was very business-like. With 3 questions I was being asked, “Where you hotel?” You can’t help but notice many ladies are working their phone, responding to messages on dating sites and the like. I noticed a few were tapping away on the phone and then suddenly dashed for the exit which I took to mean they had just made arrangements with someone online. Much of the appeal of the Thermae in the past was engaging with the ladies, the banter, joking, developing a connection and then inviting them to join you away from the bar. Today, most ladies are all business. Sure, they’ll smile and make funny faces and whatnot but as for being engaging. Nah. To me, the Thermae today feels like a meat market. Ok, sure, you could argue that that was always the case – but at the same time it was all very light-hearted and fun. In summary, given the lack of banter, and the asking prices, I’d suggest there are better places to go.

Last year, some long-running websites with listings for escorts were busted in a story that made the mainstream news. FIWFans and SidelineThailand may be but memories, but Fansflip and Trongpok69 are amongst the new sites which have filled the gap. They have yet to develop a strong following like the sites they replace. There are also plenty of apps where the very same ladies can be found. I’ll let you dig around to find them. Note: proficiency in the Thai language would be very helpful.

Some time recently, “No Smoking Cannabis” signs went up inside the rooms at the Nana Hotel.

Sign inside a room in the Nana Hotel.

Down in Pattaya, something is happening with the Eastiny hotels in Soi 8, both of which were favourite places to stay for naughty boys until the world’s reaction to COVID messed everything up. The Eastiny halfway up the soi on the left-hand side looks like it’s going to open soon. The reception area has been pimped up and it looks like it’s ready for punters to return. The other hotel, further up the soi on the right-hand side, remains a construction site.

Play Girlz on Soi Buakhao has a new frontage which like many bars these days doubles as its signage. But unlike other bars, the owners have not gone over-the-top with the design and, to my eyes, at least, it is rather stylish.

This coming Friday, July 25, marks the return of Identi A Gogo on Walking Street. Aussie Joey, who bought Mr. Egg’s Le Pub earlier this year, has taken over the formerly Russian-run gogo bar and has big plans to give Identi a new look, and a new name shortly after. The party starts at 8:00 and will be sure to pack out the single-shophouse bar. You can follow the happenings on Identi’s Facebook page.

On Soi Diana, the Las Vegas Beer Garden changed its layout and now has an aisle down the centre. Bottled beer is 80 baht, which is up 10 baht from last year. Locals will be quick to tell you it’s far from the cheapest place in the area, but I maintain that 80 baht for a beer in an air-conditioned bar with live music is a ridiculously good deal!

Jake Needham’s latest is available now!

Bangkok-based expat crime novelist Jake Needham’s latest novel, Goodbye, Mr. Boogie, is available now. This is another Bangkok-set book, and continues with the dynamic between Sam Tay and Colonel David of Special Branch from Jake’s last novel, The Detective Gone Gray. Here is the synopsis:

The story built slowly in law enforcement and intelligence circles. A single man had been responsible for a string of high-profile assassinations all over the world. A common signature in every attack gave some credence to the single-gunman theory. Each killing had involved a sniper shot from an elevated position at long distance. Once a belief in the existence of a single unknown perpetrator spread, so many killings were blamed on him that the Director of the CIA wondered out loud if the mysterious assassin was just a figment of somebody’s imagination. ‘We’re making this guy into the boogieman,’ the DCI snapped. And the name stuck. Inspector Samuel Tay had no interest in any of this, of course. He made a point of not reading the news, and he had never heard of the Boogieman, but then the Mossad station chief in Bangkok whispers to Special Branch of the Royal Thai Police that the Mossad has intelligence the Boogieman is in Bangkok for another political assassination. Who is he going to kill? They have no idea. The case assigned to Colonel David, Chief of Special Branch Division 2, the division responsible for international matters. You remember Colonel David from The Detective Gone Grey, don’t you? A smart guy, but he knows he has no realistic chance of figuring out what is coming, let alone stopping it, without some world-class help. So he persuades Sam Tay to return to Bangkok and bail him out. What is it Tay is supposed to do, exactly? “You tag him, we’ll bag him,” the Mossad station chief tells Tay and Colonel David. “Then it’s goodbye, Mr. Boogie.” Tay has no difficulty figuring out what that means. Tay isn’t sure how he feels about fingering a man to be murdered by the Mossad, even if that man is a murderer himself, but he decides he’ll have plenty of time to worry about that later. The first problem is to find the Boogieman and stop him before he kills another major public figure. Actually, Tay realizes, that’s the second problem. The first problem is to figure out whether the Boogieman even exists at all. Or if the Mossad is running some kind of game that neither he nor Colonel David can figure out.

You can find Goodbye, Mr. Boogie at Amazon US, Amazon UK and Amazon Australia.

Only three words to get right!

A new covered, outdoor food court opened not so long ago, off the Bang Na Trad highway. It’s not your typical food court in that it’s not in a mall, and to get there you either need a car – there’s a large car park – or to live within walking distance. It’s not your typical low-end, 50-baht-a-plate type of food court; rather it attracts a largely middle-class Thai crowd. There must be around 100 food outlets with every type of Thai food you can imagine along with steak sandwiches with quality Aussie beef etc. As good as it is, I discovered a big problem! I went to pay, but they didn’t want my money. “Sir must sa-can code ka!” The entire place is cashless and if you don’t have a local payment app on your phone – which I don’t – you ain’t eating! I can’t bring myself to do the QR code payment thing in Thailand. For now that isn’t a problem – but for how long will I be able to hold-out? At some point there will be places I really want to go where electronic payment will be the only option. What then? It feels like more and more places accept payment by electronic means only. And many Thais seem to be fine with that. I can’t see places in tourist areas adopting this policy for a while….but things are certainly moving in that direction.

As a side note, the whole Thailand QR payment code things seems so inefficient to me. Scan, fiddle with phone, press this, wait, show the cashier, get a nod and you’re done. At home I do use electronic payments for everything with Apple Pay my choice. That’s soooooo much easier. Wave the phone, beep, and you’re done. Why don’t they use that system in Thailand? Or perhaps they do and I haven’t got my head around it.

An update on the SW1 Market at the start of Sukhumvit soi 12. Last week I wrote that it looked like it might be curtains. In fact, the opposite is true and it appears that it is being made permanent. A sign out front says, “Under construction, we’re opening soon!”

SW1 Market, this week. It looks like it is to become a semi-permanent thing.

Thailand-Related Links & News Articles

Quote of the week comes from a reader, “Compared to gogo bars, massage parlours are half the price and the girls have twice the attitude.”

From The Stickman Archives, Dollhouse, A Brief History, was first published in February, 2013.

An American is rescued from a drainpipe under his condo building in suburban Bangkok.

An Irishman ends up in the Pattaya Police station after offering cannabis for a taxi ride from the airport as part payment!

I *hate* graffiti so I smirked when I saw Japanese punks were arrested for spray-painting a train in Bangkok.

Pattaya has imposed fines of up to 5,000 baht for smoking on beaches and footpaths.

An Uzbekistani in Phuket has been a very naughty boy, bashing his girlfriend and nicking her belongings.

An American bound for France is caught with 6.6 kg of heroin in his luggage at Phuket Airport.

Pattaya Police are looking for a local woman in connection with the death of a young Swede found dead with severe head injuries.

Two foreigners are found dead in the same Pattaya condo building in seemingly unrelated incidents.

Rainy Bangkok….things haven’t been quite so bad this week.

Closing Comments

1998 is a long time ago. That was the first year I spent in Bangkok. One of my overriding memories from 1998 is that the rainy season seemed to go on forever. The soi I lived in flooded a few times. It was dark, grey and wet for months. Sometime in November the clouds parted and I remember one of my colleagues saying how beautiful Bangkok looked when the sun came out. We’d all had enough of the rains by then. While the rain came early this year, it’s not like this hasn’t happened before. Like I say, my first year in Bangkok was very wet and there were a few other years that followed a similar pattern. And just like back then, at some point the rain will stop. This week there was something of a reprieve with several days without rain. Yes, it can be a nuisance if you spend time outside, and it can be a pain getting about….but the rains won’t last forever. Cheaper hotel rooms, quieter restaurants and friendlier ladies in the bars. Is it really all that bad?!

Your Bangkok commentator,

Stick

Stick can be contacted at : stickmanbangkok@gmail.com

Stickman Weekly, July 20, 2025

Mystery Photo

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

More Readers’ Emails

This Week’s News, Views & Gossip

Thailand-Related Links & News Articles

Closing Comments

Stickman Weekly, July 13, 2025

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