Stickman Weekly, August 10, 2025

Mystery Photo

Where is it?

Last week’s photo was taken of the Krung Thai Bank Currency Exchange on Khao San Road. Only two of you got it right, which I guess is not a great surprise as Khao San Road is probably not on the map for a lot of Stickman readers.

This week’s photo is back in the general Sukhumvit area.

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

Walking Street today.

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Indians, unfair competition!

Pattaya was great in July. The weather was great and it was wonderfully quiet, despite my Etihad flight to Thailand being full. I saw many Indian men in groups roaming Beach Road looking for ladies, and negotiating with them. Personally, I wouldn’t even consider getting involved with the ladies on Beach Road. What a miserable affair! If I want company, I go to a gogo bar with atmosphere, ambiance and much more attractive women. India has 1.45 billion inhabitants with an average annual income of $US 2,696 (2024). I know there is a big difference between the poor and the rich in India. If GDP increases significantly, I expect a Tsunami of Indian men will appear on Beach Road. Can Pattaya handle that or will the authorities intervene and in what way? I actually think it’s unfair competition. We Westerners have to endure a long wait with high ticket prices, while they can get there in 3 – 4 hours for something like $400. But that’s the way it is. Oh well, they can have Beach Road. I’m not participating in that miserable nonsense.

Pleasures to be had in Pattaya.

Runway Market, Pattaya.

More Readers’ Emails

Soi Cowboy grabbers.

I had not been to Soi Cowboy in about 3 years. I went tonight and it seemed kind of busy to me. The girls have gotten way too aggressive. It used to be that as you walked down the soi, they would call out to you, sometimes touch you lightly and try to get you into their bar. It’s gotten out of hand now with the grabbing, holding on and physically preventing you from walking around them, sometimes with 3 or 4 of them! I speak Thai well, smile and say no politely two or three times, then not smiling I say no two or three times. Then I have to get rude. When I got to the end of the soi I thought the girls would not give me a problem if I turned around and walked back but they did the exact same thing! I understand it is low season but I won’t be going back anytime soon.

Watch sellers in the nightlife areas.

There are often comments about watch sellers in the nightlife areas. All condemn them, but a brief ‘No, thanks’ is all that’s needed, and a bit of empathy for someone trying to make a living. One I spoke with sends money home to help his family, the same as many ladies of the night do, Thai or otherwise. If you don’t like hawkers then best you avoid most of Asia entirely.

Alluring Africans, not!

That shot of the African hookers walking along Sukhumvit Road is exactly what one would travel to Thailand for….not! This is becoming the new norm and I imagine it makes the likes of Tijuana more appealing. No need for long-haul flights. A buddy of mine in London says he gets plenty of action and at the same or cheaper prices than he pays in Thailand.

Trouble-free travel to Thailand for Cambodians.

My Cambodian girlfriend flew to see mum and dad in Cambodia on 22^nd July as the land borders were closed. Two days later the war started. All was well in Battambang although they were preparing by digging bomb shelters in the grounds of properties. Our main concern was her returning to Thailand on 29^th July. Thankfully there were no travel bans or cancellation of flights. On arrival at Don Meuang, she was stamped in with no issues or questions.

Nana Plaza was the busiest bar area, by far.

This Week’s News, Views & Gossip

As the low season bites and trade remains erratic – at best – in Bangkok’s gogo bars, the pressure goes on bar managers and mamasans to miraculously increase bar revenue. I’m not sure what they can do, but some are feeling the heat as bar bosses rant and one major bar figure is said to be on the warpath. Lousy bar trade puts some people in a very lousy mood.

In Nana Plaza, foreigner-owned and foreigner-managed Tycoon bar will celebrate its 3rd anniversary this coming Saturday, August 16th.

Are more Bangkok gogo bars going DJ-free? A number of bars I stopped by didn’t have a DJ and to be frank, it’s no bad thing. It’s one less salary to pay and one less staff member may mean fewer problems. Gogo bar DJs are often the black sheep of the bar family. Most DJs are male and plenty get involved with ladies in the bars – multiple ladies. And there have been more than a few stories over the years of issues between a Thai DJ and the foreign owner or manager who not so subtly told the DJ to change the music which said DJ took as a personal insult and then things got ugly.

One bar that appears to be DJ-free now (or, at the very least, didn’t have a DJ the past few weeks) is Dollhouse on Soi Cowboy. Dollhouse has long had a loyal following amongst what I now think of as the old bar crowd – read: middle-aged white men – and if things continue as they are in the bar, that won’t change any time soon. The music playlist is entirely from the early 70s through to the late 80s which just so happens to be my favourite period. Dollhouse plays disco, 70s and 80s rock, classic ’80s British pop and it’s a playlist that will have many Gen Xers like me so content that they may plant themselves firmly in the bar and not venture elsewhere. Over the 3.5 hours I spent in Dollhouse on Friday night of last week, not a single song played was less than 35 years old. But the girls hate old music!, I hear you say. It didn’t appear to be that way! They were dancing – insomuch as gogo dancers actually “dance” – and there didn’t seem to be any objection to the playlist. Many bar owners claim that playing old songs pisses off the girls who complain or worse still, leave. In Dollhouse, this isn’t a problem – there were plenty of ladies I recognised from last year.

So I guess we can say that Dollhouse is a good bar to go for older music. If you want really old music, head for Sexy Night in Nana which plays slightly older stuff, and a bit more rock.

The music was probably the main reason I spent more time in Dollhouse than any other bar this trip. The Dollhouse girls are more laid-back than most bars there and they don’t hassle you to buy lady drinks. Dollhouse also happens to be a bar where relatively few of the girls have had plastic surgery – and there aren’t many boob jobs in the bar. Next to tattoos, boob jobs are probably the next biggest turnoff. Compare that to the big-name gogo bars on Walking Street where it felt like around more than a third had had their mammaries super-sized.

On the patio, Dollhouse, Soi Cowboy.

A trip to Bangkok’s gogo bar areas would not be complete without a visit to the bar which has ruled the roost for several years, Billboard. I stopped by twice and I have to say that while I have been a big fan in the past, this trip I struggled with what the bar has become. Billboard stands out from the crowd because it’s so well-run that it borders on slick. Butterflies and On Top aside (both owned by the same people), it actually feels more like one of the Pin Up Group’s bars in Pattaya which are also very well run. The first thing I noticed was that Billboard has retained many of its dancers. It’s no secret that some of the Billboard beauties are getting long in the tooth and a good few must be of an age that begins with a “4”. It’s not a problem – they still look great. The service staff are probably the best in the business. The sound system is superb, but the music is a genre that I can’t identify. Honestly, I have no idea what they call it. There were few songs played that I recognised. Billboard has a DJ and I guess he is good but like I say, I don’t get the music. Probably not an issue for someone who is there for the purpose of shopping, but for someone like me who is just there to enjoy the ambience, the music is a fail. The bar invested heavily in the many beautiful, large-screen TVs that are placed throughout the bar but the question has to be asked, do they actually add anything? In my opinion, no, they don’t. In fact, I’d say they’re a distraction. On my last visit, one screen was showing a UFC fight, while the one next to it was cycling through advertisements. Then one screen cuts to a local Thai TV channel with scenes from Parliament and political news. Of course, you only have the visuals and no sound. Is this what customers want to see in a gogo bar? As good as Billboard is, it’s so slick that it has lost its charm and feels less like a Thai gogo bar and more like a Las Vegas strip club. Which is probably exactly what the owners have set out to achieve. Ok, perhaps I shouldn’t say that as someone who has never stepped foot in Vegas, but Billboard felt to me rather like the American strip joints you see in movies where the dancers are older, supremely confident and expect to be lavished with tips. It’s borderline garishly flash like a casino with TV screens everywhere and endless self-promotion. The prime seats are ringside where punters are encouraged to slip banknotes in the girls’ knickers. Some dancers very actively hustle for punters to do so, pushing their hips at customers and motioning for cash. The Billboard vibe today is less like your average Thailand gogo bar as it blazes its own trail. Maybe I am old-fashioned but I prefer the old Thai gogo bar model where the attraction was friendly, attractive ladies and familiar music. Billboard today feels to me like an American strip club filled with Thai dancers. It is, without a doubt, the best run, most professional bar of its type, and is still widely regarded as the best gogo bar in Bangkok. But for a fun night out, Billboard would not be on my list of bars to visit. There are other bars in the plaza more to my preference. That said, if I was planning a big night out in the gogo bars, I’d jump in a cab and head for Walking Street, make a beeline for Shark Gogo Club or any of the other mega gogo bars. I maintain that the tide has turned and the best gogo bars today are in Pattaya which beats Bangkok hands down.

Jump in a cab and head for Walking Street!

Light-fingered ladyboys have always been a problem on Sukhumvit Road after dark. In my early years in Bangkok, they lurked in the shadows between sois 3/1 and 7, or down past the Thermae. In more recent years, the other side of Sukhumvit between the Two Pacific Place Building and Soi 8  has been their hunting ground. Today? They operate in pairs on the sky bridge leading from the Asoke intersection in the direction of Nana. ALWAYS suspect the worst when approached by ladyboys in the Nana and Asoke area and don’t let them lay a finger on you.

500 baht barfines and overnight liaisons costing no more than two banknotes was a fair price a couple of decades ago, but expecting to pay that today is hardly realistic. Many ladies in the bars consistently achieve high asking prices and all power to them – we all want to earn as much as we possibly can. What do these ladies do with their money? Honestly, many of them blow it. Many transfer inordinate sums to their family who pay off debts. Some have expensive nights out in boy bars where they can drop 10,000 baht per head on drinks, tips and the boy’s fee (yes, for sex!). And I’ve heard more than a few stories over the years of daughters sending money she earned on her back to family upcountry which Daddy then uses to support his habit for girls of a similar age to his daughter! Fortunately, not all of these ladies blow the incredible money they make. Some have bank accounts with a balance well into high 7 figures in Thai baht. The highest I have seen with my own eyes is 6.5 million baht. I’ve yet to hear of a girl still working who has cracked a bank account with 8 figures in Thai baht although I bet some have. Of course, plenty of ladies build a house (or 2) in their home province. One fellow recently mentioned the evidence of a lady’s earnings when he took her out of a top floor Nana Plaza bar. When he told her the name of his hotel, she suggested that rather than taking a taxi, she would drive him there. They left the plaza, walked a short way down to the soi to where her car was parked and off to his hotel they went. While it’s not the first I have heard of a lady of the night driving her own car to work, it’s hardly the norm. Who says the industry isn’t changing?!

Another of the changes post-Covid in Bangkok is the transformation of gogo dancers from employees to contractors. Ok, so strictly speaking most were never employees which meant they didn’t get the benefits that they should have from long-term employment….but that’s a story for another day. It used to be that dancers were on a monthly contract, but today most are on a day rate. This has been the model in many Pattaya gogo bars for 10+ years. Dancers come and go as they please, and earn a day rate in the vicinity of 1,000 baht. (Interestingly, in the better Pattaya gogo bars, the day rate tends to be higher.) Ladies who commit to longer, such as 10 day contracts (colloquially referred to by the girls as “tack“, in Thai), get a higher day rate. The monthly contracts of old with a minimum number of drinks and barfines are much less common these days.

Patpong, July, 2025.

Patpong is very much the 3^rd Bangkok bar area, the ugly cousin of Nana and Cowboy. But is this fair? From the outside, yes, it is fair. Patpong really is one ugly bar area. But when it comes to inside the bars, it’s a rather different story. Quite a few long-time Bangkok expats favour Patpong because the bars there have, they claim, higher standards when it comes to hiring dancers. It’s not that the ladies are more attractive per se, but it’s almost like there’s an area-wide policy where gogo bars only hire slim ladies and refuse to hire fatties. For those who like a lady with a bit more meat on the bone, a good few bars in Cowboy and Nana have what you’re looking for.

Speaking of the wider Patpong area, rumours have been doing the rounds for years that Silom Soi 4 as we know it will not be of this world much longer. Silom soi 4 is “the gay soi”, full of bars and restaurants particularly popular with the gay community. That said, us straight guys are very welcome and there are some great eateries on the soi like G’s. Some of the bars are a lot of fun with their soi-side seating and a great place to sit outside and watch the world go by. The other half and I have had many an enjoyable night there but needless to say, if you’re not comfortable amongst a predominantly gay crowd, it won’t be for you. Anyway, the land on which the whole Silom Soi 4 scene sites – as in the entire soi, taking in all the properties on either side of the soi – was listed for sale some months ago. This explains why a couple of venues were sold earlier in the year at what appeared to be a bargain price, while other business operators on the soi are actively looking for a new location. Fancy buying this piece of prime downtown Bangkok land? The asking price is 3.3 billion baht. Note, that’s billions with a big, fat, bold “B“, not an “m”! Or to make it easier to get your head around, that’s about $100 million US dollars. For that, you get a plot of 3,243 square metres. Yes, land values in the area are insanely high but that asking price strikes me as bonkers! I don’t see how it could be viable at that price. In terms of a return via rental income, the numbers don’t come anywhere near to adding up. And there’s a lot of conjecture about how redeveloping the site could be difficult due to the way it is hemmed in by other plots. More details can be seen at the listing here.

As an aside, by way of comparison with another prime piece of downtown land occupied by a bar area, the land on which Nana Plaza sits sold in 2012. There is conjecture about how much it sold for but I seem to recall it was in the region of 750 – 850 million baht (a bit north of $US 30 million). Ok, so it’s more than a decade ago and that particular spot, while prime, would not be as pricey as land on Silom Road, but it’s the closest I can come up with for a comparison.

A sign outside Fitzgerald’s, Soi Nana.

The snap above was taken outside Fitzgerald’s on Soi Nana and shows the sort of signs you often see outside bars in Thailand these days. Amongst the other signs you see everywhere are warnings about photography with threats of fines for violators (bars love to use this word) of up to 20,000 baht. What’s your favourite bar sign in Thailand? Mine – and one I’d like to see everywhere – is “No shirt, no service!”

It’s been a terrible low season. When I was in town, some bar bosses maintained that all was well and their bar was doing just fine, but over the 3½ weeks I was in town, I noticed how even some of the most optimistic figures in the bar industry became gloomy, and grumpy. Traditionally, the quietest months of the year are May and September. So, in a typical year, trade drops in May, picks up a little in June and noticeably so in July which usually lasts through August before dropping markedly in September. From October onwards, visitor numbers pick up with November seeing numbers really ramp up and smiles return to bar owners’ faces. While the bar industry has changed and I think we have to be careful thinking that the patterns of the past will continue, I imagine that come mid to late October, it will all turn around and the low season will become but a bad memory.

In a recent column I commented that more Thais are exercising and placing an emphasis on their health. With that said, it sometimes feels like a case of do as I say, not as I do. There’s an organic shop not far from the Asoke intersection which sells freshly squeezed juices, organic smoothies, muesli, granola and supposedly healthy stuff. And there behind the counter is this enormous, terribly overweight and incredibly unhealthy-looking fat dude!

On the grapevine, I hear that weed sales are not what they were. What is behind this, I have no idea. As has been the case over past few trips, most weed shops you walk past had not a single customer.

The structure of the new Walking Street sign is huge!

Down in Pattaya, the new Walking Street sign is taking shape with the structure going up. It’s so big that when it’s complete, you might just about be able to see it from Bangkok!

Mister Egg’s old bar Le Pub may be currently closed, but it will reopen in a couple of weeks, rebranded as Le Pub A Gogo. It looks like a change of format is on the cards.

Atmos, Walking Street’s newest gogo bar from the Pin Up Group, opened this past Thursday. It has a huge bright LED sign across the entire frontage as is the norm these days. Given the group’s pedigree, expect big things.

A reminder that owner Greg and manager RJ will celebrate their respective birthdays at Heaven Above in Soi Boomerang, this coming Saturday, August 16th.

Catflaps Pratumnak will throw a re-opening party the same day, Saturday, August 16th, to celebrate reopening after the venue was damaged by fire.

By day, some motosais really gun it and zoom through Soi Cowboy at break-neck speed.

Soi Cowboy has long been a bit of a nightmare to walk through during the day with motosais using it as a shortcut and zooming through at speed. This is nothing new – and they’re still very much a nuisance.

Speaking of motorcycles, at certain times of the day the streets of Bangkok feel like they’re dominated by riders in the distinctive green jacket of delivery companies Grab and Lineman. You don’t see it to quite the same extent on main arterials like Sukhumvit, but in the suburbs early evening, and especially at the weekend, it can feel like half or more of all road users are riders from these two companies. Food delivery has become a huge business in Bangkok.

Think you’ve seen more durian this year? You’d be right! The luscious tropical fruit which you either love or hate has been in plentiful supply. This has been reflected in prices which are much lower than previous years. Where I used to favour lychees and mangoes, this year I feasted on durian. If you’ve never tried durian, do give it a go. I know the smell can be overpowering and, yes, it is very much an acquired taste, but once you get a taste for it, it’s addictive! You can either buy the whole fruit which when I was in town ran 100 – 150 baht / kg, or you can buy pods which have been removed from the fruit and are ready to eat. Unless you’re particularly adept, stick to the pods. It’s hard to know when the durian is ready to eat – and it’s a bit of an art cutting them up.

Durian has been very reasonably priced this year.

I love the availability of excellent, inexpensive coffee seemingly everywhere in Bangkok these days. Long gone are the days when supermarkets stocked Boncafe and the perfectly drinkable but outrageously expensive Illy and Lavazza. There’s so much choice these days with plenty of independent cafes doing a lovely cup for just 60 or 65 baht. And if you go online, the range of coffee beans available in Thailand is amazing. I brought a couple of kg of Laos coffee back home which I have come to prefer over the Vietnamese stuff.

If you’re after a relaxing spot for a coffee on Sukhumvit, don’t think Starbucks – think The Landmark! The revamped area just inside from the hotel’s patio has great coffee and the prices are about the same as Starbucks while the coffee is (to my taste) better, the service is much better and the seating area is spacious and more comfortable. And you get a glass of water and a bicky included with your coffee! It’s a great, casual, downtown spot to meet up with friends.

Air quality has been getting more attention in Thailand over the past several years, and I note that some construction sites monitor air quality with a display out the front of the site. Very cool idea but call me a cynic, why did it always seem that the numbers listed at construction sites were much lower than anywhere else? In the photo below, the PM2.5 level is listed at just 4.0, while a peek online showed numbers in the general area to be around…..50. It has to be said that when I was in town, the air quality was generally pretty good and most of the time it was in the healthy range. That’s one of the big benefits of visiting at this time of the year. (The air quality is at its worst from November through to March, or even April.)

That’s a really low PMI2.5 score. Accurate?

Despite visitor numbers being down on last year, and down further on the peak of 2019, it still felt to me like there were more foreigners in Bangkok than ever before. How could that be when there has been much press that visitor numbers are very clearly down from their peak? It could perhaps be partially explained by the sheer number of foreigners who live in Bangkok and call it home. It used to be that most foreigners lived in the downtown area to the extent that those living in the likes of the Onut area were considered to be living out in the boonies. Perhaps you wouldn’t call Onut “downtown”, but it’s hardly a far-flung suburb either. Today, it feels like there are foreigners in just about every corner of the city. It doesn’t matter how far out you go, you see foreigners who obviously live in the area. But there is one thing I noted – the further out you go, the higher the percentage of male foreigners. I didn’t see many foreign females out in the suburbs. What’s that about? My best guess is that it’s simply human nature – males are more adventurous and are happy to head out into the suburbs while females prefer the familiarity and comfort of downtown.

What’s with the mist being sprayed from the underside of the walkway that connects the Asoke skytrain station with Exchange Tower? I have absolutely no idea what that is. It seemed to be a thing at dusk and I don’t recall seeing it at other times of the day. Can anyone explain?

What is being misted over the Asoke intersection?

Thailand-Related Links & News Articles

Quote of the week comes from a friend who was commenting on the Thailand / Cambodia conflict, “It’s hard to imagine two cultures with more in common going after each other the way these two do.”

YouTube video of the week is a news update from Pattaya, by Nick Dean.

Kuwaitis are riding motorbikes late at night around Pattaya like complete f-wits.

A 37-year-old Swede connected with online drug sales is arrested in Pattaya.

A pregnant Hungarian tourist unexpectedly gave birth to a son on remote Coconut Island.

4 Chinese were arrested for burgling a Canadian woman’s home in Nonthaburi.

A Brit gets into a scuffle with a bar lass in Pattaya and ends up with a broken arm when another foreigner intervenes.

Bangkok Phil’s A World Away From Family, The Long Distance Guilt Trip is one of the best expat articles I’ve read in some time.

Police arrest 5 entrepreneurial Chinese nationals streaming live sex online from Thailand.

Two Malaysian tourists are set on fire in a shocking attack outside a downtown Bangkok shopping mall.

From this trip, I really think Pattaya is better than ever (even if I know many of you may disagree).

Closing Comments

Another trip to Bangkok has come to an end, another wonderful holiday. The reality of returning home hit almost immediately with temperatures 20+ degrees cooler at home than they had been in Bangkok and a real sting in winter’s tail. I had hoped to write an opener this week about the changing bar industry but I have been catching up on sleep so that’s lined up for next week. And I’ll probably do something the following week about expat living in Bangkok and how it’s changing. It’s back to writing about it all from 10,000 km away!

Your Bangkok commentator,

Stick

Stick can be contacted at : stickmanbangkok@gmail.com