Stickman Weekly, September 7, 2025
Mystery Photo
Where is it?
Last week’s photo was taken at the start of Sukhumvit soi 12, looking up the soi. A few of you thought it was the next soi along, Sukhumvit soi 10.
This week’s photo is challenging and I’d grade its difficulty level as “high”. With that said, it is very much in the Stickman zone although you would have to take a small detour off the main drag to come across this particular location. If you happen to get this photo correct, do consider that you may be incriminating yourself! And if this week’s photo is too difficult for you, have a look at the photo a bit past the halfway mark of the column with a foreign man and a Thai woman walking hand in hand – and tell me where it was taken.
Stick’s Inbox – The Best Emails From The Past Week
Low season visitor’s report.
I’m trapped in a bar on Sukhumvit Soi 8. It’s 18:50 and it has been hammering rain since 18:00. I have an umbrella, but it ain’t gonna work in this. There are worse places to be. The bars are slightly less busy than when I was here in early July. The best bars are doing fine, but there is plenty of seating. The exception is Spanky’s which has been full on occasion. Yesterday, the Billboard babes were threadbare, their black Billboard bikinis replaced with stuff that looked like it came from Victoria’s Secret. Little left to the imagination. More to imagine than Geisha’s bathtub, less than Spankys which has been pursuing “see-thru” for years. Patronage on Cowboy is, as usual, dire. I won’t be risking it with tonight’s weather. Even with this rain, I don’t see why naughty boy tourism should be “seasonal”. Hotel rates are more favorable at this time of year. Unless you’re temple touring or beach bumming, there is no real requirement for clear blue skies. Showers can be dodged.
If it’s not one stink, it’s another.
I’ve been out the past 2 Sunday nights to Nana and Cowboy. Last Sunday was quite dead, and last night (31st) was twice as lively. The “stinky” end of Cowboy didn’t smell bad when I walked in around 10 PM. However, a guy set his mobile dope cart up right there, and then the stink was happening – and it wasn’t sewage.
A midnight rumble.
In late April / early May I saw a cute girl outside Midnite. I forgot which bars on Soi Cowboy are the Arab-run bars. I had her come inside and offered her a drink. I was a bit drunk but I’ve never been a belligerent drunk. She did not ask for a “tequila Coke”. I know that gambit and would have refused, if asked. They bring her a tequila and a Coke. I didn’t say anything. I decide to leave after one drink and they bring the bill for over 800 baht. At that point, I offer to pay for one drink for her and one for myself. They insist I pay for all three drinks. I point out that I only offered her a drink, and she never asked for two. They didn’t disagree, but they said that offering a girl a drink means two, or “lady start two,” or something like that. They didn’t explicitly say, “It’s because she’s a door girl, it’s a two drink minimum to bring them inside.” I guess it’s possible that’s what they meant, but if so, they should have said that and maybe I would have been persuaded. Anyway, since I was not so persuaded, and I was a bit drunk and making poor decisions, I decided to just sit there and refuse to pay for her second drink until they relented. They did not relent. The wait staff started grabbing at my pockets. Then the security dudes started shining a flashlight in my eyes and slapping me in the head. At which point I paid very promptly. The girls said, “You good man!” I left. The bar was virtually empty which probably raises the stakes. Desperate staff and less of a spectacle slapping customers around. The way the drink girls were pleading with me to pay, it wouldn’t surprise me if the owner docks their salary for any drink they write up / serve and don’t collect on. In 20+ years of bar-hopping in Southeast Asia, that was my first experience of any “violence” in a bar. It could have been worse, I suppose. You may want to check out the Google reviews from the last 6 – 12 months for Midnite as some of the stories are pretty similar. I would have made another trip to Bangkok in June / July when I was in the region, but I was put off by the whole experience and ended up doing a few days in China. I’m probably not the only person to have a negative experience in one of these bars who then ends up spending less money on Soi Cowboy specifically, or in Bangkok / Thailand generally.
Bangkok, and age limits.
Concerning a reader’s email last week and his report of Krungsri Bank soon restricting online banking with them to using a phone app (rather than a PC) and restricting that only to those up to 70 years old, I was left wondering what the heck age has to do with banking. He was offered a solution, one that caused him all kinds of problems, but why should that even be necessary? I was also left wondering if any other bank in any other country operates an upper age limit to using its app. Readers might be able to enlighten me.
Bangkok vs. Pattaya.
On Bangkok vs. Pattaya, I’m with you. Whereas I used to think of Pattaya as only naughty nightlife, I think now there’s so much more to it. I was firmly in the camp of Bangkok as the only place for “living”, but I can now see the other charms of Pattaya, and especially Jomtien. There are two good malls in Pattaya, good grocery shopping now and it’s still cheap to eat out and to drink compared to cities in the west. You get cleaner air in Pattaya due to the onshore breezes, there’s good walking on the beach in Naklua, Wongamat, and all down the beach road’s wide sidewalks in Jomtien and Pattaya. You can’t get any of that in Bangkok where the pollution is horrendous and the traffic impossible between 5 PM and 8 PM when you want to go out.
Musing about Prime Ministers.
It’s September, it’s Bangkok, it’s wet!
This Week’s News, Views & Gossip
Wet Wet Wet was the name of an ’80s and ’90s band, and it’s also a pretty decent way to describe Bangkok at this time of year. If you’re heading out after dark, taking a small, foldable umbrella with you isn’t such a bad idea. Yeah, I know, after a few drinks, plenty of expats have subconsciously donated umbrellas to bars across Bangkok over the years. Sometimes the monsoon rains can be so heavy that only a large, sturdy golf umbrella will protect you. That said, a small, foldable umbrella isn’t a bad insurance policy.
The latest on Nana Plaza’s newest gogo bar, to be called Virgin X Nana, is that it is expected to open next month. As a reminder, it will be in the back corner of the ground floor, in the spot that some of us still think of as Voodoo. It’s mildly puzzling that the Virgin X name is being used given the group previously operated Virgin X in Patpong soi 2 as that bar didn’t last long. So why would they use the name? Perhaps they’re going to reuse the signage?!
Also on the ground of Nana Plaza, do consider stopping by Rainbow 2 which is stocked full of cute dancers. Rainbow 2 had been rather average for some years but that has changed since the bar put some effort into a recruitment drive. The Rainbow bars really were something else back in the day. They were the first bars in the Plaza with ladies who dollied themselves up in a manner that appealed to the Japanese – think dyed blonde hair and make-up & eye-liner that made them look almost cartoon-like. Back to the present day, if you haven’t stopped by in a while, Rainbow 2 is worth visiting again.
Rainbow 2, Nana Plaza, is worth stopping by.
In Soi Cowboy, what was Kana Pure, a single-shophouse weed store, is being developed into a pub / beer bar. A tarp across the front currently hides the construction work going on inside.
A few doors along on the other side of the soi, Stumble Inn Soi Cowboy closed a couple of months back, reputedly due to high rents. Which makes the social media splash this week from the Stumble Inn Group that they are building a new venue in that space all the more surprising. But don’t get too excited until you know what the new bar will be…..a ladyboy cabaret show bar. Will a niche bar be viable in a location where the rent is said to be so high? I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Showtime Ladyboy Cabaret will be Soi Cowboy’s 4th ladyboy bar, and easily the largest ladyboy bar on the soi. Is there demand for such a venue on Soi Cowboy? I wouldn’t have thought so, but the Stumble Inn Group are experienced operators and have a rich history of operating ladyboy bars – and they obviously think it will work.
What effect will a ladyboy show bar have on Soi Cowboy? Show bars tend to be popular with Chinese tour groups. Best guess would be that it’s going to push Soi Cowboy a little further down the road towards becoming a full-on mainstream tourist attraction, and less of a naughty nightlife area.
Former customers lament the closure of Stumble Inn Soi Cowboy, which was the only bar on the soi serving beer in pints. While there have been rumours that Stumble Inn Soi Cowboy would relocate to a smaller bar on the soi, the rumour mill has gone quiet. Has the idea been abandoned? Or were there perhaps never any plans to relocate in the first place?
Blue Coconut cocktail, Billboard, Nana Plaza.
It’s not just pretty girls and professional sound systems that differentiate the best bars from the rest. The days when a bar’s drinks list consisted of 3, maybe 4 beers, a few local spirits and a half-dozen of the most popular spirits are firmly in the past. Today, some bars have extensive drinks menus that cover several pages. One such bar is Billboard which serves well-made, reasonably priced cocktails. The Blue Coconut, pictured above, is just 220 baht in Billboard, which compares favourably to other bars around town where cocktails typically run around 350 baht with ++ on top. What’s in a Blue Coconut? Stoli vodka, Blue Curacao, pineapple juice & coconut puree.
A few weeks back I wrote about a gogo bar in Nana Plaza where the manager opened up the books and went through them with me, outlining what the girls earn. That month – a low-season month – the top earners made in excess of 130,000 baht in lady drink commissions alone. There really are some wealthy, powerful people in business and industry. For industry insiders, these numbers hardly came as a surprise. Leaks from a couple of the top Walking Street gogo bars last year revealed the top earners were making similar numbers. But don’t go thinking these numbers are representative of ladies across the wider industry. They’re not. Far from it, in fact. From a large, very long-running, foreign-owned bar in Soi Cowboy, many of the darlings have been complaining that some nights they don’t get even one lady drink. In other words, there’s a huge disparity between what the top earners make and how the rest fight to survive. And it’s not always who you think that earns the most. The top earners are not necessarily the most attractive ladies at all, and they may not even be in the busiest bars. In which Nana Plaza bar did that lady make 130+K baht in July? I dropped a big clue in this paragraph. Did you pick it up? Show me how clever you are and let me know by email.
Following on from last week’s column where I mentioned BangkokEyes had not published in August, and I expressed concern for the owner / operator, a brief update appeared on the site this week. Regular service will resume in time.
It feels like new burger joints are opening every week in Bangkok.
Will the day come when there are more hamburger outlets in downtown Bangkok than Thai food eateries? Ok, so that might be a ridiculous comment – but at the same time it feels like parts of Bangkok are saturated with burger joints. That said, there are some very, very good burger joints in Bangkok these days. It begs the question: could the same thing happen to burger joints that is happening to weed stores?
To those who claim that “Bangkok bars are too expensive”, open your eyes. There are some bargains out there. Next to the Thonglor BTS station, The Old English Pub Bangkok has a ridiculously cheap afternoon deal with pints of Leo for just 45 baht!
Once upon a time it felt like every other Bangkok expat bought their pharmaceuticals at the pharmacy on Sukhumvit Road, just around the corner from Soi Nana and past the gas station. The staff were friendly and the prices were reasonable. That pharmacy closed some years ago. If you’re on prescription meds and are looking to save a few baht, you might consider trying any of the pharmacies which are located outside major government hospitals. Many pharmacies can be found in the streets and sois surrounding government hospitals, and prices are very competitive. In downtown Bangkok, you could try the pharmacies on Rama 4 Road, directly opposite Chulalongkorn Hospital which sell pretty much all medication that is available over the counter in Thailand as well as many general medical supplies including stuff like blood pressure monitors, syringes and the like. Another area to try downtown is Rachawithi Road, which runs west from Victory Monument. There are a bunch of large pharmacies there with very keen pricing.
It’s been a tough low season this year in Pattaya.
Down in Pattaya, Cupid Club A Gogo opened this week in soi 15 off Walking Street, in the space that for many years was Misty’s.
It’s still early days but the revamped Le Pub A Gogo on Soi Diamond is struggling to gain traction and fuelling further comment from locals that the layout isn’t merely a design fault, it’s a total disaster.
Has the squiggles mystery been solved? Or have the waters been muddied?! In last week’s column I included a photo of a condo located just behind The Avenue on Pattaya’s Second Road. I was scratching my head trying to figure out what the squiggles were. A number of you sent emails similar to this reader’s explanation:
Those squiggles that you referred to in today’s column look like filler that has been applied to small external cracks before the building is repainted. They have just done exactly the same thing on my condo building in South Pattaya. A guy hangs down from a rope (nicknamed Spiderman technique) and works his way down from the top, filling all the cracks, flaked areas and any imperfections. My building is going through the exact same process and is currently being repainted.
But perhaps readers got it all wrong and there is another explanation? The Pattaya Mail ran an article this week on said squiggles with a rather queer explanation. Who’s right? A bunch of readers, or the esteemed Pattaya Mail?
What are those squiggles on the side of the building?
The banking scandal deepens with comment from one of the major visa agencies that anyone who opened a bank account on a tourist visa faces a 50 : 50 chance that the account would be closed. In other words, it’s a lottery. That has been the observation of one respected visa agency (assuming visa agencies can be respected, of course!). There are all sorts of permutations and mixed messages here. Who’s accounts will survive and who’s will be closed? What role have visa agents played in this mess? Are the accounts which have been caught up in this those which were opened with the assistance of an agent? That suggestion has been made. There are so many questions, but so few answers. And of course, the big question those caught up in this mess are asking is what happens to one’s account balance if their account is closed? Perhaps that’s a question for another day.
From the one and only person I know whose Bangkok Bank account has been caught up in this mess and his account frozen, he provided all of the required documents and was told the account would be unfrozen within a week. 2½ weeks later, it’s still frozen. I’ll say it again: what a mess!
Flirting with Thai women can be a lot of fun…and who knows where it might lead? (Extra for experts, where was this photo taken?)
I’d forgotten how much fun it can be flirting with Thai women. Many Thai women enjoy flirting, especially in their own language. Keep it respectful and don’t do it within earshot of others which could cause embarrassment. Do it “right” – as Thai men do – and many Thai women respond very positively. It won’t necessarily go anywhere but it can be fun banter. Here in my woke part of the world, flirting with a stranger probably wouldn’t be a good idea which is a great shame and a sad indictment about the state of society today. Thai women still largely view flirting as harmless fun.
Once upon a time, I eagerly lapped up news reports or documentaries from the mainstream media about Thailand. That all changed when I came to realise most (many?) seldom scratched below the surface and oftentimes it felt like the producer had an axe to grind. How many of these documentaries feature the nightlife, spout off all the usual stereotypes and paint it all in a negative light? So the latest such series, Thailand: The Dark Side of Paradise, the first episode of which screens tomorrow on BBC 3, holds zero appeal to me. British readers craving a taste of Thailand might like to take a look. If you’re outside the UK, set your VPN to the UK and go to iPlayer. Frankly, you’ll probably get more insight into Thailand by tuning into one of the myriad YouTube channels run by expats.
The sex industry & ladyboys are the staples of Thailand that the mainstream Western media loves to focus on. (Yep, that’s 4 ladyboys on a motosai.)
This week the other half and I chatted about secrets and how they can cause otherwise healthy and happy relationships to come unstuck, or is that uncoupled? We got on to this topic after a friend’s long-term relationship fell apart after a big secret came out. I mention this because of something a reader wrote in an email last week about a lady he knew who worked on Soi Cowboy for a few years, “…it turned out she was from a very wealthy Thai Chinese family and studied at a prestigious Bangkok university. She’s now happily married to a wealthy Thai guy and doting mother to two girls. I bet they have no idea about her past life.” What one chooses to reveal about themselves to their loved one is a personal decision. Many years ago I wrote a column about Thai women and what I termed their chamber of secrets. What am I trying to say here? Nothing, really, other than that secrets in a relationship can be a problem, and there seem to be a whole lot more secrets in Thailand than there are in my corner of the world. Make of it what you will.
One of the things I admire about the other half is the way she enthusiastically supports vendors selling stuff that she might not actually want. It’s almost like she sees supporting others in business as karmic. I’ve observed this a lot in middle-aged Thai women. If someone makes a sales pitch for something, they will give them the time and if it’s not something too expensive, there’s a good chance she’ll buy it. In the case of my other half, her heart is in the right place, but we end up with all of these dinky things that she has no use for – and ultimately ends up giving it away. I’ve suggested she stick to helping out food vendors. At least that way whatever she buys won’t go to waste.
Treats on the street.
Thailand-Related Links & News Articles
Quote of the week comes from a friend, “The last high season bucked the economic trend for westerners, but this next high season I wonder if time has caught up for many with the state of Western economies?”
From The Stickman Archives looks at Soi LK Metro in the early days, What’s All The Fuss About Soi LK Metro?
There is concern over safety standards after a spree of tourist deaths on Phuket.
In Udon Thani, a retired Brit is hoping for the return of his Sky Lab tuktuk which was stolen.
A foreigner is attacked by a group after groping a Thai woman on Walking Street.
In Chiang Mai, who said what in a dispute between a Chinese tourist and a tuktuk driver?
In a reservoir in Pattaya, the body of a young woman of unknown nationality was found in a chained suitcase.
A Nigerian man and his Thai wife are arrested for selling drugs in the Sukhumvit area.
A Brit is deported from Thailand after his ex-girlfriend cancelled his passport online, pissed off about him jetting off to the sun!
Soi Cowboy, earlier this year with the now-closed Stumble Inn Soi Cowboy on the left and Midnite on the right.
Closing Comments
The email published in today’s column titled “A midnight rumble“ was written by a fellow who has been reading this column for more than 20 years. We have met in person. Over the years he has proven to be very reliable so when he tells me something, I can run it with confidence, knowing that it’s true and accurate. I mention this as there have been a few complaints recently that stories sent in have not been posted. I appreciate all the intel that comes in, and I hope you understand that I cannot publish everything. Why not? There is only so much space (where once I was told to write more, these days the consensus seems to be not to let the column run too long.) I don’t wish to present a column that might show the industry in a particularly negative light. And then there is perhaps the most important point. Some bar bosses don’t appreciate negative feedback at all, even if what is said is factually correct. Some bar bosses can get very nasty. What about free speech? Publish and be damned, right? Anyone who felt that way wouldn’t be writing a column for 25 years. Quite simply, there are some people who you simply cannot say things about because they will make your life difficult. Now that he’s no longer in the land of the living, I’ll give you a specific example and name one such person. Marc of Eden Club. He might have run a much-loved business, had a high profile and been considered a friend by many, but look out anyone who said anything negative about Eden Club. I was told in no uncertain terms what would happen if I wrote stuff about his bar. Ditto the late Khun Sanuk who got the same lecture when he was operating what at the time was the most popular expat forum in Thailand. Like I say, I’m always very interested in hearing about your experiences in the bars, but that doesn’t mean I can write about them all.
Your Bangkok commentator,
Stick
Stick can be contacted at : stickmanbangkok@gmail.com
