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Nitetime LeisureThailandGuru.com > Leisure > Nighttime leisureOne of the best things about being an expat is that you meet much more interesting people in popular overseas expat areas than you do in your home town and most places in your home country. Before coming to Thailand, I lived in Washington, D.C., for 10 years and worked with a lot of world travellers and highly experienced foreigners, whereby casual travel elsewhere in my country usually resulted in less interesting people on average. Not so when I came to Thailand! The world travellers here are diverse and tend to be the more "outward bound" sorts from their own countries. The expats surviving and fluorishing here are also a cut above the rest back home, on average. Of course, you will meet all sorts of people, from boring simple sex tourists to wise investors who retired early, as well as dynamic Managing Directors of companies here and high end consultants.
Mainstream Thai entertainment websites tend to be in the Thai language, so there's considerable frustration for expats searching for nighttime entertainment in Thailand. Nightspots also change often. What's trendy one year is out the next. Sometimes, it changes by the month. Discos don't really get started until between 10pm and 11:30, depending on the venue. This is a serious problem for some of us here who prefer places which cater to normal working people. I've been hoping that continued enforcement of early closing times would encourage opening times to move back, but not much progress on this to date. Someday, some disco will try something new and different -- and get a big crowd of yuppies. There is lots of good music and good food early on, but not much in the way of discos until late. Some mixed Thai-farang places:
Go-go bars open at around 7pm. If you like good music from the 60s, 70s and 80s, then I recommend the two Hollywood bars at Nana Plaza, especially on the top floor, left side. Better to go early because the good music is interrupted by shows later on, and they're pretty hard core disgusting to boot. In Patpong, the bar Safari near the Silom (east) end is a nice place to stop in. Two good DJs, the ladies are more polite, and it tends to attract some good expats. Longtimer expats say it's been the same for well over 10 years. One time it burned down, and when the owner asked for suggestions on how to improve it, the answer was unanimously to not change a thing. I've gone back after being away several years and guess what ... it's still the same! Some almost purely Thai places I liked in the past:
Other places worth mentioning:
Nonetheless, I will make some recommendations to a couple of other websites: The leading website and messageboard is at www.NanaPlaza.com , which provides guidance in this realm. The messageboard is free, but access to the website comes at a small fee. It is well worth the fee. "Khun Sanuk", the chief content manager of NanaPlaza.com , is about as good a guy as you'll find in the Bangkok nightlife area. Much to the surprise of many people, Khun Sanuk is a young guy who has been happily married to a Thai lady for years, faithful, doesn't drink alcohol, and is brutally honest. NanaPlaza.com is good business for an exceptionally unshady guy who has spent an awfully long time in that area, often as a tour guide. "Stickman's" website at www.StickmanBangkok.com has lots of commentaries and tips for the social scene in and around the above areas. Stickman's website is entirely free, and is constantly updated. Stickman is a friendly, helpful and socially outgoing guy who is well known in the Sukhumvit and Patpong areas, and has a good sense of humor. Stickman is an English teacher, and has exceptionally good guidance for those considering that profession in Thailand. I don't agree with everything on those two websites, but what's new... There are many other websites on the Bangkok nightlife but which are a bit too crude.
DRUGS WARNING!Since my arrival in 1994, I have been to countless nighttime entertainment places -- purely Thai (except me, or maybe a few other expats), purely farang (except Thai ladies), and mixed. While most of these places are OK, there are many which have a lot of drugs, especially the more expensive "upper end" nightspots. Be careful who you are with. There are a lot of drugs in Thailand -- and arguably, in many other places in the world, too, but Bangkok is up high up on the scale. Normal people who are here on holidays, and many new expats who aren't familiar with the drugs scene, seem oblivious to the fact that some of the new friends & associates they are socializing with (especially their supposedly upper class Thai ladies) are under the influence of drugs, such as ecstasy (ya-E), amphetamines (ya-ba) and other substances. I, myself, was oblivious to this when I first arrived. If you doubt that drugs cause brain damage, then read this link. Who are you going to believe -- scientific evidence, or friends who will just believe what they want to believe? It's your brain and your life. Some of the worst places are upper end discotheques and nightclubs. I could tell you a lot of stories here -- a few things I've seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears, and much moreso what other guys have told me they've seen and heard. It is my strict policy to not mention places or names, and not point the finger at any particular entity, and just suffice it to say that it's all over the place, and give a few general examples. My first experience was in a popular Bangkapi disco attended mainly by university students. Suddenly, the lights were turned on and the music stopped. I was shocked at all the drug tablets that people just emptied onto the floor -- you couldn't walk out without stepping on them, like someone broke open a few bags of beans and threw them out on the floor! You could hardly walk off the dance floor without stepping on drug tablets. As we filed out the door, the police sorted the crowd into two sections -- those they knew to be taking drugs (from informants and double agents), and those they didn't have any info on (who could walk away freely). It was discriminate, and done very well. I've had casual acquaintances, e.g., people in my apartment building in Bangkapi who in an easygoing way have invited me to join a group in their room. I am a fairly nonjudgemental, easygoing and laid back person, easy to talk with and fairly sociable. When I first came to Bangkok, I let my hair grow long, something I chose not to do in my previous business circles in the U.S. I also stayed out later during my first year here. Some people apparently misinterpreted all that. When invited into some groups, I was shocked to see drug usage. These were a mix of university students attending upper end universities, and former university students. (You can guess why some had dropped out, but they still called themselves "students", and the fact that some had no jobs led me to think maybe they sold drugs, too.) People who party often tend to be a population group with a high percentage of people into drugs, particularly those who stay out very late. After the 1am or 2am closing time, beware particularly of people who leave nightclubs in groups to go together to someone's condo/house/apartment/hotel room. The worst ones are those who hang out at discotheques. There is a good reason why this is the law in Thailand -- closure at 1pm or 2pm. It does curb drug use significantly, though of course not completely. Substantially is enough. Amphetamine (ya-ba) usage goes up as the night wears on. When the nightclubs close at 1am or 2am, go home. Some people go to late night outdoor restaurants by the street, for some noodle soup or other simple dish. That's nice. However, if your acquaintances also come home late, find out where they've been if you want to get an idea about what they might have been doing. I continue to have friends and associates tell me about how they found out that their non-bargirl university student girlfriends, who they met in internet chat rooms, discos, and elsewhere, have turned out to be drug users. Some have even turned out to be drug resellers for income, or be secretly prostituting themselves to rich sugardaddies occasionally for their money, or bartering sex for drugs. Late night group forays in high-end hotel rooms are not uncommon. If you see anything hinting at this, then you are hereby forewarned about what might be going on.
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Based on both my logs of website visitors and emails, one of the main areas of demand has been by single expat males interested in the female prostitution scene around Sukhumvit/Patpong/Pattaya. Sorry, but I do not intend to cover this on ThailandGuru, besides the ThailandGuru subsection on 