If the Bangkok debauch isn't your scene, it's important to
note that the town is not all red-light by any means : There
are cultural and artistic events as well as all kinds of
discos and bars.
Although the large shopping malls and international hoTels
often sponsor a cultural show, most travelers experience the
Thai classical performing arts at a commercially staged
dance show accompanying a Thai banquet; several hoTels and
restaurants offer this program. Generally there's a
fixed-menu dinner of Thai favorites accompanied by a small
orchestra, followed by a dance performance. Combined, you
won't get the best food or the best dance.
For a different experience, visit the Erawan Shrine, at the
corner of Ratchadamri and Ploenchit roads (near the Grand
Hyatt Erawan Bangkok and Sogo Department Store). In front of
the large, white marble altar to Brahma, the Hindu god of
creation you'll often find musicians and beautifully
costumed dancers commissioned to amuse Brahma by a grateful
or hopeful worshiper.
There are two major theaters for Thai and international
performances, the National Theater and the Thai Cultural
Center. The National Theater, 1 Na Phra That Rd. (Tel.
02224-1342), presents demonstrations of Thai classical
dancing and music by performers from the School of Music and
Dance in Bangkok, which are generally superior to those at
the tourist restaurants and hoTels. There are also
performances by visiting ballet and theatrical companies.
Call the TAT or the box office for the current schedule.
The Thailand Cultural Center, Thiem Ruammit Road off
Ratchadaphisek Road, Huai Khwang (Tel. 02247-0028), is the
newest and largest performance center in town, offering a
wide variety of programs. The Bangkok Symphony performs here
during its short summer season. Other local and visiting
companies also present theater and dance at the center. If
you're to see the Ramayana performed in Bangkok, this is
probably the place you'll see it. Call for the current
schedule.
The Joe Louis Theater, located in the Suan Lum Night Market
(adjacent to Lumpini Park) holds nightly puppet theater
performances of stories from the Ramakien as well as comic
vignettes of rural Thai life. Complex puppets are
manipulated by up to three puppet masters and the theater is
also a training facility for Thai kids interested in the
ancient art. Shows are nightly at 7:30 and 8:30pm. Tickets
start at just 250B ($6). Located at the Suan Lum Night
Market along Rama IV Road (Tel. 02252-9683).
For a bit of tongue-in-cheek theater, a couple of Cabaret
shows in Bangkok feature Katoeys (aka "Lady-Boys") in 6-inch
heels and feather boas performing to pop hits, rather
hilarious extravaganzas really. The best is Calypso Cabaret
at the Asia HoTel (296 Phayathai Rd.; Tel. 02261-6355),
which features performances that are more creative than the
standard drag parades at cabarets in Phuket or Pattaya.
(Shows nightly at 8:15 and 9:45pm; tickets 700B/$16.) A more
typical show for Thailand, featuring much of the same
routine as at the resorts, is Mambo (Washington Square,
Sukhumvit Soi 22; Tel. 02259-5128), with shows nightly 8:30
and 10pm (tickets 800B/$18).
Bangkok is huge, and there are nighttime adventures to be
found down any soi in the town. If you'd just like to unwind
with an evening cocktail, check out what's happening at your
hoTel's lobby bar; many set up jazzy live music to entertain
folks. For the best lobby bar atmosphere head for the Bamboo
Bar at the Oriental HoTel (Oriental Lane off Charoen Krung
Rd.; Tel. 02236-0400), with classy live jazz - some of the
best in the city. For the infamous Bangkok sex show scene,
check out "Patpong" below. Bars and discos are all over the
city and the main areas are listed below, but small
nightclubs pop-up here and there around town (and many
disappear just as quickly). If you're looking for Bangkok's
gay scene, start at Silom Soi 4.
Most visitors won't leave Bangkok
without a stroll around Patpong, the famous sex strip and
Night Market with myriad streetside market vendors and
blocks of bars and clubs. The Patpong scene centers around
Soi Patpong 1 and Soi Patpong 2 between Surawong and Silom
roads. It's the home of Bangkok's raunchier sex shows, but
even if you're not exactly after any risquй entertainment,
most visitors come to wander the Market area (lots of
knock-off goods and pirate recordings), at least just peak
in the doors of the go-go dens and hit a casual bar or club.
It's a good little wander, but be prepared for big crowds
and beware of pickpockets.
Visitors walking through the busy market will be harried by
grinning touts with menu-boards Telling of "ping-pong ball
shows" and other circuslike spectacles. These upstairs "sex
show" places charge an entrance fee or have a one or two
drink minimum; if you're interested, be sure to negotiate
for exactly what you'll pay as many get lured upstairs and
have large surcharges added to the bill. If there are
problems, just pay up, get a receipt, and go to the tourist
police on Surawaong Road. The Tourist Police here are a
force to be reckoned with, and have helped many a traveler
out of just such a scam. Go-go bars are open to the street
and passers-by get a peak at the groups of scantily clad
young ladies crowding together on a central catwalk (and
looking pretty bored really). You won't pay an entrance fee,
but it's more or less a "drink or leave" policy and the
ladies will circulate from stage to the bar area (see "The
Sex Scene," below for more information).
Despite its rep as a go-go center, there are lots of good
bars in Patpong. O'Reilly's Irish Pub, 62 Silom Rd., on the
corner of Soi Thaniya just east of Patpong (Tel. 02632-7515)
is a lively bar full of locals and travelers. The Barbican
(9/4-5 Soi Thaniya off Silom Rd.; Tel. 02234-3590) is a
stylish hangout with great food and they feature some nice
live music. The Irish Exchange across from Patpong on
Convent Road (next to Silom Complex at 1/5-6 Sivadon
Building; Tel. 02266-7160) caters to Bangkok yuppies and
foreign expatriates with Irish pub style and live music
after office working hours. Head to Silom Soi 4 (between
Patpong 2 and Soi Thaniya off Silom Rd.), where you'll find
small home-grown clubs spinning great music as well as the
city's prominent gay clubs: Telephone Bar (114/11-13 Silom
Soi 4; Tel. 02234-3279) and The Balcony (86-8 Silom Soi 4;
Tel. 02235-5891) foremost among them.
Siam Square, on Rama I Road between Henri
Dunant Road and Phayathai Road, houses quite a few popular
joints. Here's where you'll find Bangkok's Hard Rock Cafй,
featuring good live bands, 424/3-6 Siam Square Soi 11 (Tel.
02254-0830). At the Hartmannsdorfer Brauhaus, 2nd floor,
Siam Discovery Center, Rama I Road (Tel. 02658-0223), you'll
find home brews in a nice atmosphere - with special beer
discounts on Sundays.
A great disco, Concept CM2 goes nightly with live or DJ
music - a very popular place in the basement of the NovoTel
Siam (Siam Square Soi 6 Tel. 02255-6888). Spasso, in the
Grand Hyatt Erewan HoTel (494 Ratchadamri Rd. (Tel.
02254-1234) is a great Italian restaurant that turns upscale
club featuring live music acts nightly.
A little bit north of this area (a short cab ride away),
near the Victory Monument BTS station (a cab-ride up
Phayathai Rd.), check out live jazz and blues at Saxophone
Pub and Restaurant. They're at Phayathai Road on the
southeast corner of the Victory Monument traffic circle
(Tel. 02246-5472).
Over on Rattanakosin Island in Old Bangkok, the
backpackers on Khao San Road still party on despite more and
more restrictions. Start at Gulliver's on the corner of Khao
San and Chakrabongse roads, then explore the back lanes off
Khao San for small dance clubs (some the size of broom
closets) and hang outs. You'll find lots of travelers in
their 20s, and the atmosphere is always laid-back and
anything goes. In the middle of Khao San, don't miss Lava
(249 Khao San Rd.; Tel. 02281-6565) a popular basement dance
club. For a more laid-back evening, head west of Khao San to
riverside Phra Athit Road where there are any number of
small cafes with live folk, blues, and rock cover acts and
lots of small venues full of Thai college students going
"beat". Acts change nightly so walk the road's length, have
a peek in each spot to find the Thai Joan Baez or young Pete
Seeger yet to be discovered.
One of the most happenin' areas of
Bangkok, the small sois along busy Sukhumvit play host to a
wide range of bars as well as Bangkoks top clubs. You can
hop the skytrain from one to the next or, after midnight
when the skytrain stops, hop a tuk-tuk or taxi.
Q
Bar (34 Sukhumvit Soi 11 Tel. 02252-3274) is the place for
the slick urban hip of Bangkok, its only rival is the
similarly ab-fab Bed Supper Club (26 Sukhumvit Soi 11 Tel.
02651-3537). Both are ultramodern, have great expat DJs and
boom-boom-boom late into the night 7 days a week. The newly
built Conrad HoTel (87 Wireless Road, just across from the
U.S. Embassy; Tel. 02690-9999) hosts two of Bangkok's newest
and best spots: 87 is an ultra-chic, ultra-exclusive club
and their Diplomat Bar fills with, well, diplomats from the
U.S. embassy as well as Bangkok's hip and happenin'
hobnobbers (gets so crowded that the bar often spills over
into the lobby). Faith Club (96 Sukhumvit Soi 23 Tel.
02261-3007) is newer on the scene and another popular haunt.
Call ahead to any of these for the latest events and, if
possible, wear black and bring your posse.
For bars along Sukhumvit, try The Bull's Head (Sukhumvit Soi
33/1 (Tel. 02259-4444), a fun local pub that draws crowds
with frequent theme parties and a clubhouse attitude.
Larry's Dive Bar (8/3 Sukhumvit Soi 22 Tel. 02663-4563) is a
laid-back little place, like a little island getaway in the
busy city and just as affordable. Bruahaus Bangkok
(President Park, at the end of Sukhumvit Soi 24 Tel.
02661-1111) is a popular brewpub, as is Taurus Brew House
(Sukhumvit Soi 26 Tel. 02661-2207), which packs them in -
especially on weekends - for home brews and live pop music.
Taurus also boasts one of the better discos in the Sukhumvit
area, just across from the Brew House, this hip and huge
"complex" has live music, a giant disco, and good food. For
the best live music, however, head for Riva's, Sheraton
Grande Sukhumvit HoTel, 250 Sukhumvit Rd. (Tel. 02653-0333),
with international bands and lots of dancing. For a quick
drink at a unique little outdoor bar, try Cheap Charlie's,
in a little alleyway off of Soi 11 (near Suk 11 guesthouse).
It's like a small beach bar, but in the middle of Bangkok
and drinks are "affordable" and it's a fun after-work
atmosphere. Tell them Charlie sent you.
Similar to the Patpong sex show scene, Sukhumvit hosts a few
small go-go bars areas that are "same-same but different"
like Patpong without all the hype. Check out Nana Plaza just
on Sukhumvit Soi 4 or Soi Cowboy (the oldest go-go scene,
dating from Vietnam War days) between Soi Asoke (Sukhumvit
Soi 21) and Sukhumvit Soi 23. The girls are not shy and
business is brisk and attracts more of an expat clienTele
than touristy Patpong.
Since the 1960s and particularly since the Vietnam War -
Bangkok has been the sin capital of Asia, with sex clubs,
bars, massage parlors, and prostitutes concentrated in the
Patpong, Nana Plaza, and Soi Cowboy districts. Sex is for
sale in many quarters in Bangkok, and suprise at seeing the
many older Western gentlemen strutting about town with
lovely young Thai ladies is a common impression for
first-time visitors.
A startling increase in HIV-positive cases in the last
twenty years brought on mandated as well as grass-roots
efforts to educate about use of condoms. It's working. AIDS
is still a major concern among sex workers, but the tide of
new cases has slowed somewhat. Recent crackdowns in Patpong
means that some of the raunchier shows and more overt venue
for prostitution have closed, but in other cases, the focus
has shifted to younger and younger women. The picture
certainly isn't rosy.
Go-go bars and clubs are really little more than fronts for
prostitution, and very thinly veiled fronts at that. The men
and women in the clubs are all available to take out of the
bar. You'll be required to pay a "bar fine" (about
410B/$10), and you can take the companion of your choice out
to other clubs, or to someplace more private. Sex is
negotiated directly with him or her. If this is your scene,
take great care: Apart from the condom thing (use one) the
prostitutes are known to slip you drugs (which happens), rob
your hoTel room while you're sleeping (which happens), or
get you mixed up with illegal activities (which happens).
If you're staying in a very expensive upmarket hoTel, many
times you will not be allowed to bring prostitutes through
the lobby. Most hoTels require guests to register visitors
and will bump you up to the next pay category. There are
cheaper hoTels popular with punters where overnight or
short-term visitors can register separaTely at a security
desk or ask any "new friend" about cheap alternative hoTels
near the go-go bars.
While prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand, this
law is never enforced. International reports about poor
farmers selling their children into prostitution are true -
many children are held in brothels against their will.
However, the majority of sex workers are adults who enter
the industry of their own free will out of basic economic
necessity and often support many people on their earnings.
Remember that child prostitution, slavery, and violence
against sex workers still happens; if you encounter any of
these activities, please report them to the Tourist Police
(Tel. 1155).
Bangkok's massage parlors were recently the subject of major
scandal. One of the towns biggest parlor operators, when
squeezed by recent conservative pressure, turned and exposed
police corruption, going public about his many years of
pay-offs to police ledgers, followed by lots of drama and
finger-pointing (and all quickly forgotten). Though
suffering from official pressure to close, Bangkok has hundreds of these giant facilities, advertised in neon as "modern" or "physical" massage parlors, that offer something quite different from traditional Thai massage (more or less just direct sex for sale).
Physical massage involves a masseuse first washing the
client and then, covered in soap (or oil), using her entire body for a "body-body" massage (sometimes a "sandwich" of two masseuses). Nearly all massage parlors are organized along the same lines. Guests enter the lobby where there's a coffee shop/bar and several waiting rooms where young Thai
women wearing numbers pinned to their blouses sit on bleachers. Guests choose a woman from behind the glass, then proceed to a private room for between 1 and 2 hours. It's
all negotiable, but rates for a physical massage start at about 1,500B ($37) and increase for different services.
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