Bangkok Nightlife Sukhumvit Soi 33
As you
make your way down Soi 33 you will
notice a lot of nice ladies sitting
outside bars with names like Monet, Goya
and Renoir, hence the term artist bars,
or painter bars.
These girls are not dressed the same way
as most of the girls that you will see
in the bars or go-gos. They are in nice
evening dresses and the great majority
of them look as if they've had their
make up applied by a professional
beautician.
The bars found in Soi 33 are very low
pressure. You will not find yourself
being assaulted by dozens of girls all
looking for you to buy them drinks,
although in a few of the places such as
Napoleon's you may find yourself being
asked if you would like the company of a
lady. If that's not what you desire at
that moment, a simple 'not yet' or 'no,
thank you' and you'll be left alone to
enjoy your drink.
The Drinks prices are generally more
expensive in these establishments than
most other bars you may find yourself
visiting in the Bangkok nightlife scene
, so if you want to check the area out,
and you are on a budget, it may be worth
your while visiting before 9 pm as that
is when most of the bars finish their
happy hour.
The prices vary slightly from bar to bar
but after 9 pm you can figure on
spending 150 baht on a beer. A bottle of
whisky or Jack Daniels will set you back
roughly 2500 baht with free mixers. The
bars do have a lot of promotions at any
one time but obviously this varies from
bar to bar. You'll find that when a bar
has a promotion the price for a bottle
of spirits drops to around 1800 baht.
A lot of people like the painter bar's
purely for the attitude of the girls.
They leave you alone in the majority of
the cases until you wish otherwise.
After they've had a few drinks with you,
however, they are no more held back than
any other working girl you have come
across in Bangkok.
A lot of people have had very wild
parties in some of the bars though I
would say that the ability to speak a
bit of Thai is definitely an advantage.
The most important thing to bear in mind
is not to listen to anyone that tells
you that some of these girls go and some
do not go with customers. This is utter
nonsense. Certainly some of the girls
like to play hard to get and you may
have to make return visits, but in the
end you are playing the same game as in
most of the Thai Nightlife areas.
If you decide that you like one of these
girls, there are a few different things
that can happen. In a bar such as Van
Gogh's, the girls that are working
behind the bar cannot come around the
other side to see you until you have
bought them 2 drinks. There is no
problem, however, with the hostesses who
are already on your side of the bar. The
barfines, however, are more expensive
than the vast majority of tourist
orientated places in Thailand -
depending on venue anywhere from 1100 to
1400 baht.
The rate you pay the girl, however, is
as always between you and her and this
can vary from individual to individual
as with every other area in the city.
Another good thing about Soi 33 is that
if you do take one of these girls you
can take them just over the road to the
Peep Inn, probably one of the finest
short time hotels in Bangkok.
So are the places really worth the extra
money? If you are talking about the
quality of the girls then it is only
fair to mention that a lot of them could
be found working at nearly any other
nightlife venue in the city, although it
has to be said that there are some truly
stunning girls working here, too. How
much of the attractiveness is due to the
skill of the make up artist and the
expensive dress you will find out for
yourself in the morning.
Soi 33 is like a stop gap between the
Normal farang go-go or beer bar scene
and the more expensive Hostess scene and
should be seen as such. If you want to
play in the Clubs that are generally
considered to contain the "stunning"
girls then Soi 33 prices wouldn't even
cover your tips.
Note an important thing
to bear in mind, the really expensive
members clubs cater to what is
considered the Thai or Asian Ideal of
beauty (over simplified, tall with white
skin). If you are one of the Buriram,
Surin, Sisaket fan club as so many of us
are then you will wonder what the fuss
is all about.
The main thing that sets Soi 33 apart
for a lot of people is basically the
atmosphere in the bars and the attitude
of the girls once you decide to party
with them. In closing, I would say that
if you've done everything else that
there is to do in Bangkok and you're
starting to feel jaded with the normal
nightlife scene then go and give the
artists bars a try.

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