Nightlife in Bangkok.

The Performing Arts

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.

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).

The Club & Bar Scene

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.

The Oriental Hotel 48 Oriental AvenueBangkok, 10500 Telephone: 00 66 236 0400Hours:Sun - Thurs 11am - 1am, Fri - Sat 11am - 2am-->

Silom Road & Patpong--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 risqué 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.

Siam Square

--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 Café, 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.

The area around Siam Square has become the undisputed center for shopping in Bangkok. It stretches for a km or two from MBK-Center in the West to Central Chidlom in the East. Most, but not all, shopping malls and department stores are close the the skytrain stations of Siam Square and Chitlom.

Sukhumvit Road--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.

photo by :dannyman

Bangkok nightlife .... by tog2tour..

Bangkok nightlife
Bangkok has a lot to offer after dark. Live music, bowling, ice skating, dinner shows, river cruise, Thai boxing, night shopping - a lot of things to do for all people and all budgets.

Bars and clubs catering especially to foreign guests are confined to the following hot zones - Patpong, Soi Nana, Soi Cowboy and Khaosarn Road.

Patpong. The nightlife strip runs along two short lanes, Patpong 1 and 2 in Silom. Bars share street-space with restaurants, massage parlors, a couple of hotels, and incongruously, a Foodland supermarket, while a night market selling clothes, fake watches and souvenirs runs down the center of Patpong Land out along Silom Road.

Nana. Three floors of nightlife activity around a central atrium. Located on Sukhumvit Soi 4, it is a cluster of go-go and beer bars in the three-story building Nana Entertainment Plaza. The first floor has a lot of busy and exciting bars. The second floor is occupied by smaller bars, often frequented by old hands. The third floor has a few, really big bars known for their girlie shows.

Soi Cowboy. Just a few meters from the Asoke BTS Station, Soi Cowboy is a cluster of go-go bars and beer joints. Prices here are cheaper than those in other red light zones in the capital. Beer costs 55 to 85 baht, perhaps a little less during happy hour and a little more at some of the more popular spots, and the obligatory (soft) drinks for the girls cost a little more.

Khaosarn. Often billed as a backpacker's haven, where budget travelers go for cheap accommodation, Khaosarn transforms itself after dusk into an entertainment center unique for its western feel.

Soi 33. Located on sukhumvit Soi 33, this haunt offers more upscale bars and clubs. The young ladies who welcome customers to these establishments wear fancy silk dresses or evening gowns. The clubs on Soi 33 are sometimes referred to collectively as the 'artist bars' because several have adopted the names of famous European painters like Van Gogh, Renoir and Degas.

For the hippest nightlife update, check out Metro Magazine (100B/($2.30) available at bookstores. Featuring monthly listings of musical and artistic events as well as up-to-date info about the club scene, it's the best entertainment source in Bonkers. Both the Bangkok Post and The Nation offer daily listings of cultural events and performance schedules. The TAT (in Bangkok tel. 01155) will also provide schedule information. Your hotel concierge will also have listings.

Thailand's food and drinks street .........

Thailand's food and drinks street
SUKHUMVIT is Bangkok's main thoroughfare, stretching from the end of Ploenchit Road near Soi Nana all the way to the east. It doesn't have much in historical attractions but it is the best place to be if you are a night-owl. It is along Sukhumvit Road that most of Bangkok's popular red light districts are located - Nana Entertainment Plaza on Soi Nana (Sukhumvit 3), Soi Cowboy (Sukhumvit 23), the so-called Japanese Patpong near Sukhumvit 39, the so-called "Painters" bar row on Sukhumvit 33, the Washington Square group of watering holes, etc.

The long stretch is also a gourmet's paradise, Along the road are hundreds of Thai, Chinese and Western restaurants to choose from, especially in areas around major hotels. Most are of average quality and slightly above-average prices, white some are outstanding is both quality and price.

Cool massage......

Cool massage


YOUR visit to Thailand is never complete without sampling a traditional Thai massage, known to ease pain and relieve fatigue. Thai massage services are easily found around the city's main tourists haunts. If you're new to it, this is what happens in a massage session. You lie on a mat on the floor, fully clothed except for shoes and socks. The masseuse uses thumbs, palms, forearms, elbows, feet, knees and even shins to press and stretch your body. Sometimes you are asked to sit erect while she rubs your back and applies a gentle twist on your shoulder, waist, arms and even the feet. These techniques stretch the muscles back to their normal resting length, promoting better blood circulation though the entire body. You will feel relaxed, refreshed and much more flexible afterwards. 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).

Nana Star of the night

Nana Star of the night


Every city in the world has a corner where the urge of libido dictates business. Every corner has a niche where flirting is not considered licentious but away of life. Surely, in Bangkok we should have a space where we can be a little wayward, if we get bored as saints sometimes.

The No. 1 nightspot for men (and some women 'nightwols' and 'barhopper') is Soi Nana on Sukhumvit Road. More aptly named Nana Entertainment Plaza, it is the present-day star of the night scene rivaling the famous Patpong red-light district.

Undoubted, what made Nana as popular as it is today is due to the lower prices of drinks, apart from the beautiful girls and good music. The bars usually do not charge entrance fees and posses no hidden charges, and no rip-off.

Nana is tamer, even gentler than Patpong. There is no forcing you to patronize their services, neither to buy something. You can walk in a bar without even asking for a drink and nobody will mind. You can sit and walk out any time, as well if that's what you wish., with hardly a fuss… unless you have had one too many and have forgotten to pay your "check bin," of course.

Nana was originally envisioned as heaven for expats who dislike to be mistaken for the moneyed tourists. Now, however in the last two years since its popularity rating has surged - Nana caters to all sorts of customers. From suit-wearing Japanese and Western businessmen to mobile phone-toting Thais; from rough, coolie to suave, clean shaven sophisticates.

The regulars who go there seem to have become part of the scene.

If you go a to bar a few times, these expats will recognized you, and welcome you with a smile, willing to waste a bit of time, swap a story or two with you, or even take you on a tour around the plaza, their favorite watering hole.

They seem to have lost any inhibitions they might have in their homelands, and feel safe on this peace of turf.

Special thanks! for information from "What's on after dark" and "What's on this week"