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Is it Really Worth Making a Trip to Bangkok Now?


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The Bangkok night life you knew a year or more back is not here any more. It may or may not come back and you may or may not consider the changes to Bangkok?s nightlife significant. But if you are planning on making a holiday trip over here in the next few months for Bangkok?s nightlife, you owe it to yourself to objectively consider the current situation before making the significant investment of time and money that a trip to Thailand from the US or Europe requires. Let?s look at the facts:

 

1. Bars Close at 1:00 am. Sometimes it is 15 or 30 minutes later, and a month or so back it was as early as midnight on occasions, but Bangkok now provides its visitors with earlier closing times than where you are probably coming from. Does it affect the nightlife? Some here clearly disagree with my opinion on this matter, but I think it very obviously does. The ambience is simply not the same with such early closing times. If you are only here for a shag or like to troll streets and dark parking lots full of katoeys, I guess it doesn?t matter, but if you want a vibrant and interesting nightlife ? something that Bangkok was starting to develop before the crackdown - you won?t find it here now.

 

2. No Showing. You will see more erotic shows in a San Francisco strip club than you will in Bangkok now. A few dancers here and there will flash a bit, but if you are expecting the wide open entertainment Bangkok had a short while back, forget it.

 

3. Urine Tests & Passports. There is no disputing that they happen, and that Farangs do get caught up in raids where a fun night out turns into a nightmare where you are locked in a bar or disco for hours to queue for a urine test and possibly hours more if you didn?t bring your original passport. If you are coming from Europe or the US, you will be surprised at how brusquely you are treated and what it feels like to trapped in a disco or bar for hours while this is happening; it is not something you are likely to experience in the West. You have no rights. Some argue that it is unlikely to happen to an individual tourist on a holiday in Bangkok, and I am sure they are right that the odds are less than 50%. But knowing that it could happen at anytime really does put the damper on an evening out for me.

 

4. Terrorist Tension. A punter died at beer bar in the far south yesterday. Nothing has happened in Bangkok yet, but after what happened earlier this week, and knowing how angry people are in the South, I don?t feel entirely comfortable now in any of the nightlife venues. I am sure there are others who will say they don?t give it a second thought. But knowing how tense things are here now, and that it will probably get worse, a dark pall has been cast over the nightlife scene. Everyone I know here is now more seriously thinking: "Bali - could it happen here?" I am not the only one; some of the BGs are very concerned. I live here, but when I look at all the other changes that have occurrred over the past year or so and then factor in how truly bad things have turned in the South and the very good possibility of a reprisal somwhere in Bangkok, I don't think I would fly 12 or 18 hours out of my way now.

 

When you add it all up, Bangkok is a decidedly less interesting place to visit now than it was until a year or so back. Everyone has to make their own decisions and will weigh these factors differently, but if you are coming here expecting to find the Bangkok you knew last year, you won?t find it this holiday season.

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Good post Gadfly.

 

Thanks for putting out the warnings.

 

People can still have a good time, but for me, I stay out of the bars after 11:00PM. I also avoid certain other places.

 

I guess Gadfly, telling anybody about anything sounds similar to talking to the wall. Actually, talking to the wall is better.

 

My question is: Does Nana Plaza have unlocked back exit doors?

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Neo said:

As you have opened numerous threads describing how bad things are, why is it you seem to continue going back to the very places you complain of so much? :dunno:

It appears he gets off by complaining. Note his handle...(from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition):

gad·fly n

1. A persistent irritating critic; a nuisance.

2. One that acts as a provocative stimulus; a goad.

 

Cheers,

SD

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Ummmm I will be there Thursday ,

 

I am sure it will be interesting , it always is !

 

There are places showing , just not as many and not all the time,

As far as closing times , well I am not one to stay up till 2am so an hour or so earlier does not bother me.

 

But random drug , passport checks do bother me and if I got caught up in that it might change my plans to return ,

but that would depend on how I was treated by the police.

 

I guess part of it is why you go to BKK,

if its for 24hr partying and 24hr Go-Gos, well then you are going to hate it.

I "explore" during the day , take a nap late afternoon and then go out at 8-9pm for a few more hours.

 

I will let you guys know if the sky is falling , but I really doubt it

 

In the Endless Summer movie they always said ,

"you should have been here yesterday" the waves were great then,

you cannot live on yesterdays , live for today and hope for tommarow :)

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You couldn't have posted this a few days before I bought my ticket rather than a few days after, could you?:doah:

 

My visit's going to be over New Year and surely it can't be that much worse than last January when gogos weren't showing, there were occasional piss-tests and most places closed at 1.30-1.45! It's much worse than Feb 2003 though - I'll give you that.

 

(Hey, more proof that you're not me! Suadam doesn't seem to hate my guts! :))

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