What Is Going On In Bangkok Nightlife?

[Nasiadai]

Huumlar, Coss,

 

Patpong, Soi Cowboy, NEP, and in general lower Sukumvhit is much too expensive for the normal western holidaymaker now. One can spend an evening at NEP or SC – yes, of course – but you have to pay attention what you are doing and how much you are spending:

 

how many drinks you drink

how many lady drinks you order

can you barfine a nice gogo girl? Bf about 800 – 1000 Baht and long time 3000 – 4000 Baht or even more. Not bad!

A short calculation for one evening at NEP, drinking, barhopping, enjoying the girls:

 

* 15 drinks for me, Singha, coffee, soft drinks = about 2500 Baht

* 5 lady drinks = about 800 Baht

* bafine for a girl = 1000 Baht

* LT for the girl, let us say = 3500 Baht

* a snack together with girl in the night – before moving to tthe hotel – about 200 Baht

 

Together: 8000 Baht for a night out and a girl

 

in Euro: about 190 Euro

in US-Dollar = about 258 Dollar

 

oh my goodnees! Not bad.

 

Bakwahn

Hamburg Bangkok Düsseldorf

[torrenova]

Outside the post 1997 crash and the period immediately afterwards, Thailand has never been a cheap place really. Perhaps around mid 2004 for GBP folk when it hit 75 baht again. I was on the ground though then and people did seem to have more money.

 

What has changed is the demands and from all corners.

 

Doubtless if you went back over the forums you'd find posts by then well respected posters, saying they would never pay more than Bt400 for a go-go barfine or more than Bt1500 LT for a top stunner but my guess is that either they are or they have gone the way of Washington Square and are now history.

 

I've had a few months on the ground again recently and found that hotels were somewhat good bargains (relative) again. $100 5* places seem good value to me and I see you can now stay the the Aspen Suites for a little over Bt1000 a night if the location suits.

 

However, drinks have gone daft. Bt130 or so for a beer in little more than a hut of a bar around Nana seems OTT and go-gos at Bt170 or so seem harsh. Then again, the biggest con is the LDs at Bt150 to Bt250 and this can be a thimble of watered down tequila, swigged in a second and with the girl on her way for the next one. The old adage of paying for her time through LDs seems to have flown the nest.

 

$100 to $150 for a girl would seem nuts to anyone who has been around for a decade or more and yet the younger brigade seem to lap it up with quite low expectations. Perhaps their being ripped off in Ibiza has something to do with it because the rationale I've heard is that they can spend well there and not be guaranteed any form of sex. At least the Thai working girls still offer that, though less of it it seems.

 

Racking through $500 a day for a decent hotel, going out and a partner to come home with seems top heavy I'll admit but unless you are very frugal and stay in a dump, hitting Bt8-10k a day would seems fairly easy if drinking in the entertainment slots. Of course, options exist for lower expenditure but not many if you want to sample the wares at the more popular places.

 

Pattaya too is afflicted but to a lesser degree. A quick roll call the other month had many in the bars saying they would be happy with Bt1500 LT but would like two grand. I guess some would settle for a single note of the right colour.

 

So for me, the right noises come from the hotels and the food (as always) but the BFs and the LD scams are where you need to be more careful.

[jon46]

I walked thru Patpong 1 early yesterday evening and was surprised that many of the bars are closed and shops selling knocked off brands.

 

Since it was early (around 9pm), I did not go in to any bars but noted beer prices posted150 baht

[Flashermac]

Pay a visit to Panthip Plaza. I was shocked at how empty it is. Most of the smaller shops are gone, especially the ones that sold pirated software and movies. I went to Panthip Plaza in Ngamwongwan last month and it was the same. I'd say up to 80% of the shops have closed, even some of the fairly large ones that sold hardware. There definitely must have been a crackdown on the pirates since the coup, but I blame the economy for the closing of the legitimate harware shops. I bought a Wifi adaptor for my PC from a cute gal in one of the few stalls still open, and she told me that business was terrible these days.

[jitagawn]

Well I am not at all aware of the go go prices... a Barfine alone is 1000 baht?

 

Is this correct???

 

What happened to 600 bt no more?

[Flashermac]

The manager of the Doll House told me the BGs would ask for 3,000 baht ST, if they could get it. But they'd settle for 2,000. As far as I know, the BF is still 600 there. But I'm sure it is much more than that at the flashy "Arab bars" on Cowboy. A friend did get an ST at Moonshine a year or so ago for 1,500 baht (1,000 for the BG and 500 for the room). But that was at 7pm, before things really got going. Cute gal too. NEP is supposed to be more expensive these days than Patpong. I don't really know, since I haven't been to either one in several years.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"There definitely must have been a crackdown on the pirates since the coup"

 

Not necessarily. It has become a lot easier to download movies from the Internet. Why buy a CD if you can download for free?

 

Sanuk!

[Specialist]

I've only been to Panthip Plaza once, several years ago. Even then, business did not appear to be healthy.

 

[radioman]

Most 10 year olds today can torrent download anything they want. The old bricks n mortar pirate software shop is just about dead I'd have thought

[YimSiam]

Reasons for the increase of prices:

 

1. Inflation

The argument of inflation is important, but does not explain everything.

There is an inflation of about 4 % to 5 % per year in Thailand. Roughly.

That explains a part of the price rise. Yes.

 

2. Western incomes stagnate

Are wages and salaries increased by 50% in the last 10 years in the western countries?

No! Not in the USA and not in Germany.

I think that I know the economical development of the western countries fairly, tolerably.

 

3. The Thai Baht is stabel

The Thai Baht is relatively stabel to Western currencies!

In 2003 and 2004 I got 50 to 52 Baht for the Euro.

I remember that the US-Dollar paid 43 to 46 for the Baht in those years.

 

Today I get 44 Baht for the Euro only.

The Dollar 33 only.

 

4. The positive economic development of Thailand in the last decades

Thailand has been changed from a Third World Country into a well emerging nation! The Thai economy has millions of new jobs in the industry

and the service sector; well paid for Thai standards; and the economy is growing. So there are more jobs for millions of Thais; for our girls too.

 

 

 

Right - check out a graph of the dollar-baht historical exchange rate from the 80s through today ( http://www.tradingec...ailand/currency ) and you'll see that those of us who were around in the late nineties through about 2006, and to a lesser degree onwards for a few more years, were able to enjoy the fruits of the baht crash and SE Asia crisis - the steady 25/dollar went nuts for a few years, and we wandered the streets with a precious commodity flying out of our hands - nice reliable valuable currencies! Things have stabilized now, that heady time is over (where economic development - transitory as it was - had apparently taken place so it wasn't a third-world/developing world 'feeling' place in Bangkok at least, but still our currencies were kicking their ass and we lived like lords). That's over, plus the other developments Nasiadai notes.

 

For me, actually I don't care much - I'm one of those assholes who comes in from a pretty good overseas gig with RnR, for a few days of wild abandon, throws my baht around like a jackass, then heads back out to nurse my hangover to make more money, and those short visits don't hurt very much. But if I was one of the longer term people in Thailand, and still committed to going out alot, or one of those who are saving money back home and making an annual trip on savings, the price change would be a hit - and I would head to Pattaya.

 

Curious what the Russian rouble smackdown has done to Pattaya - any word from the front-lines down there? Have the mobsters vanished and the hookers multiplied?

 

YimSiam