Thailand is both famous and notorious for its nightlife. Thailand’s Famous Nightlife is second to none! The whole world is aware of the high-profile sex industry. Even in the faraway West African country of Benin, one can find a ‘Pattaya Pub’ named after the Thai seaside resort of the same name.
Any visit to tourist areas of Bangkok, Pattaya, or Patong soon reveals why this is the case. It is prostitution on an industrial scale. In reality, it may be high profile but it is also confined to very few geographical areas and is actually very easily avoided if you find it upsetting.
Thailand has plenty more to offer the party animal, particularly in Bangkok where having a good time is virtually a municipal directive.
Big Beautiful Bangkok
Bangkok is a city that never sleeps despite government attempts to put it to bed soon after midnight. Where ever you go at night the surreal is often just around the corner and it is usually packed.
Bars, nightclubs, go-go bars, and cabarets are just a few of this city’s nocturnal offerings.
The sleazy areas are concentrated around Sukhumvit and Patpong. Sukhumvit’s Nana Plaza and Soi cowboy are wholly given over to single foreign males being attended to by droves of scantily clad peasant girls from Thailand’s poverty-stricken northeast.
Patpong too is famous as a red-light district but it has now evolved into a mainstream tourist attraction with a busy night market, live music, and eateries. From 7 pm to 2 am it is packed with tourists, touts, and showgirls.
Music pumps out from every doorway and the whole throng shuffles slowly along narrow, overcrowded pathways bathed in the glow of neon and strip lighting.
It is an exciting assault on all the senses. It is also a place to keep a close eye on your wallet.
Nearby Silom Soi 4 is home to some painfully fashionable nightclubs. Also in the same vein is the nightclub strip called RCA (Royal City Avenue) off Phetchaburi. Sukhumvit, from Soi 1 to Soi 53 (Thonglor), is a human ant heap of hostess bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and all-night soup stalls selling liquor.
The variety is incredible. From the sleazy centers of sex tourism on Soi 4 to the ‘Bed Supper Club’ on Soi 11, Bangkok’s trendiest nightclub is packed with the rich and fashionable cream of Thai society.
From the Very English Bull’s Head on Soi 33 where ex-pat Brits discuss weather and cricket to the Coliseum near Soi 36 where working-class Thais pack a vast auditorium to watch bawdy transvestite cabaret and listen to cover versions of chart hits. They manage to both eat and dance simultaneously.
Tawa Deng on Rama III is in the same vein but bigger. It is a vast Thai-German beer hall where the show includes ballads, stand-up comedy, and mime re-enactments of episodes from ancient Thai history. It’s a great place to see how middle-class Thais enjoy themselves.
Many of the major hotels in central Bangkok also have discos. They are fashionable one month and abandoned the next.
Old Town Bangkok
The area of Banghlamphu in the old part of Bangkok used to be very much the preserve of pajama-clad, body-pierced backpackers but in recent years that has changed.
Although the budget travelers are still there in force, the famous Khao San Road and its environs have been swept by a new culture of chic nightclubs, trendy cocktail bars, and fusion restaurants inspired by young Thai students from the nearby university.
On a Saturday night, it is a deafening mixture of western tie-dye grunge and Bangkok’s most fluffy, hair-gelled finest.
Pattaya and Phuket’s Patong area are the resorts where the nightlife is liveliest.
Both offer a combination of late-night beer bars, go-go bars, and discos all at top volume. Pattaya also attracts a fair number of criminals, both Thai and foreign, so it is important to not be drawn into any trouble.
Thailand’s Famous Nightlife
Thai people love to party so any major town in Thailand, including Bangkok, has open-air beer gardens with live music, dancers, and often a giant screen showing English premier league soccer.
There will also be a disco or two and the ubiquitous street karaoke.
Eating, dancing, and having fun is an integral part of the Thai lifestyle. This makes it a great country for a party.
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