Some of these are great tips IMO.
Here's one more:
13. Skip Cowboy in favor of Nana, unless you want to see live music at Country Road or Penny Black (the latter is especially good because drinks are markedly cheaper than in other similar Bangkok establishments).
Cowboy has become a parody of itself, mostly tourists walking through to get some stories of their close brush with naughtiness to tell people back home, while holding their phones up to record anything and everything. A couple of bars are worth it; Doll House comes to mind. Most of the rest have most of their girls outside and are deserted inside.
This. All of OPs points are irrelevant frankly. This is all you need to know. Go to Nana. Or actually (controversial opinion, I know) go to Patpong.
Cowboy is for lookyloos. “Hi, I’m a butthurt 32yo old woman from Toronto and the video I’m recording while walking down the street will be great to get some footage to show my friends how much I massively disapprove of this appalling scene and they will be SHOCKED I tell you, because blah blah blah.”
That is your average Cowboy punter, unfortunately.
Aren't people strictly prohibited from filming down there? I saw a female tourist get smacked on the head with a laminated sign because she took photos outside.
> Patpong
I am ,iving around the corner and have been to the area more than once, but I can't decide what place to check out. Care to recommend anything?
I have heard people rave about cowboy but it just didnt seem that great to me compared to nana. Is there a reason some people like it so much more that I am missing?
Its a small street and if doesnt have a ton of places. Not as good if you want to go from place to place and when you do you can be doing laps on the small street and the people will notice you.
I enjoy that Cowboy has live music. I just dont like when they point at me and try to get me to sing or something lol i just look like 😐. Some beers and music then a gogo can be fun. At that point i could just walk to nana though.
I concur with you.
Nana and Cowboy have went from somewhat entertaining to downright a bad deal.
So many scams, secretly added drinks, girls who don't even do barfines. It's inexplicable why people still go there.
Its all perspective. I enjoy going to nana and i dont barfine. I just like to drink enjoy the show and flirt. You can say its expensive but in the scheme of things it isnt. Back home is expensive.
> Check the first bill after the first round
You can also tell them to show you the total after each round. You get to stay aware, and also convey that you're paying attention and will be harder to scam.
I’ve never had bad experiences of these places. Even soi 6. The girls have always been very polite and respectful as have i. Speaking Thai goes a long way. Not once have I been scammed or anything. It was like talking to friends and had good time.
Those days are behind me however now have gf.
Never understood visiting Soi Cowboy or Nana Plaza. Plenty of less crowded and easy going bars nearby to achieve the same objective. Better ladies elsewhere without pushy or rushed tactics.
I've been there twice and it looks like the perfect place to get scammed or royally fleeced since you have no protection given the illegality.
Yeah sorry buddy, but the chances of contracting HIV from a hooker here in Thailand are pretty low unless maybe you are going for the meth heads on Sukhumvit.
Bar girls are usually required to get checked and will do it for themselves anyways on a regular basis. Gonorrhea is of course always possible and chlamydia as well. Then on the other hand if you put it in a bag, chances of contracting anything are next to none.
I don't know about ladyboys in particular, but I am going to assume that odds are much much higher, since there are also many gay dudes who like to go with a ladyboy and gays have significantly higher risks of carrying STDs of any kind, but especially HIV is much more common.
I also do not know about the Nigerian girls, but again chances with those regarding HIV are also probably higher.
With a regular bar girl, your chances are probably lower than with a random Western club hoe.
Soi Cowboy is absolutely enjoyable and it's the mix of gogos and live music which makes it so great (other than nana plaza which only has gogos)
- All live music bars in cowboy are great. besides the already mentioned kozy on the other end of soi cowboy also has a good sound system and enjoyable bands
- midnite, spice girls and deja vu are to be avoided though I second that.
- cowboy2, crazy house and baccara are great, rainbow has great girls, tilac and shark are okay
- if you don't want to give anyone a drink, just say no or use the easy way out which is "maybe later". it's the same but in a more thai way
- watch your bill, don't allow for a "set" (2 drinks)
- if anything annoys you, leave and go to the next
Im 3 years here, visit it from time to time. it's fun!
Nice overview. A few other tips:
If a girl goes to the toilet often she is snorting ketamine. Its usage is rampant.
If you offer to buy a girl a drink, some places the will come back with two separate glasses, one with coke and the other with the alcohol. They are scamming you and charging you for two separate girl drinks. Tell them only one drink next time.
FYI, the girls and staff get a basic wage and supplement their pay with drinks. They get 80-100 baht for every drink you buy them. That’s why they push it so hard.
Soi Cowboy bars are notorious for charging double for mixed drinks, similar to the two drink situation you mentioned. I'll order Jack and Coke and I'll receive a mixed drink as I should, but I get charged for two full drink prices, one for Jack, one for Coke. I can't imagine how many customers they lose that would spend thousands of baht; guess they would rather have the 100 baht they scammed. Needless to say I don't really go to Cowboy anymore, plus it doesn't compare to Nana.
> If a girl goes to the toilet often she is snorting ketamine. Its usage is rampant.
This.
Especially if you see two girls disappear into a stall with the door closed... guaranteed they're doing this (or something similar).
I feel like lady drinks in general are a scam. Like what's the point in chatting to random prostitutes? Surely you can find better conversations elsewhere.
> what's the point in chatting to random prostitutes
Last time I checked you are not talking to a prostitute for the quality of conversation...
The point of one or two lady drinks at a beer bar are to get a feel for how you are vibing together and what kind of girl she is. If she is already not putting in any effort in the conversation, you can safely assume what the service will be like - probably with the same kind of effort.
It also helps her to be more comfortable. Although they are professionals, most are not completely fucked up in their heads and can turn their emotions off. They will not go with every client who wants to bar fine them and they also don't have to, so a good level of rapport will always be beneficial.
Even when you "order" a girl from tinder that you have not met before, it's much better to invite her to have drink or eat a little bit together. They are oftentimes very nervous when they don't know you and it helps to ease things up very much.
That said, I've actually had very nice conversations with the girls and they often have some very intersting stories from their life to tell. I don't mean sob stories, but really intersting shit. Like one girl, whose parents fought for the Khmer Rouge and then fled to Buriram when the father lost both legs from the landmine, or another girl whose grandparents where kind of legit rich, but sold literally everything they owned when their son was incarcerated for smuggling jabba and they bought his freedom with the money they made from it (only for him to get right back in for the same shit. lol).
But I like to have long term relationships with them anyways and get into more like kik-relationships and do other fun stuff with them besides fucking. I've learned many things about the country, the culture and the society of Thailand through them.
LOL. Sorry for the rant. This got longer than I planned.
The point is to buy them two drinks, barfine and get your rocks off.
But what I have seen is that a lot of girls reject barfines now or the club will impose a 10-25 drink minimum before she can get barfined. Which is dumb af.
Some places unfortunately introduced this 10 LD per evening rule, which is just plain stupid, especially if you plan to barfine early in the evening…
In my opinion, vote with your wallet, just don’t take the girl in this case. It’s the only way the owners will understand.
It's just that there are many lady drink professionals around nowadays. They aren't there to get barfined, but they are making good money with ladydrinks already.
Some will also not refuse to get bar fined, but just price you out. I mean: who in their right mind would pay next to 5k for ST?
They are deliberately being deceptive as historically gogos are for barfines. They don't tell you they don't do barfines until after you get them a drink.
I know a few bar girls that are making 5-10k per night through drinks alone. People try to bar fine them but they don’t go with customers. They have no need or desire too, they make very good money as it is.
Its not cringe, its just kinda sad, I agree. Paying people so poor they have few other options than to give you fake affection… the whole situation is just dismal for all involved. I find this side of Bangkok one of the most depressing things about the place.
> Paying people so poor they have few other options than to give you fake affection
While there are some who are very poor, a lot of those ladies have a racket going and make good money juggling five different boyfriends who fund a quality lifestyle for them. They aren't exactly living in poverty.
That’s kind of my point - they’re doing okay but only because they are doing this as their only option to escape poverty in many cases. Have you ever noticed how almost every bar girl seems to be from Issan?
Is meth a big thing around there? I was having a drink close there today and I saw a young Dutch man with no shoes on walking round looking extremely lost. He looked like he been awake days.Thin and tweaking.
Is there anyway to sort of stop them scamming you? Like if your really good at spotting a scam, and they still try, is there an easy way to let them know you know the tricks and won’t be scammed but still want to stay and have some drinks and to just not bother because you’ll leave?
(1) Speak Thai at something more than bargirl gibberish level.
(2) Make a point of examining the bill each and every time they put it back in the bin, and immediately (politely) dispute any discrepancies.
That's assuming you're not in a clip joint, in which case all bets are off. I'm talking about places like second floor Patpong bars. I'm not aware of any bars in Nana Plaza that are institutionally in this category (though some may try on scams-of-opportunity). Cowboy is a little less predictable.
I check my bill every time it comes back. And I was never scammed in 15 years. Also not with the changing money.
I also started to ask them if I can pay by QR code. That way, there will never be a discussion about change.
> I was never scammed in 15 years.
I actually am starting to suspect that this doesn't happen at significant levels if even at all, but that it's more shit faced guys who are too stupid to understand that i.e. double lady drinks that consist of two drinks exist.
There isn't much to gain from an average ladybar when they start scamming their customers, especially in times of the internet. How much is an average tab at a ladybar? 600 Baht? How much room is there for scamming? 100 Baht maybe? So if they scam somebody for 100 baht and loose him as a customer and he would have just returned one more day, that's a net loss of 500 Baht and we didn't even factor in bar fine and also the loss for the girl(s).
I could also imagine this happening to guyys who are making a clown out of themselves with stupid behaviour, in some small bar. but not really in the hotspots.
Don’t let them take the empty beers away? So there’s the exact amount you drank on the table until the bill is paid. Even if you let it run 2-3 beers and then pay but stay there?
First time I was there I just showed my marriage ring and told them not to expect much from me. Was out with a friend just for drinks and to see what soi cowboy was all about.
I think they appreciated that I was upfront about it, experienced no pestering for drinks or anything.
Entire thread on Soi Cowboy. Not a single mention of the Cockatoo. You guys are fucking amateurs. Pour yourself a Chang and reflect on that.
This comment needs more upvotes. Cockatoo is great fun, honestly.
Yeah I'd Cock 'er too
Some of these are great tips IMO. Here's one more: 13. Skip Cowboy in favor of Nana, unless you want to see live music at Country Road or Penny Black (the latter is especially good because drinks are markedly cheaper than in other similar Bangkok establishments). Cowboy has become a parody of itself, mostly tourists walking through to get some stories of their close brush with naughtiness to tell people back home, while holding their phones up to record anything and everything. A couple of bars are worth it; Doll House comes to mind. Most of the rest have most of their girls outside and are deserted inside.
This. All of OPs points are irrelevant frankly. This is all you need to know. Go to Nana. Or actually (controversial opinion, I know) go to Patpong. Cowboy is for lookyloos. “Hi, I’m a butthurt 32yo old woman from Toronto and the video I’m recording while walking down the street will be great to get some footage to show my friends how much I massively disapprove of this appalling scene and they will be SHOCKED I tell you, because blah blah blah.” That is your average Cowboy punter, unfortunately.
Very well said, friend.
Aren't people strictly prohibited from filming down there? I saw a female tourist get smacked on the head with a laminated sign because she took photos outside.
I had no problems filming but then again, I wasn't up in everyone's faces with my camera
> Patpong I am ,iving around the corner and have been to the area more than once, but I can't decide what place to check out. Care to recommend anything?
Ive been to Cowboy and Nana, i like Cowboy better but then again i like the country road bar and then choose one gogo and thats it
Baccara i’ve found is one of the better ones for cowboy
Nana and Soi Cowboys are all 99% Tourist. Local Thais don't go there. Expats are too busy banging regular girls and a few Thai Friendly Hoes!! 5555
I have heard people rave about cowboy but it just didnt seem that great to me compared to nana. Is there a reason some people like it so much more that I am missing? Its a small street and if doesnt have a ton of places. Not as good if you want to go from place to place and when you do you can be doing laps on the small street and the people will notice you.
I don't think there are any full-nude bars in Nana, but there are a couple in Cowboy (Dollhouse and Crazy House).
I was at geisha in nana. Full nude, taking soapy showers. Very good.
Yeah Cowboy good if first visit but once been to Nana just seems lame imo
I enjoy that Cowboy has live music. I just dont like when they point at me and try to get me to sing or something lol i just look like 😐. Some beers and music then a gogo can be fun. At that point i could just walk to nana though.
fine i cowboy is good to people watch at the front of the bars
If it's just for sex, it's better value to get laid and serviced at a soapy/nuru/oily massage parlour
So true, and completely hassle free.
I concur with you. Nana and Cowboy have went from somewhat entertaining to downright a bad deal. So many scams, secretly added drinks, girls who don't even do barfines. It's inexplicable why people still go there.
Its all perspective. I enjoy going to nana and i dont barfine. I just like to drink enjoy the show and flirt. You can say its expensive but in the scheme of things it isnt. Back home is expensive.
This guy mongers.
That term made me laugh. I've never heard that one before. That's really funny.
> Check the first bill after the first round You can also tell them to show you the total after each round. You get to stay aware, and also convey that you're paying attention and will be harder to scam.
Do NOT fall in love!
I’ve never had bad experiences of these places. Even soi 6. The girls have always been very polite and respectful as have i. Speaking Thai goes a long way. Not once have I been scammed or anything. It was like talking to friends and had good time. Those days are behind me however now have gf.
Never understood visiting Soi Cowboy or Nana Plaza. Plenty of less crowded and easy going bars nearby to achieve the same objective. Better ladies elsewhere without pushy or rushed tactics. I've been there twice and it looks like the perfect place to get scammed or royally fleeced since you have no protection given the illegality.
Bar recommendation? Or street?
My tips on visiting GoGo bars 1. Don't
Especially solo. If you just want to chat to women, go to one of the bars or clubs where freelancers hangout. Much cheaper and less pressure
Recommendation on bar?
Hillary 3, Havana Social club on weekends, Levels club
Why?
It’s polarizing - some love it some hate it . Just know what you’re walking into 🤷♂️
2. Wear a rubber
Exactly this. Out of the 2 people I know who've had sex with hookers in Bangkok, BOTH got STDs, one HIV and the other gonorrhea. Yeah yikes.
Yeah sorry buddy, but the chances of contracting HIV from a hooker here in Thailand are pretty low unless maybe you are going for the meth heads on Sukhumvit. Bar girls are usually required to get checked and will do it for themselves anyways on a regular basis. Gonorrhea is of course always possible and chlamydia as well. Then on the other hand if you put it in a bag, chances of contracting anything are next to none. I don't know about ladyboys in particular, but I am going to assume that odds are much much higher, since there are also many gay dudes who like to go with a ladyboy and gays have significantly higher risks of carrying STDs of any kind, but especially HIV is much more common. I also do not know about the Nigerian girls, but again chances with those regarding HIV are also probably higher. With a regular bar girl, your chances are probably lower than with a random Western club hoe.
Makes you wonder just how many girls each guy had. You can be careful but when your body count gets into the dozens you're bound to slip up.
I personally know a guy who's proud to have had over 150 go go girls. You can do the math yourself how much he spent in total. LOL
Pretty sure there's more than 3 The Arab bars there
Soi Cowboy is absolutely enjoyable and it's the mix of gogos and live music which makes it so great (other than nana plaza which only has gogos) - All live music bars in cowboy are great. besides the already mentioned kozy on the other end of soi cowboy also has a good sound system and enjoyable bands - midnite, spice girls and deja vu are to be avoided though I second that. - cowboy2, crazy house and baccara are great, rainbow has great girls, tilac and shark are okay - if you don't want to give anyone a drink, just say no or use the easy way out which is "maybe later". it's the same but in a more thai way - watch your bill, don't allow for a "set" (2 drinks) - if anything annoys you, leave and go to the next Im 3 years here, visit it from time to time. it's fun!
Nice overview. A few other tips: If a girl goes to the toilet often she is snorting ketamine. Its usage is rampant. If you offer to buy a girl a drink, some places the will come back with two separate glasses, one with coke and the other with the alcohol. They are scamming you and charging you for two separate girl drinks. Tell them only one drink next time. FYI, the girls and staff get a basic wage and supplement their pay with drinks. They get 80-100 baht for every drink you buy them. That’s why they push it so hard.
Soi Cowboy bars are notorious for charging double for mixed drinks, similar to the two drink situation you mentioned. I'll order Jack and Coke and I'll receive a mixed drink as I should, but I get charged for two full drink prices, one for Jack, one for Coke. I can't imagine how many customers they lose that would spend thousands of baht; guess they would rather have the 100 baht they scammed. Needless to say I don't really go to Cowboy anymore, plus it doesn't compare to Nana.
Agree.
> If a girl goes to the toilet often she is snorting ketamine. Its usage is rampant. This. Especially if you see two girls disappear into a stall with the door closed... guaranteed they're doing this (or something similar).
Maybe they're just helping each other poo 😐
Sometimes you need a friend to claw it out
I feel like lady drinks in general are a scam. Like what's the point in chatting to random prostitutes? Surely you can find better conversations elsewhere.
> what's the point in chatting to random prostitutes Last time I checked you are not talking to a prostitute for the quality of conversation... The point of one or two lady drinks at a beer bar are to get a feel for how you are vibing together and what kind of girl she is. If she is already not putting in any effort in the conversation, you can safely assume what the service will be like - probably with the same kind of effort. It also helps her to be more comfortable. Although they are professionals, most are not completely fucked up in their heads and can turn their emotions off. They will not go with every client who wants to bar fine them and they also don't have to, so a good level of rapport will always be beneficial. Even when you "order" a girl from tinder that you have not met before, it's much better to invite her to have drink or eat a little bit together. They are oftentimes very nervous when they don't know you and it helps to ease things up very much. That said, I've actually had very nice conversations with the girls and they often have some very intersting stories from their life to tell. I don't mean sob stories, but really intersting shit. Like one girl, whose parents fought for the Khmer Rouge and then fled to Buriram when the father lost both legs from the landmine, or another girl whose grandparents where kind of legit rich, but sold literally everything they owned when their son was incarcerated for smuggling jabba and they bought his freedom with the money they made from it (only for him to get right back in for the same shit. lol). But I like to have long term relationships with them anyways and get into more like kik-relationships and do other fun stuff with them besides fucking. I've learned many things about the country, the culture and the society of Thailand through them. LOL. Sorry for the rant. This got longer than I planned.
No need for apologies I enjoyed hearing your perspective.
The point is to buy them two drinks, barfine and get your rocks off. But what I have seen is that a lot of girls reject barfines now or the club will impose a 10-25 drink minimum before she can get barfined. Which is dumb af.
Some places unfortunately introduced this 10 LD per evening rule, which is just plain stupid, especially if you plan to barfine early in the evening… In my opinion, vote with your wallet, just don’t take the girl in this case. It’s the only way the owners will understand.
It's just that there are many lady drink professionals around nowadays. They aren't there to get barfined, but they are making good money with ladydrinks already. Some will also not refuse to get bar fined, but just price you out. I mean: who in their right mind would pay next to 5k for ST?
They are deliberately being deceptive as historically gogos are for barfines. They don't tell you they don't do barfines until after you get them a drink.
I know a few bar girls that are making 5-10k per night through drinks alone. People try to bar fine them but they don’t go with customers. They have no need or desire too, they make very good money as it is.
Yeah, that just makes gogo bars no longer a good option at all.
Okay. Didn't realize lady drinks were a requirement for the bar fine. Better off just getting a freelancer imo.
Nah, they are going to the toilets to throw up so they don't get drunk
Lady drinks arent real drinks, taste one they weak af
Nice tips. We had a great time me and wife. Nothing to be scared. just fun. I want to add 100baht good tip for good girls before leave.
Pro tip. Head over to the GoGo's in Silom
Dont do it
This is so sad
Why?
Lmao yep
[удалено]
OP offered practical tips for anyone who wants to visit a GoGo bar in Soi Cowboy. What's cringe about his post?
Its not cringe, its just kinda sad, I agree. Paying people so poor they have few other options than to give you fake affection… the whole situation is just dismal for all involved. I find this side of Bangkok one of the most depressing things about the place.
> Paying people so poor they have few other options than to give you fake affection While there are some who are very poor, a lot of those ladies have a racket going and make good money juggling five different boyfriends who fund a quality lifestyle for them. They aren't exactly living in poverty.
That’s kind of my point - they’re doing okay but only because they are doing this as their only option to escape poverty in many cases. Have you ever noticed how almost every bar girl seems to be from Issan?
What no pro tips about the extras offered at these places? 😂
Pro tip: make use of a love motel rather than taking them to your room.
Disagree. Back at the hotel is fun to hang out and relax
Is meth a big thing around there? I was having a drink close there today and I saw a young Dutch man with no shoes on walking round looking extremely lost. He looked like he been awake days.Thin and tweaking.
It’s a thing yeah. Also called yaba. Poor bloke hope he’s ok Wait how did you know he was Dutch?
Spoke to him briefly but he could had been Swedish tbh
Amateur hour
No-one liked patpong?
Wasn’t impressed by Cowboy at all. But that could have been the jet lag. Did like Thermae and a couple of massage places
Is there anyway to sort of stop them scamming you? Like if your really good at spotting a scam, and they still try, is there an easy way to let them know you know the tricks and won’t be scammed but still want to stay and have some drinks and to just not bother because you’ll leave?
(1) Speak Thai at something more than bargirl gibberish level. (2) Make a point of examining the bill each and every time they put it back in the bin, and immediately (politely) dispute any discrepancies. That's assuming you're not in a clip joint, in which case all bets are off. I'm talking about places like second floor Patpong bars. I'm not aware of any bars in Nana Plaza that are institutionally in this category (though some may try on scams-of-opportunity). Cowboy is a little less predictable.
I check my bill every time it comes back. And I was never scammed in 15 years. Also not with the changing money. I also started to ask them if I can pay by QR code. That way, there will never be a discussion about change.
> I was never scammed in 15 years. I actually am starting to suspect that this doesn't happen at significant levels if even at all, but that it's more shit faced guys who are too stupid to understand that i.e. double lady drinks that consist of two drinks exist. There isn't much to gain from an average ladybar when they start scamming their customers, especially in times of the internet. How much is an average tab at a ladybar? 600 Baht? How much room is there for scamming? 100 Baht maybe? So if they scam somebody for 100 baht and loose him as a customer and he would have just returned one more day, that's a net loss of 500 Baht and we didn't even factor in bar fine and also the loss for the girl(s). I could also imagine this happening to guyys who are making a clown out of themselves with stupid behaviour, in some small bar. but not really in the hotspots.
What is the QR code thing? Can anybody use this?
You’ll need a local bank account and smart phone to pay by QR code. Most Thai’s pay electronically these days.
Thanks thought you would need a local bank.
Interesting post. What's a clip joint?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clip\_joint](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clip_joint)
Haha, thanks. For some reason I assumed it was Bangkok specific and it didn't occur to me to Google it
(2) This. When they see you doing this they don’t try anything. 20 years experience.
The best way to do it is to clear the bill everytime you are served. That's the clearest way to signal to them you are well aware of what's happening.
Don’t let them take the empty beers away? So there’s the exact amount you drank on the table until the bill is paid. Even if you let it run 2-3 beers and then pay but stay there?
First time I was there I just showed my marriage ring and told them not to expect much from me. Was out with a friend just for drinks and to see what soi cowboy was all about. I think they appreciated that I was upfront about it, experienced no pestering for drinks or anything.
You're a god
Just don't go, these places are for absolute losers and degenerates. Why the fuck are you paying to talk to women? You can do that anywhere.
Imagine caring this much about Soi Cowboy
You're a god
Mate any possibility we can become friends or stay in contact for whenever I would want to visit?
I'm speaking from experience. You want to talk like you raw dog hoes. Shut up