inanelymad
11-03-2009, 03:43 PM
I’m on my first trip to Thailand, so this is more a review by a newbie for all those out there thinking of heading this way.
So, here are my observations:
Bangkok itself is not as dirty or smoggy as some people make it out to be. Only once have I felt choked by the car fumes and that was a busy, but off the beaten path road. But there is plenty of traffic. I haven’t seen much trash around like many other cities have. I would just say there is a general state of disrepair, you definitely need to watch where you walk because the sidewalks start and stop randomly. The people are generally friendly, but even in the tourist areas they don’t speak as much English as some would lead you to believe. That said, its not difficult to get by at all. Stick to the street food, its cheap and good. Like anywhere, if you go to a more “tourist friendly” restaurant, you’ll pay way more and probably get less quality. Its HOT here, drink lots of bottled water. Basically, if you go with a good attitude to enjoy an adventure, you’ll have fun here. (I plan to be here for a couple months.)
Nana Entertainment Plaza: Initial impressions were wow and disappointment. I say disappointment because I had read on here that there were 100 bars in the building. I’d estimate more like 25-30. Plus, the places are pretty small, nowhere to just hang back and watch. That said, “wow”! It’s still 3 floors with 25 bars side-by-side and pretty girls at every doorway inviting you in! The ladyboy bars are easy to spot. Look for the place where the girls outside are a foot taller! Ok maybe only 6-8 inches taller, but its significant. At every place they were good about saying “ladyboy bar”. Pretty sure there are enough guys out there looking for them, that they don’t need the hassle of tricking anyone.
My general experience at each place: A girl walks you in from the door and sits down with you to chat you up. Sometimes 2 girls would try to surround me. Where are you from, yadda, yadda, yadda… Surprisingly, (because I had seen warnings) most girls didn’t push too hard to buy them a drink. They make more from leaving with you, so that seemed to be the bigger push. And they did offer. I prefer to hang out, have a beer, check the scene, and bounce around to other places. (Which makes Nana perfect, since there are so many options.) Some of the girls tried to help me find the right girl when I said I was just looking, a couple got insulted when I told them no. But, you don’t want to end up with one of those girls anyway! Most were really friendly, just doing their job of trying to hook you.
I forgot the name of places, but someone can fill them in. I know there was a picture with bar names labeled posted on here before.
1st floor : Rotating stage in the middle and seats around the outside are elevated and a bit back from the stage. Not too aggressive, but the girls on stage definitely try to get your attention. The girl who walked me to my seat sat down, but quickly ignored me when it was obvious I wasn’t interested. As I said, the dancers tried to get my attention, but they didn’t harass me in my seat.
2nd floor : Small place with a thin stage that holds 6 or 7 dancers lined up in a row. Small walkway around the stage and seats along the walls. You’re pretty close to the girls on stage here. A little bit aggressive here, but pretty friendly. They definitely try to sit with/talk to you here. Often one on each side. But I didn’t get the hard sell. They let me be, when I just wanted to watch the show.
2nd floor : Peeked in here. It seemed a little dead and the girls kinda lacked enthusiasm. Don’t take this as a negative review though since I didn’t really give it a fair chance. I’ll try it out next time.
3rd floor : AGGRESSIVE here! I was lead to a seat and immediately 5 or 6 girls swarmed over. This place is bigger with 3 rows of stadium type seating surrounding a rotating stage. The girls here were harder to get rid of. (A couple girls were very nice, but I did feel like feeding time at the shark tank.) Someone started throwing cash into the air and all the girls were scrambling around trying to get some. That was probably the highlight of the visit. One of the girls pointed out that Areeya was in there, but she wasn’t one of the aggressive ones.
If you like to Thai look, you will find hotties at every bar! Various shapes and sizes, but many, many beautiful girls. There were some I found less appealing to my tastes, but few that were not feminine and attractive looking. If you’ve surfed the pictures on here or the TS websites, you’ll definitely see some girls you recognize. I’m no aficionado, but I saw several that were familiar.
So, if you are thinking about venturing over, I highly recommend it!
So, here are my observations:
Bangkok itself is not as dirty or smoggy as some people make it out to be. Only once have I felt choked by the car fumes and that was a busy, but off the beaten path road. But there is plenty of traffic. I haven’t seen much trash around like many other cities have. I would just say there is a general state of disrepair, you definitely need to watch where you walk because the sidewalks start and stop randomly. The people are generally friendly, but even in the tourist areas they don’t speak as much English as some would lead you to believe. That said, its not difficult to get by at all. Stick to the street food, its cheap and good. Like anywhere, if you go to a more “tourist friendly” restaurant, you’ll pay way more and probably get less quality. Its HOT here, drink lots of bottled water. Basically, if you go with a good attitude to enjoy an adventure, you’ll have fun here. (I plan to be here for a couple months.)
Nana Entertainment Plaza: Initial impressions were wow and disappointment. I say disappointment because I had read on here that there were 100 bars in the building. I’d estimate more like 25-30. Plus, the places are pretty small, nowhere to just hang back and watch. That said, “wow”! It’s still 3 floors with 25 bars side-by-side and pretty girls at every doorway inviting you in! The ladyboy bars are easy to spot. Look for the place where the girls outside are a foot taller! Ok maybe only 6-8 inches taller, but its significant. At every place they were good about saying “ladyboy bar”. Pretty sure there are enough guys out there looking for them, that they don’t need the hassle of tricking anyone.
My general experience at each place: A girl walks you in from the door and sits down with you to chat you up. Sometimes 2 girls would try to surround me. Where are you from, yadda, yadda, yadda… Surprisingly, (because I had seen warnings) most girls didn’t push too hard to buy them a drink. They make more from leaving with you, so that seemed to be the bigger push. And they did offer. I prefer to hang out, have a beer, check the scene, and bounce around to other places. (Which makes Nana perfect, since there are so many options.) Some of the girls tried to help me find the right girl when I said I was just looking, a couple got insulted when I told them no. But, you don’t want to end up with one of those girls anyway! Most were really friendly, just doing their job of trying to hook you.
I forgot the name of places, but someone can fill them in. I know there was a picture with bar names labeled posted on here before.
1st floor : Rotating stage in the middle and seats around the outside are elevated and a bit back from the stage. Not too aggressive, but the girls on stage definitely try to get your attention. The girl who walked me to my seat sat down, but quickly ignored me when it was obvious I wasn’t interested. As I said, the dancers tried to get my attention, but they didn’t harass me in my seat.
2nd floor : Small place with a thin stage that holds 6 or 7 dancers lined up in a row. Small walkway around the stage and seats along the walls. You’re pretty close to the girls on stage here. A little bit aggressive here, but pretty friendly. They definitely try to sit with/talk to you here. Often one on each side. But I didn’t get the hard sell. They let me be, when I just wanted to watch the show.
2nd floor : Peeked in here. It seemed a little dead and the girls kinda lacked enthusiasm. Don’t take this as a negative review though since I didn’t really give it a fair chance. I’ll try it out next time.
3rd floor : AGGRESSIVE here! I was lead to a seat and immediately 5 or 6 girls swarmed over. This place is bigger with 3 rows of stadium type seating surrounding a rotating stage. The girls here were harder to get rid of. (A couple girls were very nice, but I did feel like feeding time at the shark tank.) Someone started throwing cash into the air and all the girls were scrambling around trying to get some. That was probably the highlight of the visit. One of the girls pointed out that Areeya was in there, but she wasn’t one of the aggressive ones.
If you like to Thai look, you will find hotties at every bar! Various shapes and sizes, but many, many beautiful girls. There were some I found less appealing to my tastes, but few that were not feminine and attractive looking. If you’ve surfed the pictures on here or the TS websites, you’ll definitely see some girls you recognize. I’m no aficionado, but I saw several that were familiar.
So, if you are thinking about venturing over, I highly recommend it!