Thai Nightlife

Music Bars and Clubs
Many musical tastes are catered for in particular Jazz and Blues also 60s/70s, country, rock and so on most are nice air conditioned establishments with a good atmosphere.
Pool Bars
Usually normal beer bars with enough room for several pool tables possibly darts other bar games.

Short term Relationships
Thailand has a reputation as an adult playground that goes back to the early 60s when U.S. servicemen on leave from Vietnam came to Bangkok and the then tiny fishing village of Pattaya for a little ‘rest and recuperation’ this R and R was very popular with the war weary young men and these destinations boomed with bars springing up everywhere and girls flooding in from the North to help the men relax and relieve them of their $. These girls great grandchildren are now taking the same route only now the soldiers have gone and now work weary older western men have replaced them

Gay Bars Tend not to be bars very often usually along the exact same lines as female GoGo bars with boys pole dancing and so on, usually frequented by men sometimes by groups of women and couples one odd fact is that a large percentage of the guys are not gay, this is what they do for a living not recreation.

The main tourist area’s of Bangkok, Pattaya, Hua Hin, Phuket and so on can offer varied nightlife such as concerts, bowling, fine dining, social club’s of all kinds such as the rotary club, gym’s, traditional Thai massage, all kinds of sports events and gatherings for many hobbies.Thailand is famous for its varied and exiting nightlife all towns of any size have entertainment areas including the world famous walking street in Pattaya to Nana Plaza in Bangkok

You can certainly have a pretty wild nights out in Thailand with its beer bars, girlie bars, go-go clubs, gay bars, Lady Boy shows, Thai boxing bars, and massage parlors; if you want a wild night out then Thailand may be the place for you.

Beer Bars
Exactly what the name suggests, these bars are usually open air often gathered together in a large group of bars, each bar may have 2 to 20 girls the purpose of these bars is to sell as much beer as possible so the girls will always try to keep you there and keep you entertained, many bars have pool tables and other bar games, most of the girls in these bars are working girls who will leave with you if you pay the bar fine.

GoGo Bar's
Indoor airconditioned bars , with a small ‘stage’ which the girls dance on usually wearing very little , drinks are much more expensive but your paying for the entertainment. Girls in these GoGo’s are working girls, the bar fine is much higher than a beer bar.

Gay Bars
Usually along exactly the same lines as the female GoGo bars.
Show Bars
Nearly always transvestite/transsexual (called Ladyboys in Thailand) shows along the lines of drag shows in the west, some are very professional with great costumes and sets.

Thai Boxing Bars Has a ring in the center of the bar where bouts are fought between local armatures and professionals, if you’ve never seen ‘Muay Thai’ before this would be a good introduction.

Those in the know say that the atmosphere in Thailand’s adult entertainment establishments is very different than in other parts of Asia with more emphasis on fun, having a laugh and a good time rather than straight down to business as it is in other counties, certainly Thai bar girls seem to like to fool around at work always playing jokes on each other and customers and generally trying to enjoy the long hours waiting around in the bar or GoGo clubs. There is apparently virtually no ‘forced’ prostitution in Thailand girls move from one bar or club or one town to another at will and often go home for several months without any obvious harassment the huge majority seem to be there of their own free will, almost certainly not their first choice of employment but at least a free choice.

Lady Drinks
If a single male sits in a beer bar or GoGo he will be approached by a girl or he can easily attract ones attention she will sit and chat and may ask for a drink or the mamasan (lady in charge of the girls) may ask if you want to buy her one they are usually around 75 -100 although can be higher the girl gets a small cut of the price of the drink.

Girls will expect compensation this will have to be negotiated in advance with her and for obvious reasons may vary tremendously, one factor being perhaps her attractiveness and also your drunkenness and what she thinks you will pay there are no rules on this you just have to work it out.

Bar Fine
If you are getting along well you may decide you want to take the girl to another bar or for something to eat (Thai girls eat their own weight in soup each day)
Or you may want to go to a room for a ‘short time’ or back to your place for a ‘long time’ in either case you will have to make a payment to the bar which will be added to your drinks bill the amount will vary depending on the bar 200-500 or GoGo 500 up to 1000 on special nights. This transaction has nothing to do with the girl, she receives no money from this, you are compensating the bar for taking an employee away. Hotels usually charge extra for a guest in your room this also varies relative to the cost of the room usually something like 500. The hotel will usually also take the girls ID and keep it , this is for your protection, one this combined with the fact she works in a bar should in theory make sure she is over 18, and also helps guard against her stealing from you

Long Term Relationships
If you sit outside any bar watching the world go by in any tourist area of Thailand you might be forgiven for thinking that there are five times as many girls in Thailand as men, the disproportionate numbers seem very obvious, well its true , and its not.
In a town like Pattaya there are clearly more females than males the reasons for this have to do with the poorer rural areas particularly the North East of the country if you are born there and want to be something else other than a farm labourer or a construction worker no matter how smart you are your choices are practically non existent, so many young women travel South to the tourist regions to seek there fortunes some take up jobs that give slightly better wages than at home others seek employment in the bars and clubs of the tourist areas. Most are very well aware that this work is sex related but social pressures push them along to make money any way they can.

If you pick a girl with a huge age difference from yourself then clearly there is a problem before you start, she may not have grown out of load pop music and all night discos while you like a nice movie and hot chocolate if that is the case how can it be a happy long term relationship? The better chance of success seems to be with a similar age group to yourself.

So why would anyone want a relationship with a Thai lady? Well as stated above things go wrong often in Thai-farang relationships, but to be fair things also go wrong every day in western relationships. There are housing developments all over Thailand that are more or less exclusively occupied by Thai-farang families who seem to live as happily as any western family if not more so. So what’s the secret? Well if anybody knew that they would be very wealthy, for every opinion someone will have the opposite, but there do seem to be a few indicator

Resisting pressure from the family seems to often be another hurdle, Thai girls are always under pressure to provide for the family parents, bothers sisters, uncles and everyone else , this is especially true when the lady is married to a ‘rich’ farang, all farangs are rich in Thai’s eye, this may take the form of an ‘allowance’ or a lump some for an illness or a new roof on the farm house , but there is always something needs paying for, some westerners don’t mind these payments, some object in principle and others just don’t have the money, in any case it seems to be a continuous problem. This is something that is probably best dealt with as soon as seems necessary rather than when you have already started down the road to making the family dependant on you. It will need to be resolved with your partner and possibly with the whole family but its best not left unsaid. The other family problem is that Thai family’s are generally much, much closer than western family’s and extended visits ‘home’ and the family, often all of them coming to stay for days, weeks is also well outside the average westerners experience and would also need to be addressed.

Thai girls seem very often to have a need to know where their partner is at all times, 20 mobile phone calls a day wanting to know where you are seems to be the norm, try to bare in mind that Thai men are not known for their faithfulness and mistress’s are the traditional Thai norm, so that mistrust would be passed on to any male partner Thai or farang, and secondly if you met here in a bar what were you doing there and why wouldn’t you go to a bar again even when in a relationship? That’s how she see’s it.

Language problems can be another concern the better you can communicate the more you can enjoy each others company so language lessons for both of you seem like an obvious way to go

Gay Relationships, there is no reason why the same basic information as for girls above would not apply; the family is also the most important thing in a Thai mans world.