HOT Bangkok Nights

The Bangkok Nights

Sawadee kap!

This is how people in Thailand greet their visitors be it a local or foreigner. Every since I stepped out of the plane at Rata airport, these 2 words have been very pervasive in every aspect of my stay in Bangkok. From the hip and happening clubs of RCA to the busy streets of Pratunam, the Thais have never failed to charm me with this hypnotic soothing greet of theirs. No wonder I end up tipping all the time- without fail!

However, I’m not complaining. The trip to Bangkok with 6 of my great buddies was one unforgettable experience- fun mixed with a few occasional hiccups, hence the word ‘unforgettable’. Our purpose going to Bangkok was for 2 reasons, one to seize on the shopping opportunity and secondly but more importantly to have great fun, which naturally tend to focus more on the night-life activities. Singapore’s night scene was getting too used to seeing us partying, night in, night out and thus, with that we decided to give other night spots around Asia a visit and unanimously the next stop was inevitably Bangkok.

Bangkok boasting a huge population of 6,704,000 hosts a myriad of different night-life activities. Just name it, and Bangkok will have it all. From Shopping till the wee hours of the night, or rather morning, to partying till u drop dead, Bangkok is the epitome of a city that never sleeps.

The first thing that I saw when I arrived at Pratunam(where I stayed) was the bustling streets filled with roadside shops selling garments and ornaments along the sidewalk. Overlooking the streets of Pratunam are the high rise sky towers such as the Bayoke Sky and huge malls such as MBK. Along with these goliaths are the smaller humble temples scattered around, making this eccentric juxtapositions a unique sight. With such an identity, there was nothing short of fun to do in Bangkok!

Of course if you were to visit Bangkok it’s a ‘die die must watch’ live, Thailand’s heritage sport, Muay Thai aka Thai Boxing. There are a few places that this national sport can be experienced from. For me, I managed to catch the fight at Lumpini Stadium (Rama IV Road, Bangkok). There are 3 categories for the prices, ringside, middle and the far end. The ringside cost about 1600 baht and it is a great place to see the fight clearest and if you’re lucky, you get to see some knock outs. Fights starts at 630pm and ends all the way till 1030pm with 10 fights to fill the 4 hrs. However, if you want to avoid the having to tip toe just to catch a glimpse of the action you can start buying the ticket half hour earlier and reserve the better seats. It doesn’t kill to be half and hour earlier! And If you’ve been to Lumpini stadium to catch the fight, then there’s always other venues to watch Muay Thai. Another popular place is the Ratchadamnoen Stadium (Ratchadamnoen Nok Avenue) and the rates are about the same. However if you do not want to pay to watch, worry not as Channel 7 Stadium (Behind the old Northern Bus Terminal (Morchit), opp. Chatuchak Park, Bangkok) provides exactly that!

After watching Muay Thai, what better way to end the night than to go for some retail therapy! One of the places to shop at night which opens till late is the Suan Lum Night Bazaar. As for me, I planned my night so that Suan Lum was next after Muay Thai and it was really a great help that Suan Lum Night Bazaar is located just beside Lumpini Stadium. Just a few hundred meters and you would be at Suan lum night market. Here, I had my supper at the huge sheltered open air food centre. This huge food centre has a stage where live bands play while you eat, and with such great ambience we found ourselves parking there and eating all sorts of delicious Thai food which includes Tom Yam Soup and Grilled Fish with Thai chilli. Don’t get too carried away by the food and drinks there though, as it is a must to check out the street shops at the bazaar and at the same time digest the decadent supper!

Enough of all the shopping! It’s about time for us to experience real night fun.

In Bangkok, there are a few areas where you can go for a night of fun with your buddies! As for me, all of us have a common affinity for clubbing and as such we decided to pay the night clubs a visit. The most popular place for a clubbing night will have to be RCA (Royal City Avenue). RCA is one of the biggest entertainment areas in Bangkok, and is a long road hosting a myriad of different types of bars and clubs. RCA is frequented by Bangkok’s young crowd, mainly university students wanting to unwind. The clubs here are equipped with multi-million watt sound systems which blast out music such as trance, house and the all time favourite R&B (or at least for us!)

2 of RCA’s biggest club are FLIX/SLIM and ROUTE 66. Flix/Slim is a huge club which has 2 major dance areas. Flix plays music which appeals more to the Caucasians such as House and Trance while Slim attracts more of the locals and also the younger crowd as it plays Hip-Hop and R&B. Both places are usually very packed with avid clubbers and with such a kick-arse sound system and cheap drinks (by Singapore standards – S$40 for a bottle of Black Label); it is no wonder the club is such a big hit in Bangkok. Not to mention free entry too! However a word of reminder, identification is a prerequisite. So don’t forget to tag your IC along! Or passport if you don’t have one!

Like Flix/Slim, Route 66 also is a colossal sized club. If you think Singapore’s MOS is huge, wait till you see Route 66. This gigantic club is also very packed and will definitely give its competition, SLIM/FLIX a run for its money! Drinks at Route 66 are very cheap too and like Slim/Flix they have a few different dance rooms to cater to the different genre tastes. However, the clubbing concept in both these clubs is a little different from that in Singapore. There, even though the dance floor is huge, dancing space is limited. This is because the floors are filled with small table evenly arranged for the purpose of placing drinks. And as such you’ll see groups of people around the tables forming circles, making dancing hard for an otherwise great dancing space.

Route 66 and Slim/Flix are some of the few clubs that make up the whole clubbing scene in Bangkok. Many more clubs offering different types of experience are out there in the streets of Bangkok waiting to be discovered. As for me, I only had 3 nights in Bangkok and these 3 nights permitted me to do only this much. However with such limited time it all boils down to balance. I myself had a good balance of night life in Bangkok –Muay Thai, Night shopping and clubbing. As for you, go to Bangkok, plan your time, and you can be rest assured to an unforgettable night-life adventure!





Photo Credits
Diankarl Miguel Navaza Romsbells