Night Life In Sukumvit District

This area of nightlife forms a 'bridge' between Soi Cowboy and Nana Plaza.

A foreigners ghetto. Usually frequented more by repeat tourists than expats. Hotels in the mid to high range are like launch pads for tourism out from here. Shopping complexes like the emporium and Robinsons are another thing for the tourism factor. It's useful because you can do some shopping at the street markets on both sides of Sukumvit and is considered the thoroughfare of the foreigners quarter nightlife.
Either by foot, by bike, by car/taxi or by Skytrain Sukumvit see's arguably the most traffic as night falls.

Early days of Sukumvit

Originally this place was very adult orientated and a single-mans paradise for girls, partying and having a good time. From Soi 1 at the Railway bridge you had the indie-style Buckskin Joes Entertainment complex which rumbled everytime a train went overhead. It was the quieter, little sister to NEP you might say.

Going east you then had Nana Plaza, Clinton Plaza, Soi Cowboy and several soi's on the south side of Sukumvit. Notable indie-bars that sprang up along here include Therma Coffee Lounge and Country Road.

Clinton Plaza

This was once a promising area with an oasis of independent bars springing up all over the Sukumvit zone within Clinton Plaza was a stand-out pick-up joint called. Near Clinton Plaza a good sized-bar complex that would of matched Nana Plaza was almost ready for business in January 2004. Known as Asoke Plaza. It was set up on what was wasteground in between Cowboy and Nana. Unfortunately a renegade contingent of army men bulldozed them all down, over a leasing dispute, just prior to the complex opening. The TRT party's so called 'morality' laws followed. They passed laws zoning off where nightlife should and shouldn't be. In March 2004 the wrecking crew returned and leveled the place completely. Several other big name bars fell by the wayside as the years went by from 2004 one notable one being Country Road on soi 19 another being the Ice Bar.

As for Clinton Plaza, this too was once a pretty neat cluster of beer bars, the mood and ambience was a lot more relaxed and chilled compared to the 'in-your-face' vibe of NEP and Soi Cowboy. It's now a shadow of its former self.
Therma Coffee Bar is the last vestige of what bars were here. Some changed over to restaurants or closed-down completely and were then swallowed up by the market stalls. You'd not even guess that bars used to be in some of these areas now.

Sukumvit is without a doubt a hooker / streetwalker zone nowadays. In 2000 it was the bars that were the place you'd go to get the girl. Now it's the girl who grabs for you while you walk the streets!
You'd only see a handful of at the bus-stop at Robinsons years ago. As the years went by the numbers have increased dramatically. Most state the bar closures being one reason, another, some say, is the rise in thrifty students who want money for the latest 'must-haves'.

Getting to Sukumvit

One of the easiest ways is the handy BTS system / Skytrain. There are several BTS stations that run the length of Sukumvit. Where the nightlife is starts from Nana Soi 1 on the south side and runs to Soi Cowboy on the north side where it again switches sides onto the even numbered soi's.