KMK: Bangkok – Silom Night Life

I began my first full day in Bangkok with an eager determination ready to take on the city. Armed with my camera and a Lonely Planet, I began by walking the streets around my hotel in Silom.

In Bangkok I stayed in one of the popular areas known as Silom. Two popular thoroughfares run the length of Silom: Silom road and Sukhumvit. Along the roads you can find office buildings, restaurants, massage parlors, coffee houses, luxury hotels, department stores, and all manner of vendors selling everything from food to little plastic toys that flatten when you throw them to the ground. Then there are the alleyways, nook and crannies along the roads that give way to girlie bars and gogo boy bars, and massage parlors galore.

At night Silom and Sukhumvit explode in a wash of neon colors that blind the eyes. The vendors seem to redouble their efforts to sell their merchandise. The massage parlors send out their workers to entice the passerby with bright smiles, teasing catcalls, and gently coaxing into a relaxing massage. The smell of noodles frying with chicken and pork fills the air.

Soi Twilight is a street in Silom where the gay guys go to party. I headed in that direction to check the scene out. Let me say that I’ve never seen anything like the scene in Soi Twilight. Even Amsterdam paled before the in your face, literally, action in Silom. I started at Maxis. This cozy bar maintains a low key easy going attitude. People just sat back and watched the parade of people walk by. My favorite game was to count how many guys escaped the door wranglers of the Gogo Bars who would swarm the street in an attempt to pull or drag customers into the bar before the competition could get them.

The guys had several tactics in order to escape the wranglers. Some bobbed and weaved; others danced elegantly outside their reach, while a few forged ahead and plowed on through in an attempt to outmuscle the muscle. One guy just turned right around as if running the gauntlet was too much trouble. At one point I thought they would start picking guys up, throwing them over their shoulder and carrying them into the bar cave man style. Some did go willingly though.