Long Bar
by Scott Coates
Bangkok, Thailand was once known as one of the wildest, craziest cities on earth. And then it started developing. The main obvious growth has been in essential services/infrastructure, moving from a third world to second world country and a rapidly growing middle class. With development comes refining laws, coming in line with what the developed world considers proper, one of those things being night life ending about 2am, something I never thought I’d see here.
Backtrack about 5 years to a time when Taksin Shinawatra’s Thai Rak Thai
The author doing research
party was firmly in power and a few ministers in his cabinet decided to go on a moral crusade against drinking and late night fun. Seems despite having a reputation for nightlife and tourism being one of the Kingdom’s top sources of foreign revenue, drinking, dancing and having fun past 1-2am was no longer deemed appropriate by the government. Since that time Bangkok’s bar opening hours have been all over the board and without much rhyme or reason. Sometimes they closed at 1am, sometimes at midnight and then on another night they could stay open until 3am.
Lets be clear, I love this country and all it has to offer. That said, it’s a bit of a shame that there’s no consistency and Bangkok’s closing hours are often earlier than those in my conservative home city of Calgary, Alberta. Calgary open later than Bangkok?!
An interesting result of the earlier closing times for bars has been the emergence of roadside bars along Bangkok’s main thoroughfare Sukhumvit Road. From about Soi 1 (side street 1) all the way to roughly Soi 23, from midnight onwards, carts are rolled in, speakers, chairs and plastic tables unpacked and temporary bars set up on the sidewalks. Seems with all those people being kicked out of bars, still full of energy and thirsty, entrepreneurs have jumped in and filled the void. What you now have is an energetic bunch of small bars, well stocked (they have Jack Daniel’s, Bacardi, etc), run by enthusiastic people (strangely a majority of them seem to be lady boys – not sure why) and they serve until about 5am! So how/why do licensed bars have to close early and fly-by-night bars on the side of the road get to stay open until very late? That’s a good question.
Like anywhere in the world, corruption is a part of life and often in the developing world more so. While I haven’t done any official surveys as to how/why street side bars can be allowed to operate and do so until very late, the consensus seems to be that they are allowed to with unofficial authorization from the authorities. Monitors don’t see what’s going on, concentrate on the licensed bars and their closing times, then don’t visit Sukhumvit Road. A bit of incentive to not look ensures these mobile bars stay open.
That’s great news for those of us who enjoy staying out a bit later than 1-2am, but a sad situation for licensed bars and a city that once had a good image as a metropolis with great nightlife. Here’s hoping we can take it back indoors one day soon.
