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Club Culture
Housed in a unique 40-year-old Thai-style building and run by the same folks who ran RCA's popular Astra, Culture is the biggest and quirkiest recent arrival on Bangkok's club scene. Come to enjoy internationally recognized DJs and the best sound system in town.
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Cosmic Café
Cosmic calls itself a café and looks like a club but in reality is more of a bar… Despite the slight identity crisis, this is a fun place to drink and meet Thai-style. Come on Wednesday nights when the DJ spins Thai music from the '80s.
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Coyote On Convent
Coyote serves decent but pricey Mexican nosh with a relatively light dose of kitsch. But what really keeps people coming, in particular Bangkok's female half, are the 75+ varieties of margaritas. Come Wednesday evening the icy drinks are distributed free to all women who pass through the door. On other days the frosty drinks are buy-one-get-one-free.
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Dance Fever
Like taking a time machine back to the previous decade, Dance Fever is a holdover from the days when a night out in Bangkok meant corny live stage shows, wiggling around the whisky set table, and neon, neon, neon.
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Deep
If you're willing to wait out the perpetual queue, inside you'll find a dark den packed to the gills with young Thai hipsters.
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Diplomat Bar
Moguls, models and media types toast their good fortune of being 'fabulous' at one of Bangkok's leading incarnations of conspicuous consumption. The bubbly and grapey spirits are raised in grand toasts while the diva-led lounge band serenades. Those unmatched by bottle's end, traipse over to Club 87, the hotel's dance club, to seal the deal on the night's bedwarmer.
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DJ Station
Massively popular with the younger crowd and among the most well-known gay destinations in town, this place has pounding dance music, flamboyant costume parties and kàthoey cabaret.
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Eat Me Restaurant
This chic restaurant also houses bi-monthly rotating exhibitions of photography and painting, often but not exclusively with a gay emphasis, organised by H Gallery.
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EGV Grand
Place your snack order on the way in, wait until after the royal anthem to recline your sofa chair to horizontal and snuggle in for the long haul. Try not to fall asleep before your food arrives.
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Foreign Correspondents' Club Of Thailand (Fcct)
A bar-restaurant, not to mention gathering place for the city's hacks and photogs, the FCCT also hosts art exhibitions ranging in genre from photojournalism to contemporary painting.
Read more about Foreign Correspondents' Club Of Thailand (Fcct)
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Freeman
Reputedly the best lady-boy cabaret in town, Freeman's midnight shows are a little raunchier than the typical tourist-oriented shows of Broadway homage and pink prom dresses.
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G.O.D. (Guys On Display)
The former Freeman has been reincarnated as this popular after-hours destination. Open late and, as the name suggests, not averse to a bit of shirtless dancing. Located on the tiny alley between Soi 2 and Soi Thaniya.
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Gazebo
Like an oasis above Th Khao San, this vaguely Middle-Eastern themed pub draws backpackers and locals alike with fun cover bands, mist-blowing fans and fez-topped sheesha attendants. Its elevated location also appears to lend it some leniency with the city's strict closing times.
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Glow
Another club reincarnation, the former Faith is a small venue with a big reputation. Boasting a huge variety of vodkas and a recently upgraded sound system, the tunes range from hip-hop (Fridays) to electronica (Saturdays), and everything in between.
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Goethe Institut
Bangkok's various cultural centres extend an open invitation to the entire city for monthly art exhibits, film screenings, stage performances and annual festivals. Also hosts Bangkok Poetry slams and Christmas Art Fair.
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Ick Pub
Near the end of the soi, ICK is a poster-child for Ramkhamhaeng's gay student hangouts, and is full of bubble-gum pop music and late-night schedules.
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Icy
Located in the jumble of straight and gay bars near Chatuchak Weekend Market, this long-running pub is consistently loud, crowded and very local.
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Illy Café
Eclectic and funky, Illy Café is a restaurant by day and a 30-something bar at night. The vintage décor captures Banglamphu's bohemian aesthetic and egalitarian spirit.
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Joe Louis Puppet Theatre
The ancient art of Thai puppetry (lákhawn lék) was rescued by the late Sakorn Yangkhiawsod, more popularly known as Joe Louis, in 1985. Joe's children now carry on the tradition. His creations are controlled by three puppeteers and can strike many humanlike poses. Modelled after the characters in the epics Ramayana and Phra Aphaimani, the puppets perform nightly at this air-conditioned theatre, conveniently located in the Suan Lum Night Bazaar, as well as at the King Power Theater.
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Jool's Bar & Restaurant
With the walls virtually covered with pictures of the bar's regulars, you'll feel like part of the crowd even if you're drinking alone. When things are buzzing, lots of Nana Plaza girly-bar vets take a breather here for a good-natured romp with beer buddies.
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Kluen Saek
One of a strip of bars along Th Sarasin that are becoming gayer by the day, Kluen Saek is barely able to contain a mixed crowd of ravers in its cool grey grip.
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Koi
The bar of this trendy sushi restaurant is packed with models posing as if real life were a photo shoot. The convergence of so much eye candy is no accident, Koi lures in card-carrying models with freebies, creating a spectacle in its own right.
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Krung Sri Imax
Be engulfed by the big screen technology of IMAX at this sparkly new theatre. Screenings range from special-effects versions of Hollywood action flicks to nature features of audience-hunting sharks.
