Insight Bangkok After Dark

     Insight  Bangkok by night isn't all unbridled sleaze, bump-and-grind bars and boozy cruising. There are lots of hip dance clubs and cool bars, plus a thriving live jazz and indie music scene. Less well know are its highbrow classical and modern dance and theatre events

    Many visitors' expectations of Bangkok nightlife extend no further than the much-hyped up Patpong go-go bar options for entertainment once the sun goes down. The Thai craving for sanuk (fun) has in recent years seen booms in microbreweries and bars offering everything from Cuban cigars and art on the walls to clubs specialising in music as diverse as jazz, Latin, hip hop, house and mind-numbing techno, often all on the same street. In addition, there is traditional dance, theatre, opera, classical music, indie films and evening sports aplenty. Bangkok really comes alive under the cover of darkness, and never before has it offered so much choice to the nighttime reveler.

     Nightlife Zones 

     That's the good news. The bad is that the Bangkok nightlife scene has taken a hit since 2001 when the government introduced a Social Order Campaign with confusing Nightlife Zoning laws and draconian policing of entertainment venues. Bent on clamping rampant drug abuse and under-age drinking, the government has designated three nightlife zones: Thanon Silom, Thanon Rachadaphisek and Royal City Avenue (RCA), where venues with valid dance licences can stay open until 2am. The rest must close at 1 am. Of the three, the only zone found in downtown Bangkok is Silom, which means the acclaimed nightlife sport found along Thanon Sukhumvit - like Q Bar, Bed Supperclub and Myustique - all close painfully early at 1 am.
                                   
      The Silom zone includes the famous Pat Pong red light district and night market as well as numerous pubs and restaurants, but little in the way of dance clubs outside Soi 2 and Soi 4. Thanon Ratchadaphisek has been the traditional stomping ground of huge clubs and even larger massage parlours, visited mainly by Thais and Asian trourists, but recently, a clutch of smaller new bars are attracting young Thais Of the three zones, it's RCA - long maligned as a tortuous teen hangout - that has the most scope to develop into a mature club scene.  The signs are evident that it's at last responding, with venues like astra, Code and the revamped Route 66, offering varied international music styles and brand-name DJs.

    Thanks to the party-pooping Social Order Campaign, be prepared for the occasional police raid when revelers are urine-tested for drugs. During such raids, the police may ask foreigners to show their passports. Many clubs, including Bed Supperclub, Q Bar and Mytique, won't let you in without one. To get around the miserably early closing time, do as what most Thais are forced to do : start your evening early, say by 10.30pm, so there is ample time to wind down bye the time the clubs close.


Nighttime Sports

        Bangkok at night isn't all booze and boogie. Hip hop kids gead to the Red Bull Skate Park on Thanon Sathorn for roller blading and skateboarding, and there's disco bowling - to music and flashing lights - at several bowling alleys in the city, RCA has an indoor go-kart track and some snooker clubs allow after-hours beers.

         Nobody who comes to Thailand should miss the sport of muay thai, frenzied kickboxing accompanied by the wailing of traditional music and animated betting on the outcome. Lumphini Stadium, the mecca of world Muay Thai, where all the best fighters appear, will move at the end of 2005 to a new location on Soi Nang Linchi3. Another venue is Ratchadamnoen Stadium at Thanon Ratchadamnoen Nok.