 Region Category
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Nana (E3) Skytrain :: Description
(Click on any photo for a larger version.) The Nana station region is the primary tourist area of Bangkok due to its size and the extent of development catering to tourists. While different kinds of people live here, and many foreigners you see will be working expats and other sorts, it still remains that the majority of foreigners you'll see in the Nana station region are tourists staying in hotels. AmbienceThe north side of Sukhumvit, odd sois 1 to 11, is where the vast majority of the restaurants, tourist shops, and nightlife are. An enormous exception is soi 4, also known as soi Nana, which is the center of the girly bar area for the amazing first 100 meters down the soi, though this nightlife stretches down about 400 meters before turning completely residential. The rest of the south half of the Nana station region is predominently residential, though there are places to go down the beginnings of some of the other even numbered sois, notably sois 8 and 12, but entertainment a small part of this south side of Sukhumvit, as this south part of the Nana station region is primarily residential except along the main road. The streets are lined with street hawkers on the north side after sunset (and some during the day) selling souvenirs, clothes, and quite an assortment of things. In some places, this squeezes the walkway.
Soi 3 and 3/1 is a concentrated ethnic area with Middle Easterners, Africans, and some Russian and Slavic peoples, mainly on the east side of the block. There is a wide variety of tasty Indian and Middle Eastern restaurants with various ambiances. Shortly before the bars close (which is around 1am but depends on the politics of the day), the sidewalks start to fill up with street food vendors and lines of fold-out metal tables and chairs, on the north side of Sukhumvit Road between sois 5 and 15. Night revellers fill up most of these areas and they remain popular until around 5am, eating, drinking, and talking. Thai Prostitution Center Catering to ForeignersRight from the start, one thing which stands out in the Nana area is the high population density of prostitutes, unlike most other areas. Thai prostitutes are generally polite and pleasantly mild mannered, including street walkers, quite unlike western prostitutes. In any case, young ladies dressed in a variety of sexy styles punctuates the area, though prostitutes do not dominate the Nana region. Likewise, the vast majority of foreigners you will see in the Nana area are single men, and a huge percentage of these will either have a Thai lady in tow or be open to the possibility of latching up with one for awhile. The most popular hot spot is Nana Plaza, less than 100 meters down soi Nana from Sukhumvit Road. Nana Plaza is a 3 level promenade of go-go bars full of pole dancers and friendly hostesses, as well as some general open air beer bars you can hang out in. Down soi Nana beyond Nana Plaza are a variety of pool halls, restaurants and bars. If you are looking for casual female Thai companionship, then soi 4 is the main place to go. Beyond that big block it's only scattered around in certain restaurants and bars, as regards establishments.
Most Nana Plaza bars open around 7pm, including all pole dancing bars. The ladies dance on the stage in swimsuits or skimpy uniforms, rotating in shifts, and sit down with customers in-between. Some shifts remove bras and/or panties to show all, and some bars have special "shows", to say the least. The ladies are fulltime employees. If the customer wants to take a lady out, they pay a "bar fine" to the bar, plus negotiate a fee separately with the lady. The main road has a few places where "street walkers" (actually, street sitters) hang out, but please be sensitive not to confuse ladies waiting for the bus (who tend to stand at the sidewalk's edge and really look for the bus), street hawkers, or other mainstream Thai ladies as game. It's obvious to most guys, but I see gaffes often.
Outside of soi 4, other popular bargirl pickup places are the beer garden of soi 7, the short strip of bars down soi 7/1, Spice Club under the Ambassador Hotel which opens late, Thermae at the corner of soi 11 (see Asoke station coverage), and a few of the bars the first 100 meters down soi 8. There are also a lot of pool halls which open early in the day. Any coverage of particular places down soi 4 would be more volumnous than the total coverage of the rest of the region, as regards bar girls. The Nana region is arguably the core of Bangkok's nightlife as regards Thai prostitutes. While Patpong in another (Silom) region is best known and most intense (and should not be missed if you are "doing Bangkok" this way), the Nana region, like most of Sukhumvit, is much more foreigner-controlled, in contrast to Patpong's Thai mafia ownership. You won't run into the scams or intensity of Patpong. Nana is fairly laid back, and sprawls out into a plethora of places even more relaxing. While most of the activity is during the night, there are also many pool halls and beer bars open during the daytime which are well populated and offer everything except pole dancing. Mainstream NightclubsWhile being a minority of the nightlife places in this region, there exists a great variety of nightclubs in this area which are patronized by more mainstream Thai ladies, most of whom are not available for quick or easy pickup if at all, though upper class prostitutes as well as non-prostitute Thai ladies in serial intimate relationships also frequent these places. Notable mention are Gullivers down soi 5 open all day but which starts to fill up in the early evening, The Bed Supperclub and Q-Bar which open late and are both located down soi 11, the Ministry of Sound near the corner of soi 12, the nightclub under the Sheraton Grande (see Asoke station), and the very relaxed Bamboo Bar on soi 3 with its mix of foreign ethnics from around the world.
RestaurantsThere are nice restaurants all along the main road and scattered around, but it is worth pointing out that soi 11 has a lot of nice top-notch restaurants serving a great variety of Thai and western cuisines, including some with spacious outdoor garden seating.
As noted before, soi 3 and 3/1 is a concentrated ethnic area with Middle Easterners, Africans, and some Russian and Slavic peoples. There is a wide variety of tasty Indian and Middle Eastern restaurants with various ambiances. There are also a lot of smoking restaurants, which started off catering to arabic people but have not become trendy with European tourists. (Most of these places serve no alcohol since they are Muslim owned and operated.)
Most of the fancy western restaurants along the main road close their kitchen around 10 or 11 pm, but there are many good restaurants which keep their kitchens open until midnight or later. There are two Subways open 24 hours, one on each side of Sukhumvit Road. Gyros and pizza by the slice are available until nearly sunrise in the Arabic section. Thai street food is available 24 hours per day in abundance in the Nana region along the main road. Foodland has a nice small restaurant open 24 hours though the kitchen shuts down for cleaning for half an hour or so after 4am or so, depending upon clientele at the moment. HotelsWhere can I start? There are so many of them, and such a great variety. Best to just browse our directory. You'll find a wide range of prices, from basic to extremely luxurious. Notably, if you plan to take a Thai prostitute to your room, while most hotels permit this (so-called "guest friendly" hotels in local parlance), I would suggest you research this first, and be sensitive to avoid staying at a hotel with a family ambiance. Most hotels will require that the lady turn in her national citizens ID card at the front desk. This is to protect you as well as other hotel patrons. The vast majority of Thai prostitutes are not a problem and are remarkably honorable compared to others of their profession around the world; nonetheless, there are large numbers of prostitutes who are thieves, and occasionally you'll hear of a guy who was drugged with a sedative and robbed ... albeit at his home, usually, though hotel druggings have occurred, especially in other countries. ShoppingThere are no large shopping malls anything comparable to what you will find 2 to 4 skytrain stops away, just a few small shopping malls and a whole lot of shops along the main road catering mainly to tourists. There are two grocery stores within short walking distance of the Nana skytrain station, the sizeable Villa Market on soi 11 and the somewhat small Foodland on soi 5. ResidentialThere are many luxury highrise condominium and apartment buildings on both sides of Sukhumvit Road, and in a fairly uniform distribution. The south side also has housing neighborhoods, but the north is essentially devoid of houses except a few townhouse strips. Like nearly everywhere in central Bangkok, all houses are old (and many are razed for building highrises), but this was initially considered a high class region of Bangkok so many of the houses are sizeable and of acceptable design to some foreigners. Most are occupied by the owners or their family, but we keep track of rental properties as they become available. The odd numbered sois are interconnected by back roads, whereas the even numbered sois are a series of dead ends parallel to each other which stay fairly quiet. TrafficExpressway access is available from this region. An expressway entrance/exit ramp is located right by Sukhumvit soi 1 but you can only enter the expressway northbound here (and this is the best way to the airport). The southbound entry is by taking Wittayu Road north to Petchburi, turning right, then turning onto the entrance ramp there, or else reaching this entrance by taking Asoke to Petchburi by two left turns. Asoke also gives access to the expressway going west if you continue straight across Petchburi. On the north side (odd numbered sois) region, there are "green route" cross roads, so getting around is very easy. However, the southern residential side is mainly just dead end sois with no cross roads. Sukhumvit has a median which complicates getting around, and these things are best discussed with me if you plan to live in that region's south residential area. Photos of the Nana station region Map of the Nana station region Coming soon: Condominiums, apartments, and houses in the Nana station region | |||||||||||||||||||||
