probably not realizing I understand him. A politer
version of the ID checking process is repeated outside D.J.'s,
where once again I'm whisked through. However, my 20-year-old
Thai-English companion's valid British driver's license receives
lengthy scrutiny before he is allowed inside.
Increasingly, going out on the town in Bangkok has become more
of a hassle than checking in for an international flight. At least
after clearing airport security and passport control, passengers
can look forward to a smooth trip. But once inside the dwindling
number of international-standard Bangkok night spots, patrons
still face a potentially bumpy ride.
In early 2001 the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
began a "social order" campaign to clean up the country's
risqué image and also to halt the supposed moral decay of its
youth. (Mr. Thaksin dissolved Parliament on Feb. 24 and is acting
as caretaker prime minister until new elections on April 2.) The
two local English-language publications The Nation and The Bangkok
Post periodically posit that the crackdown was inspired by unnamed
prominent politicians who couldn't control their own pampered
offspring. Long-ignored 1981 legislation outlining entertainment
licensing categories was resuscitated, and contrary to the normally
laissez-faire Thai attitude toward lawfulness, the regulations
began to be enforced.
To change Bangkok's decades-old reputation as a 24-hour party
center, in 2002 the Thaksin government created three "entertainment
zones" in which drinking and dancing were allowed until 2
a.m. (According to one club owner, four years later nobody knows
the precise boundaries because the zoning law was never made official.)
Outside these zones, dancing was illegal and closing times were
1 a.m.
Of the trio of late-night zones, only Patpong would be familiar
to visitors. Significantly cleaned up over the last five years,
the strip is naughty only in so far as sanitized parodies of sex
shows and hordes of stall vendors selling overpriced tourist schlock
could be considered salacious. Apart from the long-running bar
Tapas (Silom Soi 4) and D.J. Station, nothing in the Patpong area
qualifies as a trendy dance club.
The second zone is Royal City Avenue, known as R.C.A., a strip
of youth-oriented venues in central Bangkok catering primarily
to Thais. Recently clubs like the huge concrete Astra have started
to attract a crowd of expatriates in their 20's by importing hip
D.J.'s (Amnesia Ibiza, Goldie and others). Even so, one night
at the 15-year-old Zouk bar in Singapore provides more real action
and excitement than you'd find in an entire week on R.C.A. The
third zone, Ratchadapisek, is a four-lane suburban road popular
with Thai businessmen seeking the kind of entertainment available
at lavish multistoried massage parlors with names like Love Boat
and Colonze.
At first, club owners and customers didn't take the new laws
seriously. After all, this was Bangkok, where the police hung
out drinking with foreigners until dawn and a few hundred surreptitious
baht resolved most official problems. Besides, why would authorities
undermine the urbane club scene developing in the Sukhumvit area?
That scene was catalyzed by the 1999 opening of Q Bar, a "New
York-style" lounge on Soi 11, followed by the raucous Ministry
of Sound (Soi 12), the ultrachic Bed Supperclub (Soi 11) and the
luxuriant Mystique (Soi 31). Elsewhere, new hotel bars like 87
(at the Conrad), Tantra (Pan Pacific) and Met Bar (Metropolitan)
offered additional cosmopolitan choices. |
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