What has happened to Lower Sukhumvit

[mespike]

Seems the Sukhumvit Road area from Asok to Nana has deteriorated to point of disgust and intolerable environment.

Alot of us were complaining about it 3 years ago but it got worse instead of better. The vendors have totally clogged the sidewalks in places you can barely get though. There are bottlenecks everywhere. I wish stupid tourists would stop buying that crap and 50% of the vendors would go away. There are dregs everywhere in that area now its seems as if has become a forbidden zone for non dregs. 10 years ago Nana was a red light zone yes but there were alot more nice girls hanging around and a hell of a lot less ladyboys. Now there are so many ladyboys there you could form an army not to mention 3rd world degenerates. Africans have the highest incidence of Aids on the planet and Indians have the highest new infection rate. Do you want to be screwing the same girls they are? Therme used to be a place where western men could chill out and meet a fun girl. Now they might as well put a Japs Only sign on it. Beer garden on Soi 7 should change its name to the Used up Veterans and Granny Shack. I think there is a lot of nice girls in Bangkok and very few of them want to go to Lower Sukhumvit. Its become a ****hole and i wish someone would restore it to its previous luster.

Edited February 23, 2011 by mespike

[Damnam1]

Why don´t you just cross the road and walk the other side of the Sukhumvit ? Plenty of space there..

I keep coming to Bangkok since the mid nineties and I know the area quite well, too. German beergarden has never been my choice, as I don´t like to meet my german fellows in Bangkok. Never been to old thermae and I don´t even know where the new one is. The africans are a pain in the ***, you are right about this one.A few months ago the police did a raid and cleaned the streets around soi 13.

But you tar all the others with the same brush and call them dregs, the Japanese, the elder guys, third gender...not quite polite.

in My opinion it´s still fun to sit there at night, have a cheap Saeng Som Coke and watch the colours of Bangkok including all the minorities you mentioned. And please tell me - if you liked the birds ten years ago, why do you complain about them today ? Both of us definitely looked better a decade or two ago.

Are you just complaining because others are taking over a territory that used to be "ours" ? The Sukh wasn´t that lustrous ten years ago..think you glorify it a bit..

[mespike]

I was not referring to Japanese as dregs but rather inferring they have taken over one of the old funspots. I was not referring to the elder men when i spoke about BeerGarden but rather talking about old used up unattractive hookers. Yesterday i actually saw a 60yo lady dressed in teens clothes outside there. There are only a few crossover bridges or walks in the zone making it not always convenient to cross over to the even streets. I may seem impolite but politeness has become hard to find on Lower Sukhumvit now. Damnam1 you may be right that have glorified the old days a bit. Then again your German from a country known for good quality alcohol and your drinking Saeng Som cheap quality alcohol in likes of ripple or rot gut. I a way i am glad your defending the zone. I still stand by my point that i wish it would improve. First step would be for the government to reduce the vendors there and start doing a bit more sensible urban planning for flow of pedestrian traffic and safety. Also maybe start to control how many damn new condo buildings and overkill going on and scram the touts out of there:)

Edited February 23, 2011 by mespike

[Damnam1]

Hey, mate, there are lots of 70 up to 80 year old guys from all over the world travelling to BKK..lots of former GIs stay at Nana Hotel and they still love to meet their girlies fromtheir Vietnam rest&recreation 36 years ago and celebrate the good old days..of course these birds have turned sixty and are beyond their prime, lol..

In the 90´s Mekhong whisky was famous for causing impaired vision. Of course I cherish my own german fruit brandy, as I come from the fruit-growing regions along the river Rhein near the black forest. But good eau-de-vies are hard to get and five or six Saeng Som Coke never ripped my guts.

I just like to dive in that urban culture in between my trips and even after 15 years of travelling to Thailand I am able to enjoy it for a couple of days.

These good old days we are talking about- they happen right now..and one fine day I will probably be one of the grandpas meeting grandmas from TF..

[koolbreez]

I think you are blinded by what lower Sukhumvit is, and always has been, a tourist trap. The tourists expect the street vendors, they expect the touts, and they expect the working girls. Everything you are complaining about is what makes lower Sukhumvit what it is, and always has. It is a unique area of Bangkok, just like China Town, or KaoSan Road, they are what they are, and people visit there for exactly the experiences you are complaining about.

The Beer Garden is much better, and cleaner than it used to be, it even has a band in the evening now, or are you simply complaining about the people that frequent it? They really haven't changed. It never was a younger crowd hangout. The owner does not allow ladyboys in the beer garden, and never has. The food they serve is still pretty good, and the beers are still pretty cheap. It doesn't look like the fire trap it did before.

Are you complaining about the Thermai because you are now priced out of that venue? I like to see some people making more money, and it still is a fun place to visit, drink prices haven't went up that much.

NANA Plaza has changed with the removal of the center bars on the bottom for fire safety reasons, and except for ownership changes, and remodels of some of the businesses, everything else is the same. Big Dogs is the same. Nana burger in the front has cleaned up their operation considerably. Unless you are looking for a ladyboy, the ones in the front don't bother you, and they've been there as long as I can remember. I do miss the hell fire, and brimstone preacher that used to frequent the entrance though.

For the most part the lower Sukhumvit area is much cleaner than it was in the past with many of the old decaying businesses having been remodeled. The Bamboo bar isn't even bamboo anymore after all the remodel, and the parking lot has been turned into a very good Lebanese restaurant.

I'm not really sure what has deteriorated that you are refering to? It has improved from what I can see. The people are different, but they change all the time anyway, both the tourists, depending on the season, and the business owners depending on who they found to buy them out this time around.

Edited February 23, 2011 by koolbreez

[POSES]

well...... see that the front row from suk soi 3-7 is getting dark and Darker ( if you know what i mean)

you are dealing wt the overwhelmed tourist attraction, the tunnel of love, the HO(T)spots

but i'm dealing with the over architecture skywalker over by New Sathorn junction, it killed the beautifulness of Sathorn road. n' What next a new bill board advert said " We <3 Sathorn " Let's ya all shop more. Just another modernist way to killed

Edited February 23, 2011 by POSES

[CiaranM]

I'm not really sure what has deteriorated that you are refering to? It has improved from what I can see. The people are different, but they change all the time anyway, both the tourists, depending on the season, and the business owners depending on who they found to buy them out this time around.

well probably the biggest change has been the fact that after midnight it's f**king a struggle to try and walk along the pavment thanks to all the bars that set up business there .... and they have only been in place since the crack down on closing times for "licenced establishment" !! so i'd guess that's probably only in the last 5/6 years !!! also after 1/2am there's a LOT more hookers and ladyboys hanging around on the streets ... again that's because of the bars now having to close at 1/2am.

so lower sukhumvit has changed and changed considerably !! there's a lot more "bars" on the pavement, there's a lot more hookers and ladyboys "plying their trade" on the street ... but i guess not everyone would consider this a deterioration !!! some might even call it an improvement !!!

[Chatty]

You guys just feel it? I have been around the area (soi 1 - 19) since I was a kid. My mom had a salon in soi 2 and moved to soi 1. It was quite difference.... before it full of Thai - Chinese (nice and rich) around this area. We got nice customers. This area was so alright, not full of street vendors who destroy beautiful of Sukhumvit like this. Now I don't even drive thru soi 3 after work cuz of annoying tourists who never know the traffic rules, and vendors which their stuff take over 1 lane on the busy street.

I'm glad that I have no need to deal with it anymore, after moving to Nonthaburi, I just take expressway near my workplace soi 1 then go straight home.

Edited February 24, 2011 by Chatty

[English_Bob]

I live on Soi 4. When I come home at night, I avoid the top of my soi and take a back street. I never walk on the 'odd' side of Sukhumvit at night time.

The area is overrun with Arabs and Africans. Last week I was riding my bike up to the lights at Soi 3 and an African guy shouted from 5 metres away, "Hey... wanna buy ganja?"

Arab men walk down the street in gangs of 4 or 5. They don't use the pavements and they don't move for vehicles. Recently I've been driving a car and I've 'moved' a few of them to the pavement with my bumper. I don't understand the 'f uck you' mentality of 'eyeballing' a car. A pedestrian is NEVER going to win. I think they are counting on the driver being too scared to run into them... Bad luck in my case. I've found that people can move remarkably quickly when I drop down a gear and pop the clutch.

[admin]

More and more that area is attracting in the same people who made Patpong a hellhole. Just the other night, in fact leaving EB's restaurant, we stopped at the corner on Soi 11 and Sukhumvit. We were deciding where we were off to next and a "friendly" tuk-tuk driver came over and offered his services. I said "No, no tuk-tuk." But that must have been too vague of a response as he kept standing there as Hilly, Ked, and I discussed our next destination.

Then he says "Sexy lady show?"

I'm like "WTF, dude?!?! You see I'm standing here with my girlfriend. NO!! WE DON"T WANT A TUK-TUK!!!!!"

Still not discouraged he replies "Where are you going?"

I reply, "None of your business."

When we finally agreed to catch a cab to Soi 22 the guy followed us to the taxi?!?!

There's another guy who stands on the corner of Soi 15. Older guy. He's been there for several years. Every so often, he'll grab you by the shirt sleeve trying to get you to look at his tattered old brochure for some Ratchada massage parlor that he would love to take you to. Whenever he grabs my shirt I stop and say (very loudly) "Do not touch me. Get your hands off of me!" And every single time he never skips a beat and says "Sexy massage?"

[CiaranM]

There's another guy who stands on the corner of Soi 15. Older guy. He's been there for several years. Every so often, he'll grab you by the shirt sleeve trying to get you to look at his tattered old brochure for some Ratchada massage parlor that he would love to take you to. Whenever he grabs my shirt I stop and say (very loudly) "Do not touch me. Get your hands off of me!" And every single time he never skips a beat and says "Sexy massage?"

he's obviously got ur number Bill !!!! ;-)

[admin]

It's a common site on Bangkok's streets. Sweaty tourists, a look of determined frustration in their eyes, battling to push a stroller through a maze of sidewalk vendors, pot holes, random dangling wires and poles, as their toddler bounces about in delight.

Rarely will you see a Bangkok resident pushing a baby stroller anywhere other than in a shopping mall, let alone a person in a wheel chair. They know better.

But rather than tackle the city’s nightmare sidewalks on the ground, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration announced it’s spending 15 billion baht to build a “Super Skywalk System,” a 50-kilometer covered, elevated walking space through some of the city's busiest neighborhoods that also connects to the BTS and MRT.

According to a report in today’s Nation, construction on the walkway is scheduled for completion in four years. Construction on the first phase begins next month, a 16-kilometer stretch starting at Soi Nana and ending at Soi Bearing that will also include some parts of Phya Thai, Ramkhamhaeng and Wong Wien Yai.

Read more: ‘Super Skywalk’ to end Bangkok’s pedestrian nightmare | CNNGo.com

I've always wondered why they never connected the Asoke and Nana stations via a skywalk. The cynic side of me said that some powerful people owned the property up and down Suk and they would lose revenue if people could bypass all of the hassle on the ground.

[Andy_bkk]

You have to be creative and find your own solutions.

I walk from Suk 3 to 11 in 3 minutes! How? Speed walking on the street. Boom! Faster than a Shinkansen.

[PJack]

its true. the place has gone downhill. the area during the day is not that nice to begin with. but during the night time it has an element of danger to it. I have eaten in Soi 3/1 at Sherazade and other places going back 15+ years. I have gotten stopped and hassled a bit by people in this soi more than once in the last couple years. It never used to be like that. seems like lots of people on yaa baa and that element adds a certain tone.

[Guest MarkCJ]

So this place has turned into another whoremongers forum then? Yawn .. Zzzzzzzzzzz

[CiaranM]

So this place has turned into another whoremongers forum then? Yawn .. Zzzzzzzzzzz

well how f**king perceptive was that !!!!

[admin]

So this place has turned into another whoremongers forum then? Yawn .. Zzzzzzzzzzz

I'm not really sure how noting how a part of town that is highly frequented by expats and tourists is whoremongering.

[Guest MarkCJ]

I'm not really sure how noting how a part of town that is highly frequented by expats and tourists is whoremongering.

Probably from the OP ..

Africans have the highest incidence of Aids on the planet and Indians have the highest new infection rate. Do you want to be screwing the same girls they are? Therme used to be a place where western men could chill out and meet a fun girl.

... but if he is not representative of everyone else ... Sorry.

I can't think of any other reason to hang around that ****hole of place besides ***** chasing. I wouldn't go there for the ripoff shopping. I definitely wouldn't go there for the rip off restaurants.

What else is there? Lots of Farangs? OK .. maybe that's it .. some Westerners just feel more comfortable in a Farang Ghetto. Sort of defeats the purpose of living here though. Each to his own I suppose.

[admin]

Probably from the OP ..

... but if he is not representative of everyone else ... Sorry.

I can't think of any other reason to hang around that ****hole of place besides whore chasing. I wouldn't go there for the ripoff shopping. I definitely wouldn't go there for the rip off restaurants.

What else is there? Lots of Farangs? OK .. maybe that's it .. some Westerners just feel more comfortable in a Farang Ghetto. Sort of defeats the purpose of living here though. Each to his own I suppose.

Well, I go to school in the Time Square building so I have to be there 3 times per week.

It's also jam packed with hotels so if you have friends in from out of town they typically want to meet or go out somewhere close to their hotel.

But more to the point, I think if you look at the number of Westerners who live in Bangkok most of them do choose to be around other farangs so it's not "some Westerners", it's "most Westerners." I don't know, when I ride the BTS out to Mo Chit or the MRT out to Bang Sue I don't see a lot of white faces at the terminal station.

[Guest MarkCJ]

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against a bit of ***** chasing .. again .. each to their own. I'm just tired of reading about it on forums.

Yes .. OK. Maybe I had a bit of a kneejerk reaction when I made that post .. so lets get back to complaining about lower Suk in general.

I don't agree with the posters whining about Africans and Arabs. they have as much right to be there as anyone. If I was walking along lower Suk and passed by an African or Arab .. I'd think nothing of it. Does it inconvenience me in any way? No.

As for the sidewalks being littered with vendors .. hey! The place is a tourist ghetto. It's all part of the scene. ***. If people want the place to be clinically clean and ordered like a 1st World city then they are out of luck. A lot of poor Thais have to make a living. No social welfare here.

If there is one thing more boring than ***** discussions ,, it's spoiled Farangs moaning about Thailand and/or parts of it not coming up to their standards. Somehow the poverty of the place is just "a nuisance". Pretty self centered and insensitive if you ask me.

I prefer to have the "Mai Pen Rai", "She'll be right", "No worries" attitude. Much kinder to my blood pressure.

[CiaranM]

I can't think of any other reason to hang around that ****hole of place besides ***** chasing. I wouldn't go there for the ripoff shopping. I definitely wouldn't go there for the rip off restaurants.

What else is there? Lots of Farangs? OK .. maybe that's it .. some Westerners just feel more comfortable in a Farang Ghetto. Sort of defeats the purpose of living here though. Each to his own I suppose.

if u like to play pool virtually all the decent pool halls r between soi 2 and soi 24 !! i also like to watch premiership football while having a cold beer or 3 .... so again that's a reason i'd hang out there !!

and again the reason i'm living here is work .... don't get me wrong i enjoy living in BKK, but i didn't come here because i loved the thai way of life !!!

[English_Bob]

Oh... He's one of THOSE.

Came here for the temples and food. Likes to meditate in his spare time. Hangs out in Thai bars to meet the 'real people'. Loves street food. Has a tattoo written in Thai script. Had 4 Muay Thai lessons and 10 Thai lessons. Smoked weed with some Thai dudes on a beach. Talked to a monk once. Calls rich Thai people, 'elite'.

As tired a cliche as the fat whoremonger in his Chang vest getting a breakfast beer or two.

[Guest MarkCJ]

^ If that's supposed to me .. Wow! How wrong can a man get! Most of my life is spent in the "real World" .. I'm as decadent as yourself. I'm just bored of reading about all that **** in forums from armchair travelers.

1. Temples .. Boring as bat ****.

2. Thai food .. Fantastic

3. Meditation .. Spare me!

4. I do hang out in Thai bars occasionally .. that's all there is in Chanthaburi!

5. Hate street food .. I do my own cooking. Meat and 3 veg.

6. Zero tatts

7. Couldn't "Muay Thai" myself out of a paper bag if you paid me.

8. Thai lessons? .. No need. I've absorbed Thai via osmosis over 4 years.

9. I don't share my weed with Thai dudes .. **** em.

10. I did did give a Monk a cigarette once.

11. I call rich Thais corrupt arseholes.

Pretty normal really.

[English_Bob]

Worse...

He's one of THOSE...

[CiaranM]

^ If that's supposed to me .. Wow! How wrong can a man get! Most of my life is spent in the "real World" .. I'm as decadent as yourself. I'm just bored of reading about all that **** in forums from armchair travelers.

1. Temples .. Boring as bat ****.

2. Thai food .. Fantastic

3. Meditation .. Spare me!

4. I do hang out in Thai bars occasionally .. that's all there is in Chanthaburi!

5. Hate street food .. I do my own cooking. Meat and 3 veg.

6. Zero tatts

7. Couldn't "Muay Thai" myself out of a paper bag if you paid me.

8. Thai lessons? .. No need. I've absorbed Thai via osmosis over 4 years.

9. I don't share my weed with Thai dudes .. **** em.

10. I did did give a Monk a cigarette once.

11. I call rich Thais corrupt arseholes.

Pretty normal really.

there's a lot of pretty normal guys hang out around sukhumvit also ...

although it does have more than it's fair share of f**king freaks also !!!

[Guest MarkCJ]

there's a lot of pretty normal guys hang out around sukhumvit also ...

Not disputing that. Red herring.