Brick Bar
Open: 18:00 - 01:00
Location: 265 Khao San Road, downstairs at rear of Buddy Lodge complex
Contact: +66 (0)2 629 4477
Dark, cavernous and with its signature red brick walls, this intimate venue has a distinctly European air that is matched by some serious attention to music. With low-lighting and a live music policy that skirts deftly between jazz, blues and ska, it's a real magnet for boisterous locals. Best of all the bands is a colourful Thai outfit called Ska, renowned for their own material.
Buddy Beer
Open: 24 hours
Location: 265 Khao San Road, upstairs in Buddy Lodge complex
Contact: +66 (0)2 629 4477
This colonial-era style bar (and restaurant) is a bright, spacious upstairs retreat popular with cultivated Thais. Clean white walls, wooden floors and old-fashioned ceiling fans make this a refined, air-conditioned, means of escape from the bedraggled human zoo outside. Prices reflect the upmarket aspirations, and there are several pool tables for your gaming pleasure.
Cinnamon Bar
Location: 106 Soi Rambuttri
Contact: +66 (0)2 629 4075
Hidden away on the road parallel to Khao San Road, Soi Rambuttri, this has 'discovery' written all over it. A neat water feature wall lines the narrow pathway entrance. This striking entrance however is outdone by a chic modern interior consisting of two intimate floors of sleek glass and steel, and festooned with lots of funky furniture. The cocktails are a winner here, and there's a backroom to cater for all your dancing needs.
Gazebo
Open: 20:00 - Late
Location: Upstairs, 44 Chakrapong Road
Contact: +66 (0)2 629 0705
Around the corner from Gullivers, this bar-stroke-club stays open 'late' - well past the official closing hour of 02:00. But that's not the only reason we like it so. The bar, a semi open-air room with a corrugated steel gazebo, has been done out all fancy, like a softly lit Moroccan parlor. Think Persian rugs, lanterns and mosaic tables. Staff in Ali Baba hats ferry cocktails to the Khao San Diaspora as they sit in red brick enclaves, puffing away on fragrant Shisha pipes. A sultry evening breeze heightens the Arabian Night's feel, while the live reggae band adds to the eclecticism. Then, once the cocktails have kicked in and your eyes glazed over, head next door to meet Gazebo's raucous alter ego: a small, dark club room thick with 3am nocturnes and loud dance beats. Entry is 300 baht after midnight.
Gullivers
Open: 11:00 - 02:00
Location: 2 Khao San Road
Contact: +66 (0)2 629 1988
The Tuk-Tuk mounted like a trophy above its entrance at the Chakrapong Road end of Khao San, is one of the first things many backpackers see on arriving in South-East Asia. With its comforting Euro sports bar ambiance, pool tables and TV's screening wall-to-wall sport, for many it's also one of the last. Schools of seductive female pool-sharks encircle a clientele comprised mainly of boozy male farang. At around 22:30 each night it morphs into a wild Club-Med style disco, complete with cheesy chart hits and people using pool tables as podiums.
Hippie de Bar
Open: 11:00 - 01:00
Location: 46 Khao San Road
Contact: +66 (0)1 820 3762
A funky jewel of a bar in an area drowning in tastelessness, Hippie de Bar is all cool kitsch and cool kids. In a small, calm courtyard, down a side alley off the main strip is this cozy two-storey house decked out in old school memorabilia. This artsy interior draws gangs of hip Thai adolescents, while the greenery and serenity of the fairy-light lit courtyard appeals more to strung out backpackers. Add a good line in tangy cocktails, superb Thai grub and you've got one of the few places on Khao San Road with real personality.
Khao San Centre
Open: 24 Hours
Location: 80 Khao San Road
On the face of it there is little to commend Khao San Centre. It's busy, shabby, hot and the staff often a tad brusque. There's no live music. However, before you briskly stroll past with your nose up, hold up a second - and listen! Open 24 hours a day, this open-fronted watering hole is eternally abuzz with the chatter of travellers swapping stories and comparing notes. Excitable new arrivals about to embark on their Southeast Asian adventure glean tips from sage old timers who've been at it for months - and look like it. This conviviality, and the fact it's one of the best places on the strip to people watch, make it worthy of the newcomers patronage at least once. Shamrock - the icily air-conditioned live music Irish bar - sits above it.
Shamrock
Open: 12:00 - 01:00
Location: 2nd floor of Khao San Centre, Khao San Road
Contact: +66 (0)2 282 4366
Slick local bands play every night at this popular Irish themed pub, the sounds revolving around alternative hits from bands such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nickelback, Oasis, U2 and Nirvana. They serve chilled Guiness, but the mixed Thai and foreign crowd come mostly for whisky chasers, to sing-along to anthems and dance in refreshing air-conditioned surroundings. It's very loud up front though, so forget about chatting. The entrance fee of 100 baht on weekends includes a drink.
Silk Bar
Open: 08:00 - 02:00
Location: 129-131 Khao San Road
Contact: +66 (0)2 281 9981
One of the new breed, Silk Bar is the archetypal upmarket Khao San establishment, a place where international fusion foods meet with trendy venue design and loud lounge music. Head inside to revel in the stylish interiors, or go al fresco on the raised terrace, from where you can sit and gaze with cool detachment and a cocktail at the human zoo walking by.
Learn more about Khao San Road: Overview, List of Hotels, Where to Stay, What to See & Do, Nightlife, Clubs, Shopping, Where to Eat, Getting Around |
