Bully's Bar
Open: 11:30 - 01:30
Location: Near Nana BTS station, between Sukhumvit Soi 2 & 4
Contact: +66 (0)2 656 4609
Skytrain: Nana
Want to retreat from the heat? Here's the right place, though a bit pricey compared to other bars around the area. If you don't mind the pocket burn, it's a good spot to escape the outside heat for a cool drink. A sports bar type place, Bully's features several TV screens and four pool tables. Their menu offers a good range of meals too, including both popular western and Thai dishes. There are a few pool hostesses floating around but they'll leave you alone unless you are up for a game. Unlike many other places in the area, it's closed up and they have the air-con on all the time. The perfect place to recharge your batteries.
Bus Stop
Open: 17:00 - 01:00
Location: Sukhumvit Soi 4, Just up the road from Nana Plaza
Contact: +66 (0)2 251 9222
Skytrain: Nana
A relatively quiet place on Sukhumvit Soi 4. This semi-open bar and garden is an escape from the blatant sex trade elsewhere on the soi. Although it does have its share of bar girls, they are not very aggressive in their sales techniques and are quite happy just to chat (if buy a drink). Some of the city's hippest and trendiest clubs are found around Sukhumvit Road.
Cheap Charlies
Open: 16:30 - 01:00 except Sunday
Location: Sukhumvit Soi 11
Contact: +66 (0)2 253 4648
Skytrain: Nana
Where in lower Sukhumvit can you go for a drink and meet interesting farang; ones that don't wield a plainly apparent penchant for ill-fitting sports attire and upcountry girls? The answer is not some haughty hotel lounge, nor some austere restaurant, but this 20-something Bangkok institution - little more than a wooden shack and a few stools that spill across the street. Every night, expats and clubbers swarm here to dose up on beers before heading somewhere pricier (at 60 baht a bottle Cheap Charlie's delivers on its name). A definite contender for Bangkok's most bizarre bar, be sure to check out the oddities accumulated over the years - animal skulls, tribal masks and other strange curios (the toilet bares a classic sign: 'no shitting'). Tucked away down a narrow, predominantly residential soi, remember also to be a gent and stand aside for passing cars.
Flava Lounge, Dream Hotel
Open:
Location: Dream Hotel, 10 Sukhumvit Soi 15, Klongtoey
Contact: +66 (0)2 254 8500
Skytrain: Nana
Integrated with the Dream Hotel's Flava restaurant, this indulgent bar-cum-lounge was designed to matche the all-out surrealism and flair of Bangkok's latest boutique hotel. Pulling off the 'cocktail of flavour, theme and services' are warm tonal stripes, plush furnishings, superlative cocktails and the 'Perdomo' Cigar bar-in-bar, serving up some of the world's finest for you to puff on.
For Hor Gor Dor
Open: 18:00 - 01:00 (Sunday - Wednesday); 23:00 - 01:00 (Thursday - Saturday)
Location: Sukhumvit 63 Soi 4
Contact: +66 (0)2 391 1326
Skytrain: Ekamai
The name may sound a bit intimidating, but once inside you'll discover a pleasant and mainly white bar and lounge area. Enjoy your drink to the live piano tunes daily from 20:00 - 22:30. Wednesdays have live pop acts.
Ice Bar
Location: 158/21 Thonglor, Near Sukhumvit Road
Contact: +66 (0)2 381 6844
Skytrain: BTS Thonglor
A name like Ice Bar leaves you open to all kinds of wry linguistic horseplay. "This place left me cold", "I give it a minus-zero". We could go on. Unfortunately, despite a neat melting ice bar, translucent interiors that change colour and our wish that it was otherwise, this is one of those places where cheap quips hold true. Cliquey style-conscious kids ('dek naew' as they're called in Thai) who love little more than live radio hits, hip-pop and Chivas - nope, Ice Bar isn't as cool as it think it is. In fact, in nearly every respect it's positively ice-age.
Song Saleung
Location: 387/23-24 Soi Thonglor 21, Sukhumvit 55
Contact: +66 (0)2 712 9118
The thing we remember most about our trip to Thonglor's unruly live music bar is that it was raining. And not only raindrops but people too. After weaving past security and the snazzy al fresco area, we could barely move for the young, affluent throng packed in like whisky-soaked sardines. Finding a table, and keeping it, was a mission; as was dodging the toes of fellow patrons as we squeezed our way to the toilet or attempted a dance. Persevere though, because you may well be rewarded: girls with a barrage of hot guys wanting to top up your glass and raise a toast; guys, with a flurry of phone-numbers from cute girls wanting help with their English. Just be careful you don't step on anyone's toes!
Zanzibar
Open: 17:30 - 01:00
Location: 139 Sukhumvit 11
Contact: +66 (0)2 651 2700
Skytrain: Nana
Located in the grounds of a converted Thai house, this restaurant has a spacious, softly lit terraced garden, with live jazz in the evenings creating a classy kind of buzz. Lounge out on the comfy couches or shake it on the floor later in the evening. The menu features Italian and Thai dishes - not cheap though.
Zest Piano Bar
Open: 07:00 - 02:00
Location: Westin Grande Sukhumvit Hotel, 259 Sukhumvit Road
Contact: +66 (0)2 207 8000
Skytrain: BTS Asok
A hotel piano bar of considerable élan, Zest is great for warm-up cocktails before hitting lower Sukhumvit. A vibrant bar changes colours, svelte waitresses deliver impeccably crafted martinis, and customers drown in plush contemporary furnishings. A piano twinkles soothingly in the background. Cocooned away from the chaos outside, this represents a salubrious, sophisticated and, frankly, sane choice.
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