Another Bar Question - Sorry!

[luckyluke]

Sukhumvit Soi 8, ~W 4 Y~ bar (near Soi 8 Pub) 50 Thb for a draught(draft).

[jfchandler]

Ya... We 4 You bar... a small open shophouse bar with generally cheap beer and a familiar lineup of "experienced" working ladies there seeking drinks and compansionship.... A very low-key, no frills place... but drinks only... no food.

[smileplur]

Soi Rangnam - Water Bar - Singha = 50 baht

Sounds like a find.

Indeed, I was quite pleased to find the joint. It is on the Ratchaparop end of the soi across from Tony's House of Fashion.

[guava]

Am I the only one who thinks Cheap Charlies is an horrendous place to drink?

Not at all. Way over-rated. Interesting decor, but it's outdoors, no air-con, no protection from heat/rain, laughable "tables" smaller than what most people call stools, no table service (queuing at a bar for a drink in Thailand <deleted>), way too popular with people who can just afford to be there and/or have just read about it in their Lonely Planet, and a name that would make most people cringe. I'd imagine the owners of Tapas, Charlie Browns, etc love having freeloaders use their toilets too.

I can tolerate the place for a beer or two if forced, but it wouldn't make my top 1000. The things people do to save 10B.... The fact it makes it into so many travel guides makes me wonder how many travel guide authors have ever even been there. Buying booze from the supermarket, and sitting pretty much anywhere is at least one step up IMHO. I'm not a bar snob (far from it), but you need to draw a line somewhere, and Cheap Charlies falls far short of it.

[guava]

Lots of cheap and fun places around, especially off the beaten track.

Even going slightly off the beaten track you'll find plenty of decent and/or fun places with drinks well under 100 THB (if the difference between 70THB and 100THB is that much of an issue), especially if they have happy hours and promotions.

New Cowboy and others on Suk 22, Washington Square, Queens Park Plaza. Wongs on Sri Bumphen. Some of the bars in Suk 7/1, Suk 4, Suk 8, Patpong 2, etc

The difference in cheap vs not-so-cheap drinking sessions often comes down to what you drink, how long you can drink beer before switching to other drinks which cost more and/or go down faster, and how susceptible you are to shouting others, buying lady drinks, buying drinks for sisters, cousins, djs, bar staff, mama, mama's mama, mama's mama's mama etc, and tipping like a loon. A lot of places with cheap drinks that are frequented by farangs watching their money seem to have a lot of other ways to try and extract money from you. There's no shortage of places that don't of course.

[Doza]

Jeez....I'd much rather drink at Cheap Charlies (which incidentaly is mainly full of expats not cheap backpackers) than amongst the sleeze and hookers at Queens Park Plaza, soi 4 or Patpong. CCs has a fun relaxed vibe. Those others are dirt. Maybe good though if your 50+ and like hookers giving you massages or exchanging banter like "you come from?"...

[jfchandler]

Jeez.... I like sleeze and hookers occasionally... and can even stomach ex-pats and backpackers now and then...

But, I've never quite understood the appeal of CC's... and yes... I've been there...done that...because the place is in my backyard...

Why does it get written up so much is western guidebooks for BKK??? Maybe because it's the totally un-Western notion of a bar that consists pretty much of a wood shack with a few stools plunked down along the side of a small street???? Hard to find that in Los Angeles...

Gotta admit though... No one ever has said to me there... Hey handsum man.....Used to have to walk across the soi for that....

[Groongthep]

Am I the only one who thinks Cheap Charlies is an horrendous place to drink?

Not at all. Way over-rated. Interesting decor, but it's outdoors, no air-con, no protection from heat/rain, laughable "tables" smaller than what most people call stools, no table service (queuing at a bar for a drink in Thailand <deleted>), way too popular with people who can just afford to be there and/or have just read about it in their Lonely Planet, and a name that would make most people cringe. I'd imagine the owners of Tapas, Charlie Browns, etc love having freeloaders use their toilets too.

I can tolerate the place for a beer or two if forced, but it wouldn't make my top 1000. The things people do to save 10B.... The fact it makes it into so many travel guides makes me wonder how many travel guide authors have ever even been there. Buying booze from the supermarket, and sitting pretty much anywhere is at least one step up IMHO. I'm not a bar snob (far from it), but you need to draw a line somewhere, and Cheap Charlies falls far short of it.

I used to go to Cheap Charlies back in the late 80's and early 90's when the clientele there and the Sukhumvit Soi 11 area in general were much different than they are today. In those days the patrons were made up mostly of oilfield workers, merchant seamen, military men on leave, workers on holiday from contract jobs in the Middle East or Africa, one of the few resident expats or maybe even a backpackers or two. There were many fewer retired old-farts in Thailand in those days. The bar and in fact Bangkok in general seemed rather exotic to me at that time. Cheap Charlies was usually just a place people went to for a few drinks before heading out to somewhere else. It was a much more boisterous place and was not a destination in it's own right like it is now. It was written up in Lonely Planet back then (I think by Joe Cummings) when that publication actually contained a lot of useful information and well before it became the focus of contempt by many of my contemporaries as it has become now. Over the years, the bar itself has pretty much remained unchanged but the neighborhood around it and the customers have definitely been yuppified. I think it remains in the guidebooks just because it has been there so long. They just never bothered to document the transformation that occurred around the place.

[Crossy]

Am I the only one who thinks Cheap Charlies is an horrendous place to drink?

The place gets packed early on, and you have to stand around clutching your bottle and moving every time a car comes in and out of the soi. Gash!

I used to think staying behind the yellow line was part of the atmosphere along with the interesting arrangement of plastic guttering used to direct the rain onto passers-by instead of customers

Anyway, that sub-soi has been closed to traffic (at least in the evening when CCs is open) for the best part of a year now, spread as much as you like without danger of being run over, could get stood on by the chang though

[jfchandler]

Had a very fun night out last night at a medium-sized Thai pub called Y50 on Ekamai Soi 21, pretty much right at the corner of the main road. Went with Thai friends for a birthday party and was the only farang in the place, but no one much seemed to mind, including me...

A very nice bottle whisky place with beer and cocktails and food snacks to be had. But, the live Thai band was really good, playing a changing mix of music throughout the evening, both Western (earlier) and popular Thai (later). Can't remember ever hearing a Thai band here play a good version of The Crusaders/Bill Withers' classic "Just the Two of Us" before. Was pretty shocked to hear it, but it was great. Got there about 11 pm and the band was playing almost non-stop until 2 am...

Has a reputation as something of a place for youngish hi-so Thais, and indeed, my friends said a group who regularly make it into the Thai newspapers was having a party behind us. Best thing about the place is the cozy atmosphere, with very comfortable and intimate couches and chairs for chilling in a busy but relaxed, not-crowded setting... Not a pickup place, but a great place to enjoy an evening with a Thai date/spouse. No dance floor, but as the night gets later, folks start shaking at their tables and elsewhere. It's upstairs from an antique store.... See the enclosed link for more info...

[huggybear]

Of course, you have to put up with a clientele (both male and female) that makes the bar scene in the Star Wars movie look positively glamorous.

HEY !

I resemble that remark.......

[cudaproject]

*exception made for Hotel California. That should be played with zero volume. And the writer shot.

I'll second that!! and that San Francisco song... absolute durge!

[machlad]

Sukhumvit Soi 8, ~W 4 Y~ bar (near Soi 8 Pub) 50 Thb for a draught(draft).

W 4 Y bar is my usual haunt for a few beers in the afternoon or early evening when i'm in Bkk.

Last visit late last year it was 60 Baht for a singha, The girls there are not the prettyest they are happy to have a game of pool or usual bar games with you and very friendly but they do not push for drinks.

Aslo a good bar to watch the girls from Lolita's going back and fore to the 7 / 11 or the food stalls.

They also mix a good Bacardi & Coke, they don't skimp on the alcohol.

[NotATourist]

I can't believe no one has mentioned the Lao Khao/Dhong stands - Soi 22 (3 of), Connecting path between sois 5 & 7 later at night, and down past Thermae a little late at night, oh yes and the convenience store next to Cactus Bar on Cowboy.

Going at 10B a shot, you can shout everyone

Now that's cheap charlie