Good Bar/pub In Cm To Hang Out In: Any Suggestions?

[uptheos]

George Bernard Shaw once argued that any woman can be 'bar fined' subject to how she's feeling and her other commitments.

I always wondered who that old guy with a long beard was?

[Semper]

Dayli ,Soi 11 Niman. 4 large Leo for 195. Asahi for a bit more. Consistently the coldest beer in town. Saw them deliver 30 cases one evening of Leo Bottles. They rotate them through a freezer.

Only 1 or 2 farangs in there, or zero, but they are student oriented and will practice English with you. I've been going in there for 6 years.......20-40 thb tip will get you VIP treatment the next time.

John charges 88 for a Large, and I have a card......it's just not as good as it was, but it's ok.

Thanks for sharing this. Now the place will be packed with farangs.

Better than going out of business.

Any place that sells 4 big bottles for under 200 baht deserves support, no matter what.

A while back I was introduced to a place having a nightly 'beer buffet' all-you-can-drink thing, with pretty beer girls to boot. The person who introduced me to it specifically requested to not share it on this forum, so I obliged, of course. It is out of business now, and nobody wins.

Yes, but according to Thighlander : "Only 1 or 2 farangs in there, or zero, but they are student oriented and will practice English with you. I've been going in there for 6 years". I think they are doing just fine without Farangs and why not, there must be more Thais than Farangs in CM.

[alexpoker]

Another recommendation for Number 1 bar. on Soi 1 off Lou Kroh. Good relaxed atmosphere. The girls really make you feel welcome and remember your name if you start coming there regularly. SIt with you for a bit also but dont hassle you for drinks ever.

Pricewise I have no idea how it compares to other places but i think a big Leo might be like 90-110b?

[true blue]

try warm up on nimman,eye candy incredible,amazing,beer cheap, jug of beer 140bht, group good plays a lot of westner songs,only snag very few farangs,in there mainly thai,but relaxing.

[Loaded]

The beer gardens in the international supermarkets have cheap beer and very sexy beer girls. A jug of Chang is 95 THB.

[daoyai]

George Bernard Shaw once argued that any woman can be 'bar fined' subject to how she's feeling and her other commitments.

I always wondered who that old guy with a long beard was?

Abrilliant guy but a nazi supporter in his day.....

[bottledwater]

Well, this is great. I've got a good list going here that I will share with you. I may have missed some or decided against a few for whatever reason.

Here is who is on the list mostly based on the order they were referred:

Half Moon Pub

John's Place

Happy Bar

Number1 Bar

Downunder Pub

Gecko bar/restaurant

7-11

Blue Sky Bar

Santitham area (grouping this area together for now)

Carnival

Dayli

Citron Bar

Warm Up

I haven't been in Chiang Mai too long but even I can see that I've cast a pretty wide net. That is a good thing, though. I'll ad to this list if any more ideas come in. Thanks all!

[jackr]

^^ Don't forget The Saloon and UN, both of which (incl' Saloon 2) are within the Old Town, your requirement.

[Mestizo]

A while back I was introduced to a place having a nightly 'beer buffet' all-you-can-drink thing, with pretty beer girls to boot. The person who introduced me to it specifically requested to not share it on this forum, so I obliged, of course. It is out of business now, and nobody wins.

That's not true. As "the person", *I* won. I got to spend several quality nights there without being surrounded by the crusty old T.V. riff-raff. That's a definite win in my book.

-Mestizo

[wjmark]

Are all the girls in the bars on loi kroh barfinable? I'm not talking about the ones in the kick boxing Soi but the one near Raming lodge. From memory there was a Thai kitchen cooking school down hat Soi. I think one of them was a no 1 bar and another bar opposite but the staff used to swap between the 2. Last time I was there I wanted to ask if I could bar fine one of the girls but didn't want to offend anyone in case it wasn't that sort of bar.

You can bar fine most of the women at most of the bars that are just bars on Loi Kroh (subject to how the woman is feeling and her other commitments, as described by WinnieTheKwai). However most or all of the places that are restaurant/bars don't have ladies for rent.

George Bernard Shaw once argued that any woman can be 'bar fined' subject to how she's feeling and her other commitments.

And Winston Churchill said, "We have determined what you are Madam, now we are only quibbling about the Price."

[wellred]

Ok another noob question here but I hear there are some girly bars down by the night market. Where abouts and hat road? Are they on Chang klan? I'm usually all set on Loi Kroh but fancy tryij out some new ones this time and maybe even foxy lady and that other one silver star although I've heard some bad stories about the latter.

[dickyknee]

Ok another noob question here but I hear there are some girly bars down by the night market. Where abouts and hat road? Are they on Chang klan? I'm usually all set on Loi Kroh but fancy tryij out some new ones this time and maybe even foxy lady and that other one silver star although I've heard some bad stories about the latter.

probably chang klan road. there are a bunch of karaoke bars spread out along there.

[wellred]

Thanks i might check them out. Are those bars mostly for locals? I read a story no too long ago (possibly on here) about a Russian guy who went in and they tried to stitch him up with the bill. He ended up catching a beating. I guess what I'm asking is does anyone here have any 'safe' karaoke bars they know are farang friendly and won't try rip me off?

[jackr]

Ok another noob question here but I hear there are some girly bars down by the night market.

There used to be a bunch of tarty bars in the vicinity of Foxy--opposite heading towards Night Market side off Thapae Soi 1. Bit of a gay area though I think. Or are you referring to the entertainment complex in front of Mae Ping hotel farther down Loi Kroh?

Yes, avoid out-of-the-way karaoke bars loaded with local males, or at the least don't look them in the eye. Pay-as-you-go for beers if you're unsure.

[ha55ha]

Thanks i might check them out. Are those bars mostly for locals? I read a story no too long ago (possibly on here) about a Russian guy who went in and they tried to stitch him up with the bill. He ended up catching a beating. I guess what I'm asking is does anyone here have any 'safe' karaoke bars they know are farang friendly and won't try rip me off?

I've tried out most of the karaoke bars along Chang Klan and you will most likely be ripped off in all of them to some degree. It can range from a couple of girly drinks + a plate of fried rice added to the bill, or huge hidden Mamasan charges and other ridiculous stuff been added.

The best thing to do if you are going to try one out is this - If you want a private room with some friends request one of them and get settled in. Then you need to negotiate a full price before you agree to anything. Get the cost of the room per hour, the girls per hour (to sit and talk with) and how much per whiskey and mixer.

Then decide how many hours you're going to stay for, how many bottles + mixers you want and get them to write down the total cost before you agree anything. If you're planning on staying a while you'll definitely be able to negotiate this price down, so get haggling until everyone is happy. After you've agreed on a final price get them to clearly write it out or give you a bill and tell the owner that in no way will you be paying anymore than this - so don't add any girls drinks, secret tips, food, extra girls (to sit and talk with), extra mixers etc etc without asking you first. They will probably still try to though, so be careful. They nearly always try and sneak extra girls into the room to come and talk with there friends - but they are actually charging you per hour for this. The girls will also be coming in with huge cocktails that they will be trying to sneak onto the bill - make sure to tell them at the start that if the girls want to drink they can only drink from your whiskey. I could go on and on anyway, I'm sure there's some tricks I've missed. During all of this negotiating remember to keep it friendly though. I've heard stories of people getting beat up by the heavy's, so you don't want to get into heated arguments over a few small things.

They are fun though, so don't let that put you off. They are worth trying once or twice!

I've not been for a while now but I would probably recommend Orchid Karaoke as they didn't seem to attempt much scamming and they were always friendly. I would 100% avoid Violin Karaoke as they attempted pretty much every scam I said above plus one of the staff stole my friends motorbike and we caught him driving it back to work the next day with a new key cut (ps. my friend wasn't drink driving, he left it there over night)

Oh yeh and another one which was always very reasonably priced was Dragon Karaoke which is on the road leading from the moat to JJ market, a couple 100 meters up on the left.

[Thighlander]

I met a Finnish guy that got stuck with a 20,000 THB bar tab. A trustworthy Tuk-Tuk driver took him there. He must be an idiot, but still........

[SamSipEt]

... the original half of number one bar has closed for good and the what

just along from carnival bar has been closed for over a week : (

dave2

The owners of these two establishments, allegedly, priced themselves out of the market by ridiculous rent requests. One far too big an increase and the other was for 3 years rent paid in advance

[heybruce]

I met a Finnish guy that got stuck with a 20,000 THB bar tab. A trustworthy Tuk-Tuk driver took him there. He must be an idiot, but still........

This is common knowledge among people who've been in Thailand for a while but important information to anyone new: NEVER go to a bar, restaurant, karaoke, massage parlor, or anywhere else recommended by a tuk-tuk driver.

If I were hemorrhaging blood I wouldn't trust a tuk-tuk driver to take me to the nearest emergency room, he would almost certainly drive as long as necessary to take me to the clinic that pays him the most commission.

[binjalin]

No.1 is not what it was a couple years back because they are concentrating on the new venture on the River Ping

[daoyai]

I met a Finnish guy that got stuck with a 20,000 THB bar tab. A trustworthy Tuk-Tuk driver took him there. He must be an idiot, but still........

This is common knowledge among people who've been in Thailand for a while but important information to anyone new: NEVER go to a bar, restaurant, karaoke, massage parlor, or anywhere else recommended by a tuk-tuk driver.

If I were hemorrhaging blood I wouldn't trust a tuk-tuk driver to take me to the nearest emergency room, he would almost certainly drive as long as necessary to take me to the clinic that pays him the most commission.

Rubbish, CM has some very decent tuk tuk drivers.

[heybruce]

I met a Finnish guy that got stuck with a 20,000 THB bar tab. A trustworthy Tuk-Tuk driver took him there. He must be an idiot, but still........

This is common knowledge among people who've been in Thailand for a while but important information to anyone new: NEVER go to a bar, restaurant, karaoke, massage parlor, or anywhere else recommended by a tuk-tuk driver.

If I were hemorrhaging blood I wouldn't trust a tuk-tuk driver to take me to the nearest emergency room, he would almost certainly drive as long as necessary to take me to the clinic that pays him the most commission.

Rubbish, CM has some very decent tuk tuk drivers.

Yes, but how do you tell the decent ones from the shameless opportunists? Also, even the decent ones probably see nothing wrong with steering business to those places that pay a commission. Of course the places that pay commissions have to charge extra to cover the costs of these commissions.

On one of my trips to Mae Sai I stopped by a jade shop recommended by one of my students. I arrived alone and was the only customer at the time. The shop attendant told me that on this particular day they had a special 40% discount on all merchandise. I can't prove this but I suspect that if I'd arrived by tuk-tuk or escorted by some other tout there would have been no discount.

Out of curiosity, how often do you ask a tuk-tuk driver to recommend a restaurant, bar, or other business? How much luck have you had with these recommendations?

[Loaded]

Are all the girls in the bars on loi kroh barfinable? I'm not talking about the ones in the kick boxing Soi but the one near Raming lodge. From memory there was a Thai kitchen cooking school down hat Soi. I think one of them was a no 1 bar and another bar opposite but the staff used to swap between the 2. Last time I was there I wanted to ask if I could bar fine one of the girls but didn't want to offend anyone in case it wasn't that sort of bar.

You can bar fine most of the women at most of the bars that are just bars on Loi Kroh (subject to how the woman is feeling and her other commitments, as described by WinnieTheKwai). However most or all of the places that are restaurant/bars don't have ladies for rent.

George Bernard Shaw once argued that any woman can be 'bar fined' subject to how she's feeling and her other commitments.

And Winston Churchill said, "We have determined what you are Madam, now we are only quibbling about the Price."

• Shaw: Madam, would you sleep with me for a million pounds?
  Actress: My goodness, Well, I'd certainly think about it
  Shaw: Would you sleep with me for a pound?
  Actress: Certainly not! What kind of woman do you think I am?!
  Shaw: Madam, we've already established that. Now we are haggling about the price.
  
  • Similar remarks are also attributed to Winston Churchill, Groucho Marx and Mark Twain
    

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I met a Finnish guy that got stuck with a 20,000 THB bar tab. A trustworthy Tuk-Tuk driver took him there. He must be an idiot, but still........

This is common knowledge among people who've been in Thailand for a while but important information to anyone new: NEVER go to a bar, restaurant, karaoke, massage parlor, or anywhere else recommended by a tuk-tuk driver.

If I were hemorrhaging blood I wouldn't trust a tuk-tuk driver to take me to the nearest emergency room, he would almost certainly drive as long as necessary to take me to the clinic that pays him the most commission.

Rubbish, CM has some very decent tuk tuk drivers.

Indeed. I know both if them.

[bottledwater]

Ok another noob question here but I hear there are some girly bars down by the night market. Where abouts and hat road? Are they on Chang klan? I'm usually all set on Loi Kroh but fancy tryij out some new ones this time and maybe even foxy lady and that other one silver star although I've heard some bad stories about the latter.

Yes there is a whole cluster of what look like beer bars near the night market. In the Kalare Night Bazaar (not sure its spelled right) If you walk into the Kalare Bazaar from Chang Klan road go to your right. The entire southern flank of the bazaar are small bars. I was there early once and not much going on, not many girls but definitely a beer bar vibe to the girls that were lounging around.

Stay away from the bars on the south side of Foxy Lady unless you are gay. I saw them in the day once and I just figured they were beer bars because they were physically attached to the same building as Foxy. They were closed of course so I put them on my list to check out. A few nights later I'm walking there, I see lights hear people, great. It rained so I had my head down walking through the parking lot headed for the bars. I look up and freeze in my tracks. FULL ON GAY. Not ladyboys, but just . . . .what is the word? Strait gay? I don't know. Anyway, I try to be open minded, and if you are gay, go there. As for me, however I am not going there. So while I was frozen in the parking lot with 30 young and very gay Thai guys staring at me I hear someone snickering. I turn and there is an old-timer in a security uniform laughing at me and nodding sagely with a "yup, its pretty gay in there" look on his face.

So I turned and walked away as casually as possible. You have been warned!

[bottledwater]

Okay, the list grows a bit (again basically in the order they came to me):

Half Moon Pub

John's Place

Happy Bar

Number1 Bar

Downunder Pub

Gecko bar/restaurant

7-11

Blue Sky Bar

Santitham area (grouping this area together for now)

Carnival

Dayli

Citron Bar

Warm Up

Chiang Mai Saloon (both of them)

UN Irish Pub

Olde Bell

I've already been working to check some of these places out. I'll make my report to the T.V. committee sometime later.

[Thighlander]

I met a Finnish guy that got stuck with a 20,000 THB bar tab. A trustworthy Tuk-Tuk driver took him there. He must be an idiot, but still........

This is common knowledge among people who've been in Thailand for a while but important information to anyone new: NEVER go to a bar, restaurant, karaoke, massage parlor, or anywhere else recommended by a tuk-tuk driver.

If I were hemorrhaging blood I wouldn't trust a tuk-tuk driver to take me to the nearest emergency room, he would almost certainly drive as long as necessary to take me to the clinic that pays him the most commission.

Rubbish, CM has some very decent tuk tuk drivers.

Yes, but how do you tell the decent ones from the shameless opportunists? Also, even the decent ones probably see nothing wrong with steering business to those places that pay a commission. Of course the places that pay commissions have to charge extra to cover the costs of these commissions.

On one of my trips to Mae Sai I stopped by a jade shop recommended by one of my students. I arrived alone and was the only customer at the time. The shop attendant told me that on this particular day they had a special 40% discount on all merchandise. I can't prove this but I suspect that if I'd arrived by tuk-tuk or escorted by some other tout there would have been no discount.

Out of curiosity, how often do you ask a tuk-tuk driver to recommend a restaurant, bar, or other business? How much luck have you had with these recommendations?

I've always found the best places on my own looking for promo signs and at least a few customers. A 2 km walk can make a huge difference if you are in a touristy area.....sometimes even less. The Uni students know some great places if you like cheap and authentic, and that's a big reason I like the West side.

[BrendonB]

For me this is the biggest let down... nowhere to really have a good drink ! Having lived all over Thailand Chiang Mai has alot of good points but Half Moon please ! 2/3 old guys watching 2/3 old guys in a bar opposite ! Johns Place is the only place to have a drink during the day where you can watch the world go by ! Number 1 Bar, good selection of drinks but youll pay... UN no Irish Pub ! The Wall maybe for 1 or 2... Amazed why nothing like a proper Jamesons or a Gullivers ! And Loy Kroh just nasty.. and not in a good way. Cant have it all

[scd]

The Tiger Kingdom in town bar on Moonmuang is pretty popular. I knew a guy who would go there for a beer most nights. It seemed to have quite an atmosphere of revelry last night.

[elektrified]

The Tiger Kingdom in town bar on Moonmuang is pretty popular. I knew a guy who would go there for a beer most nights. It seemed to have quite an atmosphere of revelry last night.

There is good music there too! Highly recommended.

[lsk]

Tiger Kingdom in town is great. Decent food most of the time and can't fault the tomboy singer, even the part owner singing Western is OK after a few drinks.. But as a place to hang out as per OP request. Nah...

Places around CMU, Even as a non Thai speaker, still manage to have an cheap and fun night out.