[KatoeyLover69]

Soi Cowboy is an adult nightlife area in Bangkok, Thailand. A short street with some 40 bars, it is similar to Nana Plaza and Patpong and caters mainly to tourists and expatriates.

It is located near Sukhumvit Road, between Sukhumvit Soi 21 (also called Soi Asoke) and Soi 23 (13°44′12.5″N, 100°33′45″E), within walking distance from the SkyTrain's "Asok Station" and the underground's "Sukhumvit Station".

The go go bars follow the pattern common in Thailand: alcoholic drinks are served and women in bikinis dance on a stage. Topless or even nude dancing occasionally occurs in some bars, but it is technically illegal. Many of the dancers are in fact prostitutes and will join a customer if he pays a "bar fine" to the bar and a separate fee to the woman. Sexual services usually take place in the tourist's hotel room. Bars and nightclubs in all of Bangkok now have to close by 1 am. There are also a number of restaurants at Soi Cowboy, including what is perhaps Bangkok's best known fish and chips shop.

The area is named after T. G. Edwards, a retired American airman who opened one of the first bars there in 1973. A tall African-American, Edwards got his nickname because he invariably wore a cowboy hat.

Soi Cowboy's reputation suffered a temporary blow when, as part of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra "social order" campaign, the area was closed off by police one Friday night in November 2003 and all workers and patrons were required to submit to urine testing for drugs.

During the 2004 International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, a bead sculpture made in Soi Cowboy was displayed as part of the cultural program.


Films and songs

In 2000, the Norwegian group Getaway People released a song called Soi Cowboy about this area.

Actor Hugh Grant and his entourage visited Soi Cowboy in December 2003, while shooting the movie Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. The Tilac Bar and several Soi Cowboy bar girls are seen in the film. A London tabloid, The Sun, wrote in an article on 23 December 2003 that Grant was chased by bar girls and had to flee, but that appears to be false.

Two 1-hour episodes of the British comedy/drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet were shot in the Summer of 2004 in Bangkok, partly in Soi Cowboy.

The bars Moonshine Joint and Dollhouse appear in Jordan Clark's 2005 documentary Falang: Behind Bangkok's Smile which takes a rather critical view of sex tourism.