June 2022
This piece was written at the end of March 2021. As we were about to post it Covid-19 sprung up and the shutters came down. Nevertheless, it was a great night, a fun piece to write, and Suzie’s are open again now with a different drinks promotion every night. Get yourself along: Cowboy is coming back and good times are there to be had.
It’s a Tuesday night at the end of March [2021], and after a draining day of doing not much, I’m on Cowboy with my pal Jack Nites. Not only is he the go-to bar photographer in BKK (he tells me he’s available for baby showers and bar mitzvahs too) he’s the man in the know. We’ve wandered about for a while, paid our respects at regular haunts, but he insists we head to Suzie Wong’s.
Now, I’m not a Cowboy virgin and I know Suzie’s well enough, but Mr Nites informs me they are moving with the times with 90 baht a bottle inside and outside. Honestly, at 90 baht with the entertainment inside you can’t go, err, Wong.
We saunter in – no, actually we strut in – and take a seat. As a regular lensman on the ‘boy (as nobody is calling it), Mr Nites knows more dancers than I know sexual neologisms, and we are soon surrounded by Suzie’s finest. I kick back with a 90-baht San Miguel Light “mai ow manow” and take in the vista. A good number of dancers are on stage, with the second shift waiting on the subs bench, and there’s definitely someone to suit all tastes. There are a few familiar faces (yes, I’m a gentleman and I make eye contact first) and a few newbies.
The girls rotate off the stage and circulate; it’s pretty busy and a few girls hit their mark. A previous beneficiary of my good nature makes a beeline for me, and we are up and running for the night. Mr Nites seems to be distracted by one of the crazy ones – I jest, they’re all crazy, aren’t they, and we love it. We spend a couple of hours chatting to the mamasans, teasing the girls, practising our Thai, (haha well, I do – J Nites knows “nueng” and “song” and is working on “saam” at the moment) getting a neck massage from our service girl and eating free barbecue. Oh, did I mention the Tuesday free BBQ? All the sausage you can handle!
The adult entertainment areas of Bangkok can be a bit dispiriting at the moment if you let them be. Some bars however, like Suzie’s, have risen to the challenge, kept the girls employed, and have an offering suited not just to the dribble of new tourists but also the ex-pat residents. We had a cracking night there, and I’m sure you will too – give them a try.
Oh, and quick update: Mr Nites’s Thai is coming along splendidly, “si” and haa” are now firmly in his lexicon.
Jack Wow
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