Soi Cowboy is a red-light district in Bangkok, Thailand. A short (400 meter long) street with some 40 bars, it is similar to Nana Plaza and Patpong and caters mainly to tourists and expatriates.[1]
It is located near Sukhumvit Road, between Sukhumvit Soi 21 (also called Soi Asoke) and Soi 23, within walking distance from the BTS Skytrain's Asok Station and the Bangkok Metro's Sukhumvit Station. The Grand Millennium Hotel is nearby.
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 remains technically illegal. Most of the dancers are also 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.
The area is named after T. G. "Cowboy" Edwards, a retired American airman who opened one of the first bars there in 1977. A tall African-American, Edwards got his nickname because he often wore a cowboy hat.
When Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was elected in 2001, his government instituted a "social order" campaign. As part of this campaign, all bars and nightclubs had to close by 2 am, later changed to 1 am for all areas not officially designated as "entertainment zones". (Unlike Patpong, Soi Cowboy and Nana Plaza were not so designated). A mandatory midnight closing time was even discussed. As of 2006, the Soi Cowboy bars switch off their outside neon lights by 1 am and usually close at 2 am.
Soi Cowboy's reputation suffered a temporary blow when, as part of the same 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.
Near their entrances, all go go bars carry government-mandated signs in Thai and English; the text reads,
NO-ONE INSIDE
UNDER 20 YEARS
DRUG-FREE
During the 2004 International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, a bead sculpture made in Soi Cowboy was displayed as part of the cultural program.
In 2000, the Norwegian group Getaway People released a song called "Soi Cowboy" about this area. The American rock band Sun City Girls also have a song called "Soi Cowboy" on their 1996 album 330,003 Crossdressers From Beyond The Rig Veda. In the albums booklet it is said to be based on a traditional melody.
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. The Sun, wrote on 23 December 2003 that Grant was chased by bar girls and had to flee, but that appears to be false.[2]
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 (known as Bangkok Girl in the US) which takes a rather critical view of sex tourism.
In August 2006, scenes for the film Bangkok Dangerous were shot in Soi Cowboy.[3]