Nana Plaza
Nana Plaza (officially Nana Entertainment Plaza; shortened NEP) is a 3 storey red-light district in Bangkok, which is rumoured to be the largest sex complex in the world. It is on Sukhumvit Road Soi 4[1] across from the Nana Hotel, within walking distance of the BTS Skytrain's "Nana Station". The name originates from the Nana family (Lek Nana being the most prominent member) which owns much property in the area and has still much influence in Thailand.
Along with Soi Cowboy and Patpong, Nana Plaza is one of the Bangkok red-light districts which attract primarily tourists.
The plaza is in the square-shaped, with a single opening on the west side, and consists of a ground floor and two additional floors. It started as a restaurant area in the late 1970s. During the early 1980s, a few go-go bars appeared and gradually replaced the restaurants. The composition of the bars has changed over the past few years; the last non-go-go bar, the Woodstock Pub, was sold in 2005 to the Rainbow Group and reopened as "Rainbow 4." A few bars offer a more pub-like or beer bar format without dancing; as of late-2009 only the Cathouse remained. Three short-time hotels operate on the top floor. Short-time hotels rent out rooms by the hour or more to the NEP patrons to take a bargirl (or kathoey) for sex. Most bar girls working at bars in Nana Plaza are willing to leave with customers upon payment of a bar fine.
Most bars in Nana Plaza do not employ kathoeys, but several do so exclusively. As of mid-2013, these venues are Obsession, Voodoo (ground floor), Casanova, Temptations (middle floor), Carnival and Cascades (top floor). With the exception of Voodoo which exclusively employs post-op kathoeys, the staff at the remainder are almost all "pre-operation", in contrast to the kathoey bars in Patpong.
A number of post-op kathoeys can be found at other bars managed by the Crown Group, namely Lollipop, Hollywood Rock, Fantasia, and G-Spot as well as the independently run Erotica.
Nana Plaza is a common setting of the crime novels by John Burdett.
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Coordinates: 13°44′28.9″N 100°33′11.4″E / 13.741361°N 100.553167°E
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