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TV, Movie Theaters and DVDs , Computer Games, Nightlife
Bookstores (on separate page)
It is unlikely you will get bored while staying in Bangkok. Basically, all the amenities to spend your leisure time pleasantly are here. Some may be lacking a bit, but overall the city has more to offer than most.
Television broadcasting
Most foreigners residing in Thailand and those on a short trip (in a hotel room) will have to do with TrueVisionsTV (formerly UBCTV) cable or satellite T.V. TrueVisions operates a monopoly for foreign language broadcasting and offers a lot (actually too much) They at present offer three packages, priced at around 1000, 1500 and 2500 baht per month respectively. The standard middle package offers CNN, BBC International, Movie Channels (HBO, Cinemax, Hallmark), a lot of sport channels, local Thai TV, French TV5.
The basic package is not recommended for those interested in global events. The most expensive package has some more regional channels (Chinese, Japanese, cartoons, classic movie channel).
Even if you only need to check global news on CNN or BBC, you need to purchase the rather expensive 'Gold' package offered. There is a lot of sport to enjoy, mainly soccer (at all times), tennis and golf.
Sport covering of major events though can be rather poor : the Olympics and the Tour de France (and other cycling events) are not really scheduled. The World Cup is covered but invariably in a poor way. We remember years ago a World Cup where the games were constantly interrupted by advertisements. The latest one (in 2006) was relayed from Thai T.V., but no English language was available. I think this was a major flaw and created a lot of commenting in the local English-language newspapers. After all there are a few hundred thousands foreign residents in the country, and the tourists who want to see the games after some sightseeing and shopping, were duly disappointed. ThaiBev (Chang Beer) did a good job in providing the games without advertisements, but did the tourist industry a poor service by not paying a bit more money and broadcasting in English (bilingual that is : most T.V. are set up in such a way that it is possibly to have two languages used, one on each audio channel)
The Thai T.V. is rather pitiful. Some channels (Nation, ITV) offer local news relatively well. Most of the others seem only interested in broadcasting various silly game shows and Thai soap operas. During the Tsunami in December 2004 Thai T.V. was found seriously lacking. While thousands of people died in the South of Thailand, game shows and soap operas where being broadcasting, while the BBC had live images of Phuket already available!
If you stay for a longer time in Bangkok, it may be worthwhile to look around for satellite reception, rather than to pay the exorbitant fees of TrueVisions. The whole point is, after more than 10 years in operation, they still only have about 500,000 subscribers. The concept (typical in Thailand) : charge a lot to a few customers, rather than provide reasonably priced products for the masses. You can look for programming in the newspapers and atwww.truevisionsTV.com
Some practical notes :
When contacting TrueVisions always use the fax number (hopefully you still have a fax machine around). Contacting by telephone is very unrewarding, with many redirects, a long waiting time, and possible misunderstandings. On the other hand, when you have a problem with the reception signal, or your equipment, we always found them helpful.
Movie Theaters - DVD Rentals
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Siam Paragon Cineplex at Siam Paragon Shopping Centers offers a total of 9 regular movie theatres and 5 IMAX theatres. Located at Siam Square. |
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Movie theaters in Bangkok are rather superb. They are all around town. Easily reachable venues (each close to a BTS skytrain station) are at Emporium, at Ekamai, and around Siam Square (also at the World Trade Center). Seating and surroundings are excellent, and prices charged are around 120 baht, a real bargain. Programming is not up to standard though.
The Paragon Cineplex at Siam Paragon is easily reached (the shopping complex is connected to the skytrain at Siam Square). Going there offers you the possibility of wandering through the largest shopping center in Thailand. Prices seem to be 140 baht for a ticket at Siam Paragon.
In most theatres only blockbusters are shown (we guess at about 200 movie theatres all together sometimes). However, even relatively well publicized movies, with lesser mass appeal are neglected. There is also a fair selection of horror, violence and action movies. The movie theaters are located usually within a shopping center, and close relatively early (not night shows) Each movie is preceded by prolonged advertising (half an hour on average), so you do not really be on time, unless it is a first showing of a blockbuster. During weekdays, there are really a lot of empty seats, we actually wonder how all these theaters can make a decent profit.
Advertising with schedules is abysmal. The English-language newspapers such as the Bangkok Post and the Nation really offer very poor service here [or the movie theatres do not want to spend any money on advertising]. It is almost impossible to read where particular movies are shown and the schedules are usually not there. However,
you can look for schedules and current showing here : www.movieseer.com
If you can live looking at movies that are a few months old, around town (for instance in all the Central Department Stores) both VCDs and DVDs are sold. DVDs in general are rather pricey (same prices as in Europe), but if you have a player for it VCDs are a good bargain. Even well knows movies can be had at a price of 150-250 baht. In general, you can play them without problems if you buy a DVD player in Bangkok (they will also play VCD), but you possibly can not play them in U.S.A. or Europe, since VCD has been widely neglected there. However, you can always play them on your computer screen.
The problem is that the rental stores now want all of its customers to convert to viewing DVDs. While the VCDs offered good value, and a reasonable view on your TV (we never were able to notice any difference in quality when compared to regular TV broadcasts), fewer and fewer can now be found. Quite often, movies may be on offer in DVD format, but not anymore in VCD format. This change makes it much more costly to view movies at home. DVDs seem to be priced 400 baht upwards. Movies in movie theatres can be seen for 120 baht. Of course, pirated versions of movies in DVD format are available all along Sukhumvit road, when walking from soi 3 up to soi 19.
The problem for the rental chains (like Mangpong) is that they first of all do not have a lot of choice to offer. Secondly, their prices are much higher than what you pay for the pirated versions (and for what you can see in movie theaters). Clearly, they should both offer more choices to customers, and offer DVDs at lower prices. [after all, that is what they did with VCDs before. VCDs used to be priced at 300-400 baht, then came down to between 100-200 baht] The way it is now, we seldom browse in the rental shops anymore, and we do not see a lot of other customers in them either.
Computer Games
Though far advanced in age, we much like to try out the latest computer games. Major games for computers, Playstation etc. are available in Bangkok. Personally we only play on our computer, so we can not really comment a lot about other interfaces. Not that long ago, a lot of games where available, all pirated at prices of 100-150 baht a piece. While Panthip Plaza and Fortune Town may still have days when a lot is available that way, the market has been cleaned up substantially.
Most games worth playing are available and very reasonably priced. For instance, Half-Life2 an Doom3 where available at between 500 and 600 baht, a real bargain. They do come with a Thai manual only, but their interface of playing the game, will be in English. (Half-Life2 mentioned above is not exactly a good example, since they really had a special release for Thailand in Thai language, and you will have to go to their website to change some settings, and then be able to play the game in English) As for price for duration of entertainment, nothing comes really close to beating these kind of computer games, really! You can buy online here : Zest . However, it is well worth going to their shop (and also check out all the other computer stuff in Thailand at the same locations) at Fortune Plaza third floor (Rama 9 subway station) or Panthip Plaza.
Nightlife Entertainment
Bangkok is deservedly well known for its vibrant nightlife scene. There are lots of disco like venues, and establishments offering live music available. For eating out we recomment you check out our 'restaurants' section. While some restaurants are highly priced, in general, eating out well in Bangkok is not expensive at all. As most foreigners are aware off, Bangkok has a rather naughty site. Patpong is well known around the world, although nowadays we kind of fail to find it attractive. You may not be able to notice any of the bars with all the vendors and market stalls around Patpong nowadays.
Other well known areas on Sukhumvit Road, include Nana Plaza (Soi 4) and Soi Cowboy (between Asoke and soi 23).
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Nana Plaza in the late afternoon. Lights are going on, and the outside bars are pretty busy already. Go Go Bars usually start operating around 7 P.M. |
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At Nana Plaza around 30-40 bars are located on three floors around a central open space (except for the beer bars located there).
Soi Cowboy is a real street and is more open spaced to walk around and get a feel for the place even within wandering inside any of the bars. Of course, these are areas of prostitution, and many male visitors to Thailand still come to the country for this purpose only. Still it is quite interesting to check out these places at least once. Nowadays, a lot has been 'cleaned up'. Two to three years ago most girls dancing (a go go around poles) at Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy where dancing completely in the nude, and various sex shows (not all tasteful) where on offer. Now the girls mostly where bikini outfits (except for some places but you will have to be lucky to bump into them on a single outing).
The format is as follows : A group of girls will be dancing on a central stage (more shuffling around than dancing actually). After about 15-20 minutes they will be replaced by another group of girls. There are usually two shifts of girls only. The go go bars may not appeal to everyone, especially to the righteous moralist among us, but they are in general safe. That means, at Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy, you can enter a bar, have your drinks (priced at around 130 baht a beer), check things out comfortably. It is wise however to use common sense : to not show off a lot of money, check the price of your drink after ordering, do not get drunk, do not get into violence (you will always loose out at that, even if you like Rambo).
The purpose of the go go bars : they want you to drink and buy drinks for the girls, if they come to sit with you (not obligatory!). The girls can be bought out. You pay the bar 500-600 baht and the girl can accompany you outside the bar. You may want some other services from the girl in question, and best discuss any such matter beforehand (that is before buying her out of the bar). The girls usually charge between 1,500 and 3,000 baht for extracurricular services (ask in advance, we do not really know for sure) and will want to stay with you only for an hour or two. The major difference with 'overt' prostitution, is that the girls do have a choice (although for sure, there are ways to pressure them by the management of the bars, for example, they need to have a certain quota of drinks and barfines a month, or they will be penalized). With choice we mean, they can decide to go with you or not, they may prefer another customer (but they do want to go out of the bar and prostitute themselves, to be sure)
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