Five of Bangkok's Best Bars

Bangkok Bars from Sublime to Ridiculous Highest to Lowest

Jul 10, 2008 John Howe

Bangkok is full of both chic and quirky bars some sit on top of tall hotels others are more down to earth in both facilities and price. Here is a selection of five bars.

Bangkok is a city of contrasts and contradictions and no more so than in its beer bars the city's best known bars are either ludicrously expensive or rediculously cheap - here are five of the best

Sirocco Sky Bar

This open air bar is precariously perched on top of the State Tower and dizzyingly juts out over Silom Road nearly 900 feet below your feet. The low glass walls barely give protection from the bar and the crowds below. The Sirocco shares the rooftop space with a restaurant but just go to drink the alcohol and drink in the view over central downtown Bangkok and the Chao Praya River.

Contact:

The Dome at the State Tower, 1055 Silom Road.

Tel: +66 (0) 2 624 9555

Cheap Charlie’s

Coming from a drinking eyrie to what is literally a curb-side bar. Cheap Charlie’s is appropriately named being located along the pavement in Sukhumvit Soi 11. Cheap Charlie’s is basic it has no doors, no toilets, no roof and few tables, seating is on the street and the stools have to be moved when a car comes past. Why is it called Cheap Charlie’s? Simple the beer and spirits are cheap.

Sukhumvit Soi 11

Tel: None.

Water Bar

A little way from the centre of the city but worth the trip, despite its name there is no swimming pool, river, stream or spring near by but what you will have is a great time with the ‘whiskey set’. The set includes a bottle of Thai whiskey, San Song usually, coke, soda water and ice, finish your glass and it will be immediately refilled by a waitress. Mix the coke and the soda together. You’ll have a great time.

Soi Rang Nam

Tel: +66 (0) 2 642 7699

Tawandaeng

On Narathiwat Road this barn-like bar gets pretty full most nights, many come for the German-style food, others for the entertainment and all for the beer from the in house micro-brewery. The beer is Germanic in nature but the song-and-dance routines are purely Thai. Mix with the middle class and the middle aged in this throbbing music-filled bar.

Narathiwat Ratchanakharin Road/corner of Rama III Road

Tel: +66 (0) 2 711 5886

Oriental Hotel's Bamboo Bar

If a more refined and upper class environment is for you then you cannot do better than visit the Grand Dame of all Bangkok’s hotels, the Oriental where you will find the riverside bar. At nearly 150-years-old the Oriental has played host to the rich and famous covering three centuries and two millennia. The riverside terrace is perfect for cocktails at sunset and the Bamboo Bar combines colonial romance with easy-listening piano in a perfect cocktail with which to end the day.

Soi 38 Oriental Avenue, Charoen Krung Road

Tel: +66 (0) 2 659 9000

For more information on Bangkok bars click here and here and here

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Oriental Hotel Bangkok

Cheap Charlies