Bangkok’s Soi Cowboy

I miss a lot of things about our pre-COVID days, and one is the foreign travel.  I love heading to exotic cities all over the world, and one at the top of my list is Bangkok.  I’ve been there a few times on assorted secret missions.  These photos are from a blog I wrote for CSC Motorcycles a few years ago, and I thought I would share them here.

Soi Cowboy (“soi” sort of means street) is a famous Bangkok road that played a role in the movie Hangover II and another movie named, well, Soi Cowboy (a movie I haven’t seen, although I’ll look for it).   It’s sort of an entertainment district with a lot of clubs.  There were a lot of photo ops centered on two of my interests – food and two-wheeled transportation.  With that as an intro, here we go.

These guys in orange vests are motorcycle taxi dudes. They carve paths through traffic as if it wasn’t there. It’s an amazing thing to see.
One of the many food carts and clubs on Soi Cowboy.
Another food cart. I had my Nikon D3300 (a relatively small but incredibly capable DSLR) on its “auto ISO” setting, which basically means it runs the ISO up as high as it thinks it needs to be to get a good shot. Some of these photos were at ISO 12,800.
Scooters and small-displacement motorcycles dominate Bangkok.  Here are a few scooters lined up on Soi Cowboy.
More Thai street food.
A look down Asoke (that’s the street name) from a pedestrian overpass.  Soi Cowboy is just off of Asoke.
The Bangkok grand prix.
Good buddy Kevin and friend. Rain? Not a problem!
A Thai SUV.
A Thai taxi scooter in action. Scenes like this are common throughout Bangkok.

One more thing, and that’s a video I shot just off Soi Cowboy showing the scooter action in vibrant downtown Bangkok.  It sure was fun.

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7 thoughts on “Bangkok’s Soi Cowboy”

  1. Oh wow! that video – it looks like chaos, but it is actually more like a fractal. Repeating patterns and variations on the patterns, and NO collisions or even bumps. Live and let live. Amazing1 Was that a movie theater or an amusement arcade there on the right?

  2. I lived there 14 years and traveled all over on mt CRF250L. Love the countryside and the people. Now Mexico reminds me of Thai in many ways.

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