Bangkok Part 3: Soi Cowboy

By Joe Berk

Another day, another Bangkok blog, and another famous Thai locale…Soi Cowboy.   Soi means street in Thai, so Soi Cowboy is Cowboy Street. It played a role in the movie Hangover II.   It’s amazing how many famous spots there are in this amazing town.  The guys in orange vests you see in the big photo above are motorcycle taxi dudes.  They take folks (mostly women) around Bangkok on the back of their bikes carving paths through traffic as if it wasn’t there.  It’s an amazing thing to see.

Soi Cowboy is a street that is pretty dead during the day.  When the sun sets, though, Soi Cowboy comes alive.   There are street vendors selling food from their carts.   The clubs come to life.  And the B-girls start doing their thing.  As an older married guy, it all seems pretty silly.  Sue was mortified.  But it is what it is, and I’m going to show you just a little bit of it here.

One of the many food carts on the street in front of the clubs on Soi Cowboy.
Another food cart.  I had the Nikon 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.
More Thai food. I didn’t work up enough courage to try eating off these street vendors, but I’ll bet the food was good.

The clubs are bars with entertainment.  Most of the entertainers are young Thai women.  Most of the entertainees are older western guys.  It’s pretty sad, actually, and I imagine it’s a pretty rough life for the girls.

A snap shot in front of one of the clubs.
Another club shot.

As always, motorcycles and motor scooters were everywhere.

Bikes lined up just off Soi Cowboy last night.
And finally, a look down Asoke (that’s the street name) from a pedestrian overpass.

So that’s it for this post from Thailand.   Watch for scenes from the floating market tomorrow.


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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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