A future for Soi Pratuchai?

[fountainhall]

Love reading about the old days, way before my time . . . please more detail

Although the thread is about Soi Twilight/Duangthawee/Pratuchai (looking back, for years it was called Duangthawee - only recently has it been changed to Pratuchai and I still don't know the reason!) Bangkok also had gay bars elsewhere. In Patpong 2 there used to be a host bar on the upper level. I wonder if anyone else remembers it. Was that Tiffany's? And then for a long time Silom Soi 4 had the famous Rome Club, Bangkok's best mixed disco with hordes of gay guys at the week-ends. For whatever reason, the owner decided that he wanted the gays out and thereafter made it a straight club. It died pretty soon after that to be replaced by Roxy. But it could never find the right formula and it too died.

My Way has been mentioned in other threads - a small bar with twinks just off Rama 4 between Silom and Suriwong. I don't remember there being shows but I reckon the boys were some of the best dancers in the gay go-go bars at that time. Along Sukhumvit off Soi 10 there was and, I believe, still remains Inter Mustache House. Most farang never got above the ground floor where 3 or 4 Thai guys would gyrate as though dancing. The real go-go bar was upstairs and was mostly patronised by Thais. Further along I was 3 or 4 times at another very small host bar just across from one of the entrances to the Ambassador Hotel car park, but I have no recollection of the name.

[AsDaRa]

These street names in Thailand, I have the idea most names are just by common usage and not assigned to that street by a government body.

I think even many streets have no formal names. Because there hardly are any street name signs visible in Thailand.
I often wondered how the mail man could deliver his mail before Google maps and smart phones. Many streets appear not to have visible names.

Is there a street name sign at one of the 2 entrances of Soi Twilight?

Someone says above the street name was changed to Soi Pratuchai from Soi Duangthawee. Was this a name change initiated by a government body?

[fountainhall]

These street names in Thailand, I have the idea most names are just by common usage and not assigned to that street by a government body.

It's generally not a complicated system. Main roads have formal names - like Silom, Sathorn, Wittayu and Rama 4. Smaller streets going off these roads are usually preceded by the major road name with Soi added. Those on one side of the road start at Soi 2 and go up in even numbers. So Silom Soi 4 is where Balcony and Telephone are located. On the opposite side, they go up in odd numbers.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, like every city authority, has the duty of naming roads/streets/sois. It has even approved Soi Goethe as the name for the Soi off Sathorn Soi 1 where the Goethe Institut is located. And on the other side of that soi, Soi Nantha has now been named Soi Nantha/Mozart as it is close to the Austrian Embassy.

Inevitably some sois get informal names - like Soi Twilight. Originally that was called Soi Duangthawee in gay guides - officially or unofficially I don't know. But it is now known as Pratuchai which may indeed have been its original name.

At least you can be grateful you are not living in Japan where city locations take non-Japanese a lot of time to understand. How would you like to find the popular sauna 24 Kaikan in Shinjuku using this as the address - 2-13-1 Shinjuku Ni-chome, Tokyo? To Japanese, it is extremely logical, For a foreigner, if you know the system you get right to it. Don't know the system and most likely you can go round in circles before giving up!

[a447]

City locations also take Japanese along time to find, not just foreigners.

Addresses in Japan can only get you in the general vicinity of your destination. You then have to wander around looking.

Each block - chome -is numbered, but that doesn't mean that 2 chome is necessarily next to 3 chome. It could join onto 7 chome!

If you are looking for a home address you need to know that houses are numbered by the order in which they are built. Two houses built at the same time will have the same number! The postman has to learn where everyone in the area lives. Consequently, they are great at reporting to the authorities who lives where and who has recently moved in or out of the area. Free spies!

I've never had a problem with streets in Thailand not having names. My problem is that they are often written in Thai.

All the boys in the bars around Soi Tawan know the name Soi Twilight. But if you asked a Thai who is not in the business, I guess they wouldn't have a clue.

The sign for My Way disappeared only recently. I often saw it as I walked up Rama IV and was tempted to see if it was still open. But the soi looked very run down so I never bothered.

[AsDaRa]

Thanks a lot for this information.
Still it is strange there are so few street name signs. Because if you need soi 9 it will help if you somewhere see a sign like "soi 3", then you can count from there. Else you are at a loss without a map or without asking.

[fountainhall]

Still it is strange there are so few street name signs. Because if you need soi 9 it will help if you somewhere see a sign like "soi 3", then you can count from there. Else you are at a loss without a map or without asking.

I wonder if you have been looking hard enough. I have rarely been unable to find a soi. If for some reason the one I want is not numbered, then the one before or the one after almost certainly is. But there are always some sois that don't fit in to the formula.

I don't totally agree with a447 about Japanese addresses, but then I only lived in Tokyo where, with a bilingual map, finding addresses was not complicated especially if apartment blocks or office blocks had specific names. One time I remember being confused was trying to find the Treffpunkt hattenba (a small sauna-like establishment). I had to check the telephone poles to get the building number!

[frequent]

Thanks a lot for this information.
Still it is strange there are so few street name signs. Because if you need soi 9 it will help if you somewhere see a sign like "soi 3", then you can count from there. Else you are at a loss without a map or without asking.

Yes, those street signs with numbers are so damn hard to find aren't they

thai-street-sign-e1430089370852.jpg

[AsDaRa]

I will pay very good attention next time.
Also if I see a sign at the entrances of Soi Twilight

[bkkguy]

Inevitably some sois get informal names - like Soi Twilight. Originally that was called Soi Duangthawee in gay guides - officially or unofficially I don't know. But it is now known as Pratuchai which may indeed have been its original name.

I don't know what it was originally called before it became known colloquially as Soi Twilight but long after Hotmale took over the Twilight location there was a push to have the first half of the soi (entering from Surawong) known as Duangthawee Plaza because the buildings on one side of the first half of the soi are owned by the Duang family and on the other side by the Thawee family - why should the Patpong family have all the name recognition after all, though as I understand it the Patpong family own and built the two "roads" on their property but Soi Twilight is a public soi and the land title along the soi belongs to the CPB

bkkguy

[fountainhall]

Fascinating! I wonder if you know who owns Silom Soi 4? I was once having drinks in Balcony when a Mercedes slowly crept along the soi and the gate at the end opened for it. I was told that the soi's owners still live in the mansion behind the gates, but I have no idea if that is true.