In 2016, I’ve uploaded my very first YouTube video. Almost 7 years ago. How has Thailand, Thailand nightlife & dating changed since? Were those changes for the better, or for the worse?
Most importantly, what are some of my biggest learning?
Maybe you’ve never been to Thailand, and wouldn’t know how things used to be – so, I in this video, I’ll cover my top 5 changes & things I’ve learned.
Most of it will cover Bangkok, but I’ll cover Pattaya & Phuket as well.
1.) Bangkok Nightlife Refurbished
Take a walk from Soi Cowboy to Nana Plaza, and I could tell you dozens, and dozens of changes that took place since 2016. New hotels, new clubs, almost everything looks different now.
In fact, one of the big, big after hour clubs – Club Insanity – used to be in between Soi Cowboy & Nana Plaza (on the opposite side of the street).
You had to pay a cover fee, but if you are a true Bangkok veteran, you sure remember the dinner entrance hack.
Basically, the Club Insanity had a restaurant attached to it – if you walked in via that restaurant, you were able to skip the main entrance as well as the cover fee.
For the most part, this club was packed with freelancers, and would get busy after 1AM.
Club Insanity eventually shut down and later reopened/closed at Soi 11. You can’t miss it if you’ve ever been to Havana Social.
One major place that hasn’t changed – and perhaps never will – is Thermae Bar. Also called the secret Japanese Underground Bar. If you’ve been watching this channel, you sure know what I am talking about. As busy as ever and one of the longest surviving places in Bangkok nightlife overall.
I can almost guarantee that if you walk in there – especially on weekends – you are going to come across one of my viewers here on this channel.
2. Online Dating Easy-Mode
Let’s move on from nightlife to dating in general. Back in 2016, ThaiFriendly used to be the main online dating site in Thailand. Tinder was just getting started in 2016, and I think nobody used Bumble back then.
I would sometimes message girls via a blank profile – no pictures – just asking for their contacts, and they would give it – and then we would do a 3 second video call to see each other and that was all that was necessary to meet up.
If you try that nowadays, good luck!
Just getting a girl to read, let alone respond to a blank profile is pretty much impossible.
Hell, even having pictures but subpar ones makes it difficult to get a response. These days, you’re supposed to show your lifestyle, ideally also have an Instagram.
Back in my days, in 2016. None of that mattered.
It was easy. It was straight-forward.
… but there is also something positive about things getting more difficult – I’ll talk about this at the end of the video, point 5 that I will address.
3. Pattaya Walking Street is Dead?
When talking about changes in regards to Thailand nightlife over the last few years, Walking Street in Pattaya really needs to be adressed. It is the elephant – the Chang – in the room.
Prior to the pandemic, WS in Pattaya was THE nightlife, freelancer and red light area in Thailand, perhaps even the world.
On some weekends, it was so packed, you could barely walk. Everything was happening there. Phuket’s Bangla Road was NOTHING in comparison.
Tree Town wasn’t a thing back then, and I am not exaggerating when I say 90% of Pattaya nightlife was happening on Walking Street, and it’s side alleys.
You could even see this based off YouTube videos. Most of the nightlife videos were filmed there because of the eyecandy, and how busy things were.
Fast forward to today – or even post pandemic – and things could not be more different. These days, Bangla Road in Phuket has dethroned Pattaya’s Walking Street. It’s busy, it’s where you’ll see most YouTube nightlife videos being filmed.
Much of it had to do with the Phuket Sandbox, a program which allowed tourists to enter Phuket during the pandemic while the rest of Thailand was pretty much closed off. That’s when it started becoming popular while other places such as Pattaya came to an absolute standstill.
Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that change.
The great thing Pattaya has to offer is that you don’t need to plan much, don’t need to book a flight, and you can do the Bangkok-Pattaya combo overnight, for a day or two just by taking a 1000 Baht 2.5 hour taxi ride from one place to another.
4. Your Looks DOES MATTER
A lot of guys will tell you that looks, or how much a girl you are paying likes you doesn’t matter. After all, you are paying her anyway. It’s a transaction, and as such she doesn’t care.
You pay her = she doesn’t like/find you attractive.
You get her for free = she likes/finds you attractive.
Well, the reality is a bit nuanced. It is a fact that prices girls charge can vary from one guy to another, and also based on how well you are put together on any given day, or night.
You can simply test this yourself: Have a friend go up, or ask for a price, then do it yourself. Do it with a bunch of your friends over the course of a night, and you’ll end up getting different quotes.
It is even easier if you wish to do it in bulk online by using various fake profiles and/or pictures.
This is why I’ve always said dress nicely, groom yourself well, and things will generally work in your favor.
You get quoted a crazy inflated price? No, inflation hasn’t gone up 200% since your friend has asked that same girl – it generally means that she isn’t that eager to go with you. Period.
Of course, some girls will always stick to their quote and never offer a different price, or bargain, regardless of WHO you are.
5. PAYING FOR IT IS CHEAPER THAN EVER
This is perhaps the biggest, yet also most surprising change.
Paying for it is cheaper than ever before!
I can already hear someone say, “Now, wait a second! That can’t be true. Prices have gone up for sure! When I used to live in Pattaya in the 90’s, I could go to Beach Road aka coconut bar and pay 500 Baht for some fun! Good luck trying to do that now!”
That’s true, so let me be more specific in regards to what I mean: the value proposition of paying for it has become significantly more appealing.
Not in the absolute amount you pay, but relative to what you are getting.
Think about it this way: If since 2016 prices have gone up 50% – but the act of meeting/dating regular girls has become 10x more annoying, 10x more effort, 10x more hassle, 10x more time-intensive, and perhaps even costly – that what you are getting for your money has actually improved in value. The overall value has become higher.
And that’s the world we live in today.
You could even say, the hotter the girl, the better that value propostition because – sure she probably quotes a higher price – but that same hot girl would require so much effort to even find onilne, to date and more.
And the girl doesn’t even need to be hot do be worth it – she just needs to be high effort for YOU in a normal dating scenario to be worth it from a freelance perspective.
A 20 years old guy meeting an average 20 year old Thai girl, there’s a certain level of effort.
A 50 year old guy meeting an average 20 year old Thai girl, not that’s usually a lot more effort, and now going the freelancer route is suddenly such a good value proposition.
Anyway, those were all the 5 points I wanted to cover in this video. As always, if you want to stay up to date as well as watch some bonus videos – if you haven’t already – you can head over to KINGEPIC.COM/INSIDER and get those video as well as regular updates, new video notifications right away.
That’s it – see you next time!