Curiosity, my two best friends and a few too many Pina Coladas – that’s what led me to a hostess bar for women one fateful Bangkok night.
You probably know all about the token ladies’ nights at nightclubs, which typically feature free drink tickets, chick music and maybe a little salsa. Levels has “Six-Pack Fridays” and Q Bar has “Magic Mike” night on Thursdays, with professional male models and dancers. But believe me, Bangkok’s women-only hostess lounges inhabit a league all of their own.
In waters where Levels and Q Bar are only making their maiden voyage, 18 Plus One has been traveling for close to five years. The club is one of a handful of hostess bars for ladies in Bangkok and the lone wolf of the pack in the Sukhumvit area. Whereas most similar establishments are located in Ratchada and Silom, 18 Plus One is only a five-minute taxi ride from Sukhumvit 11. That’s how us ladies ended up there, one drink-besotted night.
One of my girlfriends originally heard about 18 Plus One from a Bangkok Post article published in January. Indeed, this bar is something of a secret society: It doesn’t advertise and there’s no sign out front. Word mostly travels on message boards and between gal-pals, but as for the club itself, it’s easy to find although in an unlikely place. 18 Plus One is perched on – of all places – the 18th floor of an office building called Serm-mit Tower on Asoke Road.
So we trolled through the entrance of Serm-mit Tower, through the fluorescent lights and closed restaurants and shops. Without introduction, the security guard told us, “sip bairt.” He knew exactly where we were going.
I was expecting the entrance of 18 Plus One to be absolutely gaudy, maybe a few flashing neon lights in typical hostess bar fashion. However, it was much more low-key, even bordering on dull. It looked like the entrance to a movie theater. A pair of big steel doors held a sign that announced “No Photos.”
The air was already rife with cheap cologne and’90s bubblegum pop by the time we entered. We stumbled into the dark, my eyes darting around what looked more like a lounge or a living room than a nightclub. There were television screens hanging on the walls, but they weren’t black. Large couches and tables were grouped into diner-like sections around a sprawling dance floor. That dance floor reminded me of something from a wedding reception or a social in the high school gymnasium – it was the only spot in the whole club with adequate lighting.
A group of Thai guys sat in the very middle, sharing whiskey from a bucket. They were all wearing button-up shirts and nice shoes and they looked more like office workers or businessmen than the escort employees of a women’s-only nightclub.
The manager sat us down three sections to the left and tried to give us the spiel. However, he only spoke broken English so a non-Thai employee, a young guy from South America, came by to explain the rules.
For one guy to come and sit, it costs two drinks or THB600. After that, it’s THB300 per drink unless you take a bottle. Then you can give free drinks after that. So we take a bottle of Johnny Walker Red for THB2,600 (mixers included).
We soon learned that the South American guy’s name was Guillermo and he was the only non-Thai male escort. So it seemed natural we pay for him to come sit with us.
Guillermo was only 20 years old. He seemed more like the kind of guy that was shy and maybe even a little nerdy as a teenager, definitely not a player by any stretch. He said he used to be really into fencing in high school. Apparently, he found the club on the Internet a few months ago when he first came to Thailand. He told us during the day he works as an English teacher.
According to Guillermo, we were the first farang girls he’s seen come here. The manager affirmed we were definitely not part of the club’s customary demographic.
Apparently, its typical clientele are Thai women, predominantly hi-so. The ages range from older Thai businesswomen to models and entertainers in their ‘20s or ‘30s. Guillermo said that he’d occasionally run into the odd woman from Japan, Korea or Singapore, but not often.
And no, men are not allowed as customers.
The bar fine is THB1,500 and paying it means a guy is free to leave the club. However, what happens after that and for what price is up to the guy. It doesn’t guarantee sex, but Guillermo said, “Believe me, you girls are beautiful. They would say yes and probably not want anything for it.”
It was only around 11pm by that time, and there were just a couple women on the opposite side of the club. It was too dark to really scope them out, but from afar they looked to be middle-aged. There was still a big group of boys in the booth and Guillermo told us it doesn’t get busy until much later, around 2am. So we decided to invite one of the linger guys over to chat.
Soon enough, the manager had descended on our table with an entourage of at least a dozen guys. They stood, like soldiers at attention, in a semi-circle with their arms behind their backs.
Some looked really young. We asked the manager how old they were and one by one, the guys told us their ages. The youngest was 18 years old and the oldest was 28. They were all a little awkward, some with hunched shoulders. A couple guys smiled, but the majority didn’t exactly ooze charm. Still, they weren’t even looking at each other, they were looking right at us. Talk about pressure. I felt more obliged than desirous to pick one at this point, just because they had gone to the effort of getting out of their seats lining up for us.
We chose the cutest one, which I later realized was not the best strategy. The guys entertain their guests by chatting, playing drinking games and dancing salsa. However, it seemed like Guy No. 2 was pretty shy and I think a little thrown off by us random farang girls. With the language barrier it was difficult to get him to say much of anything at all. I ended up getting drunk with one friend, while the other talked to Guillermo. Our new addition just kind of sat there awkwardly.
By this time, I had added a couple whiskey-sodas to my tally and I made a feeble attempt to “trade” Guy No. 2 for someone with better English. Unfortunately, the club does not do “trades” but they did offer us another gentlemen for a reduced price. That’s customer service right there.
So the guys parade back on over, and the manager asked who could speak some English. Two guys raised their hands. On a crapshoot, we chose only one and he sat down. Unfortunately, it turned out Guy No. 3 embellished his English language skills because he really couldn’t say much either.
Somehow, by the end of the evening we found a good balance. We salsa danced with Guy No. 3, played drinking games with Guy No. 1 and Guy No. 2 just continued to sit around awkwardly. But it wasn’t very late when we decided it was time to stumble out with gifts of chocolate and light-up Minnie Mouse ears.
We didn’t finish our bottle and we saw it go into a glass case above the bar, along with a lot of other half-empties. We were given a receipt to return and drink it within the week. That bottle is probably still gathering dust.
18 Plus One is a far cry from the ladies nights at Sukhumvit nightclubs and for that matter, any of the girlie bars in Soi Cowboy or Patpong. The men are fully clothed and while they are allowed to kiss the women at the club, there is no touching allowed. That makes it an outlier in the women’s entertainment industry in Bangkok. There are other clubs where the guys wear bikini bottom and go-go dance.
Does that make 18 Plus One any better than its fellow establishments (or for that matter the girlie bars on Soi Cowboy or Patpong)? It’s a good question. For me, the answer is no. Yes, the guys are there mostly to socialize with the women. And yes, they are given autonomy in their decisions when it comes to how far they go. But the part that really got me is what it must feel like to be put in a line-up and judged by another human being and then paid for. I can’t imagine it’s a highlight of this particular career choice.
All in all, it was another night to go down in the Bangkok memory banks. I wouldn’t judge anyone who elected to go check it out, but for this lady, going to 18 Plus One just once was more than enough.
