26 Sukhumvit, Soi 11, Bangkok

This is one of Bangkok’s trendiest bars and restaurants. Diners share a room-length white-sheet bed and eat from a set menu. The restaurant often has special shows, so check the website for what’s up. On the other side of the same spaceship-looking building is the bar, and the music can be loud enough.

Bangkok

In the 1970s Khao San “Shining Rice” Road in Bamglamphoo, one of the city’s older neighborhoods became Grand Central Station for the international collection of backpackers making their way through Asia and around the world. In the ‘80s and ‘90s it got even bigger, packed with cheap guesthouses and restaurants.

Patpong Rd, off Silom, Bangkok

The street that gives Bangkok much of its international reputation is really not the place it used to be. Having been somewhat sanitized during the past decade, there’s now a night market down the road’s center, selling everything from t-shirts with typical inscriptions to the latest movies on copied (pirated) DVDs....

34 Sukhumvit, Soi 11, Bangkok

The original Q Bar, connected to the Opera House in Saigon, was more unique, but this one is trendier. The indoor area and outside balconies offer the chance for intimate conversation as DJs pump international music.

It’s pricey but popular with local Thais and expats, and just down the street from Bed Supper Club.

Located in the basement of the Novotel in Siam, this is a lively, popular centrally located venue.

It only gets going after 11pm and is full of freelancing ‘ladies of the night’ (Thai and Eastern European). The bar staff also have a terrible attitude. Nearest BTS station: Siam. Cover charge 300 baht, with free drink. Open: 18.30 to 02.00, nightly

Open: 16:30 - 01:00 except Sunday

Sukhumvit Soi 11
+66 (0)2 253 4648
Skytrain: Nana

Where in lower Sukhumvit can you drink for a pittance and meet interesting, unsleazy farang?

The answer is not some haughty hotel lounge, nor some austere restaurant, but this 20-something Bangkok institution - little more than a wooden shack and a few stools that spill across the street.

Every night, a convivial blend of expats and clubbers swarm here to dose up on beers before heading somewhere pricier (at 60 baht a bottle Cheap Charlie's delivers on its name). A definite contender for Bangkok's most bizarre drinking hole, be sure to check out the oddities accumulated over the years - animal skulls, tribal masks and other strange curios (the toilet bares a classic sign: 'no shitting').

Tucked away down a narrow, predominantly residential soi, remember also to be a gent and stand aside for passing cars.