Nana Plaza

Nana is a different beast. Where Cowboy is a street, Nana is a three-storey open-air complex — a horseshoe of bars stacked on top of each other around a central courtyard. Thirty-plus GoGo bars across three floors, each one louder and more intense than the last as you climb higher. The ground floor is approachable. The third floor is not for the faint-hearted.

The standout venue is Cascade on the third floor — Bangkok's most famous ladyboy GoGo bar, and one of the most professionally run venues in the complex. If that's not your thing, avoid the third floor entirely. The second floor has some of the better mainstream GoGo bars including Billboard and Spanky's. Expect higher energy than Cowboy, slightly higher prices, and a rawer atmosphere overall.

Nana peaks later than Cowboy — things don't really get going until 10pm and it runs hard until 1am. Security is visible and the complex is generally safe inside. The area around Sukhumvit Soi 4 outside Nana, however, is where you'll encounter freelancers and street touts. Walk confidently, ignore anyone who approaches you with a "special show" pitch, and you'll be fine.

Nana Plaza is a three-storey open-air complex off Sukhumvit Soi 4, built around a central courtyard and stacked with GoGo bars on every level — the densest concentration of a-go-go in the world, and it trades hard on that billing. The ground floor mixes beer bars and entry points; the action climbs from there, with the upper floors holding the bigger-name GoGo bars and, on the third floor, a well-known cluster of ladyboy venues (Cascade among them).

It is more intense, vertical and claustrophobic than Soi Cowboy's open street — a hive rather than a strip. The plaza runs nightly with no off-season, fills late, and packs a lot of venues into a small footprint. First-timers find it overwhelming; regulars navigate straight to their bar.

The women are Thai, overwhelmingly from Isaan, working the GoGo and beer bars on the standard salary-drinks-barfine model. Nana has a reputation as the most full-on of Bangkok's three zones — busier, pushier and more high-energy than Soi Cowboy. The third floor is one of Bangkok's notable ladyboy hubs; assume nothing and ask directly if it matters to you, as the local culture is matter-of-fact about it. English on the floor is functional and tuned to the international punter crowd.