Soi Cowboy
A retired American airman who wore a cowboy hat gave his name to Bangkok's 150-metre strip of neon go-go bars — 40 establishments packed into a single short soi.
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The second bar here opened in 1977, run by T.G. "Cowboy" Edwards; nightlife columnist Bernard Trink named the soi after him. Today around 40 ground-floor establishments pack a street you can walk end to end in under two minutes — one of Bangkok's three main foreign-oriented bar clusters alongside Patpong and Nana, and a location used by two Hollywood productions.
What to look for
- The full length: 150 metres, all bars on the ground floor, same layout since numbers reached 31 by the late 1990s
- The cowboy-hat origin story — T. G. Edwards ran the second bar (1977) and columnist Bernard Trink named the soi after him, explaining its incongruous Western nickname
- Film-location context: Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and Bangkok Dangerous (2006) both shot scenes on this strip
Exit BTS Asok Station or MRT Sukhumvit Station — the soi runs between Sukhumvit Soi 21 and Soi 23, a short walk from either platform.
Soi Cowboy is one of 38 sights worth the detour in Bangkok, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Bangkok pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Bangkok
- Grand PalaceIn 1782 a king moved his entire capital from Thonburi to Bangkok and built this walled city — Thailand's seat of power for the next 143 years.
- Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha)Every Thai king since 1783 has personally added to this temple — and the reigning king still presides over state ceremonies here today.
- Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn)Named for Aruna — the Hindu charioteer who drives the sun at dawn — this riverside spire was built to face the light it honors.
- Baiyoke Tower IIBangkok's tallest hotel stacks an observatory, a bar, and a revolving roof deck across three floors at 309 metres.
- BTS SkytrainBangkok sits in chronic gridlock — three elevated lines run above it on 70 kilometers of track connecting the city end to end.
- Rajamangala National StadiumThailand's largest stadium swells like a concrete wave — narrow at each end, rising steeply until the stands crest exactly at the halfway line.