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Baccara (rating : )

Tip : Lady Drinks (as other drinks) are very expensive at 150 baht. Barfine high. High noise level.
Update April 2008 : The line-up at Baccara is sliding down. Many of the more attractive girls (especially upstairs) seem to have moved out. While a smoking ban is in place at Soi Cowboy since Februari, Baccara Bar (quite unnecessary, we did not see a decrease in customers when they disallowed smoking in the bar), is again providing ashtrays. Hopefully, the smoking nuisance will be taken care of in the near future.

Baccara is a relatively new bar in Soi Cowboy. It opened about three years ago at the place of another entertainment area, called Blue Bird. Blue Bird used to be a place where customers could dance with girls, but was never very successful.
The bar layout of Baccara is definitively one of the best in town, and has up to now as far as I know, not yet been copied successfully. The bar has two floors. The ground floor has a 'classic', well lit dancing stage. The girls dancing there wear a bikini top combined with a short skirt. On the second floor, girls wearing 'schoolgirl' outfit, dance on a transparent floor. Most of these girls will dance without panties and some girls also are topless. So it a common site to see the customers below extend their necks to get a view of the 'interesting' parts. The girls dancing on the second floor tend to be rather young. Some of them probably look young because of the outfit they are wearing.
The girls downstairs have also done away with their knickers. There are mirrors on the dancing floor and on the bar counter. For quite a while these were very useful. However, over the last year or so, the reflections of the mirrors have deteriorated. Time for some renovation, we would think.

As mentioned, the outlay of the bar is second to none. The bar further expanded around July 2007, when it annexed the small bar (Pam's) adjacent to it. The dancing floor downstairs has been enlarged. There are also many more girls now dancing downstairs and Baccara Bar is now easily the largest bar at Soi Cowboy (and the most busy). There are some drawbacks though : high noise level, highest prices in the soi.

This bar is much frequented by Japanese customers, who fancy the transparent ceiling. I am told this kind of bar is also not uncommon in Japan. As a result of having many Japanese customers though, some of the girls have become quite choosy, neglecting the 'farang' customers, since most of them offer less money for activities than their Japanese counterparts.

Baccara has upped its prices recently. Beers and standard short drinks cost 140 baht, the highest price level you will see in Soi Cowboy, and actually also more expensive than beers at any Nana Plaza bar (or Patpong bar for that matter). Even more 'impressive' is the price you need to pay for a lady drink, a whopping 150 baht. So just sitting down at Baccara and ordering a drink (provided one of the girls gives you any attention) will set you back about 300 baht. Not that long ago (we reckon about 2 years) your expenses would be around 200 baht. Inflation (but more surely greed) is hitting hard, especially since the Thai baht is strenghtening ever more in the currency market. [the sliding baht was often quoted in the past as the reason behind price hikes]
It has also been reported that when you want to buy out a girl (we would not comtemplate that at all, surely most the girls overcharge) you need to buy at least two drinks for the girls, on top of paying the barfine. In practice, this means the barfine has been increased to about 900 baht.
As in most bars, you can now also get bottled water as a drink, but Baccara is the only bar we know that uses really small water bottles (I guess they must be used by certain airlines).

One final comment : Excessive noise levels at times in this bar. To be avoided for frequent visits if you value your hearing capabilities. One solution is to escape to the second floor, where the music is (more) bearable, if you sit behind the speakers.

This is a J-bar - more
This is a 'fast-turnover' bar - more

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