Most interesting bars :
Tilac Bar : Many girls ; coyotees during the WE ; reasonable prices.
Lucky Star (Long Gun) : Small, but long established. Sexotic shows.
Baccara : Flashy, best designed bar, expensive.
Rawhide Bar : Both cute girls and off putting women.
Dollhouse : The best and longest lasting happy hour.

Tilac (rating : )

Updated 10-2009

Tip : Order a bottle of water together with another drink. The water is pretty cheap here at 30 baht (last time we asked for one), and will allow you to stay longer in the bar, and mitigate the effect of too much alcohol.
Red Alert : End 2009 the bar is still doing wonderfully well, and arguably one the two most busy bars at Soi Cowboy. There is however much less eye-candy than before, with a lot of the more attractive girls somehow having disappeared, and being replaced with the chubby, very plain type.

Tilac is one of the largest bars in Soi Cowboy. It is located on the left side of the Soi, when entering from Asoke Road. The bar has been around for many years and consistently being successful.

After remaining unchanged (except for the addition of an attractive outside beer bar a few years ago) for many years, Tilac Bar was completely refurbished and redecorated at the end of 2007.

The bar is much larger than your average Soi Cowboy bar. It is the only bar featuring two entrances. The central new dancing stage has the form of a 4-armed starfish with a total of about 15-20 girls dancing throughout the the body part and on each of the satellite arms. In between the arms there are counters manned by bartenders, cashiers etc. This is one of the few bars, where interactions with bartender girls is quite available.
Contrary to most of the other bars, Tilac has a lot of working girls, and they work in at least three, sometimes even four shifts. That means they have a LOT of time in between being on stage. The girls apparently have been instructed not to be overly aggressive. Not sure whether this is a good or bad thing, it clearly depends on the customer. If you do not like to be bothered, you will be able to sit around in peace. On the other hand, if you are looking for action, you might need to be just a bit more assertive (than usual in other bars) to get the girls' attention.

An interesting novelty for Soi Cowboy, it that Tilac Bar engages the services of some 'coyote girls'. They are present on fridays and saturdays. Usually the coyote girls wear hotpants and some interesting tops. They do not all dance very well, but most do. Their dancing is a bit more stylized than what the regular bargirls offer, and often consists of jerky head and limbs movements. It actually looks rather classy than the usual Bangkok shuffle, and we like it a lot. That being said, don't get confused. These girls may be a bit more upmarket, but they also will respond (at least most, we suspect) to customers' request to wander outside the bar with them. They used to have their own representative, who walked around the bar, probably to help out when problems arose, or just keeping a watchfull eye. Lately, he or she seems to have disappeared tough.
We are not sure if this is the latest fashion, but the coyote girls seem to have some problem concealing their underwear, and I mean not just at their backside. Either smaller panties, or hot pants with a wider inseam are in order.

Besides the major dancing stage (which actually is altogether not that big, there are girls table dancing on 6 to 8 tables along the left and right walls of the bar. In between there are lots of small tables and even more bar stools scattered around the place. The seating arrangements are a bit poorly conceived. When sitting at the bar counter, one has to experience a lot of body contact with not only the girls and waiters, but also with other customers passing by. The bar can get awfully crowded, especially during the weekends. Visitors do not seem to mind, with quite a few just standing about the place in between the chairs and tables.

Tilac Bar never has gone for the 'show-it-all' format. They did alter the outfit of the girls however with the latest upgrade of the bar. The girls wear both tops and skirts. The skirts are rather large by go-go bar standards. But the girls do not wear anything underneath. And since the dancing stage is located higher than usual, this allows for upskirt 'sightings'.

As you see on the picture above, a main part of the latest renovation involved erecting large signboards with fancy lighting outside the bar. Blue is the color outside, and the lighting inside also is bluish allover. Besides all the renovations, the bar seems to have upgraded its sound system. Pop music seems to be the format. The music sounds good on the new sound system, but as with a lot of other bars, the music is a bit too loud. Drinks are cheaper than average at Tilac Bar, and as mentioned above, water bottles (at nominal prices) can be ordered to go with any other drink.

Beers go for 130 baht at Tilac Bar.

This is a 'slow-turnover' bar. - more

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