At the top of an unmarked staircase outside Sukhimvit Soi 4’s Swan 1 Pool Bar lies the Shakerz Coyote Club - the newest of Bangkok’s bars, which had its grand opening party last night. Head up Soi 4, past Nana Plaza, and look for the Swan Bar on your left at the junction with the back-road leading to Soi 6 - it’s on the corner.
It’s been heavily plugged on Dave The Rave’s site over the past week, and is apparently the first of what will be a new development of coyote/go-go bars. Bangkok has only a limited number of gogo licenses, all of which have already been issued. So Shakerz is a “coyote bar” - the subtle difference being that the girls dance on the bar instead of at poles, and wear slightly (but not much) more than their gogo counterparts.
Firstly, Shakerz is tiny. I was expecting it to be the same size as the downstairs Swan 1 bar, but it’s miniscule. A central bar dominates the proceedings - from here, the bar counter extends around the walls, and is dotted with variously attractive and unattractive dancing girls. Beers go for a reasonable ฿100, and the barfine is set at ฿500. However, there is a twist.
You see, you can’t actually barfine the girls. Yes, in a typically baffling example of Thai “logic”, the powers that be seem to have come to the conclusion that if they were to allow the girls to leave, they wouldn’t have any customers. So the girls can only be barfined after the bar closes, or if there are no customers.
So in summary, it’s like a typical gogo bar, except the girls are wearing more clothes, and you can’t barfine them. The only reason I can think of to visit Shakerz would be for the fried chicken, but apparently that was for one night only.
Let me see if I have this right. The barfine is 500 baht but you can’t barfine the girls unless there are no customers. So who is going to barfine them - someone who is not a customer?
In typical Thai logic which is consistent with Buddhist philosophy that life is an illusion they have instituted another paradox that leaves me shaking my head in wonder.
Since they have had coyote style dancing in Las Vegas for decades it was only a matter of time before Asia picked up this fad. It gives a whole new dimension to the term Coyote Ugly.
View all comments by hansum man
They were kind of vague about it. You can definitely barfine the girls once the bar’s closed - which is apparently between 2.30 and 3.30am. Not sure what the boys in brown will have to say about that.
But who pays a barfine at closing time? “Meet me outside the 7/11″ can be heard resounding around Bangkok from 2am to 3am every single morning, all year round…
The other approach is that if the bar is dead, they may as well take cash for allowing the girls to leave early, rather than paying them to dance in an empty bar until closing time - whenever that is.
Which brings us to a fascinating existential question: “If a bar is run stupidly, and has no customers there to see anything, do the girls still dance?”
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
Shakerz (what a shit name!) is therefore struck off my visit list for next time. What a load of shit!
View all comments by meister
Any truth to the rumor that the Airport director is in charge of this place?
Sheeesh. How stupid.
View all comments by jo jo
I thought Swan Bar was being knocked down ??
View all comments by MSB
There are currently four Swan bars. Shakerz is on top of the main one - Swan 1.
Swan 5, across the road from Swan 1, is currently being rebuilt.
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
This would have to be one of the worst coyote bars I have ever been, the place is a dive, the girls do not know how to dance and the music is completely wrong. I went there with another friend, his comment was, 'This is the type of bar you go to and contemplate your life, as there is nothing better to do'. The best looking girl there was the Mamasan, I have never seen fatter and more scared coyote dancers in all my time in Bangkok. Before any other coyote bars open in Sukumvit can the owners please go to Thai style coyote bars to get some ideas on what they should be like.
View all comments by Harold