Nana Plaza
Template:Short description Template:Infobox venue Nana Plaza (formerly Nana Entertainment Plaza) is an entertainment complex and red-light district in Bangkok, Thailand. Originally built as a shopping center, Nana Plaza occupies a three-story commercial building in the Khlong Toei District of Bangkok about Template:Convert from the BTS Skytrain's Nana Station.<ref name="wos">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=BSG>Template:Cite book</ref> It describes itself as the "worlds largest adult playground".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Askew>Template:Cite book</ref> Its name originates from the influential, property-holding Nana family, Lek Nana being the most prominent member.
Along with Soi Cowboy and Patpong, Nana Plaza is one of Bangkok's three most concentrated red-light districts. All attract primarily tourists.<ref name="wos" />
History
The plaza's U-shaped building is roughly square-shaped, with a single opening on the west side, and consists of a ground floor and two additional floors arranged around a courtyard.<ref name="wos" /> The plaza opened in 1983<ref name=Weitzer>Template:Cite book</ref> and by the mid-1980s around twenty go-go bars had opened in the three-level court, taking advantage of the expansion of tourist hotels in the area.<ref name=Askew/>
In 2012 Nana Plaza was sold to a Thai JVC company Nana Partners Co Ltd., co-owned by Fico corporation and Panthera Group (formally known as Eclipse group)Template:Sndone of Thailand's largest bar and nightclub operators.<ref name=":0" /> Panthera Group renovated the complex, becoming the landlord and providing the management and security services.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>
Facilities
On the plaza's three floors there are thirty go-go bars, one beer bar and three small short-time hotels that rent out rooms by the hour. Soi 4, the street outside the plaza, is a venue for street prostitution and contains beer bars, massage parlors, and hotels of the conventional and short-time variety.<ref name=Weitzer/> Short-time hotels are rented to patrons taking a bargirl for sex. Most bar girls in Nana Plaza will leave with customers upon payment of a bar fine. Smoking is banned indoors.<ref name=BSG/> There are two elevators, one on the north side of the building and one on the south.Template:Citation needed The building closes at 03:00 and lies dormant until the following evening.<ref name=BSG/> In 2016 two waitresses in the plaza's Bangkok Bunnies go-go bar said that they received monthly wages equivalent to £130 (US$165) and daily tips equivalent to £11–16 (US$14–20).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This compares with a 2016 average monthly wage in Thailand of around 13,800 baht (US$388).<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Nonspecific</ref>
As of July 2019, there were seven kathoey ("ladyboy") bars in Nana Plaza;<ref name="deranged">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=redeye>Template:Cite web</ref> Several other bars have a few ladyboys in their line-ups mixed with their regular go-go dancers.
Gallery
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Entrance to Nana Plaza when it was a shopping center
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Entrance to Nana Entertainment Plaza showing the old overhead signage
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Nana Plaza, May 2004
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Ladyboys, Cascade Bar
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Nana Plaza, November 2015
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Nana Plaza, November 2025
See also
References
External links
- Official Nana Plaza Website
- Interview With Paul Hayward, Owner Of Nana Plaza
- Five Decades of Nana – documentary about the history of the bar areas of Nana (on YouTube)