Recently I received this email:
Your website is amazing and inspiring and has all the information one would ever need to tear it up in Thailand… except how to meet bro buddies. I think it would be a lot more fun to know other like-minded dudes to go out with. Would it be weird to talk to other dudes at the clubs to make friends instead of talking to chicks?
I’m like this guy, when I go out, I prefer to hangout and B.S. with guys. Then towards the end of the night pick up a new girl.
Partying alone sucks. I prefer to party with at least two other guys for maximum fun. But if you’re traveling alone, this may not been an option for you.
Occasionally I go out to party alone in Bangkok and try new strategies for meeting new friends. I’m not some super personable guy that makes friends easily, but this is what works for me:
Most of the foreign guys partying in Thailand are pretty cool. You may run in to a few jerks along the way, but almost everyone you talk with will be just like you, someone going out to have a fun time drinking and picking up women.
When you are at a club, just approach a group of foreigners and say, “Where are you guys from?”
(I don’t smoke, but if you are a smoker, it’s so easy to meet other guys by asking for a light.)
This is probably my favorite method. Buying a bottle yourself sucks. It’s expensive and drinking a bottle of vodka alone in a club always makes me feel like a loser.
Outside of the “dirtier” clubs like Spicy / Bossy / Insomnia where you have to pay entrance to enter or purchase a bottle of hard alcohol, I’ll just hang out chatting with a girl or two. Then when I see a couple of “white” guys at the counter looking over the menu. I’ll ask in a friendly tone if they are thinking of getting a bottle of Vodka or something. If they say yes, I’ll say, “If you want, I’ll join in on it to keep the price down.”
Bam. Now you have a couple new friends to party with.
I have a very high success rate with this method when I go out alone.
As mentioned above, most of the” farang” guys you meet in Thailand will be pretty cool. Use this to your advantage, go to where tourists are. Around midnight get a couple drinks at a busy bar on Khaosan Road or Nana and be talkative.
Thai girls are sluts. If you meet a hot “good girl” while at a club and then fuck her the same night, there is a good chance she has done the same thing with many other guys.
After you become bored of her, become her friend and then ask her if she knows any cool guys who live in Bangkok. Tell her it’s not a gay thing, you are just looking to meet new friends to party with.
I’ve met a few very good friends this way.
Last but not least, just get completely hammered. It’s kind of strange, but the drunker I get, the more people I have around me.
However, if I go to a club solo and sober, I tend to be one of those guys overlooking the dance floor with nothing but his beer in one hand and the phone in the other.
If you’re like me, don’t enter a nightclub sober. Get a good buzz before and then let Bangkok take you!
Posted on Gods of Thailand March 24, 2013 in Q & A, Thailand, Tips & Advice
6 comments
Hello All,
If someone could answer the below questions….that would be great. After reading this site, I feel like I need to visit Thailand. But I don’t think I can convince any of my single friends to go with me.
1. I’m 36, but dont look it….I get late 20s from most. Anyway, if I’m trying to pick up a good girl will my age hurt me?
2. I most likely will be traveling alone….in all honesty do you think I’ll have a bad or good time? I know it’s what I make of it….just wondering about how it looks to the girls if I’m by myself? FYI, I’m 6’2, athletic build, and good looking (not great).
3. I don’t like lying, so I wouldnt say I’m there on business, etc.., but just traveling…..will this hurt me with the good ones? I could say that I’m there to hike and kayaking which I might actually do.
Hey Chris,
1- Your age won’t matter one bit. When the girl asks, just lie or tell the truth. It won’t really affect your trip one way or another.
2- Depends on you. Personally, I hate going to nightclubs alone unless I’m drunk. However, many guys naturally meet friends when they go out. So that’s not an issue for them.
If you are standing at the bar by yourself all night with a frown on your face because you hate being alone, this will affect how the girls perceive you. However, if you are having fun, girls will magically appear.
3- If you don’t like lying, don’t lie. Just do what is comfortable for you.
Thai girls are not stupid. They know that most foreigners are only visiting Thailand. And this isn’t a problem.
My advice is this:
“Be honest and have fun.” As simple as that.
-Seven
Re: Making Friends With Thai Guys.
I’m not an expert at this. But here’s some thoughts.
First, once you find the bars you like to go to and hang out at regularly, make friends with the guys who work there. This is painfully easy. Most foreigners just ignore the Thai guys and try to pick up hookers. If I imagine what the male Thai staff thinks of when they sit back and watch this day after day it’s probably, “Foreign guys are pretty lame, weak, and desperate. Foreign guys are all the same. I don’t really like foreign guys that much”.
If instead of walking right in and trying to pick up all the girls you get to know the place first you’ll have a much better time. Just grab a beer and talk to the male staff. Invite them out to party sometime when they’re off work.
Understand that the Thai male staff at a bar aren’t at all competing with you for girls. I haven’t had any problems with them “getting jealous” when I do want to pick up girls from their place, they’re usually glad to help arrange it.
They’ll also usually hook you up with drinks, which sometimes sucks. One of the most annoying things about being friends with the staff is the random arrival of piss warm shots of vodka that end up getting you way more drunk than you intended. C’est la vie.
I just assume most of the social circle building will happen in bars. I can’t imagine offering advice on how to walk up to a Thai guy on the street and become friends. I think this would be a strange approach in any country.
But also appreciate that a lot of the places are small. Bangkok’s huge, and I haven’t spent a ton of time in it. But I bet like most cities the upper echelon all tends to know each other. Club owners, promoters, managers, and the high end clientelle at their venue’s all tend to know each other.
In most cities I’ve found there is usually a bar, where once a week, all of the normal bartenders and managers have the night off and go out to a particular bar to party. Usually Sunday, usually a bar nowhere near where they work. I don’t know if Thailand has this too as they seem to just work 7 nights a week here.
This access is also just for sale. Go to the nicest clubs in Bangkok, buy your way in, buy a VIP table, buy a bunch of bottles, repeat 3-4x and you’ll be a regular VIP. Regular VIPs usually meet other regular VIPs as we all prefer to hang out with each other instead of the common people.
IF you’re not a VIP, what makes you so special that VIPs will want to have you in their social clique trying to bang their hot women? Farangs bored of whores, trying to find slightly hotter Thai girls to be lame at sex with would probably be easy to spot and treated with contempt from cool Thai guys.
But the boil down is. As long as you’re cool and people like you. Just guess where those people you want to meet would be at, go to the same places and meet them.
Yes, but how do you make Thai guy friends in Thailand instead of sticking to the expat bubble?
There should be a guide on infiltrating Thai social circles (with getting bangs from as a bonus). So far I guess only office workers who are sent to Thailand by their firms regularly have Thai buddies. The others seem to stick to their kind in Kaosan/Sukhumvit.
Would even be better if you can make friends with Thai guys who are fluent in English, been to international schools, etc.
I like to try and befriend local guys because it can get you into some nice social circles and access to women you’d never normally have access to. The sort of girls who don’t go to clubs or places where farang hang out. If you met them when you were rolling solo they’d probably be too scared to talk to you or be too embarrassed but meet them with some thai friends and get introduced and suddenly you’re a cool white guy she’d think about hooking up with. Worked for me many times.
If you like sports check out the live soccer or rugby games in any Irish/English/Australian pub. Always busy. Just ask any guy in the bar ‘who are you supporting?’ and you have a new friend for the next two hours minimal. Soccer games in England start 3pm on Saturday (10pm Thailand). Perfect boozy preparation before you hit a club!