You can find Cheap Charlie's on the left, just a little way down Soi 11, off Sukhumvit Road. Charlie died a few years back and the bar is now run by his brother, Satit. Maybe "Cheap Satit's" wouldn't have the same ring...
OK, so it's not really Charlie's any more but it is cheap - beer at ... Read review
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Advantages: Cheap, very friendly. Door policy? There ain't no doors! Disadvantages: Open to the seasonal elements: flooding, mozzies, the occasional rat.
You can find Cheap Charlie's on the left, just a little way down Soi 11, off Sukhumvit Road. Charlie died a few years back and the bar is now run by his brother, Satit. Maybe "Cheap Satit's" wouldn't have the same ring...
OK, so it's not really Charlie's any more but it is cheap - beer at prices not much more than you'd pay in a supermarket. It is a bar but in some ways is more like an open air beer stall. There are some ... ...me, the best thing about Cheap Charlie's is the clientele. Although the odd tourist drops in for a beer, it's mainly inhabited by expats. Any time I go to Bangkok on my own, Charlies is my first port of call to meet up with others and to find out what's going on. Being expats, they're well used to people passing through and it's very easy to make friends there. We even got invited to an Aussie woman's Christmas party last year.
You can find Cheap Charlie's on the left, just a little way down Soi 11, off Sukhumvit Road. Charlie died a few years back and the bar is now run by his brother, Satit. Maybe "Cheap Satit's" wouldn't have the same ring...
OK, so it's not really Charlie's any more but it is cheap - beer at prices not much more than you'd pay in a supermarket. It is a bar but in some ways is more like an open air beer stall. There are some stools or you could sit on an enormous penis-shaped log of wood if you like. Being outside, sometimes it's pretty bad for mozzies (wear shoes, socks and long trousers).
For me, the best thing about Cheap Charlie's is the clientele. Although the odd tourist drops in for a beer, it's mainly inhabited by expats. Any time I go to Bangkok on my own, Charlies is my first port of call to meet up with others and to find out what's going on. Being expats, they're well used to people passing through and it's very easy to make friends there. We even got invited to an Aussie woman's Christmas party last year.
If you're looking for a good crowd of people, who will actually be bothered to talk to you, this is THE place to go in the Sukhumvit area.
The downside? Well, being a kind of street stall it didn't used to have a toilet but they had an arrangement with a nearby Indian restaurant so you could use theirs. In the last couple of years, the innovation (???) of a toilet has meant that you don't need to wander off for a wee. And I do mean a wee. There's a urinal for the blokes and a wc for women. But, Bangkok plumbing being as it is, ladies ought to take notice of the sign which gives strict orders about the accepted use of the pot. It says "Ladies! Only pee. Do not s*** here!"
Don't say you weren't warned.
Update 2007:
I first went to this place in the late 1980s, and have to say that very little has changed over the years. My most recent visit was a couple of months ago and it's still as good as ever.
