I had never really had an interest in going to Diva before even though I pass right by it almost every night I go out but some friends were heading there the other night and why not?
Diva is all the way up Sukhumvit Soi 11 just past Bed Supper Club. Just go all the way until it dead-ends at the 7-11 and it’s on the left hand side of the street. Q-Bar is off to your left as is St. Moritz.
I haven’t hit up a lot of different nightclubs in Bangkok so Diva seemed a little strange to me. It reminds me of a cross between a G-Club and a regular night club. Unfortunately, the only part resembling a G-Club is the fact that they have professional dancers. Sorry, no hostesses or bullpen. The dancers come out in various costumes and perform fairly well choreographed little dance numbers while lip-synching popular dance tunes. The girls are not as good looking as the coyotes I’ve seen at St. Moritz or in pics posted on other sites but they are a good step up from what you see in your average go-go bar.
The decor is industrial with a lot of fake exposed girder beams. Big circular couches surround the dance area. Personally I don’t think that the bottom floor isn’t very well designed. I can’t really say that they don’t make good use of the space but once you cram in two dancing cages, a huge bar, a huge DJ booth, and several couches there’s not a whole lot of area for the girls to dance. In fact, when they’re doing their numbers in front of the DJ booth you’re forced to walk right in the middle of the dance act to get to the bar or the bathroom.
I’m no expert on club designs but I would have scrapped the round couches and just built seating that sat flush with the wall, taken in the bar and DJ booth a bit (neither really needed to be as large as they were), and possibly built a raised area for the girls to perform so people didn’t have to interrupt their routines to go to the bathroom.
One nice thing for the smokers was an attached smoking area. You don’t have to go out on the street and smoke like a bum. It’s in an enclosed area with lighting, nice seats, privacy, and covering. In fact, it’s a nice place to just go have a private chat if the loud booming sound system is making it difficult to have a conversation. But it does open up between the top of the wall to the ceiling so I have no idea how effective that is in Bangkok’s monsoon rains. Maybe they improvise some sort of tarp covering to keep the rain out.
I’m not really sure if this is the norm or if it was an oddity of us having pre-arranged a large group but around 11pm or midnight (I forget which) they opened up the second floor. Everyone on the ground floor immediately moved upstairs. The layout there was much better. They had a section specifically for the dancers so they didn’t have to dance around the crowd.
When the girls were dancing on the bottom floor there were breaks every so often. Once they went upstairs they danced non-stop from around midnight until well after 2am. One group would come out and do a dance routine while another did a wardrobe change and set up to take to the stage as soon as the other set was over.
As I said earlier the dance numbers were pretty well choreographed. The costumes were nice as well. Sexy but not go-go sexy in the sense that go-go outfits usually look sexy simply because there is so little of them. The dancer’s costumes were designed to be sexy but not want to make you bar fine them.
I’m a little split on whether or not this is the type of place you would want to bring a date. There where girls who didn’t seem comfortable with the whole thing and others who couldn’t stop gushing about how nice the dancer’s outfits were or how well they danced. You’ll need to make your own call on that but my guess is if your date is an old fashioned doesn’t smoke or drink type of gal this might be a tad overwhelming for her. If your date doesn’t have a problem going out and shaking her ass in a nightclub then she might just get a kick out of it.
After the show finished the dancers came out and mingled with everyone. They were still in their super-sexy outfits and seemed very friendly with everyone. I didn’t get a sense that they were too pushy about buying a drink. I bought one of the dancers a drink because we happened to be chatting quite awhile and I was getting another drink for myself anyway. It was more or less the polite thing to do. She didn’t ask, I offered.
I’m not sure if the girls are up for any pay for play action. I didn’t see anything that would give me the impression that it was regular item on the menu though I’m sure amongst dozens of beautiful ladies dancing in a nightclub for a living at least a few take on freelance work.
I did get a phone number from the gal I was speaking with but it was to grab lunch together the next day. Regardless she ended up flaking on me with a text telling me her boyfriend came over and wanted to go see a movie.
If you’re the type who cringes when your favorite Nana bar raises the price of beers by 5 baht this is definitely not a place for you. Mixed drinks ran about 240 baht. You are getting a show out of it so perhaps it balances out. Also, if you happen to fancy one of the dancers and wish to purchase her a drink that’ll run you 300 baht. I’m not sure on the beers as only one person in our group was drinking beer and I forgot to ask him.
A few people complained about weak pours and on two different occasions I specifically asked for Jack Daniels and Coke and received Black and Coke. When I bought the drink for one of the dancers she complained about the weak pour as well and let me taste her drink. It tasted like straight Coke.
Overall I’m recommend it if you’re in the mood for something a little different. If you’re not in the mood for dancing all night, want to be entertained, and tired of Sukhumvit clubs packed with freelancers then it might be something worth giving a shot.