Tilac Bar is the Best – Tilac Bar on the Decline

I usually love reading the Stickman site though sometimes I find myself asking questions about what motivates certain posts or even if the same person writes all of the posts. This week was one of those weeks where I had more questions than answers.

In this week’s Weekly he writes:

I’m of the view that the peak at Tilac has been reached, and passed, and I hate to say it but I feel it is a bar slowly in decline. There are lots of new girls and while many are pretty, I don’t know that the attitudes could be accurately described as wonderful. Tilac has become a high pressure sell joint with girls asking for a drink within 30 seconds and being abusive if one is turned down. Sigh, another good bar turns crap.

I’m not so sure I would agree but I remember that not long ago Stickman was singing their praises. In fact, a quick check took me to a post titled “Tilac, Simply the Best” written in April where he describes Tilac as the best go-go bar in all of Bangkok. No other bar supposedly comes even close. An entire Weekly column about why they are better than their competition. That’s some heavy duty approval stamping.

Tilac Bar in Soi Cowboy is in my mind, the best gogo bar in Thailand. Pretty much everyone I know likes it. It’s busy every night, often packed from 9 PM onwards and however you measure it, Tilac is the act by which others follow.

How does a go-go go (sorry) from being far and away the best go-go to being on the decline in the span of four months when no other bar has jumped up to win Stickman’s glowing approval?

Better yet, just the week before he declared Tilac now on the decline he was still praising the bar, albeit with some hedging due to complaints readers had sent in.

I’ve been talking up Tilac for quite some time and it remains my favourite bar. And no, despite some cynics suggesting otherwise, there’s nothing in it for me, no money changing hands and not a single free drink pushed my way. It’s busy most nights and does a roaring trade at the weekend. However, to bring some balance, a number of readers who have taken my recommendation and checked it out for themselves have not been so impressed. More than a few have reported issues when it comes time to receive their change. I’ve never had a problem myself, nor have any of my friends who are regulars, but there must be something going on as I have had a number of emails from readers reporting their change has been light. It seems that someone at Tilac – perhaps just a single rogue, perhaps a bunch, who knows – realises that there is good money to be made by short-changing merry customers who are more concerned about where Miss # 25 is than how much change they get. I maintain that it’s a great bar but do make a point to check your change.

Seriously, or more to the point, how can anyone take you seriously when one week you call it your favorite bar and even have to fend off accusations that you’re taking money to help promote it and seven days later talk about how the bar has hit its peak and is on the way downhill? A few readers complaining about being shorted on their change? Or are we to believe that last week Stickman was having a raging good time in the Tilac and in the span of one week the wheels have come off and the place is in an inescapable nosedive into oblivion?

But those aren’t even the reasons stated. Supposedly in one week it’s gone from his favorite bar to a place filled with drink thirsty dancers and cons.

While Tilac is one of my favorites I’m not sure I was every as gushing as Stickman was about the place. So I do frequent the place enough to know that most of the management and bar staff are the same as are most of the dancers. Sure you have your ebb and flow of girls coming in and leaving but for the most part the core group is the same as last month and even the month before.

Stickman is often accused of being paid off by certain businesses to promote them on his site. There always seems to be someone inferring or outright accusing Stickman of taking cash to write glowing reviews and/or to punish one’s competitors with accusations of something horrible going on in their bar. Personally, I don’t know and don’t care enough to form an opinion one way or the other. I view the content as entertaining and informative and then form my own views about the places he writes about. But whipsawing like this is the type of stuff that will certainly fan the flames of the “Stickman is a paid shill” camp.

I hope in the coming weeks he’ll step up and detail in as much detail as he’s been telling us how great Tilac is as to why he’s had the sudden change of heart.