Rainbow Nana Plaza Sale to See 2 Bars, Flashy Shows, Return of Sexy Girls

Sunday’s sale of the Rainbow Nana Plaza bars will bring a new showbar to the Soi 4 complex as well as the return of ladies to the stage at the legendary go-gos.

The owner of the Wonderland ladyboy bar on the middle floor of Nana Plaza confirmed late Sunday that she had purchased the ground-floor Rainbow Nana Plaza, the combined Rainbow 1 and 2. The sale price was not disclosed.

She had initially pursued the much smaller Rainbow 3 on the top floor but rejected the asking price of 12 million baht for the tiny venue next to Billboard. Instead, with Rainbow Nana Plaza, she now gets a much larger and recently renovated space with an iconic name that had fallen on hard times since Covid.

Rainbow Nana Plaza History

Rainbow was the name of one of Nana Plaza’s original go-go bars and operated in the same space – where Bunny 2 now stands – for decades. For nearly as long, it was famous for having some of Nana’s youngest and most beautiful ladies and was a must-visit for every Japanese punter.

Rainbow 2, almost equally popular with the Japanese – was located in the back right corner the plaza’s ground floor but, outside of the Asian brigade, never achieved the same success as the original, which had become Rainbow 1.

Rainbow 3 would eventually follow on the middle floor, where Random now operates. Rainbow 4 came and went and returned to the space it currently occupies, while Rainbow 5 arrived later.

A short-lived Rainbow 69 opened in the middle-floor back corner that once had been home to the Casanova ladyboy bar. It has been sold twice since Covid, now operating as Private 69 by the Russian owner of Kino.

The Rainbow Nana Plaza bars for decades had been operated by a brother-sister team, with one sibling owning 1 and 3 and the other 2 and 4. They sold out during Covid to the “new” Rainbow group, which has different investors in each bar, but one common investor who acts as the general manager and is now considered Nana Plaza’s largest tenant.

It was under this new regime that Rainbow 5 and 69 opened as well Rainbow Soi Cowboy as the new Las Vegas outside on Soi 4, which originally was conceived as Rainbow Nana.

The Demise of Rainbow 1

Of all the Rainbow Nana Plaza bars, none was more loved than the original Rainbow Nana Plaza, which became Rainbow 1 once others started opening. Dating back to the 1980s. But, like so many businesses, it didn’t surved the coronavirus pandemic.

What no one could have foreseen, however, was that a bar that practically created the go-go bar concept, where lovely young ladies usually new to the business shuffled around chrome poles in bikinis, would be moved and restocked with ladyboys.

The original Rainbow was sold to Spanky’s and, in 2022, reopened (briefly) as Blondie. That bar was sold seven months later to the Rainbow group, which renamed it Bunny 2.

The group then took over the spot that once had been London Calling and later Pigtails and rebranded it Rainbow 1. Then came the shocking move to replace girls with boys.

In March 2023, Stickman Bangkok wrote this:

“The original Rainbow’s fans are rolling over in their graves this week and its more-recent fanboys are recoiling in horror upon news that Rainbow 1 is now a ladyboy bar.“

Rainbow 1 & 2’s Future

So what does the sale of Rainbow Nana Plaza hold for the future? For starters, it will mean the return of two separate venues, instead of two operated under one name.

Wonderland’s owner said Sunday night that Rainbow 1 will become Nana Plaza’s newest showbar, with costumed and choreographed shows every hour, putting them into direct competition with Angelwitch and Spanky’s. It’s notable that London Calling had shows featuring both genders.

What’s unknown, however, is whether the show performers will be transgender or natural-born women.

No More Ladyboy Bars at Nana Plaza

It is wrong to assume that since a ladyboy-bar owner took over a go-go that had been stuffed with ladyboys will continue to operate as a ladyboy bar.

Wonderland’s owner said in December that she was looking to open a girly bar in Nana Plaza and had her eye on Rainbow 3, the former Enter. Under Rainbow current ownership it has flipped-flopped over the years as a bar with either women or ladyboys or, currently, both.

While she also owns Majestics on Soi Cowboy – a mixed bar – and Alice in Pattaya, she also runs Ka-Boom in Pattaya, a Walking Street go-go bar filled with the type of girls the original Rainbow was famous for: young, slim, pretty and unhardened by too many years in the Redlight.

Then there is the matter of Nana Plaza’s owner, who reportedly told tenants last year he didn’t want any more ladyboy bars to open. That dictate scuttled the plans of Billboard’s boss to open the new On Top as a ladyboy bar, even though the Billboard boss thought he already had the landlord’s blessing.

That rule likely wouldn’t apply in the case of the just-sold Rainbow Nana Plaza because it already had ladyboys working there.

New plans for the Rainbow Nana Plaza bars will become clearer later this week but, whatever the result, it should breathe some new life into the back corner of Nana Plaza.