It is impossible to be everywhere at once and try to cover it well. pmmp and I live, party and work in Bangkok. That is what we know and what we try, but not well, to cover. pmmp threatens to bring the weekly back so be careful out there. I tried to keep up on Pattaya by going there often but I don’t have the time and if I go too much then I lose my desire to go in the first place. So the idea was to get others who knows their areas well to contribute. For a while there we had Ed of Pattaya Rag and the Pattaya section blossomed. Ed got busy though and he was not able to hit the streets for us or his blog. Ed is getting back to his blog though, good stuff, but in emails he mentioned to me about a new blogger - Pattaya Ghost.
The Ghost has been in the scene for a long while and has been “ghost” writing for others for some time as well. So the Ghost and I chatted and with Ed’s blessing we have the Pattaya section back. This should be a weekly affair and I can tell already we will be getting some good inside info and a smattering of all the action in sin city. At the same time I urge you to check out the Ghost’s blog since he has daily posts and lots of good info, but we will try to make sure the Pattaya column here saves some stuff just for u all.
Thanks to Ed for the hat tip and the previous work and please welcome the Ghost.
Things must be getting rough in Bangkok. After taking a long, long hiatus from “Ghost” writing about Pattaya for a couple other publications, I decided to put up my own blog last month. A day later I’ve got Smitty sending me an invite to take over their Pattaya column. I’m not sure whether it’s a flattering honor or just a sign of desperation. But either way, thanks. I’m here and happy to be so.
From what I can tell, there have been no posts on Pattaya since March. (Kudos to Ed at Pattaya Rag for his earlier Pattaya updates, by the way.) So my opening post will be a bit of a recap of the past two months interspersed with a bit of new stuff. Next week the column should morph into its regular format, whatever that will be. (Did I mention my blog was just a week old?)
Anyone Want to Buy A Go-Go Bar?
Pattaya has 74 go-go bars – yes, someone actually counted – and, frankly, the town cannot support that many. This year’s lame high season and now-crushing low season is resulting in a record number of closures and sales.
Four bars closed in May alone: Tramps Showbar, Voodoo a GoGo, Fun Room and Gorkle’s. If you’ve never heard of them, you’re obviously not alone. Tramps was an upstairs dog and goldfish show AIMED at the Chinese. Voodoo so was hidden behind a beer bar only fat women could find it. Fun Room just wasn’t. And Gorkle’s? Who in their right mind would ever name a girly bar “Gorkle.” And, no, it wasn’t the surname of the owner.
Some that that haven’t closed are for sale. Insomnia Gentlemen’s Club, a personal favorite, can be had all-in at 3.99 million baht. Catz a Go Go, which used to be one of the best bars on Walking Street, is now horrible and has been on the market for months. And now the word is that The Windmill Club on Soi Diamond is now on the market.
Just 18 months ago David, the owner of Windmill, had been positioning himself to become the “Go-Go Kingpin” of Walking Street. Starting with Windmill, a hybrid go-go/table dance joint, he started the now-defunct Tramps with Big Andy of Club Electric Blue fame. David then bought out Andy and purchased three insipid bars on the neighboring Soi 15. Back then, Soi 15 was pretty much a wasteland, with Angelwitch being the only real draw.
David closed one (XXX Club) and knocked out the wall between it and Baby Dolls a Go Go. He then renovated Club 69 next door.
All his bars followed a similar format: center stage, table dance, Jacuzzi/shower plus the “play mat” that had become the rage across the street from Baby Dolls at What’s Up! A Go Go. For those of you who have no idea what the play mat is, imagine a big mattress with two horny, sadistic lesbians beating and eating the crap out of each other while encouraging audience participation. I doubt you’ll find that at Rainbow 4.
As quickly as he renovated the bars, however, David started bailing out. Those who know him say he’s burnt out, fed up with Thailand and is now unloading his bars with plans to pack up and head back to the U.S.
His first move was to unload Tramps (a smart move considering), then Club 69 (now Sakura Club 69, a racy and increasingly popular venue) and then, in one of the two biggest pieces of news last month, he sold the very successful Baby Dolls to a trio of investors including Ricky, the ex-Angelwitch Bangkok manager and now one of the most popular (and mobile) managers in the Queen City.
Ricky and his pals promised to keep the raunchy format that made the bar so popular with the geriatric gynecologists that inhabit it each night but did quickly lower late-night barfines. Now you can take your whip-cracking temptress out for a mere 300 baht after 1:30 a.m. (if she’s still around by then, of course.)
Betting Against the Odds
With all the closures and “for sale” signs around, you’d think no one would be opening any new venues. You’d be wrong. Last month’s other big news was the move of Misty’s a Go Go from Soi Pattayaland 2 to (you guessed it), Soi 15 off Walking Street.
Misty’s (renamed Club Misty’s) has long been popular with ex-pats and repeat visitors, but their move into a 50% larger venue on the Walking Street’s hottest soi has breathed a few breaths of new life into a bar that had declined badly as Pattayaland transformed itself into a gay zone. It’s also arguably one of the best-looking bars on the Street with the striking lighting, two levels and some really cool outdoor lighting. Just beware the spiral staircase. It’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.
More importantly, the bar has increased the number of dancing talent from 24 on Opening Day to more than 70, with more than a handful of legitimately stunning girls.
Pattaya also has gained a new (and huge) freelance venue the Pattaya Beer Garden, anyone, on the prowl or not, could enjoy. Sitting on the pier just outside the gate to Walking Street, there actually isn’t a garden there. But the idea was to mimic Bangkok’s version and attract a large stable of freelancers while offering a very hospitable environment that anyone, on the prowl, or not could enjoy.
The PBG true incarnation of what owner Pattaya Pete was after when he opened The Freelancer Bar way back when. But the indoor venue never caught on with wandering working girls and it was eventually turned into a hostess bar and renamed FLB Bar. Pete is making sure his second attempt succeeds.
Not only has he designed a large and – particularly at sunset – striking venue, he’s been aggressive on both prices and efforts to bring in the girls. All bottled beer (except Corona) is 50 baht all the time. There’s a large menu of stupidly low-priced food and he offers a “freelancer discount” of 100 baht to any punter who brings in his own freelancer.
At the same time, Pete dispatches a team of Thai guys twice a day to round up freelancers off the beach and Walking Street and bring them in. The girls get a cash handout and free som tam just for staying two hours. The Big Mango is onto a great idea with its discount card – somebody should mention it to Pete – but I think Pete’s outreach program is pretty ingenious.
On his blog, Pete said Pattaya Beer Garden actually broke even in its first month and it now has a steady farang following. The girl population is still up-and-down, but many nights you can find 20-30 girls waiting to be entertained.
I Fought the Law…
Finally, I couldn’t end the column without talking about two hexes on both Pattaya and Bangkok: The smoking ban and closing times.
As in Bangkok, the new government and their police storm troopers took all the Fun out of Fun Town at the end of March by enforcing legal closing hours. For Walking Street, that meant 2 a.m. and for other bars as early as midnight. What was left of high season was pretty much shot to hell as punters arriving for Pattaya’s week-long water fight (otherwise known as Songkran) found themselves truly dry late at night.
By early May, the plod eased up (as their tea money ran dry) and, these days, go-gos are now open to as late as 4 a.m. The after-hour discos are back to closing as the sun comes up.
… And the Law Won
The enforcement of the smoking ban is another matter. With very few exceptions all the Walking Street go-gos are heeding the ban. Business has been very slow in ban’s first week, although it’s not clear that no-smoking policy is solely to blame for the downturn. But it certainly hasn’t helped. Even bars that are getting customers are reporting that many customers are staying for one or two drinks only, then smoking on their way to another watering hole.
Coming Up…
So, what does June portend? Well, Pattaya’s bars might actually get a lift as the U.S. Navy pulls into town. Three ships scheduled to make “R&R” port calls last month finally arrive Tuesday with more than 2,000 sailors and marines ready for a good time after twiddling their thumbs just outside Burmese territorial waters for the past three weeks.
Three other rescheduled ships are set to follow and then the annual Carat exercise gets underway with yet even more Navy on hand. Ex-pats will grumble the Navy is taking all their girls, but based on what I see, the girls aren’t much interested in them anyway, and vice versa. Otherwise, the bars would be a lot busier.
That’s it for this week. Check out www.PattayGhost.com during the week for more Pattaya updates and be back here next Sunday for more original content.
Ghost - welcome aboard. This is great info and makes me want to come to Pattaya to check in.
The smoking ban is putting a serious dent in some large bkk businesses. I plan on writing about this soon. It is another nail in the coffin of 2008. Most hotels are saying 2008 is worse than 2007 and they thought it could get no worse.
Thailand is suffering more than people want to let on - I don’t care about the cars and condos. That is the cheap interest rates for the Thais - just look at the UK and the US for a sign of what cheap rates for too long will do to an economy.
The amount of bars for sale in Pattaya is shocking. I had no idea but shows how Pattaya is not surviving much better than Bkk. Sure - expensive condos and malls are going up like mad - but those people don’t visit a go-go.
Ahhh - so much to talk about.
This is great info. Had no idea on the various owners and the stuff going on with that. Interesting. I guess being a bar kingpin is easier said than done.
Looking forward to #2
View all comments by smitty
Nice post.
74 gogo bars in Pattaya? Would you have asked me, I would have bet on 300 or so! But actually it is true that most places are beer bars and not gogos. Are they also doing bad?
View all comments by Suk Psycho
Thanks for the update ghost. Yeah made me want to come and have a look around to.
Well if oil prices keep going up as they probably will, next to no-one will visiting Thailand. Thai Air is already cutting back on US flights. Peak Oil or Peak Non-OPEC oil is going to hit us faster than we might of liked.
View all comments by Young Royal
suk - it was interesting to hear the tally. I would think no one is doing great right now. Supposedly the non smoking thing has even gotten to the popular joints like happy. I am sure the Ghost can elaborate.
yr - i think peak oil is a myth but I get your point. The reality is consumption is outpacing the extraction and the traders are having a field day.
So now Thailand has multiple major headwinds.
inflation, oil, cutting back on flights(not just Thai), a pathetic government, impending coup, botched anti-smoking attempt, increased homeless folks/beggars, and on top of it all and inept tourism ministry.
So yeah - it probably will get worse. Once again my bkk go-go contacts are saying that record numbers of “office girls” are seeking part time work. He reckons he saw this before prior to the big crash.
View all comments by smitty
I’ll add my welcome to the Ghost. I spent a few days in Pattaya last week and have a couple of observations:
1. I happened to see the cashiers summary of the a gogo bar who, IMHO, had a quality lineup of dancers, and good interaction with customers. Bottom line for a Tuesday night in late May: about 350 customer drinks, 126 ladydrinks, and ONLY 4 barfines.
This surprised me as I recall last year seeing a late busy Friday night summary of sales at the NEP Angel Witch showing about 150 LDs and over 30 barfines. Wonder what gives, maybe too many alternatives for better value sex (beer bars and Soi 6) in Pattaya, or just an anomaly?
2. Male Thai touts in front of gogo bars: rarely seen in Cowboy, a few bars in NEP, but NEARLY EVERY gogo bar in Pattaya. What kind of marketing mentality exists that believes putting Thai men in front of bars intented to attract foreign men looking for local ladies is effective? I personally would like to boycott any Pattaya gogo bar which employs these maengdas, but that would exclude me from virtually all Pattaya gogos.
I can see the need for Thai male security, but keep them out of sight until needed. There are plenty of ladies available for service, bartending, and DJ duties.
View all comments by dj
Hi guys, and thanks.
#Smitty - Regarding the shocking number of bars for sale… After I sent you my piece last night I learned of yet another - and this time very big agogo - that apparently is being shopped. I cannot right now name it, but let’s just say it is one of the few bars that still does very well just about every night. Yet I’m told the owner is quite motivated to sell, albeit for about 20 million baht…
#Suk & Smitty = Beer bars always suffer. They are very few “name” beer bars out there — Hammer’s The Cherry Bar probably the best known of them. They open and close so fast, you can never keep track of them. One thing, though, the main beer bar street - Soi 8 - is slowly being ripped up and replaced with hotels. Cheery Bar has just moved from there to Beach Road.
#Smitty - As for Happy, this is what I wrote in my piece on enforcement of the smoking ban: “Even at Happy a Go Go, which seemed to be doing more business than anywhere else, management was complaining it was slow. “it’s not the same as last week,” long-time mamasan Ae said. “No one sitting in the back at all.” Still, the bar’s main front section was 90% full, so things couldn’t have been that bad.”
#dj - 4 barfines is pretty unusual. One thing I noted recently was that even though crowds are down, barfines seem to be up across the board. One big bar had service girls dancing before 2 as there were only like 6 dancers left. I think with less competition form other punters, barfine-hunters are getting more selection and taking advantage of it.
As for the boy greeters? Yeah, I’ve always wondered about that. Angelwitch, What’s Up, Baby Dolls and Paris have the most-aggressive guys. I’ve wanted to clock one of the Angelwitch guys a couple times. As for other jobs, I’ve only ever seen one female DJ in a go-go and she was a butch lesbian. And, personally, I think the male service staff in Peppermint and Happy are pretty cool.
View all comments by The Ghost
g - thanka for chiming in on the comments
as we talked about here:
http://www.2thebigmango.com/pattaya/2008/02/18/pattaya-rag-pattaya-update-3/
I thought beer bars like atlantic and u2 do okay? I like those joints and the mexican food stand nearby
there should never, ever be thai guys on the door. Never. I hate it.
Pepper and Happy have real good male staff. I like them more than the girls who service there. Peppermint kills me - always rammed with hotties.
ban all thai door staff. forever.
View all comments by smitty
dj -
1. while, especially in Pattaya, gogo bars are fun, barfining gogo girls is quite out. Ever wonder why? I never have. Freelancers often seem to be much better an option attitude-wise and again, especially in Pattaya where they are just about everywhere and only gogo girls might dare quote you more than 1000 THB for LT…
2. Pattaya gogo bar owners actually go to great lengths to recruit as many girls as possible but it seems that working in a gogo is also out to many Thai working girls. Agreed, if the 2am closing of clubs ever were to be enforced, that would be a different story…
View all comments by mart
Ghost, great writeup!!!
Sorry to derail this for a second but does anybody know of someone doing a similar writeup on Phuket/Patong? Info out of there seems to be pretty hard to come by.
View all comments by Billy Bangkok
Too bad, soi 8 was my favorite. I could spend a week without leaving the street
(they have a good and cheap hotel there, right in the middle).
I do agree with Mart that in Pattaya the Freelancer market is so wide that gogo bars seems to be only an option among many. Once again i am surprised with the price quoted by Mart though. There must be something about prices…
View all comments by Suk Psycho
suk - While I reckon that there probably is no such thing as a going rate in BKK, I am pretty sure that there is one in Pattaya. Well at least I am almost never quoted more than 1000 for LT. I am 30, maybe it makes a difference but I don’t think so because that’s the rate my 40-something friends seem to pay as well..
View all comments by mart
I was sitting in Mike’s mall an saw alot of young,nice looking,well dressed thai girls trying to talk up the US navy service guys.These girl’s had marraige on theire minds.Most young Navy guy’s don’t feel that comfortable about going an paying Hookers anymore,not like the old Subic Bay day’s.Really a contrast to seeing old,skin-head tattooed or pony-taled ex-pats ruinning around crying about high price’s.
View all comments by trapperjohn
Just got word tonight that 3 Navy ships have arrived and four more will make port within 1-3 days. In total, Pattaya will be seeing in excess of 4,000 miliatry personnel. Bar owners rejoice. Soi 6, get ready.
View all comments by The Ghost
@ Ghost…thanks for the writeup! Looking forward to seeing more.
@ smitty reply #1. Re: Interest rates. You got that right!
View all comments by The Asian Badger
Thanks for the write up it is very interesting to read i have been to pattaya about 10 times and have noticed how things have changed with the girls and the bar fines girls would rather do short time then long time to make more money also can you tell me about the new bar at the pier as i am going back to patts in november and would like to check it out
View all comments by Blossom1956
When do those ships leave? Its enough with the the Euro Trash there but with Navy boys as well.. Not to mention last time I saw a lot of “Families” with children in hand on Walking Street thinking it was the new Disneyland.
I met some good guys out there last time, funny Spaniards, some Aussies that were pretty crazy, but there were also some bottom feeders that Pattaya attracts.
Ghost thanks for your views and writings, good to have someone on the ground there. I wish pete best of luck.
GL
View all comments by GoodLife
‘Ex-pats will grumble the Navy is taking all their girls, but based on what I see, the girls aren’t much interested in them anyway, and vice versa. Otherwise, the bars would be a lot busier’
Is the American Navy all gay?
Good read Ghost, but I don’t get to Pattaya really, the wife doesn’t like it! But a good read anyhow.
View all comments by AUK
AUK: When I was in Pattaya a couple of weeks ago, there were still a few US Naval guys in Pattaya left over from Cobra Gold. The girls were VERY interested in these guys. After all, they meet many of the girls’ criteria for an ideal customer:
Young, hot, and out for a good time; inexperienced with Thai working ladies (they can fall in love easily and believe what they are told); some spend money like newbie tourists, and usually go ST with ladies because they have midnight curfews.
It’s more likely some servicemen are not interested in the ladies because their officers convince them they will get drugged, robbed, and infected by the working ladies.
View all comments by dj
Boys, boys, boys…. you’ve misplaced your modifier.
EXPATS will complain ….. but from what I see the girls aren’t much interseted in THEM…
Girls aren’t interested in the sexpats. But I could see how the sentence could have been read the other way. Sorry!
Oh, and the Navy boys leave around the 20th.
View all comments by The Ghost