Crackdowns come and crackdowns go. But this week’s move by city officials to shut down afternoon bars on Soi 6 and elsewhere - whether it sticks or not — has served Pattaya whoremongers perhaps their most sobering notice yet that the city’s days as a huge, sprawling open-air sex market are truly numbered.
Following a recent wave of bad publicity overseas, Banglamung district officials swept through sois 6, 7 and 8 Tuesday serving notice to bar owners that, under their entertainment licenses, they could not open before 6 p.m. and stay open later than 2 a.m. Letters informed them that, from that point on, police would strictly enforce the licenses and with violators facing fines of 50,000 baht and 30-day closures.
Unlike previous daytime crackdowns, this one was still being enforced through the weekend with police rolling down Soi 6 several times a day. A few bars quietly opened with girls remaining inside, but many were shut tight.
“I hope this is just temporary, but if it’s not, it is tragic,” wrote “Alex the Hedonist” on the Pattaya Addicts message board this week. “I hope it’s not a trend towards turning Pattaya into just another beach retreat. Though most on the board feel Pattaya is a shithole, you can see from the money being invested there over the last few years that lots of folks feel it has potential for more than sex hedonism. Given its proximity to Bangkok, I could very easily see it turning into that over a period of time.”
The End of the Line Nears
Pattaya officials obviously think so too. And they’ve invested far too much in infrastructure, marketing and real estate development to see they type of publicity the city received this past week continue.
Since the start of the month international media has a field day with stories of two separate incidents in which tourists were beaten outside bars on Walking Street as well as the airing of a Belgian TV series with fictitious, but scandalous nonetheless, depictions of prostitution in Pattaya. But the final straw, according to city officials, was the airing of an undisclosed overseas news report showing bargirls and ladyboys exposing themselves in public on Soi 6.
“It’s out of control,” a bar owner who attended the City Hall meeting quoted a Pattaya official as saying. The crackdown was also prompted by numerous complaints from tourists, Soi 6 residents and business owners about noise, bar staff accosting people walking down the street and blocking traffic. Similar complaints were also received about sois 7 and 8.
“Sometimes I go down Soi 6 and I do cringe at ladyboys or bargirls accosting people in tour parties who are clearly going to the beach,” former Windmill Club manager Phil wrote in a comment on The Pattaya Ghost blog this week.
“I have been semi-resident in Pattaya for a good few years now and one of the major changes I have noted has been the growing lack of restraint in publicizing Pattaya’s ‘special attractions,’ agreed fellow commenter “TomTom69.” ”The old adage that, “what the eye doesn’t see the heart doesn’t grieve over” always seems to me appropriate; i.e. discretion avoids complaint.
“I was last in Soi 6 about a month ago and I did feel that the whole scene was unnecessarily blatant; the sort of thing that must be of great delight to moralistic foreign film crews.”
And of growing embarrassment to Pattaya’s Thai population.
Re-Invention In Progress
In a remarkably timed piece published Saturday, the U.K’s Financial Times wrote that Pattaya is trying to “re-invent” itself. Infamous worldwide as “the sprawling, snarling, raucous sex capital of Thailand,” Pattaya, the paper also notes, is also the country’s top real estate market.
In the 1970s it was still noticeably a fishing village… , albeit one with numerous outdoor shanty bars filled with farm girls and rackety no-star hotels, pandering to US soldiers on breaks from their tours of duty in Vietnam. When mass market tourism discovered Thailand in the 1980s, Pattaya certainly got bigger but it is debatable if it got much better.
The wider dirt roads have finally been paved and an increasing number of glittering residential towers and plush hotels fills the coastline. There are international schools, excellent hospitals, foreign supermarkets, new shopping malls and 10 good golf courses nearby. And yet the place seems unable (or unwilling) to shrink the sleaze.
Some people, including Hong Kong Chinese on shopping and eating tours, treat the pulsating fiestas of earthy temptation as an exotic backdrop. Others are not as amused but seem to think that Pattaya can change.
The push for change is being steered by newly elected Mayor Itthipol Khunpluem, who campaigned on promises to make Pattaya attract both private and government capital to Pattaya to develop it into a truly world-class resort. Tied to a political family with deep roots in the city’s naughty nightlife industry, Itthipol spoke little of bars and nightlife during his campaign, but, shortly after taking office, started taking making bold moves that have left many bar owners feeling a bit betrayed.
His first move was to clamp down on beer bars sprouting up in residential East Pattaya. In June police raided and closed more than a half-dozen bars on Pattaya’s “Darkside” for operating past 1 a.m., including some Thai-owned watering holes. Nightlife on the east side of Sukhumveit is now noticeably quieter than before the raids.
Daytime bars on Soi 6, 7 and 8 became the next easy targets after the two television broadcasts. Pattaya Deputy Mayor Wattana Juntanawaranon told reporters last week that he wanted to see bars hit with stricter rules so that girls would dress less provocatively or actively solicit customers on the street. Bars violating that would see fines and closures.
Typical Reaction
The Soi 6 crackdown started four days after those comments were made. And when it did, the howls of anguish were heard across the Kokosphere.
“I’ve got a tear in my eye thinking that the demise of Soi 6 is happening, i pray that it gets back to normal ASAP,” wrote “Porndog” on the Addicts board.
“I think I might cry too! I cannot even believe those photos!,” fellow poster “SoCo MoFo” wrote in response to pictures of the quiet soi.
“I won’t be in Pattaya for another 5 weeks and even I’m freaking out,” wrote Addicts board member “Millard.” “I first read of the bad news this the morning. Subsequently, probably about 5-6 times throughout the day, I wondered what am I going to do during the day if soi 6 will be closed!”
“Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see why government officials want to clean up Pattaya. I mean, sex sells! So let them sell it!” added Pattaya Addict “El Jesus.”
Of course, the hardcore old-times quickly chimed in with the usual skepticism.
“Stop panicking. Take it from someone who has been visiting Pattaya for close on 30 years. This shit happens all the time,” wrote “Muffaslut.” Pattaya simply doesn’t exist without the sex industry and the powers that be are acutely aware of this. Who reading this would visit Pattaya if there was no sex? No one. Pattaya without sex would be like Blackpool in winter.”
“Who in their right mind would go to Pattaya for a family holiday when there are so many other beautiful places to visit in Thailand,” agreed poster “HDELUX. “I mean it is not even a beach. It is more like a pool of warn, dirty, almost-stagnant water. Without P4P Pattaya will die as another town will simply take over the P4P scene.”
But would it really? Pattaya mongers moan, bitch, whine and wistfully talk of the “good ol’ days” when Pattaya was “their town.” But they seem to forget that even ten years ago Pattaya was a cesspool. Untreated sewage covered the beach, only a small handful of hotels ranked even three stars, good food was a rarity and transportation - both to Pattaya and inside it - was a nightmare. And the sexpats enjoying new high-rise condos forget that, long ago, they were in one-room hovels on Soi Buakhao.
Pattaya Can’t Live on Mongers Alone
Pattaya’s players love to pine for the “old days” but few would be willing to give up the lodgings, restaurants, condominium towers, shopping, infrastructure or other amenities they enjoy now. And those were put in place not for the whoremongers, but for “quality tourists” and moneyed residents.
If it’s not already, “proper” Pattaya is ready to kiss the sex tourists goodbye.
“Mention Pattaya and people’s eyes roll; fixed perceptions are hard to shake,” Nigel Cornick, chief executive of Raimon Land, said in the Financial Times article. “But “within the next 20 years we could see no gap between Bangkok airport and Pattaya. It could become like Los Angeles - one urban sprawl all the way down to the beach”.
And, as it does, Cornick believes he thinks the sex industry will shrivel. “Land values will rise until [the businesses] are no longer viable.”
A first wave of condominium and house building in Pattaya, aimed at Thais seeking a weekend getaway from booming Bangkok, ended with the 1997 crash. But the second wave - driven by foreign demand - got going about five years ago. “Property buyers often start as tourists. People come and like what they see,” says James Pitchon of estate agency CB Richard Ellis.
The number of visitors to Pattaya has been rising by 500,000 a year for the past five years to 6.8m in 2007, thanks in part to the expansion of low-cost Asian airlines. Catering for all these potential buyers are more than 100 real estate agents and developers. There were 2,268 new condominiums brought to market at an average price of almost Bt90,000 (£1,500) per sq meter last year, up from only 465 at an average price of Bt60,000 (£1,000) per sq meter in 2002, according to Raimon Land’s research department.
Thais based elsewhere do see potential in Pattaya. “It’s got energy,” says Jan Jirapakorn, a designer who bought a mid-size condo a year ago. “It’s got to reinvent itself and where else is so close to Bangkok that’s not boring?”
For now, the focus is on Soi 6. By this time next week, the “Afternoon Delight” tour may again be rolling up and down Soi Yodsak. But not even all the old pros are willing to be on it.
“I know this will seriously mess up a few businesses on Soi 6,” says Baby Dolls go-go co-owner Lee. “I would not be surprised if some bars close for good if this keeps up for a long time.”
wow !
imagine if u owned one of those soi 6 bars ?
View all comments by jack dawson
My prediction is that with the current global economic climate and the endemic Thai political instability, Pattaya be become more & more of a ghost town… Non pun intended… When or if they finally kill the P4P industry, they’ll all stand around scratching their collective arses wondering what to do next… TiT… You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear…
BTW, what’s up with posting direct quotes and naming BM’s from Thai forums???
View all comments by Savoy Brown
I heard soi6 referred to as ’soi yodsak’ a few times before - but what the fuck does yodsak mean in thai?
View all comments by Young Penfold
jd - sorry. Csn’t imagine it. but thanks
SB - correct. but along the way they will pay some australian consultant hordes of money to figure out what happened.
yp - it means, cause I am the leading Thai language expert on a Sunday afternoon - Spy served cold and bubbly here.
View all comments by sideshowBOB
Ah ah the Ghost! Now talk about deceptive titles (re my last post)!
They shut down a few bars in soi 6 (which is a part of Pattaya most visitors skip) and only in the afternoon (only retired mongers start at 2pm on weekdays, no?) and you call it the end of Sin City!!!
In my opinion we’re not there yet and far from it. But, hey, “Business as usual in Pattaya” is not a selling title, is it?
View all comments by SukPsycho
I don’t really see this as sensationalist title.
People never like to talk about the subject of the sex locations shrinking. They did in Bkk - is there some law to say they won’t in Pattaya?
U think those big developers spending millions on the supermalls would love to see soi 6 go? They would.
I think what Ghost is saying rings true. If they are going to move to shut down or shrink soi 6 then they, the so called powers that be, are saying they are trying to tone down the sex biz. If true then they are saying they want less mongers.
This was bound to happen at one point and the bar owners and managers letting the place look they way it does for sure did not help this situation.
Sure it could blow over and this was just a small blip but remember soi 10 in bkk, asoke corner and so on. Over time the country will shrink the areas or try to consolidate them. The behavior of the punters and bargirls only helps to make this reality.
time will tell…
View all comments by sideshowBOB
This is long overdue. Sex for sale is great and is a traditional feature of Thailand and always will be, but over the years it has simply grown too obvious and unsubtle for any normal society to really stomach.
Remember, this entire sex industry catering to foreigners only really sprang up in the past three decades or so, and while it comes from deep roots in traditional Thai society and has simply been adapted to the foreign market, Thais are beginning to see that the adaptation hasn’t really been done as well as it might have been.
As someone who avidly partakes in the industry, I must admit I find the sheer blatancy, ubiquity, and in your face brazenness of the sex scene in Thailand just, well, too much. Sometimes it’s even disgusting. Whoring is great and I don’t know what I’d do without it, but good God, it doesn’t need to be this crass and obvious. EVERY Asian society is as addicted to whoring as much as Thailand, some even more so (China), but NONE have the profile that Thailand does, because only Thailand has gone about it in so vulgar, crude, and open a way. I mean, Sukhumvit, the main artery of Bangkok, becomes an open air brothel by 8 PM - this is just too much!
I HOPE the Thais finally wake up and inject a little bit of class into their country - not eliminate or even reduce the whore scene, but make it less visible, and in its more obvious forms more segregated, like it is in other Asian countries.
And maybe then Thailand also will attract less of the less savory type of farang as well, who wash up on these shores in such numbers. In any event this whole scene kind of sprang up in an unplanned way, adapted from traditional Thai culture, and while the economy was growing it was left to develop on its own with no oversight. It developed into a monster. Maybe now that the country is a bit richer it can, without eliminating the industry, organize it in a slightly classier way. Thailand has a TERRIBLE reputation in the West, and it can get a better rep whithout losing the whores.
View all comments by Brandon Gerworthy
it’s funny hearing all these old pattaya mongers bemoan the inevitable. time after time they claim that pattaya - and thailand - cannot possibly exist without the sex tourist industry, but the truth is that when you take something away, something else will move in to take its place. that’s what growth and development is - and thailand sure as hell needs to move on.
View all comments by bongo
bg - I think spot on.
b - agreed but to think that the Thais will naturally come up with something to aid tourism in the event that less mongers come is like assuming the sidewalks in Sukhumvit can self-level. Please.
If they wanted to do this right they would have long ago pushed back opening hours of clubs and venues to allow the normal market to fill in and squash seedy after hours. Thus offering proper club goers or just holidaymakers safe late night options. Similar to Singapore.
So I think Thailand would have to plan this a little better rather than just shut something down in hopes something else might happen to pop up.
View all comments by sideshowBOB
hmm.. yea it does seem rather wishful thinking. it’s just sad to see thailand get left behind.
View all comments by bongo
b - very wishful. look at the history. a minister of IT who rarely uses email. there goes the tech biz. let’s face it. Its rice, tourism and a fledgling car industry. the PAD will put down the tourism biz this year. I guess rice is still in demand.
View all comments by sideshowBOB
Speaking of kissing sex tourists goodbye, ciao until next year, City of Angels.
Bloggers & posters, see you in the kokosphere.
-F
View all comments by fender
I gotta say a roll down soi6 in the daytime, is the only REAL drawing point for me to go pattaya (apart from hunting down ladyboys fresh outta prison)
The only thing the patts has over the bangers for me is way more ‘daytime’ whoring/drinking, if that was gone, i wouldnt see the point going there. Because lets face it the beach is a fucking shithole
If anyone knows any bars in patts that serve ice-cold spy, please let me know
View all comments by Young Penfold
Soi 6.
Is there a sleazier street in the entire world.
What are the Bar Owners thinking?
If I owned a Bar, I would get rid of the ladyboys, the agressive, the ugly girls, dress them up Thai Style and make them be polite/respectful.
So what is the crackdown going to do?
(1) Line the pockets of the Police.
(2)Put hundreds of girls on the street/ along the beach.
View all comments by Kilgore Trout
@ YP: that’s what I said, soi 6 is for retired. Whatever how old they are
@ ssB: I read on The Ghost blog that roughly 600 000 people (1/3 of the whole Pattaya district) are involved in the sex industry. I don’t think they will get rid of it overnight…
View all comments by SukPsycho
As someone who regularly fails to get laid on evening crawls around Sin City (you try getting it up after 11 hours of solid drinking including 12 vodkas/gins at the Happy Agogo and New Living Dolls 1 happy hours), Soi 6 is my reliable fallback position on sobering up.
It worked again last week at the Ruby Club with a cute spinner in a nice mirrored room with a tiger-skin settee. 300 for the room and 700 for the girl. You can’t beat that for value.
Soi 6 must be preserved in all its sleaziness.
View all comments by On Nutter
Look what has happened in the past,when the Communist’s took over China in 1945,Vietnam in 1975 an Cambodia,in the Phillipines when the Navy left Subic bay an Clark airforce base in the 90’s, they all had a thriving sex industry,for up to 20 years,sex tourist’s could not travel there, now there all opened up again,hell you can even go to Cuba too.This B.S. in Pattaya will come to pass also.
View all comments by trapperjohn
Friends,
This crackdown on p4p-venues is going on not only in Thailand but in many more countries in the word nowadays. It seems something is in the air, I don’t know what. In Kathmandu they shut down almost all bars where nude dancing was going on. In Mumbai some fucking minister shut down all dance-bars, leaving 75000 jobless. In Singapore more and more massage-centres are raided. In Netherlands they closed a few redlight-districts and number of massage-parlours is getting less and less. Most states in the USA always had a hypocrite and sucking attitude towards p4p-seekers and now they are getting stricter and stricter.
View all comments by Ato
Ato, in the Netherlands something totallt else is going on. In Amsterdam the redlights are situated in the oldest part of town, there are talks about getting rid of some of the redlight to restore the old atmosphere in these part, making it a proper neighbourhood again. So far, these have only been talks. Nothing has been shut down!
Me personally, as an Amsterdam-citizen, I’m all for getting rid of the infamous redlights. It is sleazy, attracts ‘the wrong type of tourists’ (rather the young drunks than the mongers) and it would be nice to have this old part of town restored.
The redlights in Amsterdam can not be compared by what I have seen in Thailand (never been to Patts, I’m familiar with BKK & Phuket), Amsterdam lacks ‘Sanuk’.
View all comments by Paraquat
Though i usually hunker down behind my computer in the Duke most nights, I headed to pattaya for the first time in a couple of years this weekend and the nightlife seems unchanged (as does the city, although it seems to be trying to get a bit more gentrified).
Club Insomnia - the best after hours club I’ve been to in the country. decent music and prices on booze, but most importantly lots of Bangkok girls camping out in groups with a bottle and looking for fun with farangs. Some real beauties, not only by Pattaya standards but bangkok ones as well (e.g., a group of exceptional talent from the Pent came down for the weekend to let loose).
Made it to a few gogos, but nothing really spectacular. I heard good things about Coyotes, however, it was a huge disappointment (poor layout, too bright, and average girls).
Smitty, we stayed at Ma Maison (I think you or someone else recommended this place a while back). Great pool, strong Wifi connection, and all around good value for the Baht.
View all comments by generous sponsor
Frankly, even without the sleaze Pattaya will be congested, polluted and lacking in charm. What exactly will it have to sell if not sex?
View all comments by Combover
gs - good stuff. insomnia rocks. good hotel choice
View all comments by sideshowBOB
Where is Insomnia in BKK?
I only know “our” Insomnia in SGP.
View all comments by Ato
@ Paraquat:
so it’s better to get rid of the rld in your hometown? But then, where will you go when you wanna have fun? You can’t always head for BKK.
About Amsterdam, you’re right: it lacks much, very much. It is cold, it’s a hostile environment and it lacks the atmosphere of SE-Asia.
Yet, there are some stunning east-european girls (who rip you off).
View all comments by Ato
Ato - Insomnia is off soi 16 off walking street close to 2nd road by marine 2..
I’ll have to check it out next time, i do not remember many hotties being there… but things change so much..
View all comments by GoodLife
Ato, I don’t really participate in the Amsterdam P4P-scene for the reasons stated, and there are nicer girls who you can pick up for free….but there are hardly any Thai girls!
View all comments by paraquat
Goodlife - maybe I went on an exceptional night, as I’ve heard that Insomnia wasn’t much to write home about. On Saturday though it felt like being at RCA with all the tall, light-skinned beauties bouncing around.
View all comments by generous sponsor
I think you got Insomnia on a night when bars were closed in BKK and some hotties came down for the weekend.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Insomnia. It’s wall to wall women. But most are the Pattaya gogo girls who didn’t get a BF, the Pattaya gogo girls who did get a barfine and take them there to get their 50-baht per-drink kickback from the management and freelancers.
Most are the regular Pattaya Isaan girls. Some hot. Many so-so. Most times Im too blind drunk by 3 a.m. to care. I’ll take whoever winds me up first.
View all comments by Pattaya Ghost