Pattaya Nightlife News and Reviews

Rocket A-GoGo upstairs on Soi Diamond seems to have taken a change of direction. The previous manager Kuhn Artit has moved on to Gamebird 2 on Soi 15. The bar has now become a bells and whistles show targeting Asians and East European couples.

The welcome staff signs for cheap drinks have vanished so presumably the drinks prices have inflated somewhat.

The news seems to be a reprise of what happened at Highway Star in the Pier Complex. Didn't turn out very well there, as the bar soon closed.

Utopia A-GoGo has gone dark. The Soho Square location doesn't seem to be catching on. The corner on Walking Street is easily the pick of the bunch though.

Early reports are that the bar has been sold. Hopefully it will return in a similar format as it was one of my favourites.

There are reports of Utopia girls being spotted in the nearby Black & White (X Zone 2)

Pattaya is now down to 76 bars featuring dancing girls in bikinis or less.

A new hostess bar opened on 25th March 2009. It is called Stork Club and is located where Freeway was on the Pattaya side of the hill

It is from the people that brought you the popular Kinnaree Palace on the Jomtien side of Pratamnak Hill.

It seems that the mode of operation is for the girls to work afternoons at Kinnaree and then to move across to Stork Club for the evening. Operations may be eventually rationalised into Stork Club as Kinnaree is said to be up for sale.

Club Oasis is located on Soi Buakhao near the junction with Soi Diana

The bar is very well located offering an aircon oasis when strolling around Sois Buakhao, LK Metro, Diana and, Leng Kee and Chayphun.

It is quite an attractive bar with a central stage for a dozen dancers and 3 other table dancing stages.

The girls are split into two dancing teams each taking aturn on stage for about 5 songs. The girls dance in bikinis or topless with a few taking off their knickers for the final song of their set. There are usually a few pretty girls amongst the dancers.

It is a bar that targets Pattaya regulars and at first glance all seems well organised. But somehow I seem to get irritated by minor grievances on every visit. There are two levels of lady drink and the most expensive usually appears without asking. The prettier girls seem to like to hunt for the lady drinks just a few minutes before it is their turn to dance. And girls at your side are likely to be whisked away by the mamasang to other presumably more profit making customers. Small change is often assumed to be a tip.

But saying that it seems to be a very popular bar, often being full or there abouts.

Silver Star is located on Soi 8 towards the Beach Road end.

The bar has been around for a fair time and must be doing something right.

Perhaps the secret is having a fair team of above average girls. Probably the number one asset for any gogo.

From there it goes downhill a bit. There were 8 girls dancing in bikinis or topless on the central stage. At the end of a track they would all shuffle around one place so the dance stint must be 8 songs. A bit of a long wait if you are enjoying a girl's company.

Doesn't seem to be much of a problem to me though, as the girls ignore me, as they do most of the customers in the bar.

The bar is also into the silly tip seeking move of sellotaping small coins into 5 baht stacks. As a matter of principle I take the coins and later donate them to a more deserving cause.

I have walked past many times and it is half tempting to have a look just because the bar is so well presented. It is also half tempting to have a look because there are always a few attractive girls milling round the entrance.

The coyote dancers are split in two teams, one teams dances whilst the other has a break.

The other attraction is that for the a 'stylish' bar, the drinks prices are very reasonable.

When it comes to entertainment, you really have to bring your own. There were several clusters of people enjoying a chat amongst themselves but there is not much entertainment on offer for the single visitors.

The girls dance no more energetically than a decent gogo and of course are well overdressed to boot.

The girls didn't seem at all interested in any hostessing or chatting to customers (save for a Japanese guy who popped in).

It seems pretty much the same for all coyote bars. They attract the girls who don't really want to do the naughty stuff like in the gogos. The coyote bars generally pay well for the dancing talent and so the girls are therefore happy enough without needing to put out for tips and the like.

Ice is located on Soi LK Metro

Ice seems to have given up its gogo experiment and returned to coyote dancing. They have opened up the front doors so that passers by can at least see the dancing on the central stage.

So the GoGo count drops to 77 bars around Pattaya that have girls dancing in bikinis or less.

Diamond A-GoGo is located at the centre of Soi Diamond.

Suddenly Diamond was back to where it was a few years ago.

The bar was three quarters full, there were show girls on stage that were capturing the attention of the audience and the music was too loud.

Good to see that the import of a team of dancers from Bangkok seems to have sparked a revival.

I'm not sure if it is like this everyday but I think I may have stumbled in during a dance contest.

Things look hopeful for the bar as there were plenty of attractive girls around and the beer was still the same cheap price as before.

It made a good change to leave after one drink on the grounds that the bar was too full. I usually leave after one drink because the bar was too empty.

Update: No Barfine Bangkok Girls

24th March 2009. From Pattaya Secrets

I could not believe the level of talent on stage.

It turns out they have more Bangkok girls down for 10 days. I was told they get paid 1200 baht per night and is only here for 10 nights. She gets 50 baht per lady drink but has to achieve at least 10 per night or her money is cut by 50 baht for each.

Bar fine for the Bangkok visiting girls is set at a suitably discouraging 3500 with the likelihood of a fee for the girl to match.

It also seems that the girls aren't from the farang P4P scene. Some wont go with customers, some will, some are basically party girls, some may well be used to being in high class Thai places where they charge 3000k ST.

Club Mirage is a GoGo on the Pratamnak end of Soi Diamond.

The bar has been making some good improvements of late and I can report that customers are now very well looked after. Plenty of promotions and cheap drinks have been put in place but most importantly, the girls have been put on the case of ensuring that customers enjoy their visit.

There are enough girls in the bar to make for a lively atmosphere but the bar layout seems to make it a little inefficient. There's a naked dancing Jacuzzi affair but it doesn't command much line of sight from the main bar area. Also the seats around the main stage have poor access and if they were full would require shuffling past other customers.

Still as long as there are enough seats for me, then I am sure I will be made happy.

Silver Star 3 is a gogo on Walking Street near Beach Road.

The bar has now extended with a new section of the bar at the front nearest Walking Street. Several table dancing stages have been added.

Perhaps a little bit early to judge, but it seemed a very lonely entertainment area. There were dancers for each table but there were no spare girls available for chatting with customers. As other customers are continually passing through to the main area of the bar it felt a little bit like sitting in a lonely corridor and missing out on more interesting entertainment inside.

Certainly not worth the expensive 95 Baht for a draft beer. But no doubt things will change, they'll have to.

There is another attempt to get something going in the gogo located at the back corner of Soho Square.

The new K A-GoGo has taken over from Counter and has added a couple of extra welcome staff such that a bit of trade is drawn in from Soi 16 as well as from Walking Street.

The bar has added some bench seating too which is always a good idea, hopefully it is just a temporary problem that it is too high and your feet don't rest on the floor.

The bar now has quite a large team of girls apparently migrating from X-Zone. Several of them were attractive too. The bar has organised it self into two dancing shifts. Which meant about half a dozen dancers on the central stage and a couple on the soft mat play stage.

At this point it all sounds quite promising apart from one minor operational flaw. When the girls finish their dance stint they all reach for a wrap and go and sit outside. Not a single girl stayed inside to try and entertain the customers. Presumably the mamasang last worked in a Thai karaoke bar or something where the girls sit outside when not hostessing.

It was a good job the serving girls were making an attempt to entertain the 3 or 4 customers or else there would have been very quickly 1 or 2 customers.

Bottled beer is still a reasonable 80 Baht.

Champagne A-GoGo is located on Soi LK Metro just off Soi Diana

This is gogo that maybe best reviewed by somebody else. I consistently find nothing to keep me amused whilst noting that the bar seems to be quite popular.

I guess the difference is that I like to chat and play with the girls whereas the majority of customers are content to watch.

There are several options for watching, there are overdressed coyote dancers on the side tables and there are a fair few dancers on the main stage generally topless or bikini clad. Perhaps about average as dancing teams go, but that always means there are a few that pass muster. They dance more songs than is comfortable to wait for you (should you be lucky enough to get a girl in the first place)

There are also a couple of show stages that are a little more worth watching.

Thinking about it, for me there really is just one problem with the bar, there are too many girls set to dancing and not enough making an effort for lady drinks and bar fines.

Legs Club on Soi Pattayaland 2 has been reduced down to half size. A wall has been constructed such that Legs Club is now a narrow single unit bar with a side stage.

It is now similar in layout to the unsuccessful Popcorn just down the soi. There is stool seating facing the stage abd a little comfortable seating at the front and back of the bar that does not offer a particularly good view of the stage.

For the moment most other things in the bar are the same as before with about 10 dancers of which 2 or 3 are very attractive. They now just dance for 3 songs which is good.

I hope the bar can maintain momentum. It is notoriously hard to make a small gogo work. It is difficult to maintain a good balance between girls and customers.

Counter Soho was located in the corner of Soho Square furthest from Walking Street.

It had only been open a month and it has now been replaced by K A-GoGo. It is said to have started up with a team of girls from X-Zone.

No change to the gogo count standing at 78 bars with girls dancing in bikinis or less.

Popcorn A-GoGo on Soi Pattayaland 2 has gone dark and is bearing a for sale sign.

The latest incarnation had only lasted since February.

There are now 78 bars in Pattaya featuring girls dancing in bikinis or less.

Citing a lack of facilities in Phuket, the government has chosen Pattaya as the venue for two meetings for Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) leaders and their dialogue partners next month, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Kasit Piromya.

Thailand earlier said that it had planned to host the Asean+3 and Asean+6 in Phuket, but Mr Kasit said the dates for the meeting, April 10-12, coincided with the annual Songkran water festival and hotels were filled with holidaymakers.

After twice surveying Phuket and visiting Pattaya once, the Foreign Ministry planning team concluded that the eastern seaboard resort was a better place in terms of hotel room availability and meeting venues.

The Pattaya Exhibition and Convention Hall, part of the Royal Cliff Beach Resort, was chosen as the venue for both Asean+3 (China, South Korea and Japan) and Asean+6 (China, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and India), he said.

The Public Health Ministry has issued two options for alcohol consumption during the Songkran Festival from April 12 to 14.

Deputy public health minister Manit Nopamornbodi said the ministerial executives had come up with two ideas:

• ban all sale of alcohol during the entire period
• ban sale at stores but allow restaurants, pubs and hotels with an Excise Department permit to serve booze from 6pm to midnight.

The ministry will soon submit a report to the National Committee for Alcohol Consumption Control Policy for a final say, he added.

Disease Control Department chief Somchai Chakrabhand said the ministry came up with these options after listening to all sides, including anti-alcohol groups, academics, manufacturers and business operators. The idea was to control the impact of drinking rather than prohibit it altogether, he said, though allowing booze to be sold at convenience stores or supermarkets will only encourage drunk driving, he added.

Sexy A-GoGo is loacted on Soi 7 near 2nd Road

The bar seems to be in a bit of decline at the moment and there were just 4 dancing girls on my last visit. The mamasang explained that it was a temporary shortage when some girls went home after their pay day.

On previous visits the bar has usually had at least a  couple of attractive girls and it is generally a friendly and pleasant bar.

However gogos need enough girls to have capacity to look after customers that drop by, or else they are unlikely to drop by again. 

Tiger A-GoGo is located upstairs on Soi Diamond with stairs up from Walking Street.

Tiger A-GoGo has now been extended so that the open space between the bar and the stairs has been incorporated into the bar. It somehow makes for neater and more enticing entrance.

No doubt it will have to change soon but the extended operation is a disaster.

About half a dozen new table dancing positions have been created in the new front section of the bar. The bar seemed to have just added these new positions into the dance rotation such that the girls now have to dance 8 songs. Way too long for the girl, and way too long for any customer waiting for their return.

In fact 13 girls were dancing out of the 19 names on the white board. Too much dancing and not enough taking care of the customers.

If you do try the bar it is best to sit in the back section. The girls start their long stint in the front section and tend to congregate there just when they are about to start on their dance marathon. Better to watch from the back section to catch them as they are finishing their dancing.

World wide is located on Beach Road between Soi 7 and Soi 8

Since my last visit the bar seems to have lost the very pretty showgirls. But such ebbs and flows are the nature of the business. However the bar still has a fair few girls and seems to be doing a steady trade.

There are usually 8 girls dancing for 4 songs. They have a wave of topless girls and then a wave of bikini clad girls. When the topless girls are taking their turn, the door minders are carefully vigilant.

The girls are average but that means there are a few attractive choices.

When I first used to frequent the bar a few years ago, both the dancers and waitresses would hustle for a drink. But nowadays no hassle to the point of loneliness is the likely fate for customers. The girls seem to prefer their own company in a couple of reserved seating bays at the front of the bar.

Beer is well cheap at 50 Baht for a draft and 60 Baht for some bottled beers.

I visited the bar at a prime time of about 11pm. The bar was enjoying a sizeable crowd who seemed to be enjoying the shows.

The format was for a few show numbers on the central stage, and then a few numbers of when all the gogo dancers would take the stage. The stints were not too long which is always good in my opinion.

I have a feeling that the bar doesn't really target hardened Pattaya gogo fans though. The shows are choreographed but not outrageously sexy. In the few numbers I saw the girls were a bit shy and kept their knickers on throughout. Good looking girls, but their reputation of being not so keen to go with customers diminishes the attraction somewhat.

The gogo dancers were average (which of course is pretty good in Walking Street). Again they were a bit shy, with only a couple of the dozen on stage, taking their tops off.

The bar seemed to excel in meeting and greeting, lots of happy long lost friends seem to be re-uniting with girls and staff from previous visits. My service girl was well friendly too.

I can't say I was impressed by the dancing girls hunting lady drinks in twos though. It always telegraphs to me a money grabbing attitude rather than the desire for a one to one hook up.

I would suggest that this is one of the better bars in Pattaya for farang couples. They can enjoy the friendly reception along with the cabaret style show without it being too outrageous.

As a rather hardened pleasure seeker though, I found the entertainment to be marginally sexy, and the drinks prices way too expensive at 135 Baht for a bottled beer.

Super Girl is located on Soi Diamond

The bar is sticking with a well tried and tested policy of very good looking girls and a pick a number and go selection method.

Maybe even the prettiest line up in town at the moment. Strange that it doesn't really attract so many farangs as Happy and Peppermint and several others. Well not so strange really, as perhaps the way the bar works is more targetted towards Japanese and Korean visitors. There is nothing exclusive about this bar though, all visitors are welcomed here. Maybe something to bear in mind for anyone thinking that Pattaya gogos are all members only.

Anyway there are usually about a dozen girls dancing on the central stage with another couple at small podiums next to the main stage. The dress code is topless with slightly see through skirts and no knickers. 

There is also a Jacuzzi featuring 3 naked girls but I didn't see anything naughty that you may come to expect from a Pattaya Jacuzzi. Could have been down to a lack of tips though.

The music keeps the girls entranced to the point of being zombiefied when dancing. By all accounts the girls are perfectly friendly if you call them down from the stage. It is just the stage that is a smile free environment.  Saying that I did spot a few more smiles than I remember from previous visits.

The drinks prices are on the high end of the scale but not our of order.

Taboo: X Zone 2 is located in the Covent Garden Complex on Soi 16 just off Walking Street

The bar layout is pretty much the same as used by the previous occupants Taboo. A large centre stage with a couple of small dance stages closer to the seating.

There a couple of new additions in a Jacuzzi and a swimming tank. Both unused during my visit.

The bar had a perfectly good line up of girls for the opening night, perhaps easier than some start ups because the owners are already operating upstairs and can demonstrate having a few customers.

There were probably a dozen girls organised into two alternating teams. The girls were mostly bikini clad but a couple took off their tops suggesting that bikini is the girls preference rather than bar policy.

The seating has comfortable sofas around the outside of the bar and a few stools stage side. I'm not sure the sofas will prove very efficient though, as they are arranged into bays with 4 seats very close together. I guess that a single customer will end up occupying all 4, as a 2nd customer would definitely be invading personal space.

The music is a downer for an oldie like me as it was too loud to allow easy conversation. This hasn't stopped the likes of Casnovy from being popular though.

However the noise also caused a problem for service as the girl inevitably misheard my order. Knowing the usual Pattaya bar reticence for incorrect orders to be righted, unless at the expense of the customer or the service girl, I was a bit on edge. However the problem was happily resolved without hassle.

There was no draft beer available and bottled beer was 120 Baht. I always feel this is way too expensive unless one is assured of more personal entertainment than shuffling gogo dancers. But an old friend I knew from another bar jumped on my lap, so all was well and I enjoyed a few drinks before feeling the need to escape the noise.

Pinky Girl A-GoGo on Walking Street is now shut. The entire building including neighbouring shops has now been gutted.

The bar targeted mostly Asian tourists with its bells and whistles shows.

On the other hand X-Zone 2 is set to open in the old Taboo tonight (5th March). There will be all new girls, and a swimming show. The new bar is located in the Covent Garden Complex on Soi 16 just off Walking Street.

So still 79 bars with girls dancing in bikinis or less.

The Chief of Pattaya's Tourist Police Division organized a an operation on Walking Street in the early hours of Wednesday Morning.

Officers and volunteers were targeting flower sellers, photographers, transsexuals and anyone else acting in a suspicious manner including street vendors offering pictures with exotic animals.

62 people including some children and 4 exotic animals were rounded up. The arrestees were taken to Pattaya Police Station for further processing and it is expected that the Tourist Police will continue the operation over the coming weeks.

Utopia is on Soho Square at the southern end of Walking Street.

A few months ago Utopia received an influx of staff from Windmill Club. Not only did this bring a team of attractive dancers (surely a fleeting commodity in Pattaya) but it also brought some of the good operational from Windmill.

Firstly they adopted they idea of having a soft mattress stage and a Jacuzzi stage as well as the usual dancing girls in the full range of clothing from bikini to none.

Secondly they adopted the two shift system where the dancers and showgirls are divided into teams and they alternate to take their appointed locations for the duration of a 4 song set.

Thirdly they have that ethos where the girls give very personal attention to the comforts and desires of their customers.

The mode of operation works well in Windmill, Baby Dolls and now Utopia. Perhaps Utopia hasn't yet quite attracted the crowds though.

I have always likened Coyotee's and Heaven Above as perhaps more similar to western nightclubs than your typical Pattaya GoGo bars. They seem to cater for the more assertive customers willing to make a play for the girls rather than the norm, where the girls either make the first move, or else are readily available.

Coyotee's has some very attractive dancers on their books. There are show girls, naked dancers and the remainder are somewhat modestly attired gogo girls.

On a recent visit the dancers were supplemented by 'Bangkok Super Models' who are more geared up for professional standard dancing shows. I didn't find them particularly attractive though, they were overdressed in coyote gear with thick tights and heavy make up. Better dancers, but somehow not suited to gogos. Their stage wear feels like over protection compared with the amateur dancing girls who lay it all on the line by dancing in sweet nothing.

A recent reduction in beer prices seems to be coupled with more enthusiasm from the mamasang to enable customers to hook up with a girls of their choice. Perhaps the bar is trying for a wider appeal. I was strangely reluctant to get attached to a girl, just a lingering worry from previous history that somehow this would involve some high maintenance charges.

Maybe I'll stick to a quick visit to watch the 'suay' show girls, but maybe if the moment is right, I could be easily persuaded.

Windmill is located at the centre of Soi Diamond.

From what I have witnessed Windmill is awarded the Naughtiest Bar of the Year. And guess what, customers love it. The bar is always busy, often full and sometimes impossible. I really don't understand why a few more bars don't copy the format.

And yet assuming that I can find myself a seat there always seems someone free to take a bit of personal care.

The drinks prices are reasonable but the barfines are on the expensive side. But it doesn't take a market analyst to understand why. The girls are all busy and presumably earning.

For a small bar, Windmill seems very influential on the rest of Walking Street too. There are no end of girls that I know that are 'trained' at Windmill and move on to other bars. But their good attitude and understanding of customer satisfaction seems to set them up as leading lights in their new bars.

Gentlemen's Club is located on Soi Diamond

The bar seems to be quite popular when I stopped by mid week.

The bar had about a dozen girls split into shifts with about half a dozen on stage. They are still following the pattern of taking off clothes as they work through the short dance roster.

The girls are attractive which obviously goes someway towards  explaining the popularity. I think the short striptease dance pattern is a good idea too.

Unfortunately there weren't really enough girls in the bar to take personal care of all the customers. The lucky few seemed to be having a good time though.

As I felt somewhat neglected on this occasion, I decided to move rapidly on and maybe try again another time. As my tipping tends to reflect how much I enjoyed my stay, I chose not to leave one, 85 Baht is already enough for a draft beer. I got such a sneer from the service girl. Totally unpleasant.