Pattaya Nightlife News and Reviews

The bar often seems to have more custom than I would have predicted from the entertainment on offer.

It is quite a large bar to just rely on basic gogo dancing. There are no shows, Jacuzzis, soft stages or anything of the like.

The girls are generally on the mature side, but this is not a dictate, just the average. There are still a few girls that are easy on the eye.

Of course the very cheap draft beer must help a bit in getting customers through the door. Also a large proportion of the dancers are naked, which helps too.

Although the bar is Thai owned, there is no undue hassle from either the girls or staff.

In fact it is quite a pleasant bar to have a quick drink in. It could be rather a good bar if they could only attract a few more young ladies. (And maybe improve the loo too).

Legs Club A-GoGo opened on Soi Pattayaland 2 on 26th June 2008. The venue was previously home to Misty's A-GoGo. The new management have bucked the trend and decided that the interior is perfectly OK and did not need major renovations.

Actually the staff were familiar, as the bar have recruited dancers, service and mamasang previously working at Baby Dolls.

There were only about 10 girls working on the first night. There were dome pretty faces and about half were dancing topless. Never fair to assess the dancers on the first night though, and there will be an update when the bar has had time to come up to speed.

The drinks prices are comparable to Walking Street prices, but perversely, this is cheap for Pattayaland.

I enjoyed a short visit and even on its rather low key opening, it is already the best gogo on Pattayaland.

The gogo opens for early evening trade at 5:30pm but also closes early at 1am

There are now 74 GoGo bars in Pattaya offering dancing girls in bikinis or less.

Bus Stop Bar & Guesthouse is short time bar located on Soi 6

I have just come back from Pattaya and what a time I had, in fact it was the best holiday I ever had.

Was made very, very, welcome at the Bus Stop bar, in fact I spent most of my time there (woo hoo) I never felt the urge to leave Soi 6 in the night time as it was full of beautiful girls.

I travelled around Pattaya but Bus Stop was the best place and prices were good at Bt500 short time and Bt1000 long time, if you wanna stay there it is only Bt650 per night

Beers were Bt80 and the Aussie owner (Dave) was a great bloke who told me the best places to go in Pattaya and he even showed me them personally (fantastic).

Hope you enjoy as much as I did.

The next incarnation of the old Mistys A-GoGo is being fitted out and will be called Legs Club.

Soi Pattayaland is becoming a little gender confused so the new bar sign emphasises that it will be girls girls girls.

Classroom A-GoGo is located on Pattaya Soi 13/4 (Soi Pattayaland 2).

The bar calls itself a gogo but the Thai-Anxiety definition of a gogo is that there should be dancing girls wearing bikinis or preferably less. This bar no longer qualifies as all the girls wear skirts, knickers, tops and bras. The style is Britney Spears school wear which my provide some recompense for the lack of showing.

The dancers were a little below average. There were about 20 girls in the bar of which 4 or 5 were dancing on stage.

The beer price was way above average at 100 Baht for a glass surely smaller than a bottled beer. Strangely the other drinks prices are not so expensive with most choices being in the 100-120 Baht range. There is a happy hour for afternoon drinkers though until 6pm

There were a fair number of customers in the bar so all can't be too bad. But nobody made much effort to get me to stay very long. I probably had a scowl on my face from the 100 Baht draft beer.

The reclassification means that there are now 73 bars with dancing girls wearing bikinis or less.

Mandarin Club is half gogo and half short time bar. It is located at the Beach Road end of Soi 6

Mandarin Club is suffering a bit at the moment. It is down to just 4 ladies one of whom dances on stage. There was just one decent girl amongst the quartet.

As part of the vicious circle, an unpopular bar struggles to retain many girls and this just makes the bar even more unpopular. nlne

The bar needs to do a re-think. It has an attractive dancing area and the upstairs rooms are very good, just needs to find a way to get more out of its assets.

Silver Star 2 is the Soi 7 offering form the GoGo group of 3

Probably just one of those things, but I have rarely been entertained in this bar. I think I must have offended someone in the past and they still remember to this day.

If there is no-one to chat to then one is left with just the dancing to watch and that is a little below average. There are a fair amount of girls though, so a few will hit the mark.

There is a Jacuzzi water feature but it seemed more for watching than participating.

And if you are not really enjoying yourself the expectation of a tip for the toilet jockey is even more irritating.

Paradise A-GoGo is located towards the southern end of Soi Buakhao

I pop by after shopping at TukCom but haven't yet been persuaded to stay beyond one drink.

The bar is pleasant enough but it struggles to get sufficient momentum to retain any top notch girls. There are some pretty welcome staff though, I don't know if they can be persuaded to accompany customers.

There were 3 dancing girls all dancing topless. But this was causing sufficient concern about the authorities to keep the front door locked to gain a little time if needs be.

The bar is reasonably priced and has farang friendly music levels.

The small Rock Girls A-GoGo on Soi 15 off Walking Street has become Smile Girl's A-GoGo.

It seems a Pattaya tradition to totally re-develop a bar each time it changes hands. Perhaps it is psychologically easier to blame the layout of a bar for its ills rather than the bar management or policies.

Anyway the change over from Rock Girls to Smile Girls breaks the trend and has been implemented in a somewhat minimalist (read cheapest) way possible.

The bar is somewhat aesthetically challenged in both decor and girls. The bar is surely not going to attract any that pop their head around the door for a look see.

I stayed for a drink and sort of watched the 3 or 4 dancing girls, mostly bikini clad but one girl took offer her top.

The girls were making an effort to come and say hello but I was a little ruthless and fended them off somewhat brusquely. At least they kept trying rather than usual assumption that if you reject the first girl then you are not after company.

There were a couple of attractive girls in the bar but as soon I showed the vaguest flicker of interest, the mamasang was over like lightening to hassle to buy the girl a lady drink.

All this did was hassle me out the door.

Club Nevada is located on Soi 13/2 (Soi Post Office)

The bar was closed as I walked past with workers in pulling out old materials. At a quick glance it looked like the bar was being refitted. Hopefully it will be back soon.

Update: Back Open

The bar was closed for 2 days for deep cleaning

Club Oasis is located on Soi Buakhao.

The bar is trying afternoon opening again from 3pm. It has been pretty quiet so far though.

Night March is reporting that Rock Girls A-GoGo in Soi 15 looks set to be the next Pattaya closure.

It is always difficult to run a small gogo and they rarely seem to prosper. Presumably because it is difficult to get the balance of girls right. If there are not many girls, it only takes a few bar fines before the bars dies from a lack of girls. If there are more customers in than than par the bar looks packed, and if there are less than par, it is dead.

So as a bit of a quiz which small gogo, say a dozen girls or less, has made the best of a difficult challenge.

Update: Smile

Thanks to Pattaya Ghost who tells me that the gogo has already been sold and is now open as Smile Girls A-GoGo

Usually the boy bars push out the girl bars, but somebody has decided to try his luck with a girl bar in the well established gay soi of the Jomtien Plaza located nearest the beach.

There were a couple of attractive girls on scouting duty so I popped in. It was clear that a customer was a bit of a novelty for the bar. They were so eager to earn a buck and yet they were so horribly wrong that it proved a dire visit.

First of all they decided that farangs like to ply multiple girls with  drink just to splash their cash. I soon shooed away the oldie of a double team and was left with a newbie girl.

I'd only been sitting for 5 minutes and half a bottle of beer when the waiter came and asked if I wanted another. So he got shooed away too. And before I had another sip, the mamasang came over and suggested short time in the rooms upstairs. So she had to be shooed away too. Limey I had hardly caught my breath.

I stayed one more drink and bought the girl a Spy cooler for 110 Baht. The waiter then made one final error, he rotated around the TV so that I could watch the music videos. My drinking partner became transfixed with the TV and I took it as a cue to depart.

I was told that the owner was Scandinavian. The bar is small and attractively decorated but somehow it didn't seem very practical. There were just a few comfortable seats around coyote dancing stages. But I bet the stages never get used. The bar is also lacking any degree of privacy.

On the way out I spotted the cutie again, and I thought that if it had been she that had followed me in, I may then have appreciated being hassled rapidly upstairs.

The bar seems to have settled down into a rather low key affair. There are plenty of good looking dancers and they keep the stage entertainment brief and to the point with a three song set usually removing excess clothing at each song. Sexy indeed.

The bar seems to have gone awry in terms of hooking the girls up with the customers though.

I concur with a fair few Pattaya forum members that customers are generally left to drink a lonesome beer without any interest from the girls to say hello. There is a theory going around that the girls are picky and just waiting on good looking young guys. But they may have to wait a fair time in Pattaya.

There is a bar gimmick about waiving a 20 baht dollar bill around to get a girls attention, but I have yet to see this work.

In the meantime the connections of the bar will be wondering why the customers aren't showing as much interest in drinking in the bar as they would like. Nothing a bit more of bullying mamasang couldn't sort out.

Noi's Beer Bar is located on Pattaya's Dark Side, ie east of Sukhumvit Road. It is to be found 400n down Soi Khao Noi

The police have closed Noi's for 30 days from 13th June to 12th July. This is for staying open after Thailand's early bedtime policy of midnight closing.

Thankfully the majority of Pattaya's bars are in a designated entertainment zone where late opening is allowed. Horribly unfair on the bars outside the one though.

Update: More Raids

14th June 2008

Number One Bar, Da Bar and Rimco's Bar have also been raided. All had a member of their staff incarcerated, and all are now eagerly awaiting the verdict of the judge.

Update: More Casualties

16th June 2008

Cock Inn seems to be on a 30 day closure along with The Black Bush

The bars seems to be very much a mixed bag. The bar was pretty quiet when I stopped by, but a friendly service girl told me but it was very crowded the night before (Pattaya bars are often crowded yesterday and tomorrow but never today)

The girls were also very mixed in attire. There was one beautifully built girl dancing topless, but most of the others were wearing skirts and blouses, and in many cases, bras too. I am wondering if the large chested girl should be asked to cover up. I have a theory that the others were overdressed because they were put to shame by the beauty,

The drinks prices were quite constrained and the music was forgettable which is better than being loud.

No real reason why the bar shouldn't make for a good visit, but as none of the girls felt like being friendly to me, I didn't stay long. Nearby Soi 6 is way too inviting for this bar to be anything less than great.

The 30 day closure a couple of months ago hit the bar rather hard. Obviously the closure itself hurt but then it was followed by a quiet month whilst the bar gathered back the girls and the customers.

There are now about 15-20 girls in attendance with about 7 dancing at any one time. About half the dancers were topless and the rest bikini clad. The girls were fairly average with a couple of pretty girls. I made a quick exit when approached by a near 50 year old dancer though.

There were a fair few customers but it is not yet quite back to the levels before the closure.

Drinks prices are reasonable and music is fairly restrained. The dance rota of 7 songs is way too long if you are waiting for your girl to 'go dance'. It then becomes a cue to go and have a look at Oasis just around the corner.

It is a fairly relaxed bar, perhaps targeting local residents rather than those on a flying visit.

Pattaya is currently seeing an influx of military visitors as several ships are anchored nearby.

The bar owner and girls will surely appreciate the extra trade at the moment.

Perhaps to acknowledge an otherwise dead zone, some of Pattaya's gogos have improved their happy hours offerings.

Sisterz recently jerked its prices upwards especially by inventing a super stars barfine of 1500 Baht. The bar also tried to re-jig its happy hour into a 2 for 1 deal rather than cheap prices. I can see the idea from the owner's point of view that it keeps people in longer. But from the customers point of view, if the bar is a bit dead is not worth staying in then 2 for 1 simply is no bargain at all.

Anyway, Sisterz have now restored a good happy hour with nearly all drinks at 45 Baht.

Hooty's has also decided to establish a happy hour. Bottled beer is sold at 70 Baht and spirits at 50 Baht. (There's no draft beer at Hooty's so drinking bottled beer during the quiet early hours was previously very poor value indeed)

Time Gentlemen Please! Haven't you got homes to go to!

The dark side of Pattaya to the east of Sukhumvit Road is outside of Pattaya's Entertainment Zone. Thankfully this zone coverts most of the bar areas and are nominally allowed to open until 2am (and at the moment much later)

On Thursday night Noi's bar had been singled out for a police raid but looks like another 3 or 4 bars have also been raided in the last couple of nights for the obscene crime of opening after midnight and it is in force everywhere.

If this police policy continues then it will clobber the evening trade in the area. Anyone wanting to have a beer or two will simply travel a little further into central Pattaya.

Highway Star A-GoGo is upstairs in the Pier Complex at the beginning of Walking Street. It recently tried to re-model itself as a show bar but that hasn't worked.

Highway Star has been dark for the last few days, and I notice that it is up for sale (advert in Pattaya People News). Looks like it has closed.

The girl GoGo count is now down to 74 operating in Pattaya and Jomtien.

Voodoo beer bars were open last night, but not the old gogo is still closed whilst it is being converted to an inside bar.

Other news: Apparently about 10 "Cigarette Police" visited bars on soi 15 on Thursday (and elsewhere?), making sure there was no smoking. All bars on soi 15 now non-smoking (for the moment).

The No Name Bar is a short time bar associated with Welkom Inn on Soi 3.

Amongst a group of expats we have named the bar THE BLACK HOLE.

We have been using the place for a number of years as an early afternoon drinking HOLE and entertainment centre.

I even have a poolside room in the welkom complex for a short 2 week stay every 6 months and it really is a most welcoming place for the middle aged chap.

Based in north Pattaya it is well away from the main areas but soi 2 and 6 make it hard to venture away from this well appointed area.

If you've got a good formula then stick with it. And that's exactly what Peppermint continues to do. Nothing much has changed in the last couple of years and that includes maintaining a healthy amount of customers.

There is still the combination of topless main stage with occasional shows, side stage with nearly nude dancers, cage with fully nude dancers, knickerless table dancers and a topless bar.

Plenty to watch but not quite so much to do as in the naughtier bars with hands on fun. In fact putting the best looking girls in a cage seems positively mean.

Perhaps, because the watchability takes priority over the playability, this means that the bar caters more for Asians than farangs these days.

Still the girls are pretty, the drinks are reasonable, and the male service is very efficient.

A sure bet to stay popular.

Sakura Club 69 is a smallish gogo just off Walking Street on Soi 15

Things are looking good for the bar at the moment. The bar seems to have sorted out their dancing girls and there are now girls on hand to take care of the customers. Previously the whole dancing cast was on stage with hardly a break.

But the best thing is that the girls take very good care of their customers. The dress code is generally naked and this applies to both on and off stage.

The girls are certainly a bouncy lot and they love to claim a place on your lap.

The bar is certainly holding its own against the significant competition from Baby Dolls, What's Up and Misty's

The Voodoo complex on Walking Street contains a gogo and half a dozen open beer bars.

The complex has been dark for the last month

The beer bars will re-open on 5th June after a police closure. The builders are in at the gogo and it is being converted into closed bar

Byblos is a smallish upstairs bar on the corner of Pratamnak Road and Soi Diamond

It seems that the bar hasn't proved a long term hit with Pattaya farangs and the bar is now targeting customers using touts on 2nd Road. This tends to attract a more Middle Eastern/South Asian customer base than the Walking Street norm.

The bar has also opted for bells and whistles shows

And just to complete the transformation to inanity, the draft beer is now set at 90 Baht and bottled beer is 140 Baht.

Bye Bye Byblos

The state of the decor is getting worse and worse with time. The stained concrete ceiling effect is second to none. The benches are falling apart and the foot rests are nearly rotted through.

But what the hell, it is a great bar. The girls are up for more naughty fun than nearly all the competition put together.

There are a few potential downers though, there are a fair few oldies and chubbies. All the girls can be good fun but it depends a little on personal taste on how one deals with the choice.

There are plenty of attractive girls employed by the bar, but it often seems that they are all otherwise engaged. In fact the bar must do really well for the girls as some seem to be whisked away as soon as they turn up for work.

In fact the high turnover means that if you feel a bit stuck for choice, then wait a drink or two, and a few returnees will soon appear.

The other characteristic of the bar is that the girls like to jump on your lap in teams of 2 or 3 rather than as individuals. But if you can't stand the heat, then don't diddle in the fire of Hot & Cold.

It is worth checking out a new blog called Pattaya Ghost which brings a little journalistic know how to the Pattaya blog scene.

Today Pattaya Ghost reports that the smoking ban has indeed hit Walking Street and the ash trays have taken a hike.

It is also reported that the gogos and Walking Street in general has taken a hit presumably because smokers have decided to stay home or possibly to try their look in the Soi 7/8 open bar area.

It will be interesting to see the long term impact. Many places have banned smoking but maybe Thailand is unusual in that there is still an option to smoke in open bars. There is the possibility that it will be a long term effect that a fair amount of customers will go from inside bars to outside bars. And maybe a similar percentage of attractive girls will follow the customers.

There's an interesting rumour from Kuka on Pattaya Secrets suggesting 1500 police have been recruited to enforce the ban.

Listen to this...You wont believe it.

New York Mayor (Billionaire) Micheal Bloomberg is the reason for the smoking ban in Thailand. He donated $1 million Bucks to Thailand to get this Law enacted.

The Thai's complained about the law enforcement limitations and they got 1500 new Thai POLICE to enforce the smoking Ban.

Its WIN WIN for the "Not-So-NON-Corrupt Thai Police".....its another tool to extort money from the Bar Industry.

Bar owners BEWARE...there will be undercover POLICE in the bars ready to pounce on Owners for violation of this law..................20,000 Baht Fines.

If you think I'm Lying, just wait a few weeks............

The smallish bar has a lot of character, especially for Soi 6. The owner is clearly passionate about his drinking and his military. The bar is decorated accordingly and the bar is also stocked with an enormous selection of drinks. Perhaps from the Scottish connection, I assumed that the array of bottles would be mostly whiskeys, but there is actually a wide selection of all drinks.

Most of the seating is focussed at the bar so perhaps there is not so much opportunity for canoodling. But there are a fair amount of girls on offer.

My companion for the evening was very attractive and was very good company. It also made a change that she was a cider drinker rather than the more usual Thai Whisky or orange juice

Later on the evening the bar became pretty full, with what I assumed were regulars, as everyone seemed to know everyone.

I can see myself joining them.

The advisory no smoking period is now over and the police can now fine you for smoking in an indoor bar to the tune of 2000 Baht.

Even more serious is that the bar will be fined 20,000 Baht. Serious money and therefore serious arguments could arise from a bad situation. (Maybe if people smoke without invitation then perhaps owners may expect the customer to cough up the 20,000)

If the police take this opportunity of extra cash for good causes then smoking in bars is very likely to be seriously curtailed. Both by the police extracting fines, and the bars owners making sure they are not stung.

On the other hand it could be quietly ignored.

I saw a comment on a board last week about the rules of engagement. Basically the poster was saying he was not going to approach the girls and if they did not approach him nothing was going to happen. That approach will work in just about every bar in Pattaya but it will not work at the Pattaya Beer Garden. You must make first contact. If you can’t or won’t do that then the PBG is probably not for you. If you approach a girl at the bar I can almost guarantee that you will not be rebuffed. The girls are there to find a man after all. Even fat old balding people like me are seen as desirable meat mates. So don’t be shy just say Hi. The rest will follow naturally and without pressure.

We are in to out June promotions now. The freelancer discount continues. Bring your own freelancer and receive a 100 baht discount off your order. Please ask clearly for "The Freelancer Discount" when ordering.

Happy hours are 3 pm to 5 pm and then again 9 pm to 11 pm every day. All bottled beers are 50 baht (except Corona). This week we have permanently lowered the price of Corona and Strongbow.

A new thing we are trying in June is the "Sunset Promotion". The PBG is a great place to watch the sunset each evening around 6:30 pm. It can be quite spectacular. From 5:30 pm to 7 pm each night we are offering the "Sunset Special". A plate of Thai h'orderves and a Sundowner cocktail for two hundred baht. The Thai snacks are very tasty and farang friendly (will not blow your head off) and the Sundowner cocktail packs a bit of a wallop with three shots of the hard stuff.