Pattaya Nightlife News and Reviews

Kiss Kool is a short time bar with dancing located on Soi 6 near the Beach Road end.

Setting aside the waste of space dancing for a while, the bar has a lot going for it. The bar is perhaps the most attractive on the soi with its tiger motif and nice curvy bay seating.

There are usually a fair few girls waiting outside to provide escorts for the customers.

Their drinks are reasonably priced too.

There is usually a fair bit of lap dancing going down with rumours of naughty stuff in the bar.

There is no real reason to suggest it is anything more than bad luck, but I find the girls the most mercenary and hard nosed in all of Soi 6. Really I think it may just be me, if I was to pass by and be accosted by a friendly dancer then I would change my tune, but for the moment it is on my 'for research only' list.

The dancing is a bit superfluous to the the bar. Most of the time customers, select a girl from those sitting outside and are usually kept busy with their choice so there is little interest in the dancers. For the record there were 3 bikini clad dancers.

Sin City in the Covent Garden Complex closed Tuesday night for good … as a gogo.

The boss plans to reopen as another Arab disco, as the one upstairs is doing so well.

You might remember the doofus tried to make Sin City a late-night disco and failed miserably.

Many girls now departed for X-Zone. Odd they haven't chosen the two directly across from Sin City.

Others who don't want to go X-style are looking elsewhere.

The venue never really made for a very successful GoGo. BabeWatch had its moments; the night club/coyote/gogo mix of Taboo didn't really work; Black & White (X-Zone 2) was short lived but was pretty good; and Sin City hardly made an impact.

I guess the change of direction will not please the connections of the remaining GoGos in the complex. It will seem even more remote from the rest of the Walking Street GoGo action.

There are now 72 bars in the Pattaya area with girls dancing in bikinis or less.

First Gentleman's Club is located at the back of the beer bar complex opposite Cherry Bar on central Soi 8

The bar is now due to re-open on Thursday 30th September 2010. This time the bar describes itself as a 'Gentleman's Club' rather than A-GoGo.

It will be open from 2pm until midnight and have a 70 Baht happy hour until 8pm.

Presumably the bar intends to drop the dancing but it will be interesting to see what they mean by Gentleman's Club. In its time as a GoGo, the girls were not very interactive and and any hands on fun seemed to be a no-no. Hardly a good grounding for a short time bar operation either.

Probably would be happier with a no girls sports bar, but there seems little interest in Pattaya for a high end sports bar. Especially true in Soi 8, where there are loads of competing bars offering cheap beer, TV sports and a pool table.

Hooty's is located on Walking Street near Tony's and Insomnia

The bar has had its ups and downs on my visits this year but on the whole the trend seems upwards.

A couple of years ago the bar was very much focused on its show, but as time wore on stage shows became a bit old hat. This left Hooty's with minor entertainment and a bunch of girls who weren't very much into interaction with customers.

However this year the drinks prices have decreased and the girls have slowly been learning to be a bit more pro-active in terms of seeking out tips and lady drinks.

On my last couple of visits the bar has also been seeking out customers from South Asians that seem to congregate towards the south end of Walking Street.

The girls were perhaps a little below average, and the dancing pattern was reminiscent of the old show days, with too many girls on stage, dancing for too many songs.

But at least a quick glance around the bar reveals that the girls are now interacting with customers far more than ever before. And the bar is much better for it.

Sapphire is located on Soi 15 30m off Walking Street.

The bar seems to have established itself rapidly and now boasts a large dancing team and a fair amount of customers too. There were a fair few good looking girls amongst the dancers.

The girls are not shy to take good care of customers who in turn seem to be enjoying the bar.

On a recent visit, Steve, previously a large presence at New Living Dolls One, was on meet and greet duties.

On my last visit there were 8 girls dancing and maybe another dozen or so on customer care duty whilst waiting their turn to dance. The girls were dancing mostly topless but to an overlong dance roster of 8 songs.

The bars that can hire the prettiest girls in town tend to get away with longer dance rosters as they can attract guys who are happy to watch pretty girls dance. Bars that target more hands-on customers really need get the girls back to their lady drinking a bit quicker. It's notable that the bars that are most successful in this genre, Windmill and Baby Dolls, keep the dance roster down to 4 songs.

But saying that, on one occasion, girls with lady drinks in front of them were excused dancing duties, so then there was no issue with the 8 songs. On another occasion, there weren't enough girls in the bar, and so no dancing exemptions. Then I am afraid: I go dance, gets the response: OK, see you next time, check bin.

I also had to shoo away a mamasang on drinks begging duty. She was more aggressive than most, and she pushed me a bit close to annoyance levels before giving up the hassle. But I was with a very accommodating girl so this minor annoyance was soon forgotten.

The drinks prices are in the reasonable band.

On balance, the vibe seems very good, and things look very promising for the bar.

It looks like Sakura Club 69 will return to the GoGo scene very soon.

The GoGo located in Soi 15 next door to Baby Dolls has been stripped of the for sale signs and people have been seen inside readying the bar.

IN the past the bar has been pretty good at times, but never seemed to get the momentum to make it a long term success. It should be a good location, but there is a very tough competitor right next door.

Update: French Connection

22nd September 2010.

Kind readers have let me know that the Walking Street buzz is that Sakura Club 69 will be French owned. It is also rumoured they are expected to be hiring Louis, previously 'gentleman-manager' at Paris A-GoGo.

The bar is now targeting an opening on 1st October 2010, but to be confirmed.

Wanthana's Dance Club is located towards the Beach end of Soi 6. The GoGo recently replace Betty Boup.

I visited yesterday and basically agree with the previous review. There were just 2 customers there during my visit.

I had problems with the service staff and their command of English. I asked for SangSom only, and they brought me a glass full of Pepsi and ice. When for the 2nd time I asked for a SangSom straight, I had the same glass filled with Pepsi. It seems that my complaining generated a state of confusion, as they couldn't fix the trivial problem themselves. They had to call the boss!

Male waiters inside, and the male presence outside, just sitting and looking at you and your selected lady is not a good idea...

I stayed a while because I liked the dancer who sat with me a lot, but the the operation of the place was pretty awful.

Paris A-GoGo is located on Soi Diamond a few paces off Walking Street.

Given that Paris A-GoGo has been in the doldrums for quite a long time now, I was rather expecting that the new ownership may have a few new ideas up their sleeve.

But no, the bar is pretty much as it was before with the only obvious difference being an increase in drinks prices. There were no new features, so the bar retains just the traditional gogo dancing on a central stage.

The new owner had promised a 2 for 1 happy hour and the introduction of a draft beer, but these ideas have come to nothing. There is no happy hour and no draft beer. The bottled beer is 120 Baht. Pretty poor value for a bar where the customers have already voted with their feet and gone elsewhere.

Actually there may be a few more girls than before, but I guess they will fade away soon. The girls were an average selection, which of course is pretty good on Walking Street. They were dancing for 6 songs with 6 on stage. For some bizarre reason the bar seems to think that earlybird customers don't like nudity and the girls didn't open their tops until 9pm.

There weren't really enough customers to judge if the girls were being friendly and mingling or not.

Still early days yet, and many other bars have been somewhat underwhelming in the opening weeks. But for the moment, it is pretty much behind the competition.

Champagne is located on Soi LK Metro a few metres from Soi Diana

I made a rare afternoon trip to Pattaya and thought it was an ideal opportunity to try a Champagne tea.

The bar seemed to be doing very well with customers occupying about half the available drinks tables.

There were half a dozen girls dancing and they were an above average set of girls. Easily better than most daytime GoGos that I have tried over the last year. There were another half dozen girls on waiting their turn to dance.

There were several girls doing the rounds in search of lady drinks and tips but a few were also ignoring customers between dance turns.

Afternoon drinks are sold at Happy Hour prices.

On the whole the afternoon operation at Champagne seems to be a success.

Mandarin is located at the Beach Road end of Soi 6

Perhaps a little surprisingly, I have found that Mandarin has proved the most enjoyable of the four dancing bars in the cluster at the Beach Road end of Soi 6.

Mandarin seems at a bit of a disadvantage as it hasn't established a presence with any girls on the 'racing line' where potential customers stroll by. It seems to suffer from being a little blocked off by street parking.

Anyway the bar has now built up just enough girls such that if there are no decent looking girls on the door, there are two or 3 more inside dancing that may be worth a look. Some of the girls now dance topless which really wasn't the done thing until Passion opened up opposite.

Perhaps the bar doesn't attract the prettiest girls on the soi but there's usually a couple of girls keen to oblige the customers with some hands on fun. Sometimes I rather think that it is neediness that motivates the girls

Saying that, there was actually a fair smattering of customers on my last visit. Previously I have generally been the only customer.

Drinks are reasonably priced.

TQ2 or Tahitian Queen 2  is located on Soi BJ  just a few paces off central Walking Street.

I visited at 11ish on a week day. Prime time really, but there were hardly any customers in the bar.

However it seemed primed to jump into life at any time. There was a meet and greeter poised at the bar, and there were service girls spaced around the walls just waiting to pounce on a nearly empty glasses. An unlikely event when there were no customers drinking.

The dancing at the time was a bit of a disaster too, with 3 well below average girls dancing in solid bras and bikini bottoms.

But before I paint a too bleak a picture, there were a couple of attractive girls hidden away in that back bay seat of theirs.

And one of these came across to join me to make for a perfectly enjoyable drink or two. And all was well with the world.

The American rock and roll theme is now pretty rare so it provides a bit of character.

If you bring your own company or are lucky enough to find an attractive girl, then the bar is perfectly good. But the probability of a lucky discovery is not really that high.

Diamond is located, as you might expect, centrally on Soi Diamond

The bar was pretty quiet at about a 10pm visit.

There were 7 or 8 girls on stage all in bikinis and wearing two pairs of panties. The girls were about average which means that a fair few would be up for barfines if ever customers turn up.

The girls were putting a decent effort into dancing, perhaps spurred on by the loud music that shakes the bar fittings

There was another team of dancers waiting for their turn to dance  but they showed very little signs of interacting with the handful of customers in attendance.

The bar is a bit old hat with traditional bikini clad dancing and the girls seemingly waiting for their number to be called. Perhaps nobody on their management has noticed that things have moved on and that most successful bars now have to be sexy, fun and interactive (or else have jaw droppingly pretty girls to hold the audience entranced without the need for the fun and interaction).

Cavern A-GoGo has introduced a 2nd happy hour that runs from midnight until 1am. The happy hour prices are the same as 8-9:30 when many drinks are 59 Baht.

Meanwhile Paris is opening under new management with a couple of improvements over the previous operation. Firstly the bar has introduced a draft beer and secondly they now have a happy hour from 8pm to 9pm when there are 2 for 1 drinks.

Update: No Draft

Thanks to Ian

Oops the bar opened with no draft beer. Bottled beer at 110 Baht makes for an expensive, but oh so important, look-see.

The GoGo count is set to increase to 73 with the re-opening of Paris. The opening date is now set at Sunday 12th September 2010.

And for the fans of the previous incarnation of Paris, you may like to know that Louie and a few of his girls have moved onto Toyz in the Covent Garden Complex on Soi 16.

Most Paris girls though are expected to stay at the original location.

Superintendent of Pattaya Police, Col. Nantawut Suwanla-ong, chaired a meeting Wednesday to discuss policies put forward by the Royal Thai Police Force regarding entertainment businesses in Pattaya.

The Deputy Commander of the Royal Thai Police Force, Lt. Gen. Assawin Kwanmuang has set up an Illegal Operation Prevention Policy which will be enforced all around Region 2, which includes Pattaya.

The policy will cover all police missions involving entertainment venues, including checking for a club's operating license; checking for underage customers, illegal drugs and prohibited items; showing inappropriate or pornographic shows, changing the type of operation from the original registration and observing the legal closing time.

Moulin Rouge has re-opened on Walking Street with East European dancers as before.

This returns the count of bars with bikini clad dancers back up to 72.

Perhaps the the definition should be rejigged to dancing Thai girls so as to exclude the Russian bars which surely don't appeal to many Thai-Anxiety readers.

The count is set to increase to 73 with the re-opening of Paris. It was due to re-open on the 10th of September but maybe this now looks a little unlikely.

And for the fans of the previous incarnation of Paris, you may like to know that Louie and a few of his girls have moved onto Toyz in the Covent Garden Complex on Soi 16

Office A-GoGo is located at the centre of Soi LK Metor

Another visit at an early hour to see how the bar was progressing. And indeed the bar has improved.

First of all the dancers had dropped a fair bit of clothing and about half were now dancing topless.

But best of all, the girls were being more pro-active in seeking out customers. In fact the lady that approached me suggested that the boss was now insistent that customers sitting only should at least be asked if they would like company. Surely a policy that will stand the bar in good stead.

Anyway I left with a positive feeling that bar will quickly become established on soi LK Metro/Soi Buakhao circuit. And judging by the good crowds at Champagne and Oasis, there should be plenty of custom to go round.

Wanthana's has just taken over from Betty Boup (which is still going strong across the Soi as Passion Dance Club).

Approaching the bar gives rather strange first impressions. Sitting outside the bar is a near army of staff. There are dancers, service girls, predominantly toms, there's the welcome crew, and rather a lot of Thai guys, maybe security or a team of DJs or maybe just official hangers on.

But once inside there is very little going in.

The bar layout has been maintained from the Betty Boup days but the colour scheme has been lightened up with white sofas and light blue walls.

There were 4 girls dancing in typical gogo gear with a couple topless. Perhaps an average rating but average is not bat, and there were some attractive girls. But that's about all there was going on in the bar. All the non-dancing girls were outside.

The mass outside committee sent in a girl to sit with me, but she wasn't my choice and I sent her back out front.

And then one rather realises the rather glaring drawbacks in the operation of the bar. If the girls are all outside how is the customer expected to hook up with them?

Perhaps the bar is expecting customers to pick up a partner on the way in. But this rather defeats the idea of a gogo where one selects from the girls on offer after relaxing for a bit with a beer and a little entertainment.

For an education, Wanthanna only has to take a quick look at nearby dancing bars. Passion Club, with the traditional GoGo model, easily outperforms Mandarin and Kiss Kool, both of which operate a 'pick up your partner on the way in' policy. The difference is probably down to potential customers not going in simply because they don't spot the girl of their dreams in the instant that they stroll past the entrance.

Anyway I finished my drink (reasonably priced) and headed out the door. Of course on the way out I was accosted by an attractive girl offering her hostess services. But a bit late by then and I was already set on course to my next port of call. Now if only she had been sitting on the inside, then I could have been praising the bar after an enjoyable visit. Instead, I see the bar as being run with 'inside out' thinking.

The re-opening date for Paris A-GoGo in Soi Diamond is now set at 10th September 2010.

Hot & Cold is located at the 2nd Road end of Soi Post Office (Soi 13/2)

Hot & Cold has long since been one of my favourite bars. Unfortunately its does seem to be suffering badly from the downturn in customers.

Its still a friendly hands on venue with its heart in the right place, but it is struggling to retain many attractive girls. There's still a few oldies in attendance, which has been a feature of the bar for as long as I can remember, but there are now hardly any younger girls to make it worthwhile.

Saying that, I've still had some good recent sessions, but it does rather rely on my long time customer status getting me first dibs at the one or or two attractive girls on duty at any one time.

Hopefully a little bit of extra momentum should put things back to rights as we head towards high season...I hope.

Beavers is located near the Beach Road end of Walking Street

There's been a slight change of staff since my last visit. There was a familiar face in charge of meeting and greeting and the like. I recognised him from the now defunct Legs A-GoGo.

Not much has obviously changed except that previously ludicrous 12 song dance roster has been curtailed to 6 songs, one at each of the tables in play. Still a bit long though, as the dance tunes selected can be pretty drawn out.

There were plenty of girls in attendance with several snuggling up to customers perched on their stools. Unfortunately the bar is too small for any comfortable seating.

The girls were mostly dancing in skirt and bikini top but with knickers left at home. Perhaps about an average team of girls, but the average is pretty good on Walking Street.

The bar is a consistently good place to have a couple of beers. Too small to be a major player but must be one of the most successful small GoGos in recent times.

Club Nevada is located on Soi Post Office, a few paces off Beach Road.

The bar is basically a sound, mostly daytime, gogo with several endearing features.

The bar typically has about 10 dancers. They dance in the full range from bikini to very little. About an average line up, but there's usually a couple of girls who stand out.

The music is strictly rock. And the drinks are reasonably priced.

As with several other bars, one of its fundamental flaws is that too many of the girls are set dancing. A daytime hangout should be about spending time with the customers, with just enough dancing to ensure a pleasant distraction for a few minutes whilst finding a drinking partner.

But even when there are no customers in the bar, then it is typical that 5 out of the 10 girls will be set dancing. That immediately means that customers have to spend half there time watching the insipid dancing. Usually therefore, "I Go Dance" results in a quick "check bin", and a short stroll to Hot and Cold.

Nui's Club 2 is located on Walking Street nearly opposite Soi Diamond.

The bar continues its minor bar existence. It is worth the occasional pit stop as it usually has a few attractive girls and can get quite hands on friendly when the mood is right.

There are usually 4 or 5 girls on the main stage and another 2 or 3 dancing on the tables and secondary stage.

One of these is designated as a show girl, partaking in the soapy stage antics. There are no ring side seats so this adds very little to the bar.

The dance roster is a bit too long for a small bar, so I guess if a customer is being looked after by a dancer, "I go dance" often correlates to "check bin".

As mentioned before, there are too many girls dancing on the main stage which offers a good view to only a few seats in the bar. Perhaps the bar could get a few useful tips from a psychologist.