Pattaya Nightlife News and Reviews

Baccara is located directly on central Walking Street.

Baccara now seems to be the dominant bar of the Happy group, and seems able to command the lion's share of very good looking girls.

The layout downstairs is very much a traditional bar for watching dancers, rather than for interaction, but the upstairs affords a bit more privacy for those that like a bit of interactivity with the girls.

In fact this upstairs ice breaker has perhaps changed attitudes more generally than an upstairs-downstairs thing, and there are plenty of girls to be seen sitting on laps downstairs too.

The bar still uses a very long dance roster with many girls on stage, just rotating around one place per song.

The bar is very popular with Japanese customers suggesting that the girls' rates will surely be on the high side. But there are plenty of farangs too, so it is in no sense exclusive.

But of course there is a cheap draft beer. Other drinks prices are not so cheap, but not out of order either.

I have a feeling that the Happy A-GoGo placard proclaiming something along the lines of: 'Yes we are no 1' should perhaps be amended to direct customers across the street to Baccara.

Happy is located just off central Walking Street

It wasn't so long ago that Happy and Peppermint had a nice niche sown up of being the top falang bars operating a pick a number and go. Customers would watch the top notch girls dancing for a few drinks hile pondering their options for a takeway.

More recently the group have added Baccara and The Cavern to their list of similarly run bars.

It is therefore interesting to note how the extra two venues has impacted Happy.

There simply aren't enough top notch girls in Pattaya to maintain a totally jaw dropping line up in each of the 4 bars.

In fact Baccara is now easily the number one of the group. It is the only one of the 4 that has a near complete set of very attractive girls.

Happy and Peppermint are now a very good 2nd tier. But the line up is no longer exclusively top notch, there are a significant proportion of average girls. (the Walking Street average is pretty good though).

I wonder if this will change the dynamics of the bar. Generally average girls are not going to be picked off stage by the ruminating customers. Usually they have to take a more interactive approach to obtaining barfines, by adding their sweet personalities to their list of attractions.

Also having more average girls may rather challenge the premium prices commanded by dictat at Happy.

Sakura Club 69 A-GoGo re-opened on 1st October on Pattaya Soi 15.

The bar has been dark since Thursday and the closure looks permanent.

The girls have been earmarked for Carousel which is set to re-open on 1st November.

So after a short life of just 3 weeks the Pattaya GoGo count drops back to 72. Of these, 66 are of interest to Thai-Anxiety readers, the rest featuring either silly pussy tricks or expensive East European girls.

An Iranian guy bought the entire Soho Square from its (now) very happy Thai owner, who had lost his shirt on the enterprise.

Price tag? US $1.8 million!

Buildings are being gutted and consolidated with the intent to create Southeast Asia's largest disco.

At 3 stories and 1 block long, they may end up calling the disco White Elephant

Blue Moon bar on Soi LK Metro has now closed for renovation. It will re-open as a GoGo.

There is reported to be an ownership connection with Sexy A-GoGo on Soi 7 and the new GoGo may take its name from that.

Daiquiri Hous has gone dark on Beach Road. it was located in a small cluster of bars between Soi 13 and Soi 13/1 (Yamato).

It was a glass fronted coyote bar and has now shared the fate of many. The bar areas around Soi 13 seem particularly difficult at the moment. Perhaps because it is a little too close to the ever sexier Walking Street. It is just too tempting to stroll a bit further to the brighter lights.

The old Betty Boum on Soi 13/4 (Pattayaland 1) has had the builders in and looks set to return as something else in the near future.

And The Beer House on Pattaya City Walk (the shopping street next to Royal Garden) has been re-opened. Presumably a seasonal thing as the Russian winter tourist season is now building up speed.

The Dollhouse is located on central Walking Street under Marine Disco

The plus side of the bar is that there are usually some good looking girls amongst the dancers.

Plenty of girls, maybe half in the bar dance on the slowly revolving central stage in a dress code ranging from bikinis to nothing. They dance for an awfully long time if you are waiting for a particular girl to finish her stint.

The girls don't seem very interactive after they finish dancing. Usually huddled amongst themselves. The only times I have noticed much animation is when a newbie is detected. Plenty of attention then.

The service girls seem the best bet for a bit of company. Several on my last visit were filling in for the lack of dancers plying the floor.

On a previous visit there were a couple of Jacuzzi girls that I thought would prove to be a good ice breaker for the bar. But on my last visit there was no activity there, perhaps just bad timing.

The drinks are generally expensive but at least there is a small draft beer available for 60 Baht. The 135 Baht for a lady drink shifts the bar into very poor value territory, or it would if any ladies were to ever show any interest in getting one.

Silver Star 3 is located at the Beach Road end of Walking Street

The bar hasn't really sorted out the design issues of the front section of the bar feeling a little more like a corridor than part of the bar. Dancing cages have now appeared rather than the simple table dancing positions that were there before.

It was not attracting many customers and most were quickly moving on to the very busy back section.

The main stage was packed with girls dressed in a range of bikini to nothing. Plenty of attractive girls on show. and lots of customers seem to like the format of the bar. There was also a show which is basically the same as usual just with less clothes.

The sheer number of people makes for quite a lively atmosphere. But I wasn't entirely convinced by the plus points as the downside of the number of girls dancing, is that they don't get much time with customers before they are called up for another session of adding to the dancing scrum.

Far East Rock is located at the Beach end of Soi 13/2 (Soi Post Office)

Pretty much an unchanging sort of bar which seems mostly targeted at the afternoon crowd.

Strangely all the dancers were a bit overdressed in a short skirt and bikini top. In fact they were knickerless but you wouldn't really know unless the dancer made a point of showing you.

There were 5 girls dancing and perhaps 7 or 8 awaiting their turn. Generally a little below average but there were two or three that would appeal to most. The music is oldie farang friendly.

Plenty of customers were getting good hands on attention from their selected drinking partners. I guess they were regulars rather than one off tourists so at least the bar has a reasonable customer base.

I am sure they could improve on the steady trade they get by employing female welcome staff. Lady boys seem a rather counter intuitive welcome to what appeared to be a strictly girly bar.

Shark Club A-GoGo is located upstairs on Soi Diamond

The difference between the 2 ends of the bar seems to be maintained.

Easily the best end is the old Shark Club end, accessed from Soi Diamond. The girls are friendly, hands on, and are dressed in a negligee affair.

At the old Shark GoGo end, accessed from Soi 15, the girls simply aren't as friendly and certainly not so keen on the lap dancing stuff. The dress code is a sometimes knickerless short skirt and almost mandatory bikini top.

Given the high end drinks prices, the GoGo end offers poor value compared with many better options. But the Club end is at least competitive in terms of fun and atmosphere and so is worth a try.

The builders have finished on Soi 6, and Thumbs Up Funny Bar has re-opened as an open bar.

Meanwhile the builders are busy on Walking Street and there are now several bars on the way.

Fahrenheit seems to the name of the new GoGo from the Tiger/Shark group that will open on Walking Street between Soi 14 & 15. The end of November is the target date.

Next door is the 3 story Alcatraz A-GoGo which is presumably being built with the help of the local chain gangs.

Carousel on Soi Diamond is set for a re-opening on the 1st November.

Meanwhile the strangely named Motoroom seems set for an opening on Walking Street just across the road from Soi 15. The upstairs bar with a window for a dancer is hardly a hopeful sign of it being a very useful sort of bar.

There is also on ongoing building site at the old Limmatquai 80 in the middle of Soi Diamond. progress there looks terminally slow.

There's a large plot on the beach side of South Walking Street that has been cleared for something.

And Soho Square seems to up for redevelopment, perhaps to become Asia's most super duper super club.

Have a nice day!

Tomorrow (13th October) is 'Police Day' when people in Thailand are supposedly excused routine police hassle for the day.

But in the run up to the event, Pattaya police have been putting in overtime on the hassle front.

Based on article from  pattayadailynews.com

At approximately midnight on Monday, Pattaya Police Superintendent conducted an inspection of the Pattaya Beach Road promenade.

The inspection targeted freelance prostitutes and lady-boys in the area.

In the inspection of the area, officers detained and arrested some 50 offenders, both female prostitutes and lady-boys, who had gathered between North and South Pattaya. Reports indicate that many more managed to flee the scene upon being informed of the arrests.

Background, drug and criminal checks will now be performed on all of the 50 arrested offenders.

The Covent Garden Complex bar previously Club Sin City A-GoGo has now re-opened as a disco/nightclub. It retains the same Sin City name.

The welcome staff were displaying boards suggesting that it is an International Club and that Everybody is Welcome.

Strange signs really, in that all Walking Street bars are international, and that a welcome to all would be universally assumed.

But of course that's not quite the case. A welcome to everybody is subtlety emphasising a welcome to people not always welcomed by other bars, ie Middle Easterners and South Asians.

Elsewhere on Walking Street, the long time German restaurant, Bier-Kutsche has closed its doors on central Walking Street and a small bar Rose Marie has closed on Pratamnak near Soi 15.

Carousel is advertising for staff for a re-opening and is targetting 1st November.

The police are continuing their campaign against the short times bars on Soi 6.

The victims of last nights harassment were Soho Bar and Wanthana's Dancing Club.

Thumbs Up Funny Bar in the middle of Soi has had the builders in to take out the front windows.

So it seems set to join the ever sweaty fad for open bars on the Soi.

And just as a follow up on the Mandarin police raid, the bar is open, hopefully as normal.

There is talk on Pattaya Secrets about a new GoGo set to open in Mid November on Walking Street.

Alcatraz will be located opposite King Crab (near Sois 14 & 15).

The rather unlikely sounding theme will be the famous prison, and the bar will be spread over 3 floors.

I'm not so sure that shapeless prison wear, girls in cages, and dancers in leg irons is a very promising theme. Perhaps they have something in mind more along the lines of Ilsa the Wicked Warden , with sadistic mamasangs guarding rampant lesbian inmates. Could be more interesting. (I think there would be plenty of Pattaya mamasangs that would meet the job specification perfectly).

Crime suppression special unit officers raided a bar in the popular nightspot of Soi 6 Pattaya Beach Road early on Thursday morning.

Using a foreign volunteer snitch, officers entrapped the popular A-Go-Go Bar into providing the undercover officer with a range of services valued by the establishment and involved girl at Bt2,000. Following payment for the service officers waiting outside the establishment blocked the entrances and raided the building.

Police arrested 17 women, including dancers), bar staff and the business owner.  A substantial amount of condoms and lubricants were also confiscated as evidence in the raid.

Investigations revealed that the premises was being operated as an A-Go-Go bar on the ground floor, while the above three-floors were fitted and furnished as short-time rooms.

The owners has since been arrested and charged with being the owner/manager of an illegal prostitution business while the 16 employees have been charged with prostitution and/or aiding in the prostitution of others .

All of the offenders have since been remanded in police custody awaiting further judicial proceedings. [Sent to Alcatraz?]

Sakura Club 69 A-GoGo re-opened on 1st October on Pattaya Soi 15.

Early days of course but a totally uninspiring first few days.

The bar now has Louis, previously from Paris A-GoGo running the show.

And perhaps unsurprisingly, the GoGo is run very traditionally with just dancing girls on the central stage and the rest of the girls sitting at the back ignoring customers.

There were actually 8 girls in attendance of which 4 were dancing. There were a couple of decent lookers and there was a mix of topless and bikini clad dancing. The girls were dancing for 4 songs which is fine. The music is more for the girls than the guys.

Not that there were many guys though. A couple of customers poked their head through the curtain, but were not impressed enough to enter.

The drinks are cheap but really it takes more than cheap drinks to get the customers in. It takes naughtiness interaction and fun.

Traditional just ain't good enough these days.

Silver Star 2 is located on Pattaya Soi7 at the Beach Road end.

The bar till surprises me that it is consistently popular and generally a fun place to go.

The reason it surprises me is that it has high drinks prices and a fairly hasslesome attitude to tips, being a Thai run place. (Not to such an extent that it is unduly troublesome).

I guess that if there was a decent farang bar in the vicinity, then it would do very well, but there isn't.

But as it stands, the momentum is with Silver Star 2. The girls follow the customers (and vice versa). So for the moment the bar can command a good line up of dancers. And really that is 9/10ths of the reason for the amount of customers.

Perhaps another good reason for the success is that air con bars are pretty thin on the ground on Soi 7 and every so often, beer bar crawlers may fancy an air con break.

But for whatever reason, Silver Star 2 remains a popular bar with a goodly amount of attractive dancers and a fun atmosphere.

Welcome back To Sakura Club 69 A-GoGo that re-opened on 1st October on Pattaya Soi 15.

Reports on Pattaya forums have noted that the bar layout hasn't been changed and that there is a 45 Baht draft beer.

There are now 73 Pattaya area bars featuring dancing girls in bikinis or less.

Welcome Back to First Bar on Pattaya Soi 8 at the back of a beer bar complex. It has returned as First's Lounge: A Gentleman's Club. Which is reported to mean that the dancing girls have been replaced by a pool table.

And Welcome back to the USA Navy who are in town until Wednesday.