Pattaya Nightlife News and Reviews

Kiss Kool has re-opened as a drinking bar on Soi 6.

It used to be a short time bar featuring bikini clad dancing girls and lots of comfy sofa seating.

However they have ripped all that out and replaced it with stools. No sign of any girls at the moment either.

Update:

The bar is now open open to the Pattaya heat but there are now a couple of girls who may help with the discomfort

Shane, the previous owner of New Living Dolls One has died in a traffic accident.

He will be known to many Pattaya regulars for running a successful bar and particularly for the extremely popular free beer parties that he used to host.

Thai-Anxiety will raise a glass or more to the memory of his great contribution to Pattaya nightlife.

Update: Hellfire Pass

21st April 2011. Based on article from theage.com.au

A West Australian man on his way to the Anzac Day dawn service at Hellfire Pass in Thailand has died after the van he was travelling in smashed into a truck. Hellfire Pass is the name given to a railway cutting on the former death railway in Thailand.

Local reports say that the truck had earlier been pulled over by police to allow the motorcade of Governor-General Quentin Bryce and embassy officials to pass through.

Shane Christopher Wheatley, 53, and Sirichok Hensawang, 54, were found dead in the wreckage. Another Australian, 61-year-old Alan Grant, was injured in the smash and taken to hospital.

The van, according to local reports, had been travelling behind the motorcade when it hit the 10-wheeler as it was leaving its parking spot.

It is reported on Pattaya forums that Beavers A-GoGo is nearing the end of its lease and will close at the end of May.

The unit will be redeveloped into a larger venue merging with the unit next door. There are options for Beavers to take on the new unit but the small table dancing bar in its current format will disappear.

Beavers opened in 2005 and has had a few moments as a fun and interactive bar but hasn't been much noticed in the last few months.

Sexy Girls A-GoGo is located on Soi 8 towards the 2nd Road endt

The bar has proven disappointing over the last couple of visits.

The previously reported issue of too many girls dancing too long still exists but on my last visits the girls were all wearing too many clothes too.

This seems now seems to be one of those gogos modelled on Happy. The girls dance for ages and the customers sit alone, sipping profitable drinks, whilst waiting for wonder.

But the Happy model rather requires top notch girls to make it all work. Sexy Girls does have a good share of attractive girls, but not quite good enough to make up for the overdressing and lack of opportunity for good personal customer care.

There are a couple of naked girls who work the Jacuzzi but it doesn't really make up for the rather underwhelming customer experience.

Carousel is located on Soi Diamond, 20m from Walking Street

I have stopped by a couple of times and the bar has proved consistently disappointing.

The bar is a little understaffed in terms of dancers and the usual operation is that the bar just has two of three dancers on the circulating stage. Then as soon as they finish there stint they go and congregate at the doorway to try and give a busy impression to anybody who may stick their head round the door.

The trouble is, once customers are inside the customers get to drink a lonely drink before inevitably moving on. The girls just seem to mostly ignore the customers.

On the plus side there have been a few good looking dancers in attendance.

There's nothing about the bar that is particularly wrong, just not quite friendly enough.

Just after 2:00am on Monday Pattaya police launched a sweep on Beach Road promenade and carted off 20 Thai males dressed as females to be profiled.

The lady boys were brought into the stationhouse and asked to show their ID. After being given a stern warning to behave themselves and stop trying to entice unsuspecting tourists to part with money in exchange for sexual services, the 20 were allowed to resume their positions on Beach Road.

Club Relaxxx is located in the Covent Garden Complex a few paces off Walking Street on Soi 16.

I haven't stopped by for a couple of weeks but on my last visit it was developing into quite a lively bar.

Perhaps they are taking inspiration from the likes of Airport and Iron.

There were plenty of good looking girls in attendance and they were being very proactive in seeking out lady drinks. They were taking good care of customers.

However as noted below it as a bar where you have to keep your wits about you both in terms of keeping an eye on the bill and not letting the girls get away with excessive lady drinks pressure.

The draft beer was cheer at 50 Baht but the lady drinks were quite high at 135 Baht.

A potentially good venue but perhaps it will be challenged in low season by an unfavourable location.

Silver Star 2 is located on Soi 7 near the Beach Road end.

Silver Star 2 is still the pick of the Soi 7/8 gogos.

The momentum of success ensures that the bar can employ a stage full of stage full of attractive dancers in various stages of undress. The dancers rotate one place per song and it can be quite a long wait.

There are plenty of girls on customer service duties and they can be quite hands on.

For those that appreciate a Jacuzzi show then there are usually a couple of girls cavorting and entertaining those in the ringside seats.

The bar always seems quite busy and most customers seem to have a good time.

On a slightly negative side, the bar sanctions stupidities such as toilet tips and change that is returned in piles of 1 baht coins sellotaped together.

But on the whole the GoGo is quite a success.

Mandarin is located on Soi 6 near the Beach Road end.

Half the time the bar looks pretty dead with no girls hanging around outside and I walk rapidly by. The other half of the time the bar looks pretty dead with no girls hanging around outside, but I go inside anyway. The bar still looks pretty dead but I sit down, and from out of nowhere the bar seems to locate a suitable drinking companion.

And half the time the girls proves to be one of the more playful I have come across in the soi.

In fact Mandarin has proven more of a guaranteed venue for good fun than any of the other dancing bar in Soi 6.

But for all that, I'm not sure I can recommend it to others as it always seems a little unlikely. But somehow it usually works for me.

Sexy A-Gogo is located on Soi 7 near the 2nd Road end

The bar has re-opened after renovation and looks better for it. Taking a few tips from the old Sexy Girls A-GoGo, the bar has squeezed in a bench seat down either side of the narrow bar. The central stage has been narrowed down by reducing it down to little more than s series of joined podiums.

The customer are has been extended further into the back of the bar with the addition of a couple of table dancing stages and seating.

Unfortunately the bar hadn't allocated much of the development budget to the hiring of girls, and the cast list is somewhat below average. However there was one girl that would be sure to pickup up a decent amount of barfines.

But actually the bar is a still a decent place to visit assuming that barfines are not the primary motivation. The girls are very friendly, the drinks are cheap and the atmosphere is relaxed. I was persuaded to stay for a couple of drinks, which is more than some bars manage.

Far East Rock is a GoGo at the beach end of Soi 13/2 (Soi Post Office).

The Soi 13 area seems pretty quiet at them moment and Far East Rock has been on the decline for some time.

However it has now been sold, but no word as yet as to the intentions of the new owners.

OMG Club has sprung into life on Soi 6 at the bar that was recently Wanthana's Dance Club . The bar is connected with the popular O Bars on the same soi.

So the count of bars with girls dancing in bikinis or less has therefore increased to 75.

Meanwhile across the street at Kiss Cool, the new guise is become clear as the builders have now erected a new sign.

The bar will be continue to be known as Kiss Kool with the strap line Bikes, Babes and Beer. And indeed, a chopper has been installed as the centrepiece of the new bar.

First A-GoGo is located at the back of a beer bar complex in central Soi 8.

The bar has again closed. It has always been a troubled venue. Perhaps a little bit too much off the beaten track. In fact there are few GoGos that do well at the back of a beer bar complex. A few other examples being Blue Lagoon, Fantasy A-GoGo, Bada Bing and Hotties spring to mind.

The GoGo count now stands at 74.

Work in Progress

Wanthana's Dance Club on Soi 6 changed hands a few days ago and has now been closed for some rework and rebranding. It will re-open shortly as OMG Club reflecting the ownership connections with O Bar and O2 bar on the same soi.

Work Complete

Sexy A-GoGo at the 2nd Road end of Soi 7 has now re-opened after renovation. They have retained a central stage which is now in the style of adjoined podiums with narrow bench seating on either side, somewhat reminiscent of the old and similarly named Sexy Girls A-GoGo.

So there are still 75 bars in the Pattaya area with girls dancing in bikinis or less.

Work Unpermitted

The owner of a Soi LK Metro go-go bar was arrested for working without a work permit after being caught outside soliciting customers.

He was taken into custody by a team of Chonburi Immigration officers April 1 as he stood at the door of his Kiss a-Go-Go . Police confiscated a business card with his name on it and other evidence purporting to show he actively managed operations of the bar.

The full story will be covered in the Pattaya Mail

Utopia A-GoGo re-opened Saturday on the corner of Walking Street and Soho Square. It is now under new management and will be giving 20% discount off all drinks including lady drinks for the first few nights.

The bar does in fact offer a draft beer which is normally 65 Baht but currently discounted to 52 Baht.

As is often the case for start ups, the bar needs a little more time to recruit attractive girls and persuade them to take off a few more clothes.

M*A*S*H A-GoGo is located on Soi LM Metro between Office and Champagne but on the other side of the Soi.

M*A*S*H A-GoGo duly opened on Saturday night. Early reports suggest that the design follows that of Champagne and Office but with a military theme to uniforms

Also Utopia A-GoGo re-opened on the corner of Walking Street and Soho Square. It is now under new management and will be giving 20% discount off all drinks including lady drinks for the first few nights.

There are now 74 bars with girls in bikinis or less in the Pattaya area

On Soi 6 Bret Bar is set to become Z Bar. There will be an opening party on 4th March with all drinks at 55 Baht.

Meanwhile on Soi Diamond at the corner of Pratamnak has re-opened. It had a short life a couple of years ago rapidly cycling through incarnations of being a disco, then coyote bar, then GoGo.

Further south the Irany nightclub has moved from upstairs in Covent Garden around the corner to Soho Square.

There are forum reports that the Walking Street Bar with the red car mounted on the wall has started with a 200 Baht cover charge including the first drink.

And talking of charges, there's comments that the What's Up bar fine is now 2000 Baht for all dancers  before midnight.

Sakura is located on Soi 15 opposite What's Up.

The welcome staff seemed a little disorganised, lacking the usual signage. Approaching the door it didn't really look the bar was open yet. But it was.

Little if anything has changed in the layout since the bar was last open under Paris A-GoGo management.

In fact nothing has really changed in terms of the traditional GoGo operation that has failed several times before.

But, and a big but, the bar had an excellent line up of girls. There were 20 dancers in the bar with 6 dancing at a time (for 6 songs). Topless is the bar dress code.

Tthe girls seemed to be rather remote though, as if trained at the Super bars. The bar mirrors were the only recipients of attention from the girls.

It seems that asking the mamasang is the official routing to get a little company.

Probably not the sort of bar that will appeal to the passing trade on the way to Baby Dolls or What's Up but maybe they can get the word out to a few 'Super' bar fans.

The music was on the loud side, but this is often part of the package for a successful bar.

There is a draft beer at 55 Baht.

The handful of customers that were visiting at the same time as I, were probably looking in on their way to Baby Dolls. All stayed for one beer before rapidly moving on.

Probably just not the right location for a 'Super' clone. Baby Dolls and What's Up are amybe too hot competition. I rather guess that the bar will have to get their girls being a little more self motivated in their interaction, or else the bar will struggle for trade as per previous and similar incarnations.

Baby Dolls is located on Soi 15 opposite What's Up.

There are two basic schools of thought about what makes a good GoGo. The first is that GoGos should feature the best looking girls in town. The second is that bars should feature interaction, interaction and more interaction.

Baby Dolls is surely the top rated of the latter school. But it also so good at providing friendly girls and staff, that it also makes its mark on those seeking more elite girls than perhaps are on offer. This double success seems to get the bar rated in most people's top ten.

I sometimes wonder why a few more gogos don't adopt the simple but effective policy of offering a friendly drinking partner to more or less everybody who takes a seat in the bar. After all that is what most (but not all) customers go into GoGos for.

I have had a good time at the Irish Rovers, at the elbow of soi LK Metro.

Good room rates, friendly owners, friendly staff and nice girls, except for one dark-skinned ladyboy...

They have good drink prices, and what I really enjoyed was the bar crawl to Ban Chang. Viisited a string of short time bars for a few hours, great fun.

Also golf tours, pool and dart leagues.

As for the action, usual rates for girls, and some are quite cute with good attitudes to match.

Soi LK Metro has been very good to me...the vibe here is my current favorite.

Sexy Submarine A-GoGo will open soon near Kiss A-GoGo on Soi LK Metro.

 Surely an up and coming area. And there seems plenty of trade in the area as 2 or 3 of the GoGos are often over full.

Not so sure about the name though, I tend to associate submarines with sinking, silence, aquaphibians and an all male crew.

Windmilll Club is located at the centre of Soi Diamond

There seems to be a bit of a consensus of commentators on the Pattaya forums that Windmill has declined a little. And I tend to concur.

Nothing major has changed to the format of the bar. It is still a very hands-on bar with very obliging girls. It is still very popular and there are plenty of girls there.

But the probability of having a good time seems to have dropped from the near 100% chance a year ago.

Perhaps there are a few clues, but I don't know if anything major has changed in the bar's organisation. A few months ago a fair girls I knew shipped across to Baby Dolls so perhaps a little decline at that point. Since then I have noted a slightly hard edge to the bar. One girl turned out to be a tequila monster demanding another almost as soon as she had downed the first. Another time I got shifted out of a show side seat in favour of apparently more deserving customers. And also it now seems a bar policy that girls rapidly down their drinks just as they 'go dance' to ensure that they are not obligated to return after the dance. this Allows the girls to change customer if they see someone better. Nothing much really to worry about much but it tends to add up.

But saying that Windmill is still naughtier fun than most bars in town.

Sakura Club 69 has re-opened on Soi 15.

It seems that previous owners of Utopia A-GoGo on Soho Square sold up and bought Sakura Club instead.

Pattaya's GoGo count now stands at 72

new Star is located on Soi Diamond at the Walking Street end.

The afternoon GoGo scene seems to be in something of decline ate the moment with some pretty disappointing customer/girls counts, particularly in Sois 13.

But New Star is one of the better bets for afternoon fun. It usually has a fair few girls with some of them being decent looking. The bar works well for the afternoon audience with minimal numbers set to dancing whilst the majority are assigned to customer care duties. The dance roster is proportionally short too.

In fact the bar seems better in the afternoon than at night. In the evening it can take on a harder edge. It particularly targets customers that the touts can aggressively snag on the way to Super Girls. Then all the best girls in the bar seem attached to the entrance to form part of this snagging team.

No such nonsense in the day time and the bar provides a good hangout for the afternoon trade. Not so sure about the short time rates though. The charges are well uncompetitive. But a good place for a beer or two.

Utopia A-GoGo is on Walking Street at the corner of Soho Square.

The bar has changed owners and is now closed for rework.

It will reopen on 26th February 2011.

This leaves Pattaya's GoGo count at a temporary low of 71.

Sapphire Club A-GoGo is located on Soi 15, 50 metres off Walking Street.

Tuesdays just got happier at Sapphire Club where Happy Hour prices will now be in effect all night.

Normally running until 10 p.m., Happy Hour now will run from opening at 8:30 p.m. to closing time.

• All bottled beers are 75 baht.
• Draft Heineken is 65 baht and draft Carlsberg is 75 baht.
• For shorts drinkers, house vodka, gin, rum and whiskey, is 75 baht.

The Cobra Gold Military Exercises are currently underway at the Sattahip Navy Base. Cobra Gold is a yearly multi-national exercise run by the US.

Exercises will be from now until 18th February and there will be plenty of US servicemen in town keeping the bars busy.

Meanwhile Pattaya police are keeping armies of officers busy in their own little military exercises.

The latest exercise, titled Assault on Soi Chayaphun , involved 200 participants. The tactics follow the usual line of: blocking both end of the soi; sending in the mobile piss test units; and conducting house to house searches.

The primary targets are bars without the correct papers and staff that may have recently taken drugs.

It looks like Polo Entertainment is set to return to Walking Street.

Just over a year ago the management of Polo Entertainment on central Walking Street decided to move to the very expensive East European girl format pioneered by its sister bar Galaxy Cabaret. The old gogo show bar was remodelled as Lady's Shadow Club.

Now Lady Shadow's Club is set to revert to Polo and there are now adverts for Thai models and coyote dancers.

Now doubt more will be revealed about the new format in due course, but I will leave it to others to investigate. The previous iteration of bars all featured extortionate pricing and were best avoided.

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

The original Silver Star has become the junior partner of the three Silver Star Bars. It is still in the same mould though, just scaled down a bit.

On my last visit there were about a dozen dancers on duty with half dancing at any one time. There were some reasonably attractive girls on show and they weren't wearing too many clothes.

The girls were making a good effort to connect with the customers, both on and off stage. They were unsurprisingly a bit more keen on seeking out holidaymakers rather than expats though (as distinguished by attitude to the ping pong balls being pushed by the service staff).

The small scale operation probably makes the bar a bit hit or miss, but the positive attitude makes it worth a look. The sister bar on the next soi is a more reliable bet. It is quite similar, but it has more girls and more momentum.

A new bar has opened on Soi 6 called Lovejoys. It is an open bar located at the centre of the Soi, just by Chili Bar.

Presumably it is part of the chain of Lovejoy Bars, with the original being a very popular bar in Jomtien. The bar there targets the cheap beer trade. It also has a very strange idea of the barfine being 5 lady drinks. But saying that, it's more of a drinking bar than a girly bar.

It will be interesting to see how it pans out on Soi 6.

The aircon bars seem on the retreat in Soi 6, with most recent bars being of the open front variety, often with less emphasis on the girls.

Stickman reports that the two Angelwitch show bars have been sold. Current owner Matt will now bow out of the GoGo trade.

There is a branch in Bangkok's Nana Plaza and also on Soi 15 in Pattaya.

The handover will be on 1st March 2011.

Shark Club A-GoGo on Soi Diamond has joined the list of GoGos being revamped. It will be closed for a few weeks of renovation. In the meantime, the dancers are working at sister bar Tiger

On my last visit the Shark GoGo end was already not being used, and the girls were all at the Shark Club end. One has to guess that this latest 'renovation' may be more to do with a rationalisation concentrating on Tiger and Fahrenheit. It does seem that the current fashion is for high energy GoGos with lots of girls to make for a lively atmosphere. One bar full of girls may be better than two bars half full of girls.

I would guess that any renovation will be to do with replacing the table dancing with something more central. Table dancing seems a little past its prime on the Walking Street scene.

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

Sexy A-GoGo at the top end of Soi 7 has closed for 2 weeks of renovation. According to a notice on the door the bar will reopen on 15th February 2011. Hopefully rejuvenated as well as renovated.

In the meantime the girls are helping out at Kiss A-GoGo, an associated bar on Soi LK Metro. Perhaps they are increasing the numbers at Kiss to give it a bit of a push.

In the meantime there are 73 bars in Pattaya with girls dancing in bikinis or less.

Actually some bars are getting very reluctant to show off any flesh. Sexy Girls A-GoGo on the next soi is getting close to failing the definition. The girls are wearing crop top blouses and traditional flimsy gogo skirt. The naked girls in the shower keep the bar defined as a GoGo. But it does seem a bit of a trend to have coyotes and overdressed dancers in the bars these days. Perhaps a shortage of girls means that the dancers can name their own terms.

No doubt the girls will be well dressed at the new V2O location on the corner of Soi 15 and Walking Street. The bar specialises in vodka served at sub zero temperatures. It has been going quite a while now moving from its previous location upstairs on the alley to Happy A-GoGo.

Finally the roving police piss test machine visited Soi Pattayaland 2 a couple of nights ago. As usual the police descended in great numbers and visited many, if not all, bars on the soi. They seem to be concentrating on checking bar licences and bar workers rather than haranguing customers.

The bar may be called Relax(xx) but it's been anything but calm at the Soi Covent Garden go-go bar which, in the past 10 days, has suffered a chain reaction meltdown resulting in the arrest of the owner and the departure of most of its staff.

The climax came in the wee hours of Friday when - for the second night in a row - a brawl broke among warring dancers. In front of a small, dumbstruck handful of customers, more than a dozen girls - and one of the mamasans - began pushing, punching, kicking, scratching and pulling hair.

The mamsan involved was seen kicking a topless dancer in the chest with a high-heeled shoe. But she got worse than she gave. Unfortunately, one Indian customer got caught in the middle of the melee and also got an elbow to the face. It turns out he was at the center of what started the fistacuffs finale.

According to the dancer who took the stiletto to the tits, the mamasan had tried to force her to go with the Indian. The mama had already told him the barfine - normally 700 baht - was in fact 1,000 baht. Not knowing the mamasan was pocketing the extra 300 baht, he'd agreed. When the dancer rejected the office - both due to his South Asia extraction and because the dancer hated the mama for cheating customers - she refused to go. That set off the fireworks.

By the time the dust settled, the boxing mama and a third mamasan left the bar for good, taking more than 10 girls with them. There's now just a handful of hangers-on left.

How long they'll be there is anyone's guess. Relaxxx, owned by a much-disliked Turk, has from the outset seemed to care very little about what customers actually want and only about what Turk's desire to attract Arab customers or the music levels what his Thai wife prefers. Loud music is nothing new in Pattaya go-go bars, but the decibels in Relaxxx run literally into ear-ringing territory. Not even the Insomnia disco is louder.

The result - predictably to all but The Turk - is that there are fewer and fewer customers. Relaxxx is the owner's third stab at a bar in the cursed location that housed (in order of bankrupt bars) Babe Watch, Taboo, Black & White and a short-lived Arab disco. In launching Relaxxx, the owner began by paying his star girls as much as 1,000 baht a day cash and even regular showgirls 20,000 baht a month.

That all began to unravel in January when the big boss began cutting salaries. Cash would no longer be paid on the day. Then the 1,000 baht became 20,000 baht a month. Then it dropped to 12,000 baht for showgirls.

Within two days of the salary cuts, Immigration Police showed up at Relaxxx and arrested The Turk. Specific charges are hard to come by, but they asked a lot about passports and visas. After paying 100,000 baht - a figure confirmed by two independent sources - The Turk was set free.

Good times did not return, however, In the wee hours of Wednesday, a disgruntled dancer and alleged ya ba addict - who'd worked just two of the past seven days - showed up near closing with three Thai male thugs to demand a week's salary. The lead mamasan and the boss refused. While the boss snuck out the back, the mamasan was not so lucky.

Driving home by one of her showgirl friends, the two women realized the thugs and dancer were following them on two motorbikes. In one hand, the girl held a knife. The women pulled into a nearby condominium with a guard at the gate who assisted them and turned away their would be attackers.

The next night the disgruntled dancer turned up for work and was set upon by the showgirl driving the mamasan home. Blood was spilled and appalled farangs were again treated to the sight of a dangerously out-of-control bar.

Bar fights among staff are not uncommon. In fact, Paul, the amiable manager of Club Misty's, got in a fight with the Thai manager in the middle of the bar earlier this week. Misty's has enough of a good reputation to weather a brawl between a well-liked manager and a male Thai manager who wants to bring his drinking buddies in the club over the wishes of management.

For Relaxxx -- with hostile management, insufferable music levels, dancing hoodlums and now, a lack of staff - it's only a matter of time until we add another to the list of failed enterprises in Covent Garden.

The buzz on Soi LK Metro is that Liquid Lounge on the corner with Soi Buakhao has been sold. The plan is for it to be re-developed into a Club Blu style coyote bar.

LK Metro is surely a rapidly evolving night life soi. From the crowds that are packing into Oasis, Champagne and Office, the GoGos are doing a roaring trade at the moment.

Club Blu seems a little quiet at the moment though. Perhaps the increasing number of naughtier options takes a toll on those offering more prim and proper entertainment.

Roxy and Hooty's are next door neighbours on Walking Street, next to Insomnia and just south of the Walking Street Tree.

Roxy and Hooty's have got together to coordinate weekly parties.

• Sunday Big BBQ at both bars
• Sadist Tuesdays at Hooty's
• Sadist Wednesdays at Roxy

Hooty's has also started an extended Happy Hour with 60 Baht basic drinks until 11:30pm

Clinic A-GoGo is newly opened on Pattaya Soi 7 halfway between Silver Star 2 and Beach Road.

Perhaps down to the over dressed girls, perhaps down to their lack of interest in any interaction, but somehow the bar hasn't been a hit with customers.

So the bar has decided to reduce the price of draft to 55 Baht. I can't see it actually helping with the underlying problems of the bar though.

Gentlemen's Club on Soi Diamond has been around for some time. It started life as Insomnia Gentlemen's Club and featured the unique idea of girls in quickly removed evening dress.

As Gentlemen's Club, it maintained some good looking girls in half gogo, half coyote mode. However a year of steady decline has put an end to Pattaya's Gentlemen's Club.

The venue is now now known as Blue Bar and features fully clothed standard coyote dancers.

Meanwhile as further evidence of a lack of gentleman, Pattaya-at-Night reports that Gentlemen's Spa has also closed near the corner of 3rd Road and Pattaya Nua.

A mass police force gathered and descended on Pattaya Soi 13/3 (Soi Pattayaland 1)

They were targeting gay GoGo Dancers urine, which they tested for drugs.

Gambling in an internet cafe was also discovered.A

On 27th January police closed the street at both ends and visited each venue for drugs tests. They also asked bar licenses.

Out of 200 dancers and workers, 20 were arrested after their urine turned purple after the urine test. The Gentlemen's Club internet cafe was closed down. Ms. Gamonpan Thephum supervisor of the Gentlemen Club said that the club used to be an Go Go Gay Bar, but business wasn't good so the owners decided to turn it into an online games internet cafe.

Naughty Girls is located on Soi Diamond

If life is getting a little hectic at Walking Street's high energy GoGos, and you fancy a moment of quiet reflection then Naughty Girls is the place to go.

You can enjoy a relaxing beer in your own company, secure in the knowledge that nobody will do anything that could possibly impinge on your personal space.

And there is an attractive setting for your quiet contemplation. The venue features modern, nicely styled decor and there are several attractive dancers on the central stage. The girls provide a pleasant background, but thankfully they never attempt to move into your foreground, lest they disturb your peace.

So having supped your beer, you can emerge from the venue, relaxed and composed, ready to head back into the high energy fun of Pattaya nightlife.

Champagne is located on Soi LK Metro just off Soi Diana

I have found Champagne a go go to be to my liking. My last trip I didn't see the good in it.

Right now, late January 2011, I've had a couple of great visits and have enjoyed the company of a certain dancer.

Nice rooms upstairs, 500 baht, Girl 1000 baht. With drinks and tips altogether about $60 US.........

I see a lot of reviews on this site, and I think too many guys are simply too negative. It's all too good here, there is nowhere else like it, so enjoy it to the max.

I come with a positive attitude, and want to respect and elicit the best qualities out of the girl. When you do that, you will always get the best experience from the girl you select.

Tim Bar is located on 2nd Road next door to the Avenue Mall and opposite Mike's Mall

As always the bar was doing a good trade on a January weekday early evening.

There were about 6 girls dancing all in a lingerie bikini affair. There were about another half dozen or so waiting their turn to dance. There was one very attractive girl and there were a couple more who could get a job on Walking Street.

There were also countless hostesses dotted around the bar.

But somehow the GoGo aspect of the bar doesn't really seem to be the focus of attention  of the customers. I think it is something along the lines of TQ 1 or TQ 2 where it is primarily a meeting point for a community. Maybe Danish bikers. Just a guess after there seemed to be a certain amount of appreciation for a Danish rock act appearing on the playlist.

Anyway the girls didn't seem to be particularly interactive, so I enjoyed a beer's worth of Tom Petty and went off to seek a bar more focused on GoGo entertainment.

M*A*S*H A-GoGo has unfurled its recruitment banner and will no doubt be opening soon. It is located across the road from Champagne.

The bar is said to be targeting an opening in early February but the consensus is that this may be a little optimistic.

There are further plans for the Soi with GoGo plans mooted for Liquid Lounge, Kilkenny's and another bar near Blue Moon.

But judging by the steady stream of guys entering Champagne, Office and Oasis there should be enough customers to go round.

Club Mistys is located a few metres off Walking Street on Soi 15.

On the face of it, the bar has many good things going for it.

It is a large, modern, nicely styled bar with comfortable seating around the edge of the bar, just in front of that are large table dancing stages and there is the main stage in the centre.

There are usually plenty of attractive girls on show with about half dancing at any one time.

In addition the bar has a well liked host and good support on Pattaya forums. Presumably these two points are linked.

But for all of this the bar is generally very quiet. I for one find it a very lonely bar and I suspect that the overall lack of customers is probably down to other people having the same experience. I don't think there is any particular discouragement from girls hooking up with the guys because there are usually a couple of customers being well looked after.

I put it down to perhaps just the layout of the bar not being very conducive to the usual smiles, body language and proximity that usually do the biz in other bars.

Possibly the bar is just a little too large and the guys in the comfy seating are just out of range of the girls dancing on the central stage. There are table dancers a bit closer, but it is usually more comfortable and less awkward to watch the centre stage girls at normal eye level than try and watch someone towering nearly directly above.

Even when the girls are walking around the bar they are still a fair way away from customers and it is not easy to catch their glance.

Anyway, just a guess, trying to wonder why the bar is not as good as it really should be.

Sapphire Club has now rolled out its website.

The site has a healthy sized photo and video gallery; information and photos of our 2nd-floor Party Room and penthouse VIP Suite. Both rooms can also be booked on the website.

Users can also sign up for our VIP Card -- which entitles holders to an across-the-board 10% discount on more than just drinks. Best of all the Sapphire Club site offers its VIP Club members an exclusive Members Only online section offering special content, photos and videos.

Finally, the site is integrated with Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare so that users can comment and log-in using their accounts on those services.

We'll be adding content on a regular basis.

sapphirepattaya.com

Beach Club is located a few paces off Walking Street on Soi 15.

I had a very enjoyable visit at a peak time on a January evening.

And one has to notice that the customer count must have been somewhat disappointing for the connections. There was a fair bit of ebbing and flowing but the ebbs were very sparse. However this situation was not the slightest bit disappointing for customers. The girls were a bit more keen than usual to get interactive and there were plenty of them available.

There is a much wider range of girls now that a couple of years back when the bar could command a little more exclusivity. But there were still a fair few very attractive girls. In fact I think this more pragmatic approach to recruitment may have helped the bar. One girl in particular, that made my visit a treat, had learned her trade in a far more generally friendly bar than Beach Club has ever been.

Actually having set yourself up with some good company the bar is generally very customer friendly. There is cheap beer and the lady drinks are great value at 105 Baht. There were no pestering mamasangs and the service was polite and efficient.

And even better, the bar has an excellent rostering policy for girls entertained by customers. The basic dance roster is ludicrously long for girls without customers, but if the lady drinks are forthcoming then on her next turn to dance, her roster is reduced to just 3 songs. And if the drinks keep flowing, on her next turn she dances just one song.

Somehow the decline in exclusivity seems to have brought the bar down to a far more customer friendly proposition than before.

The Sea A-GoGo is located on Soi Diamond

There seems to have been something of a shift in foot traffic over the last year. Highly successful gogos on Walking Street and Soi 15 seem to have taken some of their trade at the expense of those on Soi Diamond. The basic gogos of Paris (now closed), Carousel, The Sea and Naughty Girls are probably most in the firing line. The others have various specialities that are diverting enough for customers to make an effort.

Anyway of the four mentioned, the Sea has been the most successful at upping their game to keep hold of customers.

In fact on my last couple of visits, there have been quite a few girls keen to get a bit interactive. And consequently there have been quite a few happy looking customers enjoying the bar.

The Sea has always had a goodly amount of dancers for a small bar and the bar has consistently maintained a good quota of attractive girls.

It doesn't really compete with the new breed of high energy bars, but it is a good example of a more traditional format GoGo.

The draft beer is cheap at 55 Baht, but the music is a bit too noisy, verging on uncomfortable.

Alcatraz A-GoGo is located on Walking Street between Soi 14 and Soi 15.

Alcatraz have introduced themselves as Pattaya's most provocative GoGo bar and nightclub. And indeed the bar has provoked an awful lot of comment on Pattaya forums.

So there should be a fair amount of interest for their newly launched website at www.alcatrazpattayagogo.com

Sapphire Club is located on Soi 15, a few metres off Walking Street and opposite Angelwitch.

The newish bar has made a good impact on Pattaya nightlife and is now going to step up the pace with a weekly party on Thursday nights.

Free food, a few free shots and some sexy party games. Should be fun.

Kiss A-GoGo is new on Soi LK Metro

I rather predict that the layout of this bar will not work out well.

It certainly looks good. No problems on that front. It is basically a narrowish bar with a long line of table dancing positions. There is also a small unused stage towards one end an an unused Jacuzzi at the far end.

I for one do not find it very comfortable craning my neck upwards to watch dancers high above me and right in front of me. Its ok for a quick glance but not really comfortable for a long period.

I reckon if you did a scientific man-watching experiment at say Oasis, where there are seats with a dancing table in front of them, then I would postulate that customers will spend most of their time watching the more distant central stage with just an occasional glance at the girl towering above them.

The trouble with Kiss is that the long line of tables mean that there aren't any tables at the other side of the room where one can watch the dancing a bit more comfortably.

Table dancing had a bit of a fad a few years ago when there would be a bit of fun tipping the girls to squat down for a revealing look and play. But those days have long gone as the continuous tipping got a bit wearisome. Now I think table dancing only appears in bars as an add on. It provides a nice busy atmosphere where there is something going on wherever you look. The central stage is still the main focus though.

Otherwise the bar is farang run and seems a decent enough place. There is the mandatory cheap draft beer and most prices seem reasonable.

There were 3 girls dancing an unnecessarily long dance roster of 6 songs. They were dancing topless. The girls were about average which isn't bad in Pattaya. There were about 8 girls in total in the bar. Way too small a number, but its still early days.

I haven't found the girls to be particularly friendly on my couple of visits so far. But I guess that will change. If the bar wants to keep customers then they will need to provide good customer care to make up for the lack of comfortable dance watching options.

Sexy A-GoGo is located at the 2nd Road end of Soi 7 and is not to be confused with Sexy Girls A-GoGo on the 2nd Road end of Soi 8

A while ago there were usually a couple of decent looking girls on hand. More recently the more youthful wing of the bar was down to one. And now she has moved on to grace the stage at Heaven Above. And like they say: and then there were none.

So now there is a well below average line up of ladies.

But if you are happy just to have a drink and a chat then the bar is decent enough with cheap beer and friendly ladies. A couple having learnt their customer care skills from Hot & Cold.

Peppermint is located directly on Walking street in the vicinity of the Walking Street Tree.

Not much changes at Peppermint. They have a formula and stick to it. It has cheap beer and reasonable lady drinks but the takeaway prices are very top end. But within this ranges it offers something for everyone, and hence maintains a perpetual busy state.

Now there are 5 bars in the chain (Peppermint, Happy, Baccara, Cavern and Beach Club), it is always tempting to speculate about how they are running off against each other. On my last couple of visits I think it is clear that the top notch girls have moved on to Baccara, but there are still plenty of girls at Peppermint to please most customers. If anything, the bar in the chain that has suffered most from the ascendancy of Baccara is Happy. This was pretty much a pick a number and go bar, but now the best girls are gone, it is a little lacking.

Peppermint however has always had a bit more in the way of interaction between girls and customers, and the lively atmosphere has persisted better.

Anyway for all intents and purposes the bar is the same successful GoGo bar that it has been for years.

Tiger Club is located on Soi Diamond entered via stairs up from Walking Street.

The Tiger/Shark bars have often made for enjoyable visits. They feature that rare mix of good looking AND hands on friendly girls. However the bars have also been somewhat flawed by long dance rosters and expensive drinks (with the gimmick of discounts hardly worth having).

In the last couple of months the bars have seen a change of approach which has put Tiger back on my favourites list. Drinks prices have been reduced and are now on the cheaper half of the Pattaya scale. Lady drinks are 120 and draft beer is 60 Baht (45 Baht in Happy Hour).

Also the bar has changed the dance rostering so that the girls dance for a fxed amount of time (15 or 20 minutes). The girls are in 2 teams which swap over at the ends of each shift.

I guess that these changes are related to the new sister bar at Fahrenheit which seems to be doing very good business on these terms.

Anyway Tiger has been a good place to visit in the last few weeks

A little bit of Pattaya's blow job bar heritage is being reworked. Spricey Bar on Soi Post Office is but a shell. Hopefully it will return as a brand new blow job bar...but I doubt it.

Don't Tell Mama is another lost name. It is the corner beer bar on the old Simon Beer Bar Complex on Walking Street. It is now Rolling Stone 6.

Reports on the Pattaya forums suggest that Goodfellas, the classy and expensive bar above Soi Lucky Star on Walking Street has given up on the Mafia Girl coyote dancers. It is now just a sports bar.

It seems that Gentlemen's Club on Soi Diamond have given up the GoGo game and gone fully coyote.

On my last visit all the girls were fully decked out in the traditional tight shorts and lots of layers up top.

And also fairly typical of a coyote bar, the girls weren't taking much interest in the customers (all 3 of them - on a peak season weekday evening at a prime time).

Pattaya-at-night is reporting that the East European bar Moulin Rouge has gone dark.

Update: 9th January 2010. Thanks to eyebee

Moulin Rouge soon re-opened so there are now 75 bars in the Pattaya area featuring girls dancing in bikinis or less.

There will be no official change in Pattaya bar closing times until at least 2012 as a host of city, provincial and national government officials draft a Pattaya Model project to revise zoning, operating hours and tax systems for entertainment venues.

Speaking at the first meeting of the Pattaya Model board, Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome dashed the last hopes of bar owners and party lovers hoping to see closing times pushed back this season to as last as 4:30 a.m. when he said the draft plan will take a year to complete and even longer for the Cabinet to debate and approve.

Spearheaded by the National Counter Corruption Commission – whose criticism of the Pattaya Police Department's lax enforcement of national bar-closing times prompted a November crackdown – the new zoning plan is being eyed as a possible model for tourist-centric cities around the country. It would not only cover operating hours, but business zoning, tax collection, security, and advertising.

Even the usually taboo subject of under-the-table payments to police officers is being discussed.

Publicly acknowledging the illegal tea money bar owners pay to police to stay open past legal closing times and put on nude shows, the mayor said the goal to make the bribes legal, with bar owners tipping off officials on competitors breaking the law and paying into a fund to have regulators enforce them.

This will reduce the police department's obligation to control the bars and focus more on other burdens, Itthiphol said. It also generates confidence in tourists regarding the safety of life and property as well.

With such a sweeping scope, the draft plan runs the risk of never being completed, both because of the difficulty of re-regulating so many matters and winning agreement of so many agencies affected.

Update: Mayor says no changes to closing time until 2012

7th January 2011. See article from pattayamail.com

There will be no official change in Pattaya bar closing times until at least 2012 as a host of city, provincial and national government officials draft a Pattaya Model project to revise zoning, operating hours and tax systems for entertainment venues.

...Read the full article

The police raided Soi 6 en-masse on Wednesday night.

Around 200 police descended. They blocked both ends of the Soi and parked a mobile drugs testing van in the middle of the soi. They then proceeded to round up all the girls and march them off for their piss tests.

And in anticipation of a fair few girls being caught out, they brought along two large paddy wagons.

Luna Massage is a new shop on Pattaya Klang opposite Carrefour and near the corner of 3rd Road.

Luna Massage seems to be pitching itself as a high quality massage parlour with a standard massage menu about 100 Baht higher than typical Pattaya massage shops.

For the extra the rooms are very well appointed and very clean and neat. There are private rooms as wells as the traditional curtained off cubicles, and of course shared foot massage space.

The girls are also above average with reports of a couple of cuties and also some good massage skills. The selection process is via a book of available girls rather than in person.

Extras are available, but it us very much up to the girl. This includes both services and prices. The reviews so far suggest a range from average to top end gogo girl prices. Also extras are negotiated towards the end of the session, and with such a range of availability/price then this is sure to wind up customers who prefer fair play pricing.

It is probably set to  get mixed reviews, along the lines of Dream Teen, depending on how customers react to very variable outcomes on offer. Some will enjoy and some won't.

Clinic A-GoGo opened on 29th December on Soi 7. It is located a few bars closer to the beach than Silver Star 2.

The bar is clearly modeled on its successful gogo neighbour, Silver Star 2. It is a scaled down version, attractively decorated in white.

The front section has a central stage surrounded by narrow bench seating around the edges of the room. Narrow ledge seating seems to be a speciality of gogos in Soi 7 and 8.

The back section is focused on quite a large Jacuzzi, which wasn't in operation during my visit.

There were 4 or 5 girls dancing on the central stage in a range of attire.

There were probably a dozen girls total in the bar. Of these, half were attractive girls dancing in bikinis or topless. Then there were coyote dancers in negligee shorts and bras. A couple of dancers were looking faintly ludicrous by wearing a light, possibly 'nursey', looking bikini top and see thru skirt over the top of their coyote gear.

It seems to be coming quite common to see solid bras and shorts as gogo attire. Presumably the shortage of girls means that dancers dictate their own clothing preferences. It sure as hell ain't the customer's preferences.

The dancers were taking no interest in the customers, save when a few Thai guys came in to sit at the back.

There was a draft beer following the same price as its neighbour gogo at 65 Baht.

There's not really very much in bar that follows the clinic theme. Possibly a bit of a lost opportunity, or else something they will build on in due course.

Roxy is located next to Insomnia nightclub on Walking Street.

Roxy recently ended their long running stage shows.

But now Roxy restarted their shows on the main stage again. For the moment the show time is just five minutes. The show is very simple, three dancers strip while sucking bananas.

It seems that the temporary end of shows was down to showgirls quitting rather than a change of direction form the bar.

Thankfully the closure of Windmill on Soi Diamond was just a scheduled one day event. The bar is still going strong (albeit with a recent loss of my favourite girls to Baby Dolls)

On another happy note there is a new GoGo on Soi Lengkee. This is the soi that is the continuation of Soi Diana from Soi Buakhao to 3rd Road.

The bar is called something along the lines of Cherry's A-GoGo. No further details at the moment but reports expected soon. Update: This information proved to be incorrect. The only Cherry's on Soi Lengkee is a guest house