Pattaya Nightlife News and Reviews

In anticipation of a busy high season, the Blue Lagoon A-GoGo has replace a significant amount of bench seating with stools. The benches along the long walls have now gone but rather counter to usual practise there are still stage side benches.

Perhaps the Norwegian owned bar is expecting a few more customers now that Norway have banned paying for sex. Surely this will force their guys to look further a field to places like Pattaya.

Just around the cornet in Soi Pattayaland 1, Betty Boum has sprung into life with a new dancing bar. But as I was reliably informed that this would not be of the girlie kind, I will let somebody else investigate. Betty Boum is located at the old Spicy Girls A-GoGo venue.

The notable Buffalo Bar on 3rd Road is nearing the end of phased improvements and is now refitting its short time rooms. Previously they had been condemned by customers if not Pattaya council hotel inspectors.

The upstairs bars in the Tiger Shark Complex upstairs on Soi Diamond have undergone a bit of rework. Tiger Lounge was originally a coyote dancing bar but this has consistently proved a difficult concept to make a success. About 6 months the bar mixed in lingerie clad girls amongst the coyotes. Now the bar is a full gogo with the traditional mix of gogo attire and none at all.

There are about 4 girls dancing on the central stage and another 3 dancing on podiums set amongst the bench seating.

The conversion seems to have a drawn a few more customers in and has therefore been able to employ a few attractive dancers.

Prices are the same as for the newly merged Shark Club A-GoGo next door with draft beer at 80 Baht and other drinks at the high end of reasonable.

Well, it's been a while since my last report, and the chance of a free night came up on Boxing Day, so not being one to waste an opportunity I decided the time was right for a little walkabout to see whether the PAD really had decimated Pattaya's High Season and where better to judge that than a cruise around Walking Street.

I had intended to pop into Club Blu in Soi Buakhao on my way down, but the place looked pretty darn busy, in fact too darn busy for my liking and this was only 8:30 p.m., so I gave it a miss.

I have to say that Soi Buakhao was heaving with humanity, every bar and Restaurant seemed to be busy, and everyone seemed to be having a roaring time, admittedly many were glued to the gogglebox which was showing some sort of contest consisting of twenty two hairy arsed chaps squabbling over a round ball, and regularly falling to the ground as if shot by Dirty Harry and his .44 Magnum, but generally all was well with the Pattaya High Season World, or at least the Soi Buakhao part of it.

In the Bleak Midwinter

I cut through Soi Diana and made my way through the crowds on Second Road, and made the decision to pop into Las Vegas A Go-Go situated on Soi Yamato for my first visitation. When this Bar was situated on Soi Post Office it was a regular stop off place for me and my friends during a good weekend daytime pub crawl, had many a good time there, and bedded some fairly decent girls there over the years, and the owner Peter came up with a classic retort one day that sticks in my mind even now, I has chastened him for his girls lack of enthusiasm on the dance floor, and he said My girls are here to get fucked, not to dance, and you can't argue with that logic can you? Sadly, the in new place the girls showed a similar lack of enthusiasm, and I couldn't see even one girl in the worth playing with.

As for the Bar, well it certainly appeared smaller than the original place, although a little bit classier in terms of décor, the old place was fairly basic if my memory serves me well, I would have loved to have posed the same question to Peter about the dancers, but he was away in the States enjoying a Christmas Break, so I downed my 90 baht bottle of Heineken as quickly as my oesophagus would allow and legged it to the door. I will give the place another try in the New Year, if only in deference to Peter and his unique style of man (woman) management.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

And so onwards to Walking Street, but before that of course I feel I must make some comment about Beach Road, or the Coconut Bar as it is affectionately known amongst mongers, I have never seen the place packed with so many Freelancers in all my time here, one presupposes that the regular ‘crackdowns' on the Beach Road crews have recently become slightly less regular? Frankly, walking the gauntlet last night was fairly imposing, there were girls there of all shapes, sizes, ages and genders, ranging from sub 40 kilo spinners to 60 kilo plus granny's all searching for Mr. Right, or a least Mr. Alright for the Night. It takes all sorts to make liquorice, as my Father once sagely told me, and he was right enough, and he had never even been to Pattaya Beach Road of a High Season, some stunners there for sure, along with the ‘fuglies', each to his own I guess, I personally have never indulged in a Coconut Bar Freelancer, but there certainly was some tempting morsels there last night.

A special mention must also be made of the impressive Christmas Lighting display at the Beach Road end of the Royal Garden Plaza, during the day it doesn't look much, but once darkness falls, it's lit up, like err, well, a Christmas Tree I suppose!

Winter Wonderland

Continuing my perambulations onwards into Walking Street, passing through the hideous edifice that passes as the new Korean funded Walking Street entrance sign, it was my intention to go to the Air Port Club , as there are a couple of ‘Greeter' girls there that are to die for, but the whole of that section appeared to be in the grip of a power outage, so I decided to give it a miss and call back in later.

I then made my mind up to visit a place rarely mention in these annals, or indeed any other Pattaya blogs, the Polo Entertainment Lounge . My reason for doing so was I had read a submission from the ubiquitous ‘Dana', most people that have read any Thailand websites or blogs would probably be aware of his unique insights of life in the Land of Smiles, on Thailand Stories where he had described a night out there, and I made myself a promise to revisit the place in light of his submission.

Bounding enthusiastically up the stairway, and being sure to avoid letting myself get sideswiped into the Galaxy European style clip joint next door, I entered into a packed auditorium and was led to a table close to the stage.

The first thing I noticed was that to my surprise it was not completely filled with Asian coach tour parties, yes, they were a presence in there, but I would say it was 50/50 Asian/Caucasian crowd in there on Friday night. I ordered my bottle of Heineken in the full knowledge that I would be charged like a wounded rhinoceros, after all it is a Show Bar as opposed to a Go-Go Bar, and sure enough it was 120 baht, frankly not too bad after all.

I was joined by a rather comely wench who slid in next to me, and a drink for the lady was 140 baht, again no more than I had expected, and she was good company for the duration of my stay. The lovely lady in question went by the simplistic moniker of ‘A', 27 years old and from Bangkok, but I got to wondering whether or not it would be possible to screw your way through the entire alphabet of Thai ladies? You may have some difficulty with a couple of the consonants mind, but it gives a whole new meaning to ‘I'll have four from the top and two from the bottom please Carol”, doesn't it?

What of the shows I hear you ask? Well, on another Forum yesterday there was a topic about ‘Theme' Go-Go Bars, and to that poster I say, get yourself up to Polo, there are some very pretty indeed girls up there dancing, and indeed hostessing in the place, plenty of lingerie on display, topless and indeed fully naked shows, and one I saw with a little bit of latex clad pseudo bondage and whipping in it, I was sorely tempted to get up there on stage when they were looking for volunteers to dish out a little ‘punishment', but my newly acquired best friend was keeping me busily occupied with some social intercourse, so I sadly declined the offer, though I did get my comeuppance when they came off the stage and mingled with the audience, ouch! I can not say if the shows get a little raunchier later in the evening, but for simple ‘totty' laden entertainment, I would say it is worth a look.

Angels from the Realms of Glory

Well, after exiting Polo, it was back up to the Air Port Club which thankfully had power restored and looking forward to hopefully spending some time with the future Mrs. Materialsman#3, and do you know what, she was on the door looking as delectable as always, and I bottled it! Like a shy fourteen year old with a schoolboy crush I completely failed to say anything to her as I walked by, my mouth opened and nothing came out, and rather than stand there like a gibbering idiot I walked straight into the Bar without making contact. In my dreams it certainly hadn't panned out like that, in my mind I, the Alpha male was going to sweep her off her feet and impress her with my rugged good looks and witty repartee.

In reality I was stuck in the only available space in the Club, well away from the bathtub and Jacuzzi action, and right under a speaker close to the Club entrance, nursing my 120 baht bottle of Heineken and wondering whether I could get one of the other service girls to pass her a ‘note from a friend' professing my undying love for her. Fortunately Dutch courage in the form of a couple more bottles of the green stuff enabled me to pluck up the courage to get one of the other girls to drag her in for a lady drink.

Regular mongers will be aware of the apparel worn by the service girls here, and the even skimpier uniforms worn by the door girls, two of which, as I mentioned earlier, are to die for, and as it transpired I ended up sitting with both of them for a good while. I shan't go into details, but the object of my desire was every bit as fun and cute as she has appeared in my dreams and now that contact has been established, I will certainly be returning once the Christmas and New Year Bar Fine wallet gouging levels are over, so, like a News of the World reporter, after really enjoying the company, I made my excuses and left.

I have no real recollection of the price of lady drinks due to my euphoric state, but my check bin was a few baht short of a ‘non counterfeit' 1000 baht note, money well spent in my honest opinion. I know some of you more hardened mongers out there would chide me for not just paying the bar fine for her and fulfilling my erotic dreams of her, but I'm afraid I am just an old fashioned romantic at heart, and like to imagine the ‘illusion' of some kind of girlfriend experience rather than just a quick ‘wham bam, thank you mam' session, particularly with girls who, at least in my fervoured imagination exude a little bit more class. I have always lived by the mantra ‘speculate to accumulate', it doesn't always pay off, but I enjoy the chase so much more than the conquest, I was never really comfortable with the Soi 6, or Body Massage style of ‘dine and dash' entertainment, although of course I have forced myself to go through with it on many an occasion, purely in the interest of research you'll understand!

Ding Dong Merrily on High

Time was waiting in the wings, and speaking senseless things, and I was running a little late due to the amount of time spent blissfully in the above Air Port Club , it had been my intention to pay another visit to Baby Dolls , as I had a rip roaring old time in there a few weeks earlier in the company a couple of French guys on their first trip to Pattaya, and I enjoy nothing more than watching naked young girls do unspeakably inhuman things to the humble banana, but I had also promised myself a visit to Heaven Above , always one of my favourite Pattaya spots, and one that recently had come in for a little criticism on another Pattaya Forum, so Baby Dolls would have to wait, plus the owner of Heaven Above had promised me a free beer for pointing him in the right direction for purchasing Beer Lao, so the Cheap Charlie in me kicked in and it was up those familiar steps to Heaven.

Again the Bar was busy, all three of the places I had visited in Walking Street were pretty much standing room only, I think my Heineken was again 120 baht, could have been 110, not really sure, but it doesn't make Polo as outrageously expensive as I thought it was. I asked for the ‘Boss' in order to introduce myself and claim my free beer, sadly he was unavailable so that option was gone for a Burton!

I did however have a brief chat with the Manager, an affable enough young Aussie chap, who was desperately trying to sell me on the idea of purchasing a special discount drink card for the minimal sum of 850 Baht, which was guaranteed to eventually save me money on my drinks. Sorry, I'm sure it is a good deal but not one I am going to go for while out having a good time and in a fairly incapacitated state, seemed a bit like a Time Share sort of deal, and I have nothing to do with them, well not unless it is one of the more attractive girls on Beach and Second Road that engages me, I prefer to pay upfront for my drinks with the type of vouchers I draw from the ATM's.

As for the eye candy on view, well again recently there has been criticism of the line up, but I have to say I thought there were some stunners on show, whether or not they have pussies made of gold that pee pure Pinot Noir, and a stuck up attitude to match, I can't really say, they certainly seemed friendly enough to my advances, and when I walked out of the club at around midnight there were fifteen very attractive hard bodied girls lined up totally buck naked on stage, and more circling the stage, what's wrong with that scenario, I mean what more could you desire? The service staff were attentive, and some comely wenches amongst them too, the only downside of my time there were the two outbreaks of ‘ping pong' disease, one of my pet hates in the Go-Go's and one which I have remarked on before, so I won't go over old ground, suffice to say I would have had a word in the shell like of the chap throwing his balls around, but he was a good foot taller than me and a wee bit broader, and I'm six foot tall and 100 kilos, so discretion was the order of the day.

I sincerely hope he had a large bladder to match, as going for a pee in Heaven's Above can be a considerable challenge to the ‘larger boned' amongst us. I voted with my feet, although in truth it was time for ‘stumps up' anyway. All in all, still one of the top go-go's in Pattaya with some stunning girls, in my humble opinion.

Well, it was time for me to stumble off home, as materialsman has to earn a crust doing a proper job, but to recap, Pattaya was as busy as normal during this particular night, at least in the Bars I saw and visited, with many people milling about on the streets, it could drop off very quickly after next week, we shall see, I will take another trip out early next year.

And of course, to finish with a Seasonal musical interlude, I give you:-

The Pattaya Christmas Song

Crickets roasting on an open fire,
Soi dogs nipping at your toes,
Yuletide carols being sung by Ladyboys,
And girls dressed up like Santa's Ho's.

Everybody knows Heineken and Johnny Black,
Help to make the season bright.
Yaa Baa'd babes with their eyes all aglow,
Will find it hard to sleep tonight.

They know that Santa's on his way;
He's loaded lots of lube and Viagra on his sleigh.
And every mother's child is going to spy,
To see if fa-langs really know how to fly.

And so I'm offering this simple phrase,
To mongers, twenty one to ninety-two,
Although its been said many times, many ways,
A very Merry Pattaya Christmas to you

Until next time we meet, Happy New Year to both my readers!

Shark Club and Shark A-GoGo have now been merged into one with the name Shark Club A-GoGo. There are still separate teams of girls with mamasang at each end of the enormous bar area, but the dividing walls have been removed.

The Shark A-GoGo end of the bar now seems to have taken on the procedures of Shark Club.

This include the girls being hands on friendly. I surely enjoyed my stay in the bar. Seems a big improvement on the old Shark A-GoGo.

There is now an additional entrance on Soi 15 that should capture a bit of the foot traffic on the way to other popular gogos.

As a related rebranding advertising for Tiger Lounge now emphasises the change from coyote to gogo by referring to the venue as Tiger Lounge A-GoGo.

Counting the two Shark venues as one now drops Pattaya's gogo count to 78.

A new disco has opened up on Walking Street opposite Soi Diamond and next door to Hammer Disco.

I'm not sure that the Republica Disco TK name is quite appropriate to the royalists of Thailand but there you go.

Also interesting to see if there is room in the ever changing market for anther disco. Any reviews welcomed as I very rarely partake in Pattaya's discos.

The Dollhouse is a Walking Street GoGo located under Peppermint Palace.

The bar was very quiet at what should have been a prime time. I presume this rather reflects the lack of holiday makers in town. It has always struck me that this bar is not really a hit with Pattaya residents and appeals more to visitors.

The bar had about 15 dancers in attendance and a few showgirls hiding away in their changing room. 5 or 6 girls were dancing either in bikinis or topless on the revolving central stage.. The girls were generally average which of course means there are a few that appeal.

The girls seemed a little lack lustre in terms of hostess duties, and a couple of newbies behind me were getting a bit of a hard sell about ping pong balls.

There were a couple of shows that were not particularly sexy. One was traditional Thai dancing, and in the other, the girls only got down to their knickers.

I'd rather guess that not many expats use the bar as the drinks prices are on the high end whilst the entertainment is on the low end. Nothing inherently bad about the bar, just poor value.

The fashion for big windowed coyote bars still seems to be a success story of one.

the 2nd Road Bad Cats Club near Tims GoGo and opposite Mike's Mall has now changed into Fall in Love Club. The previous guise had only lasted since August.

A little further north on 2nd Riad, the small group of beer bars between the Apex Hotel and Diana Inn are said to be due for closure to make way for another hotel development.

And on the the theme of bad cats, Kitten's Bar on Soi Post Office has gone dark. Not sure whether this is temporary or not.

Beavers is a small GoGo at the Beach Road end of Walking Street.

It took me a long time to work out how to get the best out of the bar. It can be good fun but there are several pitfalls to avoid.

What makes the bar is that the girls are hands on, friendly and generally good fun. The downside is the overly long dance stints couple with the inconsistency of numbers inherent in a small bar.

So what do is first of all is do a quick scan of the bar. If it is barfined out, and there are few girls in attendance then a U turn is in order. Try again another day as the girls will spend all their time dancing.

If there are sufficient girls, then I choose the table at the back left of the bar which is the last on the dance rota. Choosing the girl from this table enables a decent amount of time before she has to go dance again.

And the chances are then good for a memorable visit to the bar.

Club Misty's is located on Soi 15 just off Walking Street.

A good looking bar that has not quite made it on to my list of favourite bars.

There are a fair amount of girls employed and there are some who are pretty indeed. Plenty on show in terms of dress code too.

The happy hour offer is a very good deal at 2 for 1, and draft beer later is a reasonable 65 Baht.

The upstairs loos have been mentioned in the past in terms of caution of the spiral stairs when drunk. The stairs are wide enough that this isn't really an issue.

The only real reason why I haven't become a regular is that on most visits, I have been simply been ignored by the girls. Not a big issue, but Misty's is located tantalisingly close to Baby Dolls where good hostessing is assured. So impatience usually gets the better of me, perhaps a little bit before it should.

The popular U Too Bar on 2nd Road opposite Alcazar is said to have its eye on relocating to the recently vacated Easyriders venue a couple of blocks north. This is due to the existing U Too Bar being in a block marked for redevelopment in the new year

Meanwhile on Walking Street the new development between Air Port Club and Hammer Disco is said to be a another disco.

Club Nevada has become a bar that I visit regularly but rarely stay long. It is conveniently located near Beach Road and Royal Garden Mall. It is a good place for a refreshment break when strolling around the area.

The bar has scaled back its girls and somehow there are never enough to spend much time entertaining customers. They tend to do a long dance stint even when there are next to no customers in the bar.

On the positive side there are usually a few attractive girls in attendance and about half the girls dance nude.

The drinks are cheap with a long running 50 Baht draft Chang and draft Heineken is 60 Baht.

The bar seems to be best in the afternoon when there are more girls and more customers.

A new gogo has opened in Naklua just off Naklua Road on Soi 33, not far from Dolphin Island. It is called Loma A-GoGo which is the Thai word for a dolphin.

Its been a couple of years since there was a gogo in Naklua. (19-69 Club closed its doors in summer of 2006).

The new gogo is a square basic looking venue with a central stage and bench seating around the sides.

There were a dozen dancers on duty of which half were dancing. They were dancing in the full range of undress from nude to bikinis. There were a few attractive girls amongst them. The bar was operating two shifts of dancing, each for 6 song stints.

The music is oldie farang friendly rock.

The happy hours draft beer was well cheap at 39 Baht. The lady drinks are cheap but they have the standard/tequila/cocktail scheme at 80/100/120 Baht that is so prone to abuse.

The girls ignored me but the mamasang helpfully pointed out that all the girls were new to Pattaya and did not know what expected of them. No doubt they will have to learn quickly otherwise customers wont stay long.

I'll give them another chance though, the bar seemed a pleasant enough place.

There are now 79 bars with girls dancing in bikinis or less in the Pattaya area

Wet 'n' Wild is located under Centre Condo a few hundred metres down Pattaya Tai from the Walking Street Area.

My visits have declined to this bar as a couple of girls I know have moved on to Walking Street bars.

Most of the entertainment instigated to get the bar going in the earlier part of the year are still in place but things have drifted a bit of late. There are still some good looking girls dancing in various stages of undress and of course the occasional girl diving into the big swimming tank. There was also a sexy show.

On my last visit the girls would scamper away into a distant corner at the end of the set and customers had to call the staff to conjure up any interaction from the girls.

Perhaps it just needs a good high season to get the girls energised.

The only gogo in Jomtien on Thappraya Road near the beach

The bar seems to keep plodding on and if anything the number of customers and dancing girls has dropped off a bit.

Before they used have about a dozen girls in the bar of which 9 would be dancing. On my last visit they had only 9 girls of which 6 were dancing.

Still lousy ratios of time available for the girls to sit with the customers, but at least the 6 song wait is better than a 9 song wait.

It is all a bit of a shame as the girls seem pretty good at looking after their customerd. If only they were given a bit more time I am sure the bar would be worth visiting. The girls would definitely be more entertaining playing with customers than dancing for them. They are a little lacking in glitz and glamour

The music is well selected rock classic concert performances relayed on 2 very large screens.

Otherwise the service girls and managers are friendly enough. The drinks are reasonably priced and there's plenty of empty seats to lounge around in.

The Pattaya International Mardi Gras is set to take place on 23rd January 2009.

This will be the first ever Mardi Gras Festival here in Pattaya and will be based on Mardi Gras celebrations around the world.

The highlight of the festival will be an Electric Parade which will take place in the evening. It will start at Pattaya City Hall and finish on Pattaya Beach close to the Central Pattaya Road intersection.

Local Schools and Private Companies will be taking part in the parade which will be colorful and full of energy according to the organizers who are Pattaya City Hall and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Mandarin recently underwent a refit and re-launched as a GoGo. Unfortunately it didn't seem to spark much interest and the numbers of dancing girls has dwindled ever since.

Lately the bar has been operating with just 3 or 4 girls.

Today it has failed to open. Too soon to know if it is a temporary or a permanent closure, but things certainly don't look too healthy there.

Update: also closed 13th December

New Star is located in Soi Diamond just off Walking Street.

The girls of New Star A-GoGo vary their short time rates according to which side of the bar you sit on.

On the left the table menus show the all in package as 1950 (600 barfine + 350 room + 1000 short time). On the right hand side the menus show a total of 2450 with the girl's share being 1500 Baht.

Either way it seems very expensive.

The bar has a very mixed selection of girls ranging from very pretty to very not. The prettier girls are anchored to door with an invisible bungy cord. They are employed more to attract passers by than to look after the customers inside.

If you are up to being manhandled by the oldies, the bar can be quite good fun. But I always feel for the unaware newbies who get ruthlessly exploited by the girls given half the chance.

Easyriders Pub has closed. It was once a popular bar on Second Road near Big C featuring a pretty decent rock band.

Increased prices and bill hassles seem to have put the bar into decline over the last year or so.

Shark Club is upstairs above Super Girls on Soi Diamond.

The bar seems to have calmed down a bit from when I first stopped by when it seemed one of the most lawless bars on the circuit.

I now enjoy the bar and nearly always seem to find a pretty girl to play with. It is surely a hands on bar but not quite as raunchy as Windmill or Babydolls. But by way of a compromises they have a regular supply of very pretty girls.

There are usually about 20 girls in the bar of which 7 are dancing a circuit of 7 tables. This leaves a fair amount of time for the girls to get busy on their potential customers, but when they go dance 7 songs is too long and is often a cue to depart. The dancing dress code is generally well revealing.

The drinks are a little pricey but just about within range.

It seems strange that this bar is so much better than Tiger A-GoGo and Tiger Lounge in the same ownership.

Byblos is located on the corner of Pratamnak Road and Soi Diamond.

I was ushered in to the ground floor bar with half a dozen coyote dancers. I am afraid I associate excess clothes with an excess of prices and an excess of unfriendly attitude, so I back pedalled and opted to go upstairs.

I did note that it seems strange to have different styles of entertainment on different floors when none of the staff pointed out available options. I didn't spot any signs suggesting that there was a gogo upstairs either. One presumes that the welcome staff think they know best where to guide people.

Upstairs the bar was well into a bells and whistles shows And if you like that sort of thing, then this bar seems to do the complete works with every variation on the theme that I have seen to date. It was interminable with not a single act being anywhere near sexy.

There were dancers waiting in the wings but the tedium of the show predictably got to me first.

Draft beer was a reasonable 65 Baht and the service was good. No hassle from the girls either.

Catz seems to have become something of a non event.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the bar in many ways though. There are usually a few pretty girls dancing, the drinks are reasonable, the decor is attractive, there's no hassle and there are usually a few friendly expats having a chat down the back.

But there is nothing particularly positive about the bar either. The girls aren't hands on friendly, there's no sexy show (unless for special occasions) and there's no play stage or Jacuzzi.

I always find the really downer is that when the girls go dance , they dance for 5 loooong dance music tracks and there's simply not enough entertainment to entice one to stay.

I used to drop by for a nightcap but when the bar gets depleted of girls, the remainder are nearly all dancing leaving little chance of even a chat.

Still a bar that has a good turnover of pretty girls can't be all bad.

It seems the big windowed coyote bars are drawing the curtains.

The blacking out of the windows at Ice has already being reported along with its conversion to gogo dancing.

Now I have spotted that Bad Cats Bar on 2nd Road has added curtains that it draws at some point in the evening.

It must always be a danger that if you design a bar for everyone to see inside, then when the bar is having a dead patch, then all the potential customers can see it is dead, and so walk on by.

The Zone coyote bar on the soi between Buakhao and The Avenue Mall has recently gone dark. It had only been open a couple of months. Perhaps not really enough padding trade.

Club Blu still seems to be going strong though. Perhaps it is destined to being one of a kind.

There has been no news of any letters sent out by the authorities to close for the King's Birthday yet it seems that some bars decided to close anyway.

Soi 6 was closed for the afternoon.

Some beer bars were open but keeping the music down.

Walking Street was reported as operating normally.

Ice on Soi LK Metro has just converted from a coyote bar to a GoGo.

Club Blu clones do not appear to have been a great success in Pattaya, so Ice has decided to black out the windows and go GoGo.

The bar is still laid out more as a coyote bar with stools and tables and there's no bench seating.

They have retained the coyote girls as gogo dancers and to some it hasn't really made much difference yet. The girls were dancing in skirts and bikini tops, but some of the coyote dancers haven't go over their shyness and wear bras under their bikini tops.

The girls get a little bit more adventurous for sexy shows from 10pm.

There were about a dozen girls in the bar and 6 dance at anyone time. They do a nice short stint of 4 dances. There are some well attractive girls amongst the dancers. The dancing is more coyote style than gogo and in fact the  dancing stages in front of the windows have no poles.

The girls were friendly enough to circulate amongst the customers and I had an enjoyable visit.

The service girls were friendly too.

There's a 2 for 1 happy hour on drinks of which the basic prices are very reasonable, 85 for bottled Tiger and 100 Baht for lady drinks. Note that to ensure cool drinks, the second does not appear until you have finished the first.

X-Zone is on the top floor of Covent Garden just off Walking Street on Soi 16

The bar had some good times earlier in the new year when new owners managed to acquire some girls well trained at Windmill.

Most of the elements of a good bar are still in place but it has gently declined from its peak.

There is still a naughty play stage, a Jacuzzi and a fair amount of dancers in the entire range of costume.

From a personal point of view I put it down to slightly poor value. The lack of draft beer makes it more expensive than most for beer drinkers. The room charge requires a full barfine on top of the room charge which seems unreasonable for the short time away from the bar for the girl. Also the girls are quite demanding on the tips for the play stage and Jacuzzi. Maybe the dance stints have historically been too long as well.

A bar that tempts me to stop by, but somehow never quite succeeds in getting me to stay long.

Ice is located on Soi LK Metro in the venue that used to be Gorkle and before that, Memories .

On the 1st December the coyote dancers will take off a few excess clothes and the bar will become a GoGo.

I visited on the last night as a coyote bar and was very impressed. The mamasang was doing a great job in assigning spare dancers to having a chat with customers. In fact it was the friendliest coyote bar I have been to for a while.

Presumably the bar is not doing a total switch of staff so hopefully this bodes well for the re-launch. Maybe the bar could do with a bit of comfy seating though.

Ice will be the 79th bar in town with girls dancing in a bikini or less.

Meanwhile Maximum Club has opened at the corner of 2nd Road and Soi 3. It is a nightclub featuring coyote dancing.

I stopped by early and the welcome staff were inviting people in, but there was absolutely no entertainment on offer, not even a hostess, let alone a dancer. Presumably it will become a later venue than the rest of the bars in the area.