Pattaya GoGo magazine

Always happy to contribute to Pattaya's publicity machine so here is the 3rd issue of Pattaya By Night.

The magazine features photo spreads at several of Pattaya's gogo bars. It sold reasonably widely around Pattaya for 150 Baht. 

Podiums replaced by bench seating and table dancing

From jj

Dave (of Windmill-Tramps-69-Baby Dolls) certainly knows how to run a bar! Not to be wasteful during the renovations at Windmill, he has moved the table dancing stages from there to Baby Dolls. Gone are the low-podiums of the old-XXX-Baby Dolls as well as the bikinis. In are two topless lasses per table in knickerless skirts (or less). In Windmill style, there are two more on a center stage getting to know each other intimately or rinsing away the accumulated effects of a long dance set with soapy liquids. The customers now get to look-up at the table dancers instead of down at the podiums.

Dave promises bigger and better things for Baby Dolls -- more bench seating -- but, for me at least, decor is secondary to fun gals. Whether it is the new management, the new stages, or the new costuming, the old Baby Dolls staff has been re-animated. A roomful of customers were all enjoying personal attention lavished on by a cheerful and willing staff. Add the hand-on waitstaff and a handful of hostesses to the mix and you have a fun place to add to Dave's profit line.

I'm eager to see what is in store for the future. I just hope he don't fix what ain't broken.

Power outage but...

From Pattaya Secrets

A dispute between property owners manifested itself in a power outage for the strip of Soi 8 bars next to the old Prince Hotel. The people from Mike's Mall are now the owners of the property and have been going through the legal eviction process of securing their ownership.

A couple of nights ago the bars went dark from 7pm until 3am.

Renovations at Windmill Club

Windmill Club is currently being renovated. The central stage has been remodelled and the table dancing stages around the edge have been removed. There is still bench seating but now there are small tables just for drinks.

This has freed up a lot of space and the bar is more attractive as a result. There are further plans to add a soapy stage.

The soapy stage may well put things back to right but the interim version of the bar seems a bit of a cock up.

As there are no more dancing tables, all the dancers have relocated to pack the central stage. This has unfortunately pushed the excellent sexy shows up to the elevated stage at the back of the bar where only the privileged few can see. The majority of the bar now only get to see the usual tired Isaan shuffle. It is probably made worse by there being too many girls packed onto the stage.

I think another psychological problem is that removing the table dancing stages has removed the nominal 'cover' for the guys getting up close and personal. As a result the bar seems simply less naughty.

Hot Tuna adds a wine bar

Hot Tuna have added another bar to their Walking Street cluster near Tony's Disco. It is located behind the live band area

The latest addition is described as a air-conditioned lounge featuring a large selection of wines and spirits.

They boast further of plasma screens, leather sofas and aquariums. They have soft house music and hostesses on hand

Baby Dolls changes hands again

Baby Dolls A-GoGo has now been acquired by the connections of Windmill Club who recently also purchase Club 69 next door.

The new owners have installed or jury-rigged a mattress stage for a bit of soapy fun. There is also a little bench seating rescued from Windmill which is currently being refurbished.

Rock Girl's A-GoGo opens

Rock Girl's A-GoGo has opened on Soi 15 opposite to Angelwitch.

The building is a little too small for the central stage layout. Down each side are stools arranged around guitar shaped tables. Unfortunately there is little room to walk by, and the tables jut out a bit too much.

There were about 15 girls on dancing duty of which 4 are onstage at any one time. The bar dress code seems to be bikini tops and light skirts. Unfortunately the only two pretty girls in the bar were protecting their modesty with granny pants.

As the name suggests the music was a solid selection of rock mostly from the 70s

Nothing to suggest any sexy shows and no one seemed very interested in the customers. I think this bar will have its work cut out to snag customers on their way to Angelwitch or Whats Up

X-Zone start happy hour on all drinks

Promotion from X-Zone

X Zone A-GoGo in the Covent Garden Complex has started an 8-10pm happy hour when ALL YOUR DRINKS (including the REAL labels) for a unique price of 50 Baht! Whatever your choice is (JW Black, Heineken, Corona, Chivas, Bacardi Breezer, virtually everything...). The regular lady drinks are priced at a reasonable 100 Baht all night long.

From 9 pm on, X Zone starts the famous and unique soapy party and this is a lot more fun and 'interactive' than the jacuzzi story copied at this time by so many venues already...

And for your information, the ones willing to make the big party with the X Zone girls, the venue is offering all night long a bottle of tequila @ 1000 Baht. A good way to have all your favourite ladies with you for a very long time...

X-Zone is the only club in the Covent Garden Complex and one of the few in Pattaya to have a genuine and premium sound system.

Brave bar owner demands search warrant from raiding police

Presumably Flip Pub is a Thai bar

Based on an article from Pattaya City News

On Sunday Night, Police Colonel Sutin, the Chief of Pattaya Police along with a team of officers made their way to the Flip Pub on 3rd Road and intended to conduct a raid on the premise after receiving information that young adults under the age of 20 were frequenting this popular pub.

As he arrived he was met with the owner of the pub who decided to refuse entry to the team of officers and claimed that without any official documentation such as a search warrant they could not legally enter his pub.

A heated verbal altercation between the Colonel and the owner continued for some time on the street in front of the pub. The Colonel decided to leave but promised the owner of the pub that a full report of the incident will be sent to the Governor of Chonburi Province detailing the lack of cooperation from the pub owner.

This report could lead to problems when it is time to renew the pubs entertainment and liquor licenses.

Funny Room A-GoGo takes shape

Another small gogo is taking shape on Soi 15, right next door to Club 69.

One can't help but think that the name is reflecting the mental state of the prospective operator.

East European working girls rounded up in Walking Street

From Pattaya People & Pattaya City News

At 2.00am on 12th March, Pattaya Immigration Chief, Police Colonel Ittipol Ittisarnronnachai and his team arrested ten East European women on Walking Street for prostitution.

Ten of these foreign ladies told the police that they came to Thailand for a holiday, and when they ran out of money, they had to do this in order to live. But the police did not believe them because from records, they are the same faces that frequent the area regularly for prostitution purposes. Other than that, from the ten women; two were from the Republic of Uzbekistan, aged 20 and 23, whose passports had expired.

Most were charged with a 500 Baht fine and then released. Later that nightthey were spotted back on Walking Street where they continued their search for customers.

As for the two Uzbekistan women that passports expired, they will be deported out of Thailand.

At the moment there are about 50 known foreign prostitutes here in Pattaya. Actually they travel around Thailand to any tourist city but the reason that they choose to stay at Pattaya the most is because a large number of Arabs stay in Pattaya. A lot of these ladies are Muslims; they target Arabian men because they can speak Arabian.

Rock Girl's A-GoGo takes shape

A new small gogo is taking shape opposite Angelwitch just off Walking Street on Soi 15. Possibly named to capitalise on the "Rock Dancers" tagline established by Angelwitch.

It is reported that the bar is under the same ownership as Nui's 2, Hot Girls, New Star and Pinky Girl

Broadway Club goes dark

Broadway Club just off Walking Street on Soi BJ has now gone dark and there is now a sign to say that the bar is for sale.

A new Pattaya short time bar on Thappraya Road

Good to see a new short time bar opening in an area of town without so many bars. The new bar is associated with the popular El Coyote in the Jomtien Complex. This one though is located at the Pattaya end of Thappraya Road opposite the Mini Gold Pub.

From a UK slant, the name Soho, does little for me except conjure up an image of clip joints and establishments best avoided.

Still I braved the prejudice and found a pretty standard beer bar layout with bar stools rather than the far more inviting sofa affairs. The bar is long and narrow and decorated with many pictures from London.

The bar could do with a little privacy perhaps by closing the main door. But then again, as there is no air con, then perhaps it would get unpleasantly hot.

Even after chatting for a while I found it a little hard to believe that short time was the aim of the bar. None of the girls chatting to customers appeared to be getting down to anything very sexy. In fact the girl chatting to me was hardly what you could call attentive or enticing.

Other little things to iron out were that the music was a little loud and that the best looking girls were baggsed by the owner and friends. There were plenty of girls to go around though.

Bottled beer was reasonable at 65 Baht, soft drinks were 50 Baht & lady drinks 105 Baht. There is also Tiger draft beer. I didn't ask about the short time prices as didn't want to give my inattentive drinking partner false hope.

Still early days but I rather suspect that the hardened short timers will stick with the more discreet and comfortable Jade Club just up the road.

My drinking friend did make one good point: Do you know any short time bars on a main road? Made me ponder a while but there is the Buffalo bar on 3rd Road, albeit set back a bit.

Sweetheart's A-GoGo opens in Walking Street

From Chalkie of Sweethearts, March 2007: Sweet Prices

Just to let you know we will be opening unofficially tonight (12th March) at 8pm. I will be managing the bar along with my Thai friend Satit (Uncle Sam). We offer table top go go dancing with rock music and competitive drinks prices.

Happy Hour is from 8 til 10pm which has draft beer and house spirits (Vodka, Gin, Rum etc..) at 45 B. Normal pricing is 50 B for draft beer or 150 B per jug & House spirits 95 B. We also offer bottled beers from 95 B. Lady Drinks are 95 B all night with barfines at 400 B

Concerns about passport checks

The topic of police checking passports seems to have become a major talking point on Pattaya forums.

There was even a suggestion that from April there would be a concerted police campaign to go on ID checking expeditions for a month or two.

It is a legal requirement on all people in Thailand to carry ID. For Thais that means their ID card and for non-Thai residents or visitors it means carrying an original passport.

Of course it is pretty dangerous to carry the original as it is valuable to thieves and is too big to hide away in deep pockets etc.

Traditionally the compromise has been to carry a copy of the passport and this generally seems to have been accepted over previous years along with other official ID such as a Thai driving licence.

There are copy shops such as the Kodak shop on 2nd Road opposite Royal Garden Plaza that will make a nice laminated half size copy with the data page on the front and entry stamp page on the back. (for about 100 Baht).

However if there is a particular campaign, then it may be that past convention simply does not apply anymore.

Perhaps best to avoid drinking in sois that are readily blocked so that when there is a buzz of warnings one can slip quietly into the night without worrying about having to pass through a police barricade.

Club 69 goes Windmill

Club 69 on Soi 15 opposite What's Up has now changed hands and is being run by the people that brought you Windmill Club.

Given that the bar already had some attractive girls and just needed a little prod to make it more customer friendly then surely it has a good chance now.

Some girls have also being shipped in from the Windmill to make up the numbers.

More hassle

Based on an article from Pattaya City News

Acting on orders from the Immigration Office in Bangkok, Police Colonel Itipon, the Chief of Pattaya’s Immigration Bureau led an operation in conjunction with the Labor Department and Social Welfare Department.

The Immigration Officers visited a number of areas including Soi Yodsak and Soi LK Metro.

We understand that they were on the lookout for foreign individuals that may be residing in Thailand illegally and made many passport checks during the operation. One man was arrested for failing to produce his original passport when requested by the officers.

Bar licenses and the presence of underage workers were also checked and a total of 3 male employees under the age of 18 were discovered inside The Gentleman’s Club in Soi Pattayaland 1, South Pattaya.

We expect this Immigration Police Operation to continue and suggest that all foreigners should carry their original passport with them at all times. (Unfortunately totally impractical advice as it is a major hassle should you lose this incredibly valuable document, hell, the passport does not even fit in your pocket)

Soi 6 inspected

From Pattaya Talk

Several dozen Thai police officers both uniformed and in plain clothes "inspected" the bars on Soi 6 last night starting around 22:00 hours. They checked licenses, employee records, ST rooms and for the presence of CCTV cameras.

Also employees in some bars were piss tested for drugs. There were no reports of any farangs being tested.

Bars were also warned to have CCTV cameras installed by 31 March or face closure, as has been previously stated.

The police were on the prowl at about 6:30pm looking for likely targets.

A fun map of Pattaya

From Pattaya Bar Guide

A new addition to the many resources to help people to have fun in Pattaya.

Farm Fresh

Same early closing bollox as Pattaya

From Phuket Gazette

Phuket Governor Niran Kalayanamit has ordered police to continue their crackdown on bars in Patong opening after hours, saying that there were no exceptions in the law for “tourist provinces”.

At the Phuket Provincial Security Committee’s monthly meeting at the Thavorn Grand Plaza Hotel on Tuesday, Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Decha Budnampeth asked the Governor to clarify the province’s stance on the crackdown: I would like to know what provincial policy on the issue is because I’m sure that if we wanted to we could put a stop to all the entertainment venues that are breaking the law, but I’m worried that it could destroy the atmosphere in Patong. If I don’t take action, then police from Bangkok will come here and make arrests, and I will be the first one to be blamed, Gen Decha said.

Some entertainment venues don’t even have entertainment licenses, they have only licenses to sell alcohol off site. There are also venues that close at 1 am when the police are around then open again at 4 am or 5 am when police aren’t around. In fact we know who the owners of most of the places are but they continue to open illegally, he added.

Gov Niran replied, We have to enforce the law. If we do not we ourselves may get in trouble. There is no clause in the law saying that entertainment venues can open longer because we are a tourism province, so we have to follow the law as it is.

“If we have to arrest people, then we must arrest them. We should also introduce new measures to deal with repeat offenders such as permanently shutting bars that break the rules a certain number of times.

Farm Fresh

A whole suite of nasty polices for bars

From Mulphy on Pattaya Secrets

I attended a meeting today after we were invited by letter to come and find out what is going on in the mind of the governor of Chonburi provence.

Here are the main points of the meeting:

• No bar, club , gogo , or karaoke will be given an operators licence without having cctv installed both inside and outside there premises , this comes into effect immediately, no licence will mean closure.
• No employee under 20 years of age will be allowed to work in a licensed premises , the police will enforce this and the business owner will be held responsible and dealt with under the law.
  
  The police gave out registraition forms at the meeting on which employers must keep a registration of workers with personal details and a photograph similar to passport photograph along with id details , police and government officials to have access to these files on request.
• Police gave a warning that they will be giving random drug testing on both employees and customers and that the business owner will again be punished under Thai law along with the guilty parties if anyone on there premises is found to be a user.
• They spoke of official closing times saying that elsewhere in chonburo had a closure time of 1am , but pattaya would be allowed to open until 2am , at which time all lighting , music and tvs must be turned off .
  
  All checkbins in a bar must be settled at 2 am , any business seen issuing checkbins after this time will be prosecuted. all bars , clubs , karaokes etc must be vacated by customers and closed for the night by 2.45 am.
• They also issued all the bar owners in attendence paperwork on which to apply for licences to play music , both Thai and farang , saying any venue playing any music will be prosecuted if not in possession of a licence.
   

Now I know a lot of these laws are already in existence but not really enforced , well that is about to or is already changing. There were in attendance all the top dignitaries from Chonburi , Pattaya police , Banglamung offices and city hall , this was not a drill or exercise , this was serious warnings on there intentions.

The crackdown has begun.

Reader Comment: Not Too Bad

Analysis:

All these CCTV's will seemingly turn Pattaya into London. Did the powers-that-be think to mandate recorders or can the cameras simply transmit real-time to a TV? Who is watching? For what?

No under-age employees or patrons = Capital idea

Difficult to figure how an owner/manager/mamasang can control the activities of the employees during the 18-20 hours per day when they are not in the bar (see below). How a bar owner can be held responsible for the actions of his customers is beyond belief.

Most gogo bars don't get going until after 8PM. So a 5-6 hour work-day should appeal to most employees. Or perhaps more will open at 6PM for after dinner (supper?) dessert.

Update: 18 - 20 Employees ok

On closer inspection of the Thai it seems that 18 & 19 year old employees are still fine but that 18 -19 year old customers are still to be banned

 
Saturday is Makha Bucha day, maybe dry, maybe not

Makha Bucha day on Saturday 3rd March is a special day for Buddhists and may possibly be designated as a dry day for bars. However bars have not (yet) received the letter telling them to close so maybe they will be open. Monday is a public holiday so government offices and banks will be closed (but the bars are open).

Makha Bucha means "worship in the third month". Thai Buddhists visit the temples to light candles and remember two events that happened on this day.

The first event occurred nine months after Buddha reached Enlightenment, when 1250 of his disciples showed up to hear him preach, unannounced and unplanned. His sermon gave the disciples the "Monk Way": give up evil, cultivate good, and cleanse one's mind.

The second event took place 44 years later, when Buddha announced that he would be entering Nirvana three months from that date. That holy day (three months from now) is called Visakha Bucha and will surely be a closed bar day.

Comment: This Is Thailand

Is it really true that the bars do not have an official list of dry days?
that the officials actually mail out letters on or about the given day?
that at the beginning of each year they are NOT given list of dates to plan for closing?

This seems unfair to all, particularly to the staff who are then denied the ability to plan for the day off to take care of other business.

Who is making -- or failing to make -- these decisions? Surely, it is not on the whim of whatever political party or branch of the military is in power during that month!

but then again This Is Thailand.

Update: Dry

Letters have now been issued instructing bars to close on Saturday 3rd March

Update: On the Day

The closure of gogo, live music venues, discos etc was nearly 100% (but of course not quite 100%).

Many beers also took the opportunity to give the staff the day off. Others opened and maintained the spirit of the day by only selling water and soft drinks. These seemed to be struggling for customers though as there were a fair few bars openly selling alcohol. The bars selling alcohol seemed to be doing very well for their efforts. ( A tip to bars that continue to sell beer, don't let customers at the front of the bar sit with water/coke bottles on their table. Potential beer seeking customers like me walk quickly by assuming that they are selling soft drinks only)

There were also a few bars that had a surprising amount of people drinking from disposable cups advertising coffee. One can't help but think that things weren't as they seem.