It may sit on xiong di, but Pattaya’s Harem Ultra is off to the best start of any of the five Chinese-owned go-go bars that tried their luck on supposedly “cursed ground”.
Opened July 9 by the 37-year-old Zhejiang, China native who, for the past three years operated the smaller Harem a-Go-Go at the southern end of Walking Street, Haren Ultra sits on prime real estate in the middle of Walking Street. Yet four other attempts that the choice spot sandwiched between the successful Bliss and Dragon go-go bars have all failed, some spectacularly.
Most recently, Harem Ultra had been Abyss, which lasted just 79 days. Prior to that were two versions of Okeanos, which had been born from the merger of the Panda and Gold a-go-gos, which closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The original Harem closed the week Ultra opened. The boss said it was not only a chance to move to a larger space in a better location, but that the original Harem was now surrounded by Indian clubs, as Pattaya’s “Indian Quarter” continues to expand northward.
‘Cursed Ground’ No Longer?
Fuzokou, the Chinese-language nightlife outlet, has already framed the location in terms of “xiong di” (凶地), an ill-fated or inauspicious place, pointing to what it described as the site’s bad feng shui after the short-lived runs of Okeanos and Abyss.
Fuzukou also noted Harem Ultra’s prominent Chinese “Dragon Palace” signage and openly wondered whether the latest incarnation can finally break the location’s losing streak.
Based on business during what, for most, has been a dismal August, Harem Ultra may be breaking the curse. Thursday and Friday nights, when the usually bars were a third empty at 11 p.m., Haren was full, with 84 girls bouncing on customers laps and stacked up waiting to dance.
Videos from last Friday and other recent nights show raucous crowds including on patron throwing 100,000 baht in tips to the girls.
Finally Doing It Right
Ultra’s owner said Friday he agreed with the frequently quoted line that there’s no secret to running a successful go-go bar: Fill it full of young, slim pretty girls; charge reasonable prices, create a comfortable environment with good lighting, sound and seats and you’ll probably fill the joint every night. The shocking part is that so few actually do it.
By any measure, Harem Ultra is a very well-run bar, with the bossman, who runs an international import-export company based in Moscow, focused on every aspect of the operation, to service, drink charges and aesthetics. He imported the unique costumes the laides wear directly from China.
His Thai wife, meanwhile, has used the agency connections she made at the original Harem to build a large staff of young, slim, attractive women to work the stage and PR staff.
All of Harem Ultra’s predecessors failed at these things. Abyss had few girls and its non-happy hour prices were ridiculous. Okeanos’ seating was stupidly arranged. Gold and Panda? No one even remembers them thanks to Covid.
Harem has done the best with the hand it was dealt. The main floor is small and nearly square. That’s not much that can be done. But they raised the center stage, put rails around it and a few tall tables, looking a bit like the back stage at the Pin-Up Group bars.
Even better, they removed the weird large tables in Abyss and standardized two rows of stadium seating around each wall, leaving som extra legroom and placing tables in the VIP seating.
Upstairs, the beautiful VIP / karaoke rooms that Abyss built but never used are finally open. Reserved for groups, the karaoke rooms are on the two floors above the main bar.
Finally, Harem Ultra’s façade impresses, unlike any previous bar in the same space, all of which looked like the found their signage in the bargain bin. Chinese-language Fuzokuu was intrigued by the dominating “龍宮” or “Dragon Palace”, wording, which doesn’t match the English name for Harem Ultra.
Going Solo in a Cartel World
After three years in the go-go business, Harem’s bossman understands the challenges Ultra faces. He’s basically a solo operator – his university classmates is the only other partner but lives full-time in China – and he owns only the one bar.
The competition are Pattaya’s two largest go-go groups, Pin-Up (which also runs XS, Atmos and Eden), and the Shark-Palace tie-up, which includes Fahrenheit, Geisha, Lighthouse and Bliss.
The bossman said Friday that some assumed he has also purchased the recently closed Skyfall, but that is another Chinese investor group who he has never met.
The successor to Skyfall, to be called Mirage 555, will open Sept. 5.
