Pattaya high season has finally hit, with shoulder-to-shoulder crowds on Walking Street every night of the week and noticeably less moaning from bar bosses.
Redlight Report was in Pattaya Jan. 8-11 and every room in the hotel was fully booked. Tourists are everywhere. But, clearly, they’re not all there to hit the go-go.
Walking Street was packed for Pattaya high season but, as normal during Pattaya high season, the majority of those strolling where mainstream tourists, tour groups and total idiot parents who bring their toddlers to an area famous for prostitution, liquor and drugs. (You need a license to drive/fish/hunt, but any moron can have a kid…)
But even for accounting for the lookie-loos, there were plenty of punters to go around in the bars with few complaints to be found among owners and managers.
Identi Brings the ‘Energy’
One of the biggest complaints about go-go bars this Pattaya high seasons is that the girls are all “drink whores” who don’t even make the pretense of engaging in small talk – Where you from? How long you stay? What hotel you? – before asking for a drink.
Identi on Walking Street has found a way to encourage girls to try harder not to piss off the punters by giving guys “Identi Energy Commission Cards”. The deal is simple and a win-win for customers.
This Pattaya high season, buy a drink for yourself and you’ll be given an Energy Card worth 100 baht. Wave the card at the lady of your choice and she can earn 100 baht just to come sit with you without buying a drink. The hope is that if she charms you enough, you’ll buy the lady drink on your own.
Identi’s bosses admit it’s not a profitable promotion so – instead of getting an energy card with every drink – they may change it to one card a customer or cut the commission to 50 baht. So act quick before things change.
No Pattaya High Season for Soi 15
The Akira nightclub on Soi 15 has reopened. Sapphire Club opposite continues to chug along and Jisoo still has the lights on (for now), but the rest of the once uber-popular Walking Street subsoil remains a ghost town even during Pattaya high season.
Walk up 15 past Akira and you enter Pattaya’s go-go morgue, with signage still in place above buildings more akin to the Walking Dead than Walking Street.
What’s Up and the upstairs Imagine still call out for customers, although the cobwebs are too thick to pass through. The signs for The Dollhouse and Club Electric Blue actually remain illuminated, but only to highlight the “For Sale” sign on the front of the bar.
The only business still operating – technically – is Barco, a restaurant opposite The Dollhouse that once was where Baby Dolls and other go-go bars once thrived. It’s a mystery how it stays open.
Are go-go bars on side streets viable anymore? Soi Diamond, other than LePub and Windmill, isn’t doing well.
Wanna Buy a Go-Go Bar?
An unnamed and still-operating go-go bar on a Walking Street subsoil has hit the market at a price indicating the owners are more interested in getting out than making a fortune.
Speculated as being Jisoo a-Go-Go on Soi 15 – the former Shark before it relocated to the main Walking Street – the bar is described as fully staffed and offered as a turnkey operation, with the sale including the company structure.
Monthly rent is listed at 100,000 baht, with key money set at 2.5 million baht every three years. The current lease reportedly has about 2.5 years remaining.
Transfer costs are to be split 50–50 between buyer and seller, and the owners say no agents are involved.
Jisoo has been on the market since before Pattaya high season began, with owners even offering it back to the Shark group. Another Walking Street bar owner who inquired about buying it quoted a price of 10 million baht.
It’s now 6 million. Must not have been many takers at that price.
More Walking Dead
Soi 15 isn’t the only place to find the Walking Dead this Pattaya high season. In Walking Street’s southern end, deep into so-called “Indian Territory”, sit the shuttered Peppermint, a Pattaya institution that has been closed since April when the Korean boss stiffed the staff of their salaries and did a runner.
Dave Rave news reported in June then that a Filipino man had taken over the property and was renovating it, with the goal of reopening it as the Wolf Club this Pattaya high season.
Pattaya high season full moons have come and gone, but there’s been no howling from the Peppermint site.
Interesting, while the Peppermint brand certainly is done, the building still may one day host a go-go bar again. Why? There’s no “for sale” or “for rent” sign on the building, leading many to believe the Filipino still owns the bar.
Let’s Hit the Beach
Finally, it’s time to hit the beach on Soi Cowboy this weekend. What? You say there’s no beachfront properly on the Neon Alley? Well, the next closest thing will be at Vicky’s Secret on Saturday for their latest party.
The Vicky’s Beach party starts at 9 p.m. on Jan. 17 with happy hour prices all night and free shots for all.
Grab your beach gear, bring your crew and make some waves.
Bad Guys Go to Pattaya
For years, the sign atop King Café (and later Folk) on Walking Street carried Pattaya’s most famous slogan: “Good guys go to heaven, bad guys go to Pattaya”.
Alas, like so many Pattaya landmarks of yore, the sign is no more. Folk, which took over from King Café, closed last year and this Pattaya high season has been replaced by the Pattaya Beach Club. There’s no marquee above seating anymore, only a boring LED panel. You’ll just have a settle for a t-shirt now.
