I've had a couple of bad experiences at Angelwitch.
First was in September when I ordered a coke, which was about the price of a beer, and was hustled out of the bar by the waitresses for not ordering another quickly enough. I though this may
have been because of my choice of beverage and that I'd be given more time with a beer.
The experience was enough to keep me away from the place until last night, when my date asked if we could return. Unarguably they have a great show and their
fill dancers between the shows are very attractive now – as they tended to be drab in the past.
But drinks are very expensive, and the waitresses were hovering as we watched the show. I believe the couple next to us were harassed out of the bar,
but I kept a firm hand on my beer throughout to avoid waitresses picking up the bottle – this didn't stop one waitress from getting up on her toes & peering in to it. Finally, although neither of us had finished our drinks, we were told we had to
reorder for the new show or go. So we chugged our drinks in anger and left. We never did see a full show and I expect the time we were allowed with our drinks was about 20 minutes.
I do not come to Thailand to be angered, but these guys succeeded
twice in 2 short visits. I'd recommend to all others to stay away unless they enjoy being treated like crap.
I stopped by ad was rather surprised to find a bar with plenty of customers and a fair amount of girls.
Don't these people read reviews I wondered. Don't they know that the girls are past their use by date? Don't they know that the bar seriously
hassles to sell raffle tickets and munchies etc? Don't they know that the girls are overdressed?
Actually there were some halfway decent girls on dancing duty and nobody hassled me at all. The draft beer was reasonably priced and the music was good
for aging rockers.
I can't understand why the bar is so popular though, but it wasn't too bad on this occasion.
A really good local beer bar and an ideal place to meet up to start your day or night off. Run by three solid Yorkshire lads who know all the ropes of Pattaya and are more than willing to pass their advice on.
If golf's your thing then its even
better. They organise golf days and even lay on the mini bus service at a far cheaper rate than going through an agent.
The pub is in a darts league and local matches abound. The rooms upstairs are clean and spacious with satellite TV etc and are
ideal if your on a lads holiday.
Bar staff are nice and friendly but more importantly, honest. You can also sort your airport taxi out from the bar. Just ask for Neil, Mick or Eddie.
We at Shooters are happy to announce that Russ has joined the Shooters team! He will fill the same role in Shooters as he did so successfully for TQ2, and we are very pleased to have him on board.
Russ's first official day at work will be
Monday, February 25, but he will be in the bar tomorrow night to hang with our mates, so come on over and give him your support! smile.gif
In the Bangkok Post there is an article in which the Interior Minister, Chalerm, in the new government states that he will have a meeting each weekday with the provincial governor from each province on a rotation basis.
One of his priorities will
be to make sure that the provincial governors are applying the law in ensuring that ALL entertainment venues close by 2 am. Does this mean a new clamp down?
Only MCT-Phonorights have the right to collect for farang music
From The Pattaya Mail See also www.1stopmusic.com for further info about
MCT-Phonorights
Pattaya entertainment outlet operators have complained about the collection of fees for music copyright usage, saying that bogus companies are presenting false claims.
Pattaya City worked in conjunction with MCT-Phonorights Joint Business
Operations to hold a meeting on February 8 regarding the collection of fees for copyright usage.
Theerayuth Thabprasit, senior copyright officer at MCT-Phonorights Joint Business Operations, tells people at the meeting that only his company has
the right to collect copyright fees.
MCT-Phonorights Joint Business Operations is the authorized company that collects about 98 percent of the fees for international music companies and internationally known recording artists. [But this licence
does not cover Thai music which is licensed separately]
Ronakit said that the entertainment operators are saying many people had filed false claims with the outlets, stating that they were representatives of MCT-Phonorights. They asked for
payments ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 baht each time, and were a source of concern and trouble to the operators.
Theerayuth said that all representatives appointed by MCT-Phonorights were provided with ID cards clearly showing their status, and
that the company was not responsible for anyone unable to produce an official ID card.
MCT-Phonorights suggested that operators holding contracts regarding copyrights signed with other companies should cancel them, as MCT-Phonorights has almost
sole monopoly for copyrights, at nearly 98% The operators agreed with this proposal, saying that it is the best way to avoid extortion.
Police Colonel Jackdoorong form the Juvenile and Women's Division of the Royal Thai Police based in Bangkok led an inspection of Bars around the South Pattaya area on Wednesday Night.
The officers visited bars on Walking Street and Soi Sunee Plaza
and were looking for any bar employees under the age 18 which is an offence in Thailand.
No arrests were made and instead the Colonel spoke with bar owners and gave out information leaflets to bar workers.
Thursday 21st is Makha Bucha Day which is a major Buddha day that has been designated as dry (from 8am on the 21st through to 8am of 22nd).
A meeting at Pattaya City Hall for election workers took place in preparation for the
first of two days of voting for the Senate or Upper House Elections. On 23rd of this month those who reside in Pattaya but are registered in another province will be able to vote in this first phase of voting. Unfortunately, this will mean that bars and
other late night entertainment venues will have to close from 6pm on Friday 22nd until Midnight on Saturday 23rd.
Previous experience suggest that the police ease up once the poll has closed and bars can generally open on the evening of the poll,
ie on Saturday 23rd.
The bars will also close the following week for the actual election on Sunday 2nd March. The bars will close at 6pm on Saturday 1st March and potentially be closed on Sunday too although again, bans have generally fizzled out
in time for Sunday evening opening.
Update: Spirited Resistance
21st February 2008
No changes to the official line, but it appears that there may be a little
bit more resistance than usual to the enforced closures.
There is also talk of gogo bars opening on Friday without selling alcohol. A similar idea was floated at the last pre-election but the police soon put a stop to it. But of course these
elections are not quite so important.
The bar is slowly progressing and now have enough girls to keep a steady 2 girl show going on the show table. They follow in the traditional naughty mould of Windmill and Baby Dolls etc. Suitably friendly to keep me entertained for an hour anyway.
There is also a Jacuzzi but the naughty table gets top priority when the numbers are low.
The main stage is a traditional Isaan shuffle affair and still seems to lack a little momentum. Nothing really amiss, probably just a matter of time as
people get to know of the bar.
Last time I visited I spotted a few girls newly recruited from Sisterz.
Since I last visited the door has switched from being on the right hand side looking from the beach to the left hand side. It seems a pretty extensive change for very little effect on the bar.
The bar seemed to have lost a little of the recent
lively upswing but maybe it was just unlucky timing. My regular girls had moved on to pastures new but the potential replacements were a bit underwhelming for me. But still they were friendly enough and the beer is still cheap.
If a pretty girl
were to jump into my lap then this bar would surely rate as a good bar. But as there were no girls so obliging, then it rates as one worth a quick look next time.
Other sites have mere weather reports... Thanks to eyebee and Oukiva
From Oukiva Friday, 22h-24h:
Soi Diamond : no smoking, except Heaven Above where they had a "police alert". You know, the big flash and all the ladies quickly cover...but in the same time the staff removed all the ashes-trays ;-)
Covent
Garden (Soi 16) : Smoking allowed in the 4 GoGos...
Sisterz : (from a 2nd-hand source) Ash-trays "confiscated...2nd time this week!
Soi Buakhao: I hear smoking allowed.
Soi 7/8: even
some open-air bar are no smoking :)
From eyebee
Funnily enough, though, both Peppermint and Sisterz were allowing smoking last night, having banned it previously. Sisterz were using empty Coke cans as their ashtrays (having had all their other ashtrays stolen!).
What I heard is
that smoking is only allowed if there is clear air above the smoker (i.e. no roof). So that would apply to most beer bars.
Rocket Club A-GoGo is situated above Paris A-GoGo on Soi Diamond
Access: They have chopped off the last few yards of the beer bar below to make an entrance lobby. Go upstairs (usual steep thai steps). The gogo is
on the first landing. If you go further up, you could find the room(s) for gogo girls that are too tired and need to take a rest...
The Bar: Nicely laid out with good bench seats round the edge and tables with chairs.
About 8 girls on stages, while two girls were washing in the Jacuzzi. Appears the changing rooms must be small, so they had to wash in public!
Drink prices were sensible and sticky signs round the top of the mirrored walls with the "price
list". Draught Chang was 55 Baht.
Smokers: They have realised bout the new No Smoking Ban and have converted one of the men's toilet cubicles into a Smoking Room (or so the sign on the door says).--- quick
thinking that! Well done, even though I am not a smoker.
Yes, I will go back and give it another go. May not be many girls there yet, but some friendly and I am willing to follow up their approaches... I think the BF was 600 Baht, which is pretty
standard these days. Did not have the time to find of what the girls wanted... Most seem fresh from the countryside, or so their dancing skills told me (I was taught about reading dance skills a long time ago from an ex-gogo girl in Bangkok).
With the departure of Fun Room from the Nui's stable, the mamasan has transferred to Rock Girls taking the continuous baby oil show with her.
The small stage in this intimate bar only allows for three girls but interactivity is encouraged and
there are rooms if you wish to get to know a particular oiled baby a bit better.
Uncomfortable stools and slightly too pushy girls make this not really a bar for a relaxed couple of drinks and a chat.
The girls are anyway unremarkable and
if you're in soi 15 there is little reason to choose this particular bar unless it's for a short time.
The police visited virtually every go-go on Walking Street on Tuesday night and stole all their ashtrays! (well, they did at Sisterz, anyway).
As of last night (Wed.) the only go-gos allowing smoking were those in Covent Garden (maybe the police
didn't get as far as there).
All others were enforcing the no smoking edict. Interestingly a couple of bars provided smoking tables outside the bar, so you could pop out, have a fag, then go back in.
It was also reported to me that even
before this police action, the weren't as many smoking bars as the recent Pattaya City News item suggested.
But off Walking Street most GoGos I have tried are still smoking but it may just be a matter of time before these are visited too.
Located just outside of the Honey Hotel on Soi Honey. The place was rocking. Girls and customers all having a good time. Some lookers in there which is unusual for an opening night.
Minor
problems with A/C and staff not serving customers quick enough.
Over all-thumbs up.
There are now 82 girl gogos operating around Pattaya
The new no smoking law came into effect on Monday which bans smoking in air-conditioned entertainment venues and offices.
The new law is surrounded by confusion and many business owners here in Pattaya are unsure of how to proceed. Any business
found breaking the law will be fined 20,000 Baht and 2,000 Baht fine for every smoker caught inside the venue.
However, there is an initial 3 month reprieve until the Law is expected to be enforced.
We conducted a survey of venues on
Walking Street on Monday Night to find out how many venues are complying with the Law. We visited 19 establishments on Walking Street and found that 6 of them were smoke-free. However the smoke-free establishments were found to have far fewer patrons
that the ones who were still permitting smoking.
The E Gothic GoGo was closed last night at least in terms of being a GoGo.
The bar is still open but is now operating as a beer bar.
It seems pretty tough to get anyone to stroll down Soi BJ any further than TQ2.
Meanwhile Fun
Room A-GoGo has returned to life on Soi 15. The girls are unsurprisingly on daily pay at the moment but there is surely still an air of a lack of permanence
Immigration Police went through Soi 6 bars last night checking passports of farang owners.
In one case they mistakenly thought a farang owned the bar when in fact all the licenses are in the Thai owner's name.
Perhaps pissed-off at that
turn of events, they turned to a couple of farang customers and asked for passports - and no joy there as both were carrying them.
So with major disappointment all around, the crew of 10 police or so slunk off into the sunset. Likely there'll be
visits to other sois in the next few days.
I've been frequenting the Silver Star 3 GoGo on Walking Street recently, and have not been too impressed. In fact, after my last visit, I don't think I will ever go back there.
The drinks in this bar are over-priced. I can live with 120 Baht
for a gin & tonic, or 130 Baht for a lady tequila, but it's the persistent pressure from the service staff to buy then drinks that bugs me.
I can live with that, too, after all you can just say no. But then on my last visit some nonsense
started, with the mamasan telling the dancer I was sitting with that she had to come and clean the bar instead of sit with me between dances. Never mind the fact that the dancer was on her third or fourth tequila on my bin! The girl told me it's no
problem, just buy mamasan a drink and she won't have to go clean the bar. What a load of bollox!
The girl went back dancing, and I went to the hong nahm for a leak. When I came back, some guy and his girl had settled themselves down in my seat.
Never mind the fact that it had two drinks on the table. Never mind the fact that it had my bin full of receipts on it. Obviously, after the ‘bar cleaning' episode, this was just another way to show their displeasure that I hadn't bought a drink for any
of the service staff that night.
OK, I can take a hint, I checked bin and left and will not be going back. And that's another thing that annoys me about this place, the bills are all poorly hand-written and it's difficult to check the total in
the dim light.
There's nothing wrong with the dancers in this bar, but the ‘service' staff seems to inhabit a parallel dimension and the ‘shows' are a waste of time.
I met the same dancer from Silver Star in one of the more
reasonably-priced Walking Street GoGo's. She told me that in Silver Star, it seems, to stop the ladies leaving, they will only pay them for the month after they have worked six weeks or more, so the lady will always lose at least 2 weeks of pay if she
changes bar.
So my advice is to avoid the place. Oh, and it's Thai-owned, so don't bother complaining.
Rocket opened last night upstairs on Soi Diamond where Tiger Club used to be.
Entrance is narrow staircase right before Paris a Go Go . The, what has become usual, interior for new go go's - stage for 4-6 girls, jacuzzi,
comfortable seats, etc., etc., etc.
Line up was less then spectacular.
You really have to question the wisdom of someone opening a new go go on the second floor as the season winds down. Even many of the ground floor go go's can barely get
more then a handful of customers these days.
Not yet worth the climb up the steps.
There are still 81 girl GoGos operating in Pattaya with Rocket making up for the closed Fun Room
Latest rip off for owners to come from City Hall, following the daft Music Licenses, and CCTV set ups has just been passed.
Every restaurant must pay 100 Baht per seat on the premises. Every Bar must pay 200 Baht per seat on the premises.
Every entertainment venue (Includes Go-Gos) must pay 240 Baht per seat on the premises.
Not really much to recommend this bar as yet. There were 10 ladies on duty of which a couple were attractive. They were wearing rather too much with a leather look bikini.
The dance rotation was to have 4 dancers on stage for 4 songs so a good
rapid turnaround. The music is farang friendly but a little too loud. A sort of music compromise that doesn't really suit anybody.
The drinks prices are not exactly cheap for draft drinkers as there isn't any, but that apart the drinks are
typically priced.
There weren't many customers to make a good survey but a couple of guys were being well looked after by a couple of hands-on dancers.
As is often the case though, the lack of good points on paper doesn't mean that much. I
had a very pleasant visit due to good company from one of the girls.
Sexy A-GoGo is located on Soi 7 and was previously Blue Angel
It seems the impending smoking ban on aircon bars is being treated reasonably seriously so far.
Bangkok police have been distributing pamphlets describing the rules and all the newspapers have carried informational stories.
The ban will
start on Monday 11th February but it seems that there will be a grace period until 31st May before fines can be levied. 20,000 Baht on the bar, 2000 Baht on the customer caught smoking.
Thinking about practicalities, the ban cannot be ignored. the
police can send in stooges to light up and be hanging around outside waiting to claim their 20,000 Baht. Bar staff will simply have to forcefully stop people lighting up...just in case.
Fun Room A-GoGo on Soi 15 closed for a few days then opened for a few days and was closed again last night (Thursday 7th February)
Dropped by "Lock Girls" to get the story and the gossip was that the Japanese guy had given up after
an increasing dumb set of "economies", apparently at one point trying to fine the service girls for spending too much time chatting to customers!
There are now 80 GoGo bars with girls operating in Pattaya.
It seems that that Blue Angel A-GoGo on Soi 7 near 2nd Road has moved on.
The bar now proclaims to be Sexy A-GoGo with a sign very similar to Sexy Girls A-GoGo similarly placed on Soi 8.
Confusing or what?
Two Scandinavians,
Danish Kim Holm and Norwegian Gunnar Nordahl held the grand opening of their new A Go Go joint in Soi 7 on 2nd February.
The new A Go Go bar with the name Sexy is a friendly place with reasonable prices, music from the 60's and 70's and
boasting some really nice wall paintings.
Party Bar on Soi 8 is closed for renovations and we have shipped a lot of the girls down to the Insomnia Gentlemen's Club.
The bar is going to have a whole new look with only 1 central bar instead of the old 2 larger bars with the bonus of
evaporative air cooling systems, plus more comfortable seating and even more ladies.
The 1st of March is opening time so its only a small closure for a very big job.
Many bars have been shut by the police last week for supposedly not having the correct licence
Soi Yamato & Soi Post Office have taken a hit with temporary bar closures including:
Moulin Rouge
Coopers
Dogs Bollocks
Monkey Bar
Jungle Bar
Nice 'n' Eazy
Yates
office Girls
George+Dragon
Spricey Bar
Gothia
Other bars mentioned are Streamline on Soi 7, Performance and Voodoo on Walking Street
However most of the bars have sprung back to life somewhat early, albeit with self imposed restrictions such as closing at 10pm (presumably thinking that
further police inspections would occur only after 10pm)
Fun Room A-GoGo on Soi 15 closed for a few days but has no re-opened
Dropped by "Lock Girls" to get the story and the gossip was that the Japanese guy had given up after an increasing dumb set of "economies", apparently at
one point trying to fine the service girls for spending too much time chatting to customers!
There are now 81 GoGo bars with girls operating in Pattaya.
Tornado A-GoGo on Soi 6 o pened 5th September 2007 but turned out to be a lady boy GoGo.
The bar never seemed to find its mark and was soon up for sale.
The bar has now presumably been sold as it is now closed and
being refurbished. Hopefully someone will try a girl gogo.
The lady boy venues seem to have taken a bit of a knock of late as GoldFingers A-GoGo on Soi 7 also closed at the end of December 2007.
Lita's bar on Soi BJ off Walking Street has
recently been put up for sale to join nearby Blue Ice on the estate agent books.
However the lady boys seem to have ousted the girls at Pook A-GoGo on Soi 6 so perhaps ex Tornado Customers may find alternative fun a little further down the soi at
Pook.
I stopped by ad was rather surprised to find a bar with plenty of customers and a fair amount of girls. 
A really good local beer bar and an ideal place to meet up to start your day or night off. Run by three solid Yorkshire lads who know all the ropes of Pattaya and are more than willing to pass their advice on. 
In the Bangkok Post there is an article in which the Interior Minister, Chalerm, in the new government states that he will have a meeting each weekday with the provincial governor from each province on a rotation basis. 
Pattaya entertainment outlet operators have complained about the collection of fees for music copyright usage, saying that bogus companies are presenting false claims. 
Police Colonel Jackdoorong form the Juvenile and Women's Division of the Royal Thai Police based in Bangkok led an inspection of Bars around the South Pattaya area on Wednesday Night. 
Thursday 21st is Makha Bucha Day which is a major Buddha day that has been designated as dry (from 8am on the 21st through to 8am of 22nd). 
From Oukiva Friday, 22h-24h: 
Immigration Police went through Soi 6 bars last night checking passports of farang owners. 
Not really much to recommend this bar as yet. There were 10 ladies on duty of which a couple were attractive. They were wearing rather too much with a leather look bikini. 
Many bars have been shut by the police last week for supposedly not having the correct licence 
Tornado A-GoGo on Soi 6 o pened 5th September 2007 but turned out to be a lady boy GoGo. 
