I watch tales of recession daily on news channels throughout the world but there seems a bit of contradiction when it comes to Pattaya night life. To me there seems plenty of customers in the bars and the gogos with Soi 6 and the gogos doing particularly
well.
But then there is a second contradiction, numbers seem good but clearly things aren't quite as rosy as pure numbers suggest. There is a significant move towards good promotions and cheaper drinks prices.
I would summise, without having a jot of real evidence, that although numbers are being maintained, many are looking to reducing their spending.
Anyway I thought I would focus last nights drinking on seeing how Pattaya's newest gogos are faring.
I started at First A-GoGo in the middle of Soi 8. Since opening, the bar has reduced its previously top end prices down to more realistic levels and there is also a very good 60 Baht happy hour which runs to 10pm. The bar has recruited a few more girls
and they now have half a dozen that are well attractive. Unfortunately they don't seem to be very interested in circulating amongst the earlybird 9pm customers so I wasn't tempted to stay long. The dancing at the early hour was strictly bikini clad.
I then made my way down to Soi Yamato to see how Las Vegas A-GoGo is faring. And they too have reduced their drinks prices with a very reasonable 50 Baht draft (from 75 Baht). Almost opposite to First A-GoGo, Las Vegas have somewhat less than top notch
bikini clad dancers but they are very friendly. Hands on and hands in as I like to say. But somehow I was being a bit picky and surely the grass would be greener in my next port of call.
Betty Boum on Soi Pattayaland was the venue. And guess what, the bar has reduced their drinks prices too. But not by quite enough to tempt me. There is no draft beer but bottled beer has been reduced by 10 Baht to 100. There is a 2 for 1 offer on Thai
spirits too. There were also a few more dancers in the mid range between First and Las Vegas. The dancers were again bikini clad and seemed generally demure. The bar looks very smart but 100 Baht bottled beer is not really good value for the
entertainment.
Next was the newly re-opened Popcorn on Soi Pattayaland 2. Again drinks prices have been reduced with a good priced draft beer. Now this was the first bar of my mini crawl where there has been an improvement in dress code, ie dress not encouraged at all.
There was a range of girls so I selected the prettiest and was easily persuaded to stay for a fair few drinks. Amazing what a difference having Cheap drinks AND few clothes AND a pretty girl AND a friendly girl makes. A good improvement for Popcorn then.
But the bar is still a little too small scale and I can imagine that if they were a lacking a pretty girl or two then it would warrant only a brief stay.
My last port of call was Utopia A-GoGo at the south end of Walking Street. I was a little worried by a blog report that one of my favourite gogos had closed. The bar was thankfully still running but clearly something is up as they have dispensed with
their welcome staff. The bar was pretty much unchanged from before. It is very much modelled on the way Windmill Club works but is not quite so busy (and not quite so consistent). Surely a good place to end an evening.
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