Illusion Pattaya Club is located in the old Top Girls venue at the junction of Soi 14 & Soi 15 just off Walking Street. It now has entrances on both sois.

One suspects that the opening configuration will be pretty short lived s it seems to fall short any many fronts. However there is no reason why things shouldn't improve.

The large bar is more reminiscent of a nightclub than a gogo bar. It is kitted out in extreme white and the seating is predominantly large white mattress affairs. They look good, but in reality there is no back support and they get very uncomfortable after a short while.

The music is also predictably club style. The DJ picks some pretty long dance tunes too. Lots of pretty lights to match.

On the downside the seating is simply too far from the two stages. There were 5 girls dancing leaving just two to circulate amongst the customers.

They were wearing bikini bottoms and tops that fall open to reveal all...well nearly all, the girls were wearing star shaped pasties. It is a silly trick as it smacks of censorship and I therefore find it annoying.

There were two amongst the 7 girls that would get you calling them over, but in reality, the lack of hostessing time, (2 long tracks compared with 5 long tracks dancing) made any thought personal entertainment impractical. And as if to stress the point, the girls were vainly hassling for lady drinks whilst dancing.

It always seems a mistake to open without adequate dancers, all the bar reviewers come round in the first few days when the bar is struggling and report how naff it is.

Opening drinks prices are very reasonable though...surely helps.

But I'll be listening out for comments on the forum for when the bar builds up a few more girls. The bar does seem to have potential. It could be that they ay change format to something more like a nightclub. It does seem a strange layout for a gogo, especially as it is lacking all the play stage and Jacuzzi features that seem to draw in the customers these days.

There are now 76 Pattaya bars with girls dancing in bikinis or less.

Utopia A-GoGo is the upstairs bar above Utopia Lounge on the corner od Soho Square and Walking Street.

Utopia A-GoGo have just re-opened after a refit. And it is about the best new refurbishment I have seen for a long time.

A few comments have been flying around the Pattaya forums about the recent temporary lack of pretty girls at Windmill Club. Well if you are wondering where some of the pretty girls have gone, then try Utopia. In the meantime Windmill have already recruited more than suitable replacements.

There is not a fattie or oldie amongst the line up. They have been very selective indeed. The salary bill must be enormous. But even better the Windmill connection means that they are up for some hands on fun.

In terms of entertainment, the bar has got it all. They have stages, large and small, a Jacuzzi and a play stage.

The drinks prices are on the higher side but not totally unreasonable. There is not a draft beer at the moment but they are expecting to add one at 80 Baht.

Anyway well worth a look, the most improved gogo in Pattaya...but can it last?

Public Health Minister Chalerm Yubamrung has abruptly scrapped his much-publicised idea of banning the sale and drinking of alcohol over the New Year holidays, saying it could hurt the tourism industry.

The minister yesterday said he did not want to ban alcoholic drinks during the festive season for fear it would face fierce opposition, especially from tourism entrepreneurs and foreign tourists.

Chalerm announced right after taking office late last month that he would prioritise banning alcohol sales during festivals and religious holidays as he did when he was interior minister.

Chalerm aimed to ban alcohol sales on religious holidays, starting from the Songkran Festival in April next year although he accepted his anti-alcohol policy might not be completely effective.

We can only ban sales during long weekends but may not be able to stop people from drinking or stockpiling alcohol before the ban period. Therefore I have to tackle alcohol issue step by step, he said, adding that he would focus on the alcohol sales ban only on religious days first.

Although the Alcohol Control Act came into effect on Feb 14, it has not been enforced. None of the related laws had been approved yet by Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, as chairman of the national committee on alcohol policy, to regulate alcohol sales and consumption.

Shooters on Soi Diamond will be closed from Tuesday 21st October onwards. A new group of Investors, under the helm of our current manager Russ, will develop the place into something new. More on this in the next few days!

Sunny Valentine will keep a minor share in the new busines but will most likely keep a lower profile in the new venture.

In the mean time, Shooters will have a final Party this Monday 20th.

A team from the Child and Women’s Protection Unit, a division of the Thai Police raided the X-Ray Men’s Club located in North Pattaya.

Police checked the age of employees and found them all to be over 18, however 4 were arrested because they were not carrying their Thai ID cards which is a fineable offence.

The license for the establishment was checked and was found to have expired and the Duty Manager was duly arrested.

A report of the incident has now been sent to the District Licensing Unit at Banglamung City Hall for their consideration.

Shark A-GoGo is upstairs on Soi Diamond accessed via stairs off Walking Street

Shark A-GoGo is now taking a bigger chunk out of customers pockets with a hike in draft beer price of 23% from 65 to 80 Baht. Judging by the amount of customers, the bar is in desperate need of the extra 30 Baht raised from all customers present during my visit.

Presumably the price increase also applies to Shark Club and Tiger Lounge.

There's really not much going on in this bar to try and combat the low season blues. The table dancing is bog standard as are the girls. There's no sign of customer interaction and there's no play stages or Jacuzzis etc.

Strange that the same owners do fine with the hands on fun in Shark Club next door but have never really managed to inject the same enthusiasm into Shark A-GoGo.

Bubbles A-GoGo is set to re-open later this month in Soi Pattayaland 2.

Bubbles was the original name of a girls gogo which changed to Crystal and then closed in 2007. It then become Crystal Boys.

In perhaps a rare fightback against the boy bars, the bar will definitely be a girls bar.

Pattaya Ghost reports that it is a venture by the connections of the nearby Rodeo Girls A-GoGo but the building is stilled owned by the original team who ran All Girls, Crystal, Wild West Girls and Planet Rock.

I remember first occasionally visiting Pattaya 8 years ago and the above bars were all popular. By the time I was a regular to Pattaya 5 years ago, the bars had become dire with ludicrous prices such as 150 Baht lady drinks. This pushed out the regulars and the best girls. Surely no one shed a tear when the bars finally faded away a couple of years ago.

Perhaps some Pattaya old timers will fondly remember the Bubbles of old, but If it were my choice, I would go for a totally fresh start. Bubbles/Crystal was really bad in its declining years.

Soi 6 can now re-open again in the afternoons from 1pm.

In a very sensible sounding compromise, the Soi 6 bar owners will self police and ensure that some of the troublesome aspects of the soi will be reduced.

In particular girls and ladyboys will not be allowed to harass people as they walk down the street and certainly not be allowed to grab them.

A dress code has been introduced, but a ban on strapless dresses seems unlikely to cause any inconvenience.

The bars are still limited to 2 girls out front until 6pm. I'm not really sure how the selection of girls can work without them all being out front, so I suspect that this restriction will prove impractical and wont last.

Bars that don't comply to the agreed code will be liable 2 a 60 day closure. Bar owners have been asked to report any bar that breaks the code so as to avoid any further police actions against the whole soi.

Hopefully removing the hassle may even make Soi 6 more attractive to customers.

Hot Legs Sports Bar has just opened this week.

The large aircon bar is located inside the Jomtien Complex on the corner of the gay soi nearest the beach and the longest internal soi. It was previously a Hungarian restaurant.

The bar is one of the new architectural school of 100% windows and no privacy. It is not lit quite so severely as the new Pattaya style bars that try to make the people inside into a spectacle for the people outside.

The bar is very nicely fitted out with different styles of seating, all of which are good quality.

Unfortunately the bar seemed to be quite popular and the bar was down to 2 average girls outside trying to attract passers by. Despite a smile, neither of them accompanied me in. As I sat at the bar, I looked around and couldn't spot any free girls inside, so rather than drink alone, I did a quick U-turn.

Given that there were quite a few customers inside, there seems no reason why the bar shouldn't attract a few more girls. So I'll give it a couple of weeks and try again.

The rapidly progressing work on the old Top Girls on Soi 14 & Soi 15 now proclaims that it will be Illusion Pattaya Club. The rumours suggest that this will be a coyote dancing bar.

The closure of Top Girls has seen a clean sweep of closures of all the main Asian tour party bells and whistles shows that were operating last year. ie Top Girls, Tramps and Fantasia. Perhaps these are not so popular with the coach parties after all.

The replacement Bells and Whistles shows are smaller affairs that mix these shows with more mainstream gogo entertainment, ie Byblos and the Nui's bars Playgirls, Pinky Girl & Hot Girls.

For the moment there are 75 bars with girls dancing in bikinis or less

It seems that the overly 'in yer face' fun on Soi 6 is at least partially to blame for the latest crack down and hence toning it down is the way towards reconciliation.

By way of a sensible sounding compromise, bars will open at 4pm with just a couple of (respectably dressed ladies outside). Most importantly they should not hassle the passers by, and definitely not grab them by the balls.

And hasslesome lady boys are definitely banned.

If the bars respect the underlying requirements it could even end up making Soi 6 better than before.

Today saw police patrols keeping Soi 6 pretty well closed until 6pm. A few bars had previously done a bit of low key opening, but in general the soi is not what it was in the afternoons

There's no sign of a let up, and not much sign yet of the suggested extension to all of Pattaya.

Pattaya commentators seem to be gravitating to the theory that Soi 6 has got a bit too obvious and hasslesome and that it should learn to be a bit more discrete during daylight hours. (See Pattaya Ghost for a good write up)

However there is a big meeting for bar owners on Saturday afternoon and maybe this will shed some light on whether afternoons are going to become dry for the rest of Pattaya.

The old Goldfingers A-GoGo on Soi 7 has been gutted and seems to be re-developing into another beer bar.

Building work has also been taking place in the rather too narrow Angel A-GoGo near the Walking Street tree.

There is a new development next to What''s Up on Soi 15. It is reported that banners proclaim Club Illusion.

The builders are also in at Top Girls or maybe the Club above on Soi 14.

The police closed Soi 6 this afternoon citing a new requirement for bars to adhere to licensing hours of 6pm until 2am.

The speculation is that it is the Pattaya mayor's response to  Belgian TV programme showing Pattaya as a sleazy sex based town where a third of the population are on the game.

No doubt quiet afternoons will soon put an end to the bad reputation an get the good wholesome tourists flooding into town.

But it will surely take a massive toll on Pattaya's economy in the meantime and one therefore suspects that prohibition simply can't last.

Update: Tourists Go Home

8th October 2008

Soi 6 still on afternoon closing but worth popping your head around the door to see if anything is going down inside.

There was a city meeting today when more details about bar opening were revealed

The prohibition on opening bars will be enforced citywide and bars will only be allowed to open between 6pm and 2am.

The mayor and police have some very strict penalties in mind with 90 day closures, 30,000 Baht fines and even 2 month expulsions from Thailand for farang owners.

Sounds grim news indeed but as always it will hurt the economy and will surely soon generate real pressure to ease off.

Lolita's is a blow job located on Soi LK Metro (off Soi Buakhao and Soi Diana)

The bar has recently been remodelled. I must say that the changes have given the bar a great look. There is more room to move around, they have a TV for sports now.

The Pattaya Ghost confirms that Popcorn A-GoGo on Soi Pattayaland is closed and up for sale. They at least commiserated with a closing down party last night.

Meanwhile up on Soi 6, Betty Boup Dance Club has just celebrated its 2 year anniversary. And by all accounts they are still doing well. The bar is teeming with girls at the moment.

A bit further up the Soi, the old upstairs Pook A-GoGo has burst into the open after the windows/walls were knocked out. The new incarnation is now open but one assumes that it features lady boys. I'll leave it to someone else to confirm.

Peaches has opened as an aircon bar on Walking Street and there is a good write up on the Pattaya Ghost page mentioned earlier. It at least seems to be a girls bar but the low pay rates don't immediately look like attracting the peaches of Walking Street.

New Living Dolls One has implemented a bed tax but prices are still amongst the best in town. Shane writes:

The tub is gone for now, it was under 2 aircons and as such the girls were always getting sick.

We have replaced it with a big red BED, yes we still have the mirror in front of it. The girls have been taking there turn at bed time play with odd guy wanting to join in .

Yes our bar fines did go up from 400 to 450 and from 200 to 250 we also had to increase our happy hour from 39 bt to 49 bt. Guys sorry for doing this but after 3 wholesale increases which we did not pass on it finally had to happen.

A new GoGo has opened on Soi 13/1 (Soi Yamato) near to 2nd Road. The venue was previously 77 Club.

The bar opened with very much the feel that it will blend in with its near neighbours, Far East Rock, Club Nevada, Spicy Girls and Hot & Cold. It is similarly sized too.

It will open in the afternoon and offers reasonable rates for in house short times.

The drinks seem to be set slightly higher than the opposition with a 75 Baht draft. Lady drinks were 100 Baht

There were plenty of girls on hand for the opening night, although a little questioning suggests that some were employed just for a day or two. The girls were very much a mixed bunch with a few that were presentable.

The dress code is bikini but only 3 or 4 were dancing at anyone time. Surely a good idea giving more time for smooching rather than dancing. There are no novelties such as Jacuzzis or show girls so the bar will just have to rely on the girls providing good old fashioned hands on entertainment.

I enjoyed my stay but will have to stop by again to make a more realistic appraisal of its offerings. Everyone was eager to please on opening night.

Meanwhile Popcorn A-GoGo on Soi Pattayaland 2 was dark and Far East Rock now closes early at 7pm.

So there are now 76 bars around Pattaya where girls dance in bikinis or less.