Pattaya Go-go bars, beer bars & restaurants (News closures and Updates)

[Stillearly]

Pandora's on Soi 7 closed for good apparently ... the Soi was dying before Covid , I would occasionally take a walk down there and Soi 8 for "old times sake"  , but in the last five or so years , never felt the need to stop ..

[Stillearly]

40 minutes ago, Derek Dangleberries said:

Hahaha ..Totally agree!

I am sure that some owners build what THEY want, rather than what they think potential customers want.

A classic example was Rod's Bar on Khao Talo...A bar based on Rod Stewart. I never went in but the outside looked plush and was told that inside was too. Why didn't I go in? The doors were always shut when I walked passed and tried them. No information on opening times. No promotions on forums etc..nothing. This was a bar that was ideal for me to stagger home from but for most it was the wrong side of the tracks.

Was there for more than a year I think. 

Appealing to a very niche clientele... 555

[hugh cow]

1 hour ago, Glasseye said:

Interesting name. Welcome to the board !

I do like a play on words. On an Australian football forum, as I am a mad Geelong Cats AFL team supporter, my N.D.P there is Bangkok Pussy which appeared to be somewhat off putting to some of the supporters but IMO perfectly apropriate as I was living in Bangkok when I joined.😊 The meaning on this forum would probably be lost as many are yet to experience the joys, thrills and exhilaration of Australian rules football.

[Glasseye]

1 hour ago, Stillearly said:

Appealing to a very niche clientele... 555

55555555555

 

Wasn't he the guy rumored to have once swallowed about 10 loads on the back of the bands bus ?   

[Glasseye]

39 minutes ago, hugh cow said:

I do like a play on words. On an Australian football forum, as I am a mad Geelong Cats AFL team supporter, my N.D.P there is Bangkok Pussy which appeared to be somewhat off putting to some of the supporters but IMO perfectly apropriate as I was living in Bangkok when I joined.😊 The meaning on this forum would probably be lost as many are yet to experience the joys, thrills and exhilaration of Australian rules football.

lol

 

Sure caused me to have a few double takes.

[Derek Dangleberries]

2 hours ago, hugh cow said:

many are yet to experience the joys, thrills and exhilaration of Australian rules football.

Before coming here in 96 I did a 6 month contract in Indonesia. Saturday afternoons Crown removals put on a couple of free barrels for a family afternoon meat draw watching Aussie Rules. For oafs like me that hadn't a clue they left bits of paper lying around covering the rules, tactics and info on the teams playing that day.

It was a brilliant time there..... and I even remembered the name of the company that put on the free booze !!!

[john luke]

Another new bar in Soi 6.

[john luke]

5 hours ago, hugh cow said:

How is the corner bar on soi 6 doing? Last time I was there pre covid it was doing well and had pretty good patronage. I spoke to the owner of the bar next door to the corner bar in soi 6 who said he was doing well but there was only one customer in there while the corner bar was fairly full.

It is still there.  Photo taken this morning.  Prior to Chon Bury becoming dark red, the place on most occassions I passed usually had a couple or so of customers sat inside. 

My question is what was here before it was demolished?

[Chang_Paarp]

20 minutes ago, john luke said:

It is still there.  Photo taken this morning.  Prior to Chon Bury becoming dark red, the place on most occassions I passed usually had a couple or so of customers sat inside. 

My question is what was here before it was demolished?

Wasn't that the original corner bar location, across the road.

It relocated following an ownership change and the obvious challenge of the landlord's intent. I think

[john luke]

59 minutes ago, Chang_Paarp said:

Wasn't that the original corner bar location, across the road.

It relocated following an ownership change and the obvious challenge of the landlord's intent. I think

I thought that but was not sure; hence the rather open question on my earlier post.

[Jambo]

10 hours ago, Stillearly said:

Pandora's on Soi 7 closed for good apparently ... the Soi was dying before Covid ,

It is very easy to forget just how bad things were in Pattaya before anyone had ever heard of Covid.

High season, what there was of it, had become a week or so either side of Xmas/New Year and forums were full of comments about many bars/GoGo's being empty of customers. Pre-Covid there were already simply far too many entertainment venues all chasing after an ever diminishing number of "western" visitors. No reason to believe that will ever change. Well not for the better.

One can only hope that there will be a time when Thailand, and therefore Pattaya, opens up again without all the administration hassles that exist right now. No doubt only to fully vaccinated visitors.

Will the numbers return to the days of yesteryear?

Very doubtful as maybe mass tourism as we once knew it has gone for ever?

Unless you are Chinese who will take over "New Walking Street" rebuilt as a family destination?

Or maybe the elephant in the room is whether or not Thailand can accept the fact that "Covid" is here for ever just as influenza is here for ever.

Anyone's guess really.

I am just glad I started "man behaving very badly" trips back in 2003.

 

 

[boydeste]

7 hours ago, Chang_Paarp said:

Wasn't that the original corner bar location, across the road.

It relocated following an ownership change and the obvious challenge of the landlord's intent. I think

 

6 hours ago, john luke said:

I thought that but was not sure; hence the rather open question on my earlier post.

Yes, that was the original Corner bar, spent a fair bit of time in there with me old mate Bruce K. (RIP)

[bob lt]

4 minutes ago, boydeste said:

 

Yes, that was the original Corner bar, spent a fair bit of time in there with me old mate Bruce K. (RIP)

The man who introduced me to fishing for catfish

[boydeste]

1 minute ago, bob lt said:

The man who introduced me to fishing for catfish

Ditto for me too, we would go to all the fishing parks.

[bob lt]

Soi 7 introduced me to him in Secrets and we arranged that first meet at Jomtien fishing park, close to his home.

After he passed away I went to a remembrance meet at the Buffalo Bar and met Lars (RIP)

[Stillearly]

25 minutes ago, boydeste said:

 

Yes, that was the original Corner bar, spent a fair bit of time in there with me old mate Bruce K. (RIP)

Did you have to remove your shirt as you entered the bar or was that optional? 😉 

[boydeste]

1 minute ago, Stillearly said:

Did you have to remove your shirt as you entered the bar or was that optional? 😉 

555555555

 

[Stray]

9 hours ago, Jambo said:

It is very easy to forget just how bad things were in Pattaya before anyone had ever heard of Covid.

High season, what there was of it, had become a week or so either side of Xmas/New Year and forums were full of comments about many bars/GoGo's being empty of customers. Pre-Covid there were already simply far too many entertainment venues all chasing after an ever diminishing number of "western" visitors. No reason to believe that will ever change. Well not for the better.

One can only hope that there will be a time when Thailand, and therefore Pattaya, opens up again without all the administration hassles that exist right now. No doubt only to fully vaccinated visitors.

Will the numbers return to the days of yesteryear?

Very doubtful as maybe mass tourism as we once knew it has gone for ever?

Unless you are Chinese who will take over "New Walking Street" rebuilt as a family destination?

Or maybe the elephant in the room is whether or not Thailand can accept the fact that "Covid" is here for ever just as influenza is here for ever.

Anyone's guess really.

I am just glad I started "man behaving very badly" trips back in 2003.

 

 

 Good post. I personally think there will be some re-adjustment required for Pattaya which has grown huge and has hundreds, maybe thousands of empty condo rooms while more are being built.

[Butch]

9 hours ago, Jambo said:

It is very easy to forget just how bad things were in Pattaya before anyone had ever heard of Covid.

High season, what there was of it, had become a week or so either side of Xmas/New Year and forums were full of comments about many bars/GoGo's being empty of customers. Pre-Covid there were already simply far too many entertainment venues all chasing after an ever diminishing number of "western" visitors. No reason to believe that will ever change. Well not for the better.

One can only hope that there will be a time when Thailand, and therefore Pattaya, opens up again without all the administration hassles that exist right now. No doubt only to fully vaccinated visitors.

Will the numbers return to the days of yesteryear?

Very doubtful as maybe mass tourism as we once knew it has gone for ever?

Unless you are Chinese who will take over "New Walking Street" rebuilt as a family destination?

Or maybe the elephant in the room is whether or not Thailand can accept the fact that "Covid" is here for ever just as influenza is here for ever.

Anyone's guess really.

I am just glad I started "man behaving very badly" trips back in 2003.

 

 

Awesome post Jambo and as always, very incisive.

Pattaya is regressing, not progressing at the moment in terms of the future, we are seeing renovations but in comparison to the closures / for sales it is a disappointing ratio.

With all the new developments I think that some business owners realise that the competition needs to be challenged in the future, and they are trying to make their venue more attractive than the next. They are quite literally rolling the dice on the future plans. I cannot see any progressive move in the tourism sector before Q2 2022 at  the very earliest, or unless Thailand is waiting for the Pandemic to be downgraded to Endemic and adjust their tourist strategy accordingly.

Bearing in mind that we can discount any tourism from OZ/ NZ until 2022, the future looks very bleak indeed and as the time of writing, there is no light at the ed of the tunnel.

[Glasseye]

41 minutes ago, Butch said:

Awesome post Jambo and as always, very incisive.

Pattaya is regressing, not progressing at the moment in terms of the future, we are seeing renovations but in comparison to the closures / for sales it is a disappointing ratio.

With all the new developments I think that some business owners realise that the competition needs to be challenged in the future, and they are trying to make their venue more attractive than the next. They are quite literally rolling the dice on the future plans. I cannot see any progressive move in the tourism sector before Q2 2022 at  the very earliest, or unless Thailand is waiting for the Pandemic to be downgraded to Endemic and adjust their tourist strategy accordingly.

Bearing in mind that we can discount any tourism from OZ/ NZ until 2022, the future looks very bleak indeed and as the time of writing, there is no light at the ed of the tunnel.

Just think what most likely will happen when most of that money (pre-covid) that was already in the pipeline dries up. Much of that type financing for those big type projects takes years to establish, and often is "locked up", committed before the projects are finished (although in some cases the spigot can even be shut off midstream).

I could be wrong, but.... For new big money to come back following the recent devastation I doubt there will be much of any new start ups, once the current stuff is finished out. I hope I'm wrong, but really. New "big  money" is a crap shoot at best and I ponder that may only occur if something like gambling is brought to town. At worst a continued sharp decline with perhaps some in-flow of low spending Chinese families clutching their purses while going down a water slide.

[Chang_Paarp]

3 hours ago, Glasseye said:

Just think what most likely will happen when most of that money (pre-covid) that was already in the pipeline dries up. Much of that type financing for those big type projects takes years to establish, and often is "locked up", committed before the projects are finished (although in some cases the spigot can even be shut off midstream).

I could be wrong, but.... For new big money to come back following the recent devastation I doubt there will be much of any new start ups, once the current stuff is finished out. I hope I'm wrong, but really. New "big  money" is a crap shoot at best and I ponder that may only occur if something like gambling is brought to town. At worst a continued sharp decline with perhaps some in-flow of low spending Chinese families clutching their purses while going down a water slide.

There were still a number of concrete skeletons scattered around BKK, KL and other cities following the Asian economic collapse even ten years later. While many have disappeared through eventually being completed or being torn down they served as a reminder for some. This may happen to Pattaya and other place like Phuket when the money dries up suddenly.

[hugh cow]

13 hours ago, Jambo said:

It is very easy to forget just how bad things were in Pattaya before anyone had ever heard of Covid.

High season, what there was of it, had become a week or so either side of Xmas/New Year and forums were full of comments about many bars/GoGo's being empty of customers. Pre-Covid there were already simply far too many entertainment venues all chasing after an ever diminishing number of "western" visitors. No reason to believe that will ever change. Well not for the better.

One can only hope that there will be a time when Thailand, and therefore Pattaya, opens up again without all the administration hassles that exist right now. No doubt only to fully vaccinated visitors.

Will the numbers return to the days of yesteryear?

Very doubtful as maybe mass tourism as we once knew it has gone for ever?

Unless you are Chinese who will take over "New Walking Street" rebuilt as a family destination?

Or maybe the elephant in the room is whether or not Thailand can accept the fact that "Covid" is here for ever just as influenza is here for ever.

Anyone's guess really.

I am just glad I started "man behaving very badly" trips back in 2003.

 

 

It certainly was declining. I was last there in 2019. Walked the length of Soi 6 there was barely anyone in most bars. one or two at most. It was late afternoon but even so quiet for that time. Had a drink in Scooters where there was about 4 others but most bars had one or two customes at most and quit a few with none. The only one with decent patronage was the corner bar. The guy who had the bar next door to corner bar told me he had 3 bars in Soi six all doing well but it seemed a stretch at what I'd obseved. That night I went to Soi Diamond but again very few customers. and some bars closed The same with that complex of about 10 small bars beachside of walking street. But to be fair it was not in high season which seems to have shortened each year for the past few years as Jambo pointed out.

[TTD]

I tire of all the doom and gloom... my GF (with no pull from any big-wigs) applied for her covid shot and got shot number 1 a few days ago.  The second shot was scheduled.  Normal people are getting shots! 

Shot's are being distributed... slowly and poorly done, but getting done.  Once the population has shots the rate of growth slows and levels off.  This just happened in the States... masks came off and people in my area resumed normalcy (a new version of normal) 

I know there are new variants and bla bla bla... but once the shots get in arms things IMPROVE and improve quickly.  

People LOVE Thailand.  Thailand LOVES tourism... the LOVE is there.  

Just allow some time for the shots to find arms.  It's been a LONG road.  I was here when it started... I arrived on February 2, 2020 and stayed for (6) months.  

I just arrived back on August 2nd and finish quarantine in (2) day's!  It's dead and that's sad for many... but I'm going to have a great trip!  

When I was here in "20 they closed things down... to the point of no booze sales (even from grocery stores)!  I still had a good time!  Fun is here to be had, just not in the same fashion as before.

As long as you have people who want to visit a place (Thailand) and that place wants to host guests... the match will be a swipe right... supply and demand.  

For those making the trip... you will LOVE the room rates.  Tons of ladies online willing and able to meet and greet you.  I miss the banging bars, but find a lot of upside to this quieter environment.  

 

 

 

[fforest]

This is sad...The new beach....The seating 3 feet from the traffic....lovely.....And zero shade..

 

 

Edited August 15, 2021 by fforest

[Derek Dangleberries]

7 minutes ago, fforest said:

This is sad...The new beach....The seating 3 feet from the traffic....lovely.....And zero shade..

Indeed!!

What time of day is it such that the sun is throwing those shadows ..??