Nightmarch 13 November 2003

[PattayaPete 530]

A Dozen Contests: The Diamond ogling den (Soi Diamond) will be holding its 12th dance contest on Friday 14 November, kicking off at around 9:30PM. Owner Tee decided not to hold one in October, much to the disappointment of many who seem to have come to regard these extravaganzas as part of their entertainment each month.

 

I Love, I Love, I Love, My Calendar Girl: That old refrain from a Neil Sedaka song seems most appropriate in the countdown to the last few weeks of the year. A couple of enterprising operators have decided to bring out calendars for 2004, featuring the sorts of attractive sights for which Fun Town is justifiably famous. It was hardly a difficult task, persuading a number of Pattaya’s desirable damsels to pose, after all Thai girls and photographic equipment can be compared with vultures and carrion.

 

The FLB lounge lizard libation room (Walking Street) has a very glossy production shot by Howard Greene and showcasing the vast array of talent employed to help relieve the stress of holidaying foreigners to Pattaya.

 

It’s available from the FLB website (www.flbbar.com), at the boozer itself and from the Bookazine bookstores in Royal Garden, Big C and at Jomtien. The retail price is around 350 baht.

 

As I’ve mentioned before, there is a Pattaya ogling den calendar involving a dozen of some of the better quality chrome pole palaces around town each of who supplied a dancing damsel to pose seductively and be photographed in front of the tools of her trade. The calendar was the brainchild of Tee, the owner of the Diamond ogling den (Soi Diamond). Other participating chrome pole joints were Big Willies (Soi Diamond); Carousel (Soi Diamond); Classroom (Pattayaland Soi 2); Club Electric Blue (Walking Street); Dollhouse (Walking Street); Honey (Walking Street); Living Dolls (Walking Street); Misty’s (Pattayaland Soi 2); Peppermint (Walking Street); Super Baby (Soi Diamond) and What’s Up (Soi 15, off Walking Street). This calendar is also available from Bookazine outlets as well as the DK bookshops in Soi Post Office and Central Pattaya Road (near Beach Road), and boozers such as Center Condo Café (South Pattaya Rd), OK Corral (Soi Skaw Beach), and Hideaway (Jomtien) as well as the newsstand on Second Road near Malibu Travel. It retails at 250 baht, terrific value and, not surprisingly, has been moving faster than a Royal butler being chased around a Buckingham Palace bedchamber.

 

Oops, I Did It Again: While I’m in a musical frame of mind- or a Britney Spears fixation- I have to make amends to the management of the Goldfingers ogling den (Soi 7). I noted recently that they seemed to have closed their doors to the paying public. Well, they did, for one day only, back on 10 October, a Thai public holiday.

 

The reality is that Goldfingers is still up and running and has managed to carve a niche for itself in the area bordered by the Beach Road and Soi 7 and Soi 8. They now open for business at 5:00PM and happy hour runs for four hours until 9:00PM with the draught amber (Carlsberg) at a mere 30 baht and Thai rotgut at the same impost.

 

If the coming high season is in any way decent, then the Aussie-run chrome pole palace should do well. They opened their doors in probably one of the worst low seasons on record and to have survived was an impressive effort. As I said before, the management has tried a few different approaches to attract custom through the door and their efforts seem to be finally reaping the rewards.

 

Same Name, New Style: The long-running Palladium boogie barn (Second Road, just up from Big C) had a grand re-opening on 4 November after being closed for seven days for minor refurbishment.

There is no cover charge and all libations are 120 baht, which is quite reasonable when compared with similar establishments such as Tony’s (Walking Street) and X-Zyte (Third Road). The Palladium is a very big room and even if there are upwards of 300 people in the joint it can look almost empty. However, there is live music and entertainment as well as the usual disco and a clutch of around 50 attractive table dancers to keep punters amused when the stage shows are having a break.

 

A Number One Birthday: One of the friendliest Thai bar owners in town, Khun Wun, is celebrating her 21st birthday (plus VAT and Tax) with a party in her beer boozer, the Number One Bar (in the lane between Soi 7 and Central Road), on Thursday 20 November. The usual pig will meet its maker, as will a few chickens, and salad and soup will also be available to make sure well-wishers obtain enough vitamins to party through the night.

 

Angels are not us: Recently I also wrote that the Hooty’s ogling den (Walking Street) was going to transmogrify into a Pattaya version of the highly polished and successful Bangkok show palace Angelwitch.

 

According to one report, this is not going to happen, and never was on the cards. I find that strange because it was Big Andy, the owner of Hooty’s, who made the point of telling me. And it wasn’t just a casual remark, he went into some detail about the plans which were then afoot. Perhaps with the Hooty’s shows proving reasonably popular, Andy has decided to pull the pin on the Angelwitch idea. Or maybe he was having a fanciful nocturnal nautical-style dream: you know the one, where you wake up with both hands on the mast and seamen running everywhere.

 

Tweaking at the Margins: Both the Peppermint and Happy ogling dens (Walking Street) have marginally increased their happy hour prices with the start of the high season, going from 35 to 40 baht for draught amber, house liver wasters, Thai rotgut and lolly water. Hardly a reason to cease patronising either place, although I personally prefer Peppermint. The happy hours run from 8:00-9:00PM in Happy and 8:00-9:30PM in Peppermint.

 

Both Living Dolls ogling dens (Walking Street) are still offering their libations during happy hour at 45 baht; Dollshouse (Walking Street) is probably the cheapest at 30 baht for its happy hours between 7:00 and 9:00PM and Champion (Walking Street) has draught amber at 35 baht and other thirst-quenchers at 50 baht from kick-off at 7:00PM. In Soi Diamond, Vixens happy hour extends from 8:00 until 10:00PM with draught amber nectar at 35 baht.

 

Nine Cheap Hours: The After That beer boozer and live music venue (Soi 7) has a happy hour that stretches from midday until 9:00PM with Singha retailing at just 35 baht. A live band kicks off later in the evening and warbles through until closing.

 

Cafée society: The Studio Cafeé, located in the Jomtien Complex on Thappraya Road has a free buffet on Friday nights with the Carlsberg amber draught going off at 35 baht a glass all night. On Friday 21 November the café will host Dave’s birthday party.

 

Ringing the Changes: Barely a week goes by in Fun Town without a boozer opening or closing or changing hands or name, and among recent movements on the chessboard of Pattaya include: the sale and closure of the Watering Hole beer boozer (Soi Skaw Beach); the closure of the Sana noshery in the same soi (it used to sell the biggest schnitzel this side of Jomtien hill) and the closure of the Giligin’s ogling den in Pattayaland Soi 1 (although this may not necessarily be permanent). Also, following the murder of Rob Henry, the Sky Dive boozer in Soi 6 has been closed.

 

Krathongs as far as the eye could see: This year’s Loy Krathong night (8 November) was one of the busiest I’ve ever seen in Fun Town. Traffic on Beach and Second Road’s was at a crawl for most of the evening and the pedestrian scrum on the promenade was so thick at one point I was overtaken by an octogenarian pushing a Zimmer frame.

 

For any number of boozers this must surely have been one of their busiest nights, certainly for this year, and augurs well for the rest of the high season. Anybody new to the delights of Pattaya and thinking about investing their hard-earned in an establishment flogging booze would have been ready to sign on the dotted line well before midnight. Of course one busy night of boozing punters doesn’t make for a successful operation just as one swallow doesn’t make a short-time professional.

 

My e-mail address is: nightmarch@hotmail.com

Author of Pattaya "Patpong on steroids"

No reproduction without specific reference to: nightmarch@hotmail.com