Poll: Naughty Walking Street R.I.P.?

[Leaver]

7 minutes ago, HashBrownHarry said:

Generally most people that are holiday don't care what things cost.

Of course they don't.  That's why the 2 for 1 bars are rammed with tourists.   ????

 

Edited August 14, 2021 by Leaver

[MrJ2U]

9 minutes ago, champers said:

It is laughable to think that Walking Street is going to be a venue for high dining. There are already enclaves that cater for those with lots of money at Bang Saray, Wong Amat and Pratmanuk. Jomtien and Pattaya beaches are the venues for the masses. Pre Covid the most popular resto on Walking St was the Beer Garden with food akin to poor school dinners and playing "hits" from the 60s and 70s. The view was nice if you looked out towards the ocean, but rather unpleasant if you looked back to the beach at the pipes pumping black sludge into the sea.

Limitless dining possibilities in Pattaya.  

 

Keep it sleazy, thats what keeps people coming.

 

Overpriced dining and shopping along a polluted but attractive water front won't work.

[HashBrownHarry]

2 minutes ago, Leaver said:

Of course they don't.  That's why the 2 for 1 bars are rammed with tourists.   ????

 

Everyone likes a bargain but if there was not 2 for 1 bars do you suggest they wouldn't pay the high prices on walking street.....i think not.

[Leaver]

2 minutes ago, HashBrownHarry said:

Everyone likes a bargain but if there was not 2 for 1 bars do you suggest they wouldn't pay the high prices on walking street.....i think not.

It's clear they won't, and don't, pay Walking Street prices, that's why LK Metro and Soi Baukaew boomed.  

[MrJ2U]

16 minutes ago, champers said:

Beer Garden

Nice view, good cheap food, hotties.

 

 

[HashBrownHarry]

1 minute ago, Leaver said:

It's clear they won't, and don't, pay Walking Street prices, that's why LK Metro and Soi Baukaew boomed.  

Do you suggest the people at LK metro / Soi Buakaew are tourists and not 'mostly' long time residents?

[bendejo]

Walking Street is the Patpong of Pattaya.  Guys familiar with Pattaya, when looking for some serious punting, go elsewhere.  When I think of Walking Street I think of tourist families with their kids, mostly Russians, and ladyboys posing for snaps. More of a carnival than a flesh pit.  When in town I'd go for an occasional stroll down there and just take in the absurdity of it all. 

 

I have the impression that people who own these establishments own more than one, so a place being closed down doesn't necessarily imply an entity has left the business.  It's like a block that has two Starbucks scales back to one.

 

 

Edited August 14, 2021 by bendejo

[champers]

8 hours ago, redwood1 said:

Cruises go to Phuket.....They never have and never will come to Pattaya...

Not true. They berth at Laem Chabang; visible from my Naklua condo; cruise starts in Singapore, does Cambodia and Vietnam, into LC and on to Southern Thailand, Krabi or Koh Samui, I forget which.

I met some English friends from home on one such cruise in Dec 2019 outside A-One hotel in Pattaya and we had 6 hours sightseeing, having a massage and a nice Thai meal with a few beers. The ship left dock at 7pm so they sadly missed out on the delights of the night.

They could have spent the day at an hotel pool; buffet included, booze extra; organised by the liner for 100 US dollars per head but opted for a day with me instead. I was touched; still am infact.

[pegman]

12 hours ago, Sydebolle said:

Too much money involved, too many employment seeking staff and a customer base waiting to be able to return ........ so what exactly was the query? 

 Similarly what I can't reconcile is the junta appointing a member of the Kunplome clan to the mayor's chair if it truly wanted the sleaze controlled or eliminated. Putting the mafia in control of the whore houses same same as fox in charge of the chicken coop. Thailand has hundreds of beaches and beach towns so why shutdown the main attraction of your biggest resort beach town? My take is Walking St will be about the first attraction in Thailand to recover from the pandemic. It's customer demographic will be more prepared sooner to travel than family vacationers or sightseers. 

[Leaver]

2 hours ago, HashBrownHarry said:

Do you suggest the people at LK metro / Soi Buakaew are tourists and not 'mostly' long time residents?

 

Yes, I do.  

[Walker88]

There's an old quote the source of which I cannot find:

 

"If my demons leave me, I fear my angels will soon follow"

 

Like it or not, Pattaya, at least for foreign tourists, is the nightlife.  Take that away---"make it a 'family destination'"---and not only does the city die, but the industrial corridor from Bangkok to Patts dies. One of the reasons so much FDI went into that corridor, is because senior management of those factories liked the proximity to Walking Street (or the Bangkok equivalents) for weekend fun. Foreign management tolerated the nonsense associated with investing in Thailand (visa problems, work permit difficulties, graft and corruption, high taxes on such things as cars and booze) because they could have fun hitting the spots that made Pattaya famous.

 

Already firms, especially Japanese firms, are amortizing existing Thai factories and plants and shifting to friendlier environs like Vietnam. Take away the nightlife and that trend will accelerate. The industrial corridor will begin to take on the appearance of Chernobyl.

 

Current pie-in-the-sky fantasies have the sea side of Walking Street turned into 'luxury shops and upscale restaurants'. For whom? Tourists who want to pay two times the price for goods they can buy back home? Tourists interested in eating locally harvested seafood full of bacteria or heavy metals ?

 

Thailand isn't the only SE Asian country with a coast. Why would foreign tourists or 'families' choose a destination with dirty water and nothing to titillate Dad? Even the myriad busloads of Chinese tourists used to follow their flag-bearing guide up and down Walking Street to gawk at the scantily clad women.

 

Perhaps a Patts without the pre-Covid nightlife holds appeal to Bangkok-based Thais, but that isn't the city's bread and butter. Take away Walking Street, which is also a kind of euphemism for all Pattaya nightlife, and tourism revenue will fall to maybe a quarter of what it was in, say, 2018. Such revenue hardly justifies the massive investment that would be required to create the Pattaya or officials' dreams and fantasies.

 

 

[scubascuba3]

5 hours ago, Leaver said:

 

I agree, Walking Street was packed.  Were the bars, gogo's and nightclubs on Walking Street packed?  Did you go inside some of these establishments? 

MrJ2U is correct, many places in walking street were packed, some of the best agogos you couldn't even get a seat such as Pinup and Palace. Insomnia very popular also. Of course there will be empty places too. Far better than LK Metro which I always avoid

[Gudge]

19 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

If walking street disappears and becomes just another shopping mall then the business which used to be conducted there will move somewhere else.

There is always going to be a demand for these services.

However that place may not be in Thailand. It could very well be in another SEA country.

 

As has been stated if and when the world opens up horny men will travel and go to a country or city that has these features and if the dinosaurs that are in the present government have there way and turn Thailand into a huge Buddhist Temple or monastery there will maybe be a small return of tourists but the majority of tourists will be going to countries where they are welcomed and can enjoy themselves. I have been a 6 month a year visitor to Thailand for many many years but with Covid and the way Thailand has turned am in no hurry to return again and will be looking for greener pastures if and when this Covid is finished. I loved Thailand when I first starting coming close to 30 years ago and thought there was no other place in the world to go to and was a seasoned world traveler at that time but over the years it has become nothing more than a greedy tourist trap especially for us dirty filthy stinking farangs. I know it is too much to ask but would love to see a Government run by a younger generation that doesn't want to take Thailand back 100 years in the past and then might consider my return to Thailand but am not holding my breath.

[jacko45k]

12 hours ago, Almer said:

It will still be there but not in your face, just as well if the cruise liner pier gets built, 2000 men with there wives in Pattaya for 24 hours not good for anyone. 

There will be a lot of Thai ladies in need of earning some money once things start to open up.... there are not many jobs that earn so well for so little effort. So I think it will bounce back....unless they get in there quick and bulldoze the place....what have they done since the pandemic started, dug a few holes and buried some cables? While the buildings rot.... if they demolished the full block from beer garden to Bali Hai we would then certainly have a changed scene. 

[Ralf001]

1 hour ago, jacko45k said:

There will be a lot of Thai ladies in need of earning some money once things start to open up.... there are not many jobs that earn so well for so little effort. So I think it will bounce back....

Ive worked my way through most of the age ranges on Thaifriendly and some of the stories the ladies tell me they really do work hard to earn their money..... lots of perverts in Pattaya it seems.

 

One fellow in particular enjoys wearing a mask that is attached via a hose to pants worn by the lady and he sits and waits for her to pass wind.

[Kerryd]

For those who are unaware - cruise ships did come to Pattaya before. I just read an archived article in the NY Times of cruise ship trips in 1981/82, some of which included stops at "Pattaya Beach".
The QE2 cruise that docked in Pattaya was in 1983.

Remember, there used to be a large pier that ran out into the bay, right next to where the water pumping station is (a stone's throw from the entrance to Walking Street). (Two piers it seems at one time in the 80's. I only saw 1 when I was here in the 90s though.)
That pier was demolished after Bali Hai was built.

The water was probably deeper then as there probably wasn't as much sand being dumped on the beaches and then washed out into the bay in those days.

Just last Sept, city hall approved a new "cruise ship terminal" project with the pier sticking out from the point of land past where Bali Hai is located. It's funny, because an article from last June said there was a lack of interest from marine construction companies to do such a project.

Also keep in mind that many of these projects are nothing more than "trial balloons" being floated to gauge public (and corporate) interest in such projects. If the interest is minimal, the project quietly fades into memory.
If they get a rousing response, then they can proceed onto the next step (usually allocating budget, tendering proposals and getting the necessary approvals).

The old piers in the early 80's, just before the start of what is now Walking Street


The proposed approved 2.9 bln baht cruise ship terminal project:



(Can't remember if we can link Bangkok Post articles here, but that's where the image came from.)

[DBath]

I passed thru there once and stayed the weekend, so I could get my visa. I had a nice ocean view room at the Renaissance there - the only nice thing about the city as I recall.
 

Have never desired to go there for any other reason, place strikes me as a SHlT hole. Maybe if I were young and stupid again…

[Almer]

4 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

Ive worked my way through most of the age ranges on Thaifriendly and some of the stories the ladies tell me they really do work hard to earn their money..... lots of perverts in Pattaya it seems.

 

One fellow in particular enjoys wearing a mask that is attached via a hose to pants worn by the lady and he sits and waits for her to pass wind.

I must put  that on my bucket list.

[Jingthing]

5 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

...

 

One fellow in particular enjoys wearing a mask that is attached via a hose to pants worn by the lady and he sits and waits for her to pass wind.

Who hasn't done that? 

[DBath]

17 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Who hasn't done that? 

Reminds me of a joke I once heard about ‘69’, where the guy says, “I don’t think I can handle 67 more of those!”

[Solinvictus]

On 8/14/2021 at 4:56 AM, zzaa09 said:

5. No great loss to society. 

6. Get a life.

Hey man don't hate on guys that are able to keep playing.    Onto another point...The 'one track mind' and long standing 'socially accepted norms' here would surely see to it that it will be back and thriving again once women are able to feel safer and all this cleared up. Why wouldn't they?

 

Hell, hopefully brings down the prices and quality of services that were around years ago. They got greedy with all these Euro (continental) guys giving em 5k for a single shot. lol

 

Keep it dirty and stay cool.

Edited August 15, 2021 by Solinvictus

[Nanaplaza666]

15 hours ago, Leaver said:

Yes, I know there is a human story to prostitution in Thailand, but I wouldn't call it inhuman to call sex a product.  Granted, it's more a service, than a product, but same same. 

 

Do you think guys are going to Walking Street to buy expensive drinks, or to seek sex?  

I would call it a service then because they way you said it it looks like you call the girls a product . 

[Nanaplaza666]

14 hours ago, 55Jay said:

You have a guilty conscious, forcing you to respond.  Better to ignore your impulses when they touch a nerve close to home, and just scroll on by.  ????

Aaaaaah did i hit the nail on the head ????????

[Solinvictus]

1 hour ago, Nanaplaza666 said:

I would call it a service then because they way you said it it looks like you call the girls a product . 

Well they are a product of their parents. Are they not?

 

666 Must be a Chinese fan huh?

[thaibeachlovers]

On 8/14/2021 at 9:58 AM, Espanol said:

 

This doesn't look good:

 

"the bars and clubs of Walking Street have been shuttered for months and parts look scheduled for demolition. The Pattaya local authority has already stated that the dozens of premises jutting into the sea will not be able to renew their entertainment licences as they are illegal structures. Moreover, the whole area should be turned into a 21st century business and leisure complex far removed from the sins of the flesh."

 

"A new 2.9 billion baht mega project for Bali Hai Pier to include waterfront expansion and a terminal for cruise ships has already been sent to the EEC, whilst the adjoining Walking Street is planned to turn into landscaped gardens, department stores, classy restaurants and family entertainment venues. Pattaya Mayor Sonthaya Kunplome has confirmed his aim to turn Walking Street into a world-class for shopping, eating and nightlife."

 

 

There is an equivalent in Singapore. Bugis Street was famous for the ladyboys that frequented it in the 70s, but it was sanitised. The ladyboys banished and the street turned into restaurants. I can't say if it has been a success or not, but I doubt it's as much fun anymore.

 

The difference between Singapore and Pattaya is that the Singaporeans are able to complete a project successfully while everything the Pattaya rulers touches IMO turns to dross and failure.

 

The mayor seems to have a credibility problem.

[thaibeachlovers]

17 hours ago, Leaver said:

Yes, I know there is a human story to prostitution in Thailand, but I wouldn't call it inhuman to call sex a product.  Granted, it's more a service, than a product, but same same. 

 

Do you think guys are going to Walking Street to buy expensive drinks, or to seek sex?  

???????????????

 

I used to go to look at the girls and bought cheap drinks so I could sit in the Lucky Star bar to do so.

One needed to be quite wealthy to consider buying sex there IMO.

[thaibeachlovers]

7 hours ago, Kerryd said:

The old piers in the early 80's, just before the start of what is now Walking Street

I remember the single pier in the 90s. It was very popular at night. It wasn't well built and the US navy used to fix it whenever they came for "shore leave".

[Leaver]

13 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

many places in walking street were packed,

 

13 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Of course there will be empty places too.

 

Care to put a percentage on packed place to empty places on Walking Street, pre covid?  

[Nanaplaza666]

4 hours ago, Solinvictus said:

Well they are a product of their parents. Are they not?

 

666 Must be a Chinese fan huh?

Ok solinvictus nice to know your a product , i like to think i am not . 

[3NUMBAS]

it doesnt look good .prolly dead for some years, doubt it will come back ,maybe in 25 years it will return. just a trickel of tourists not enough for critical mass

the marine bar is a sad loss ,the chicken farm