Workmen put the finishing touches to the new Shark on Walking Street. (Photo Courtesy: Dave the Rave)

 

By Barry Kenyon

PATTAYA, Thailand – Pattaya doomsayers will tell you Sin City is all but finished. A combination of gentifrication (posh buildings replacing bars and clubs) and diversification (people now bring their kids on holiday here) has all but decimated the old Pattaya.

 

The number of western expats, especially retirees, has dropped thanks to repatriation or liver disease. “Things are not what they used to be,” bewails a British pensioner sipping beer with his mates as they watch the traffic jams unfold on Soi Buakhao.

Yet the pessimism is by no means the whole picture. In a few days, according to Dave the Rave’s insider web page, the new Shark gogo club will be opening on Walking Street and will occupy most of Soi Diamond. It’s a three-storey facade, three shophouses long and five shophouses deep, with a downstairs floorspace of 230 sq meters.

 

Over 100 young ladies will make sure the customers – who are just as likely to be South Koreans and Singaporeans as Americans or passport holders of the European Union – are comfortable and free of hassle. For example, if you take your time ogling the gogo dancers, you won’t be told to order another drink before you are ready.

 

Full story: PATTAYA MAIL 

-- 2024-09-16
 

 

More of a consolidation than expansion.

2 minutes ago, BigStar said:

More of a consolidation than expansion.

More of a free adv for Dave n Insider! 

 The big money expansion of the red light nightlife is thankfully putting the 'family resort ' location on the back burner. 

Sadly the lady employees could do with an upgrade

2 hours ago, webfact said:

new Shark gogo club will be opening on Walking Street and will occupy most of Soi Diamond

Not sure how the new one will occupy Soi Diamond, the old one is on Soi Diamond which was always mostly empty, but empty doesn't seem an issue in Pattaya

Long read - don't bother.

Basically, it's not "gentrification" and it's not the "diversity" mentioned in the article which seems to have been written by someone who has no clue where Walking Street even is, let alone who all the people going there are or what they look like.

Stop reading here.

"gentrification" ?
Which bars and go-gos have been replaced by "posh" buildings ?

Is he referring to all those "BB Gun Arcades" that have sprung up on Walking Street ?
Which are just another soon to be forgotten fad. Like the "laser pointer" fad. The "6 inch (or higher) platform shoes" fad. The "poofy big hair" fad.
Certainly not "posh". Nor are the Indian clubs "posh".

"diversification" has nothing to do with people bringing their wives and kids to Pattaya on vacation. People have been doing that forever ! I've been visiting/living here for over 30 years now and there have always been "families" strolling along Walking Street - at night and in the day.

For Freddy's Sake - does this guy even know where Walking Street is ?

"Diversification" has to do with the demographics of the people spending the most time on Walking Street, not their "family status".

Walking Street used to be 95-98% "caucasian" (mostly men, some women, a few families now and then). Once in a blue moon you'd see the occasional Indian or "African" (outside of the Cobra Gold time when the US Navy would descend on Pattaya in droves).
And those mostly "caucasian" tourists would spend like the drunken sailors, oil workers, retirees, and horny "mid-life crisis" men that most of them were.

And THAT was when Pattaya was rolling in the dough. THAT is when mega-projects like Bali Hai and Central Festival and numerous other big ticket projects were planned and financed. THAT is when hotels, restaurants and bars were making big money and so were their staff.
And THEY would spend their money in the salons and gold shops and motorcycle shops as well as the "local" clubs (karaokes and Thai nightclubs) and restaurants.
It's called the "trickle down" effect. 

I knew one Harley club that had about 40 guys in it. All of them were business owners. I was making "war zone money" in Afghanistan and I was literally one of the poorest in the group.

But then the gov't decided to try and change Pattaya's image. They stopped encouraging "caucasian" tourism and started promoting tourism in places like India and China, thinking that larger numbers of lower spending tourists would offset the loss of income from the "causasian" demographic.

Between 2004-2010, you rarely ever saw "Chinese" tour groups on Walking Street. They were such a rarity that people would stop and stare.
You could sit on the street for a week and be able to count the number of Indians you saw (not including at the tailor shops) on your fingers. The only "Africans" (for the most part) were the small groups of "large, angry looking" Nigerian "ladies" that would patrol up and down the street looking for customers. (I had the impression they didn't get a warm welcome in most of the bars at the time.)

But then that changed. Suddenly, over the next couple of years (basically from 2011 on), you saw fewer and fewer caucasian faces on the street and more and more Indians and "Chinese tour groups".

And businesses were suffering ! I knew a number of business owners down there (bars, restaurants, go-gos) and they all said the same thing.
The Street was full of people, but none of them were spending anything. They weren't going into the bars or go-gos (except a few "pre-paid" tour groups here and there) or restaurants (except for a few "pre-paid" tour groups).

I'd sit in a beer bar talking to the owner and looking around. Walking Street was full of people but there were barely half a dozen people drinking in the bar - and a couple playing pool.
Everyone on the street were just slowly strolling along, sneaking peeks at the "naughty" places and then off they'd go to somewhere else.

It was so bad, most of the members of that motorcycle club ended up selling their Harleys. (The luxury items are always the first to go when the money gets tight.)
Some had to close/sell their businesses for lack of customers.

And THAT was when a lot of projects around Pattaya went bankrupt and were abandoned. Because the "money" dried up and very few of those "new demographics" were buying condos/houses/businesses/cars and so on.

And that ended the "trickle down effect". If the businesses aren't making money, the staff aren't making money. And if the staff aren't making money, they aren't spending it in all the "local" businesses.

And it was telling. Look at the customers in the bars, the restaurants, the shopping malls. What do you see (still) ? Mostly "caucasian" men, often with their Thai "spouse".
Aside from certain select establishments (like Baccara or the Indian clubs) you didn't (and still don't) see very many Indians or Chinese in bars, restaurants, shopping malls, car/motorcycle shops, gold shops (etc, etc).

THAT is the "diversification" that has been causing the changes in Pattaya and areas like Walking Street.

NOT a few families with kids.
(Sheesh, it used to be funny sitting in a bar and some guy would come in with his kid. He'd sit and have a beer and all the staff would be fawning over the kid and bringing (him/her) treats and doting on them while dad checked out "the market" (or just enjoyed a semi-quiet drink alone).
(Most of the girls had kids of their own of course "back home in the village" and they missed them so when someone would go into a bar with a kid the girls would smother them with attention.)

And it's a hoot that despite the gov'ts best efforts - they STILL haven't been able to change Pattaya's image !
Despite the masses of low/no spending "diverse" tourists, there are still whacks of bars and go-gos around the city making money from the expats and the "caucasian" tourists that haven't found out that Pattaya's "image" has changed.

(If they really wanted change, they would have bulldozed Walking Street during the Covid crisis when almost all the businesses there were closed. Especially the "illegal" ones on the "water" side of the street. And they could have introduced legislation to regulate the bars and go-gos to the point it wouldn't be worth trying to keep them open anymore. But there's a problem.

Those places are still making too much money and the people making that money have no interest in seeing Pattaya's image change (too much). And they wield a lot of influence.





 

Spot on - thank you

Just the latest fad or re-brand... same old same old underneath

29 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

For Freddy's Sake - does this guy even know where Walking Street is ?

I think he does.

He is one of the Big Wig farangs in Pattaya Town. Honory counsel of Pattaya, used to run the show at immigration.

He even wrote the Pattaya book. 
 

He was high up in the police force also.
 

Nobody knows more about Pattaya than Barry.

4 minutes ago, MalcolmB said:

I think he does.

He is one of the Big Wig farangs in Pattaya Town. Honory counsel of Pattaya, used to run the show at immigration.

He even wrote the Pattaya book. 
 

He was high up in the police force also.
 

Nobody knows more about Pattaya than Barry.

With Pattaya evolving as well as this guys age. I am most certainly there is much he does not know now

4 hours ago, webfact said:

the new Shark gogo club will be opening on Walking Street

 

Go-go for a loan???

18 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Not sure how the new one will occupy Soi Diamond, the old one is on Soi Diamond which was always mostly empty, but empty doesn't seem an issue in Pattaya

And the very large GGBs look even emptier and always struggled in recent times..... usually they have an upstairs area that is never opened. 

Quote

The number of western expats, especially retirees, has dropped thanks to repatriation or liver disease.

 

That sounds like something stickman would write, being the sexpat hating hack that he is.

Just now, shdmn said:

 

That sounds like something stickman would write, being the sexpat hater that he is.

Well a bit too clever for ChatGPT?

19 hours ago, Kerryd said:

Those places are still making too much money and the people making that money have no interest in seeing Pattaya's image change (too much). And they wield a lot of influence.

A full account of Pattaya's recent history.  You stopped short of suggesting the police have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

On 9/15/2024 at 11:14 PM, MalcolmB said:

I think he does.

He is one of the Big Wig farangs in Pattaya Town. Honory counsel of Pattaya, used to run the show at immigration.

He even wrote the Pattaya book. 
 

He was high up in the police force also.
 

Nobody knows more about Pattaya than Barry.

What is it to know about Pattaya that hasn't been already discussed on this board and various Pattaya boards over the last 20 years??

Furthermore, YouTube has more videos and vlogs on Pattaya than pretty much any city on Earth at the moment. 

While I'm sure Barry is knowledgeable about Pattaya bureaucracy and politics and such, anyone who has travelled extensively or reside in Pattaya is mostly likely attune with its occurrences. 

7 hours ago, BayArea said:

While I'm sure Barry is knowledgeable about Pattaya bureaucracy and politics and such, anyone who has travelled extensively or reside in Pattaya is mostly likely attune with its occurrences. 

He does come across as having a few more IQ points than the average foreign Pattaya resident, and pens a good article.