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.
Meanwhile, Pattaya's leading Gentlemen's Clubs operation is continuing its expansion. It's a consortium of local bars and clubs offering visitors who join a retreat where they can relax in style and enjoy discounts such as cheap beer, menu choices and weekly pub crawls all announced on regular email newsletters. Gentlemen's Clubs has recently announced that a 28-room, adult-themed resort with a club will be opening in Jomtien as early as January next year. Based 700 meters from Jomtien Beach, it will replace the current ISOL residential block and the facilities will include small kitchens in the rooms, an onsite restaurant, a coin-operated laundry and a large swimming pool.
Pattaya's gay scene can't compete with these macro developments. The two main venues remain the Jomtien Complex Super Town and Pattaya's Boyztown in the center of the city. The main attractions in both districts are the very glitzy and professional cabaret shows, though the audiences remain stubbornly western and elderly in appearance. Where all the gay Russians, Chinese and Indians hang out remains a bit of a mystery according to local bar owners. But, in a break with tradition, a gay bar has opened in the staunchly heterosexual Walking Street. It's Secrets in Soi 14, formerly a straight club. That's certainly a first, at any rate for many years.
