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Pattaya Nightlife

Girly bars

Pattaya is especially infamous for its girly bars. The official closing time in 'entertainment zones' is 1am, but 'closing time' is defined as switching off the music and non-essential lighting, and numerous bars remain open 24/7. The most popular bar areas are:

1) Walking Street, which could better have been named 'Ogling Street', as there are around 160 girly bars on the street and on the adjoining lanes.

2) Pattayaland features on many a Pattaya postcard, as when it's lit up at night, the go-go bar signs are a memorable and photogenic sight. If you look carefully on the postcards you may spot men hurriedly leaving several of the establishments, having not got what they bargained for, as the dancers are all boys, not girls.

3) Soi 7 & Soi 8. With 130 bars here, there's always something going on, and in the early hours in high season unmitigated mayhem often breaks out.

4) Soi Yodsak (Soi 6). Imagine a kerb-crawlers paradise - and then pedestrianise it. Arguably Pattaya's most colourful as well as most notorious street, Soi 6 has about 50 bars with names such as 'Butterfly, 'Route 69' and 'The Eager Beaver' most of which are 'short time' bars, where the phrase 'popping in for a quicky on the way home' takes on a whole new meaning.

5)Second Road. On the west side of Second Road opposite the Central Festival Centre is a collection of about 35 very popular beer bars.

That's a total of over 380 bars, and that's just counting those in the most densely-concentrated areas. For those who equate variety with quality, Pattaya is the place to go.

Discotheques

Pattaya has two types of disco - those that are on or near Walking Street, and those that are not. Those on Walking Street are more popular with Westerners accompanied by bar girls, and with bar girls looking for customers. The ones further away from Walking Street are generally more typical Thai discotheques: no special area for dancing, but lots of shows and great atmosphere. The best are Chivas Palace, Hollywood Disco (sister club to the Bangkok club of the same name - se more in the Bangkok section), Xzyte Entertainment and Star Dice Entertainment, one of the few discos in Pattaya that doesn't dual-price foreigners.

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