A Decade of Thailand Nightlife and Go Go Girls

I have been going to Thailand since 2000.

My first trip was to Phuket, not much happened that I can remember.

I was with an English lady friend at the time, staying in the same room as her, so obviously didn’t get any external company brought in from the bars.

A Decade of Thailand Discoveries

In 2004, I decided to buy a round-the-world ticket and leave the UK.

I bought a ticket for Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and a few other places.

It was so long ago, I can’t remember the rest.

My first stop was Thailand, and I never left.

Escaping Bangkok For Pattaya Adventures

I was staying in Bangkok for the first time, hot as hell.

The hotel was dirty, cockroaches everywhere, it was not very nice.

I was starting to really dislike Bangkok; the rotten smell on the streets of rotten rubbish, rats running around everywhere, rubbish just sprawled out over the streets.

But luckily for me, when I got a taxi one night back to my hotel after drinking, the taxi driver asked me if I had ever been to Pattaya before.

I told him no, I’ve never ever heard of it.

He told me he and his wife were going the next day, so that if I wanted a lift, he would give me a lift for a bit of money.

I agreed, and the next day we all went to Pattaya.

I asked him if he knew a hotel where I could stay.

He said he would find one for me when we arrived in Pattaya.

Thailand’s Changing Landscape

After an hour or so looking for a hotel for me to stay at, I ended up in Jomtien.

The room was basic but very clean compared to the one in Bangkok, and it was very cheap, only 350 Baht per night.

So back then when the exchange rate was 68 Baht per pound, the room was only costing five pounds per night, what an absolute bargain.

It had air conditioning, a fridge, shower, toilet, TV, wardrobe, etc.

I couldn’t believe it.

Still to this day, it is only 450 Baht.

The prices of things in Thailand have all gone up these days, but for some reason, the hotel prices don’t seem to have gone up much at all in real terms, obviously they have, but only due to the poor exchange rate.

Finding Friendship and Romance In Jomtien’s Nightlife

Anyway, back to the story.

My first night out, I walked down the soy onto Jomtien Beach Road and walked up the road looking for something to do.

The first bar I came to was called KR Bar, it was on the corner.

This became my local, and I ended up here every night and became very good friends with all the girls there.

Eventually, over the month, I spotted a girl I really, really liked.

She did not work there but was visiting her friend who worked there.

Her nickname was Jan.

I can’t remember how we actually started talking as it was 20 years ago, but we became good friends and always drank together and talked.

Romance Surprises in Jomtien

She was a university student at the time and had an American accent, alarm bells ringing today with the experience I have now, but this was my first time in Thailand so I had no idea.

After a month or so, I can remember one evening on Jomtien Beach, Jan, her friend, and I were talking, and all I was thinking about was kissing Jan.

In the end, I just said, “What have I got to lose?” and I grabbed her and kissed her really passionately.

She said, “Wow, you’re a really good kisser, I’ve never been kissed like that before.”

She said her friend immediately got angry and started talking to her in Thai fast.

She seemed really worried about something.

For some reason, I just thought it was a Thai thing, i.e., not to kiss in public.

Love, Liquor, and Visa Runs

Anyway, Jan and I became boyfriend and girlfriend.

I left the hotel and paid for an apartment to rent down one of the sois.

I would continue to go to KR Bar, living the dream, drinking a full bottle of Jack Daniels every night.

I used to buy the bottle and take it into the bar and pay a small fee for the ice and mixers, it was just so much cheaper doing it this way.

I lived in Jomtien for a year, doing Visa runs once a month to Cambodia, luckily back then you could do this every year, sadly they changed all the rules so now you cannot do this any longer.

You can only do border runs a couple of times a year.

The only other way is to use an aircraft, then you can do it as many times as you like, but it’s not much more expensive that way.

The High Costs of Pattaya Nightlife

For someone not working, it’s not really a valid option to fly in and out of the country.

I had bought five thousand pounds spending money with me, it was all in different denominations due to the other countries I was supposed to be visiting, so it ended up that on some of the money I got a very bad exchange rate, oh well, never mind, I wasn’t bothered at the time, I was having the time of my life.

It’s crazy that this amount of money lasted me a year because in 2023, I went to Pattaya and was spending an average of 500 to 800 pounds a night in one GoGo bar alone down LK Metro, this included the lady bar fine, all drinks, a bit of food sometimes, etc.

This was extortionate, I couldn’t believe the cost these days due to the bad exchange rate.

Pattaya Nightlife Then and Now

Now it’s currently only 38 to 44 Baht per pound, in 2004 the bar fines were about 800 to a thousand Baht for GoGo girls, and the girl’s company cost 2,000 Baht long time, so about 3,000 Baht in total, that’s about 44 pounds or 50 US dollars, these days the fines are around 1,500 plus depending on where you go and the girl costs 5,000 Baht, so a total of at least 6,500 Baht, which is 148 to 171 pounds, getting close to 200 US dollars, the prices are crazy, you know, they’ve quadrupled, it’s really crazy.

Anyway, back in 2004, I rented a motorbike, a Honda CBR Fireblade 1000 RR and would ride this getting around Pattaya.

The problem was that the guy rented the bike told me I had to give him my passport to keep or he would not rent the bike to me, so I did.

Cultural Challenges After a Pattaya Motorcycle Accident

A few weeks later, in the early hours of the morning on the third Road, I think it was near an old club called Excite, I was going through green traffic lights and three Thai girls on a scooter jumped the red light straight in front of me.

I rolled right into the side of them, both bikes were smashed up very, very badly, we all ended up in the hospital but no serious injuries.

At the scene when the police arrived, they said I would be paying all the bike damages and hospital fees.

I was like, what the hell, this wasn’t my fault, there were even witnesses both Farang and Thai telling the police it was the girls’ fault but the police just said, no, he Farang, he can pay.

A Farang’s Experience with Thai Authorities

I had very limited funds by now and as the bike renter had my passport and refused to give it back until the bike was fixed, I was completely screwed.

I had to call my parents back in the UK for help and they sent me the money for the repairs and hospital fees, it was a very large amount.

My parents had saved up this money for me my entire life since I was a child so I would be able to get a deposit on a house, these Thai girls had just taken the whole lot from me due to their stupid red light jumping.

I have no respect for the police now either, none whatsoever, any chance they get, they will jump all over Farangs, many times I’ve seen 20 to 30 Thais ride past police on scooters with no helmets then one Farang without a helmet tries to get stopped immediately and fined.

Love Lost in Pattaya

Anyway, after this incident, I was broke, no money so I had to go back home to the UK, I purchased a flight back home and went back to work.

I started to send my girlfriend Jan twenty thousand Baht per month too, I continued to travel twice a year to be with her, this went on for years until she started getting a bit funny, for some reason her attitude towards me changed, in the end, we broke up.

I then found out that she had a rich American guy who she stayed with in Pattaya, he ran a business there, this was the reason why on the beach when I first kissed her, her friend got so irate, anyway, at least I then knew she had an American accent, I can laugh about it now but I was really angry at the time, later on, I found out that she was also seen another guy, an English guy at the same time as me and the American guy, he had a dive business in Jomtien, so she was seeing three men at the same time, how much money was she taking home a month, in the end, she married the English guy and moved to the UK, oh well, good luck to them.

A Return to Pattaya’s Temptations

After that, I didn’t go back to Thailand for a long, long time, that incident put me off Thailand completely, I did start to go back eventually though, after about 10 to 15 years, I took a friend to show him Pattaya, it was great having a friend to bounce off as I had always gone on my own before, I told him what to look out for with the girls, we had a right good laugh, sadly the KR bar was no longer there in Jomtien, it has been torn down and there was now a huge Money Exchange Place there, so we ended up staying in Pattaya, it was a good laugh and I went back every year after that, again refusing to fall for any other girl.

This year after I received a clickbait advert on my Facebook from a GoGo bar down LK Metro, I saw a really beautiful girl, I fell for her instantly.

I know from past experiences it was not a good thing to do but I did anyway.

I went back and I won’t say to what bar I went to but I fell for that girl like a total idiot that I am.

I bar fined her every night for two weeks.

She comes back to the hotel, we did what you do and she would leave.

She refused to stay the whole night.

I was not used to this as all nighttime girls should stay the whole night.

I was paying her 5,000 Baht every night for a long time so I obviously wanted her to stay all night but she refused.

Obsession and Disappointment in Thailand

I didn’t want to cause a scene at the bar as I had fallen for her big time and I wanted her to be with me as much as possible during my holiday.

So this carried on for two weeks.

I went home to the UK and I couldn’t get her out of my mind so brought another flight ticket back to Thailand a few weeks later and booked off my remaining holidays that year from work.

I met the girl again and continued to pay her bar fine every night.

The issues then started.

I would get to the GoGo bar when it opened to make sure I could bar fine her before anyone else could.

I would pay her bar fine, drink in the bar with her sometimes all night, sometimes half the night and we would then go out drinking around Pattaya.

The issue started when we were out drinking until 3 A.M.

in the morning at the bar she worked at or at a different bar.

She then said, “Okay, I have to go as I have to give my friend a lift home on my motorbike as the bar I work at is close now“.

I was like, “Uh, no, I paid your bar fine we go to the hotel“, but she refused.

I was like, “What the hell, why didn’t you tell me this earlier?“.

A Rollercoaster of Emotions

She rambled some crap to me and then left.

I wasn’t happy as never in the past has this ever happened.

So the next night I told the GoGo Club manager about it and that I wasn’t happy.

This made the girl furious.

She was yelling at me in the bar.

The next night I went back but she calmed down after a few drinks and I bar fined her again.

I took her to the hotel and did what I paid her for.

She left and that was it.

I asked her for her Facebook info so I could add her.

She gave me it and then I flew out of Thailand to meet an old friend in Cambodia.

I originally met him in 2005 at KR bar in Jomtien when I lived there.

While I was there, I received a strange message from the GoGo lady.

It said, “Do you really love me? Prove it.

Tell me how many times we made love.

If you love me, you will remember.

If you love me, you should have photos of us together too.

Send me all the photos you have of us together to prove you love me and think of me“.

Facebook Fiasco Leads to Chaos in Pattaya

I thought this was a bit weird but it was her coming from her Facebook account so I didn’t really think anything of it just that she wanted some reassurance.

I replied with lots of photos of us together, some with her and me in our underwear holding each other in our arms in the hotel.

Well when I got back to Pattaya it was like an automatic bomb had gone off, the lady almost attacked me.

So much for Thais not showing anger in public, she was yelling in my face angry saying, “Why did you tell my boyfriend about us having bedroom fun and sending photos of us together almost naked together?“.

I was like, “Uh, no, I told you that it was you who I sent the message to, it was your Facebook account that I sent that to, you gave me your Facebook info and the message to me came from your Facebook account so don’t blame me, it’s not my fault you told your boyfriend your password is it?“.

She told me if I received another message from that account I was not to talk about anything at all just say we had bedroom fun once and once only, nothing else, she said to say I cannot remember anything else.

Betrayal and Closure in Pattaya’s Nightlife

So finally then I knew why she left early every night, why she lied about giving her friend a lift home at 3 A.M.

When the bar closed, it was to get back to her Thai boyfriend.

I had spent a very large amount of money on this lady and the bar drinks, bar fines, and her fees every day for over a month, in total she had lied to me the entire time so I’d had enough.

When I received another message from her Thai boyfriend I also told him the truth everything, I also told him what she said to me regarding lying to him.

Karma does its thing right, I heard they broke up now, the girl has since moved to another GoGo bar next to the one she worked at.