bangkok.baronbonk.com The pros and cons of the four main cities that feature a gogo

I was sitting happily in one of the many a gogos in Angeles City ruminating upon the ways of the world, as one does, trying to avoid eye contact, which would have resulted in an appeal for refreshment, when a thought struck me. This was no Damascus road conversion but a query about how many countries actually had gogo bars as we know them? A better question might be how many towns have sensibly priced bars that feature gogo dancers who can be bar fined (or similar)? And the straight answer is not many. Four centres come to mind straight away and they are Angeles, Bangkok, Manila, and Pattaya. Outside that there are a few in Chiang Mai, Chaweng, Patong Beach, and Barrio Burretto (Subic Bay). I know I stand to be corrected and please do so, but my point is this makes those places pretty unique in the world. Thus it is not that surprising that, when propping up the bar at the UK local drinking a pint of old and filthy, talk of little dancing girls that can be rented by the night gets incredulous looks from one’s fellow drinkers (and glares from their spouses).
I will add a few qualifications to the above. They are that I know Hong Kong also has a clutch of a gogo bars featuring mainly Thai and Filipina girls, and yes, in some Eastern European cities, there are similar bars but they are generally first and foremost clip joints.
Before Christmas my good friend the Cheap Baron wrote an article here comparing Pattaya and Bangkok, primarily looking at the cost of each and concluded there was no competition. I received a host of abuse from local Bangkok operators saying he was wrong and that there was no difference. That persuaded me to do my own research. It was a no brainer; I am not sure what those Bangkok owners were on but it certainly was not reality.
So there I was sitting looking at a mass of girls, who all spoke some English, drinking an SML (San Miguel Light) at 60 peso each (say 45 Baht) facing lady drinks of 150 peso (say 115 Baht) with bar fines of 1300 peso (say 1000 Baht) wondering about the relative costs of Pattaya and Angeles. I will just remind the reader that the bar fine in Angeles is basically all inclusive, which means a gentleman tips the lady in the morning (500 pesos being very acceptable). And there are thousands of girls with many bars fielding over two hundred girls a night with the emphasis on the offs not the drinks as opposed to the party bars which are more interested in fun. I wrote about this at Christmas (see article).
Angeles is a great place to escape Songkran and, around the bars, there were many Pattaya residents trying to stay dry outside whilst getting very wet inside. There seems to be a certain group of people I have known for quite a few years who I catch up with once a year in Angeles over Songkran.
So as I sat watching the little girls I was weighing up the pros and cons of the four main cities that feature a gogo.
Many will tell you that twenty years ago the very best place for nightlife, anywhere in the world, was Manila. Then along came a crusading Mayor and it was all extinguished, virtually overnight. Now I fear Manila has very little to offer and it is certainly not worth any kind of effort to go there. There are still a few lively spots but the one main area, P. Burgos Street in Makati, has been destroyed by an avaricious monopoly that has elevated prices to the point that nobody goes near the place except for the odd visiting businessman. Add to that the fact that Manila is an unattractive poor city with traffic problems that are second to but a few places. Put simply, Manila, from a nightlife point of view, does not rate comparison with the other three venues.
In a way Bangkok is suffering the same fate as Manila with more of a slow lingering death rather than a quick execution as the forces of competition elsewhere and regulation put the squeeze on. As the country’s capital, Bangkok like Manila will always have a nightlife scene. This is pretty universal for capitals around the World. In addition Bangkok has such a reputation one doubts the nightlife scene will ever go away. In many ways Bangkok is a truely great city; it has a lot more than just nightlife, which is a lot more than one can say about Angeles and to a lesser extent Pattaya. But Bangkok nightlife seems to be being stymied and is getting more and more expensive. The escalating costs are not all the fault of the operators, although some are, but general cost escalation here as well as wage inflation are the main forces driving prices up. However make no mistake: the big groupings that have grown are monopolistic and behave like monopolies and are not in the best interest of the punters or I suspect the business they are in. A monopoly has killed P. Burgos Street, a monopoly is killing Nana Plaza, although conversely the Kings Group, a monopoly in Patpong, does seem to try to run a fair business. So however you look at it Bangkok is no longer a cheap place to party although it is great town to visit and play for those who can afford it.
The fact that Angeles survived the closure of Clark Field by the Americans was surprising; the fact it is now booming is also surprising. It all goes to show that there is a much greater demand for certain services than the PC of the World would ever like to even consider. With the gambling business developing alongside the traditional Fields Avenue bars, Angeles has the real potential to grow into a mini Las Vegas, especially as the flights build up into Clark. But at the moment it is one-dimensional with really very little to do other than partake of the two products of the mass of a gogo bars. Restaurants are few and generally not very good so refuge for drinkers from the a gogos is strictly limited, although the arrival of the massive Shanos bar has provided a good alternative to that. The new highway to Subic, opening next month, will bring the beach to less than an hour away. That and a few new facilities for the growing retirement orientated ex-pats may well lead to significant changes. So for the moment Angeles is the cheapest place if you just want to drink and fornicate but on the whole its attractions end there.
Pattaya has come a long way considering it started on the same premise as Angeles - to provide R&R facilities to American servicemen. But in the last decade Pattaya has really blossomed and the nightlife scene grown more that the wildest expectations of the most optimistic. Massive competition has not only kept prices down but has also forced standards up and up. Pattaya is a great playground with not only lively sensible priced nightlife but a host of bars and now good restaurants as well as other recreational activity. It really does have everything and generally at a sensible price. Of course not all is rosy in Pattaya; the traffic is horrendous and parking places few and far between but I suppose the biggest issue that could derail Pattaya is crime.
So back to my ruminating: best value place to play has got to be Pattaya and best quality place to play is Bangkok. However Angeles has its own charms so I shall go back; the only place I can say little good about is Manila – which is sad!