PATTAYA, Thailand – The traditional gogo club hosts solo naughty boys being tempted by rentable lady pole dancers. It’s a recipe that made Pattaya’s after-dark entertainment scene world famous. The terms gogo dancers, hello girls, showgirls, movers, chorus liners, danseuses, hoofers or even ballerinas were more or less interchangeable.
But Walking Street’s top-tier gogos are on the move once again. They are becoming bigger and more luxurious with UHD big screens, footage videos and hi-tech sound systems far removed from the recorded music of yesteryear or a lone DJ. The base market is no longer lonely guys sat on bar stools, but birthday parties, group nightsout, reunions and assorted celebrations in comfortable surroundings.
A new and flexible terminology is taking root in staff hiring. Both freelancers and salaried employees are welcome. “PRs”, or public relations, are responsible for attracting people into the club and need sales and communications skills. “Cayotes” (not the wild dogs) must be very attractive and hospitable, but cannot automatically be barfined. “Models” are the pole dancers who are available and can be hired in the traditional way.
Walking Street is slowly but surely losing its traditional market of westerners on limited budgets and being replaced by Asian men, often in groups, looking to party in luxurious surroundings. There are now seven or eight clubs catering mainly for Indians and none of them are for Cheap Charlies. Others attract customers who are from South Korea or Singapore in particular: very generous tippers by all accounts.
Much as been written about the changing Walking Street: its exterior refurbishment, the diversification of businesses and the market fragmentation. It remains the most visited street in the Pattaya area but its most familiar attraction is also undergoing major changes. Gogo clubs aren’t always what they used to be.
