With the appearance that the Omicron variant, while highly contagious, is not as life-threatening as previous viruses, regulations in the land of smiles are slowly being relaxed and tourists are beginning to return in small numbers.
In Pattaya, which has been under perhaps the toughest restrictions, the entertainment industry has had two years of shutdowns, limited trading hours and barely any revenue.
During this time, the council decided it was the right time to open up most of the city’s roads to install new drainage systems and fibre optic cables.
Even the infamous Walking Street was actually ripped open for at least 12 months, but now clubs, bars, discos and go-go bars are finally starting to welcome guests again.
This week I spoke to an owner of one go-go bar, who had seized the opportunity during the imposed closing time to refurbish his establishment, after which I asked whether it was feasible and whether the guests who return also have the money (Bahtjes finds I let one terrible word) roll.
He said he had had a good first week and also had a whole battery of ladies available, but there were not nearly enough.
Apparently, during the first Covid19 wave, many girls returned to the countryside to earn a living thereby milking cows, and….. picking rice. This after they soon got into trouble in Pattaya, due to high room rents and paying off necessary medical professional operations. Many ran out of piggy banks in no time and were forced to move to their family homes and farms in the north.
Some of the smarter girls (not a lot) were now making online blogs and videos with thousands of followers. They can make more money in 24 hours from men taking out a paid subscription than having to spend a month making lewd moves in a go-go bar.
The less bright girls now work in factories and shops or help out on the farm.
Finding girls to work in a bar today is a chore in itself for the bar owners, partly because the number of sex tourists is sparse, it has lost its luster for the girls.
With European, Russian, Japanese and Korean tourists coming to Thailand infrequently, the TAT is encouraging Arabs and Indians to fill in the gaps.
However, as you may know, many Thai girls don’t want to hang out with Indian men for various reasons. Therefore, as more go-go bars reopen, there will be a battle to find the prettiest girls who are worth making a living in Pattaya’s nightlife.
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