Pattaya Walking Street

Walking Street is the excitement: the lights, the crowd. It’s not a place where I see people just wandering around. Either they’re walking through from one end to the other, or they’re going inside somewhere. That’s where the go-go bars are.

Walking Street has the best selection of nightclubs. They’ve got every type. 808 is hip-hop. Lucifer plays, I think, rock and roll. I don’t know the genre. They’ve got Insomnia, Republic, Mixx (I don’t really fool with Mixx), and Lollipop has live music. There’s a nightclub for everybody. Some clubs are blended, but in certain clubs you’ll see a certain crowd.

808 is not the same, but you still need to go to 808. It feels like a hood club back home. Tunnel too, because there are so many Black Americans and Africans, and people from all over: Arab, Indian, white, Russian. But it’s still got that hip-hop vibe. It’s dominated by hip-hop. People complain about the playlist, that they play the same songs all the time.

Then there are the after-hours clubs, MYST and Tunnel. They go until four or five in the morning, when the sun is coming up. Say you fall asleep early and wake up at three or four in the morning. You can still go out, and the places are packed. They’re in there like vampires.

Surprisingly, the biggest and baddest clubs on Walking Street are the Indian clubs, Jalwa and Jannaat. I’m not suggesting those clubs, I’m just telling you. Those things are massive, and expensive. You’re more than welcome to go in, but in the one I went into, the drinks were two to three times the price of 808.

These clubs have the appearance of nightclubs, so if you come from the United States, they look like clubs. But basically it’s a mix of freelancers: girls getting off work at Soi 6, at Soi Buakhao, at LK Metro, at Beach Road, and girls that didn’t work that day, slept all day, and got up to go out.

It’s a big bottle culture, table culture, section culture, but you really don’t need all that. That’s just for show. You can do the section, the bottle, the VIP, and the girls still ask for some money at the end of the night. You could have saved all that money and just given the girl the money to begin with. Everything costs more on Walking Street.

When you get into the club, don’t buy a table, so you can move around. If you get a section, you’re in a blind spot. Nobody can get to you. It may seem like everybody’s in there because it’s crowded, but trust me, there are more people outside than in any of those places. I prefer buying a beer and posting up. That way I can walk around, or plant myself in one spot for a moment and look across the room. I do that everywhere I go.

And don’t spend all your time at 808. Walk the street, because you can meet people there. You don’t have to go in anywhere. You can literally just hang out. They’ve got guys doing magic tricks and all kinds of stuff out there. Most people are on their way somewhere, but you can still approach people, and the women will stop if they’re not in too much of a hurry. That’s the biggest selection, because it’s like a river flowing.

It gets going early, and there are different crowds, like a night shift and an early shift. You can go at eight or nine, around when the sun goes down, and there are people there. Really, you can go down at any time and somebody’s there.

If you want go-go bars, go to Walking Street. If you want regular bars, go to Soi Buakhao. If you want adrenaline and wild, crazy girls, go to Soi 6. If you want the nightclub scene, go to Walking Street. If you want something more personal and quiet, window shopping or trying to find a girl to talk to, go to Beach Road.

There’s no skipping Walking Street. It’s for everybody. If you want a more relaxed, laid-back environment, then you go to Soi Buakhao, but everybody should go. I would tell a friend, definitely go. Walking Street is the heart of the nightlife. All that other stuff is the extremities.