Pattaya: All About Walking Street

Pattaya's most titillating (and some would say infamous) tourist attraction is simply called "Walking Street." And like other red light districts around the world - think Amsterdam's de Pijp or Mexico's Zona Norte - Pattaya's Walking Street is full of as much sex and sin as you would expect from any area demarked by legal brothels and street prostitution.

But what sets Walking Street apart from most other RLDs is the over-the-top nature of this street, and the wide variety of fun, and for the most part, wholesome set of activities offered.

From the south end of Beach Road (highlighted by a huge Samsung signboard) to the Bali Hai Pier terminus, you will find foreigners as well as Thai nationals all enjoying what Walking Street has to offer from 6pm to 2am - 365 days a year. This unique part of Pattaya houses some of Thailand's best seafood and international cuisine restaurants, discotheques, sports bars, night clubs, go-go bars, and beer halls.

Here you will find street entertainers, souvenir shops, and a night market filled with everything imaginable, as well as bars filled with Thailand's most amazing ladyboys, as well as clubs blaring some of the best live music available. In short, Walking Street is one huge party zone.

Despite the wrap that Walking Street gets for being dangerous and sleazy, it is really a friendly place where even the shyest of visitors will be forced to smile by the outright forwardness of the local girls and boys. Pickpockets and bar scams do abound, but no more then in any other nightlife area of Thailand, so Walking Street is by no means a place to be avoided (but should be a place where you do watch your personal belongings at all times).

And the once notorious MapJack geomapping company has stopped the practice of photographing street views of Walking Street that included such images as tourista men dancing wildly in the street with, well, women of the street. So there is no longer a need to watch for candid cameras snapping images that wind up on the Internet.

But for camera-clicking tourists, the neo signs and sights of Walking Street offer a kaleidoscope of photographic possibilities. From the glowing main gate to the ocean waters reflecting Walking Street's flickering lights, there are images to be had like no other. The entire street becomes a pedestrian mall at night, and unlike Amsterdam's alluring window displays, taking snaps is quite ok here.

Walking Street's best of the best include the following: for disco, Mixx on the south end (located in the Bali Hai Plaza Shopping Center, 3rd floor) has great music and a separate hip-hop room for visiting DJs; and for an adult couple bar (where the entire club is not filled with lusting male patrons) try the Anglewitch Club.

For the best go-go bars, visit What's Up Agogo, Heavens Above, or the Beach Club. If it's a date that your after, dates abound in the Lucifer or Insomnia clubs. And for a new twist, try one of the many online Thai dating websites, where you can get a date even before you step one foot on Walking Street.

One of the more interesting new clubs on Walking Street is the Casino Club with its line-up of singing and dancing Coyote Girls. This style of bar dancing was made famous by the movie "Coyote Ugly," which in 2000 starred Piper Perabo and John Goodman in a tale of an aspiring singer coming out of her shell to tease men singing atop the bar, all the while serving drinks during the routine. Well, none of the Casino Club girls will ever get a Grammy for Best New Singer, but they will tease the heck out of anyone within reach.

And for any club that offers a show, Coyote or otherwise, here are a few tips: get a table or chair on the main floor nearest the stage, and don't be afraid to offer a 100 baht tip for that privilege. Also, ask for the common offer of "you buy a bottle of booze at the door, and all entrance fees are waived for your party."  Richard Hearne