Beware the Pattaya Mafia…

Posted by sideshowBOB | Pattaya, Reader Submissions | Posted on November 8th, 2006

Catchy headline but will explain it in a minute. Needed to run down to Pattaya for business – yes seriously. I know it sounds suspect but the great thing about being in the naughty nightlife business is one has to meet people who cater to the NNB. Woe is me. Anyway. We had a meeting, turned out to be a lame meeting – I will discuss this point in another post but as a reminder: if u are farang doing business in Thailand – please take your customers seriously or your potential customers seriously even if u don’t take yourself seriously. Meeting over we decided to check out a few joints before returning back to the big city. Without hotel rooms and a taxi lined up for the return journey we decided to just stay out and party with plans to return home just in time to get back to work. Painful but fun.

Quick rundown.

Club Boesche: Still fun but hit or miss I am finding. Some nights off the charts and others almost bad. I would say this night was bad. The girls up stairs were naked – but ugly. The girls in the tub looked like they were taking a nap and the girls on the main stage were nothing special. No reason to stick around.

Happy Go Go: Great stuff. Love the nudity. Love how if u sit on the rail all the girls pass by u at one point. Attitude was fun and enjoyed buying drinks. Maybe even paid a barfine…

Caurosel: Medium. The shows are great and very naked. The normal lineup was pretty good and mostly naked. Music cool and girls fun to talk with. We downed a few here for good reason.

Superbaby: Music is great and lots of babes. Sometimes the farang can feel like he is competing pretty heavily for attention with the Japanese and Chinese but such is life. Still enjoy the place and the pretty girls though.

Heavens Above: Wow. Still love it. Sometimes u feel like u stumbled onto a pajama party for college girls who don’t mind u sitting on the couch while they undress, frolic and hang out mostly naked. Great stuff. Cute girls. Only issue. The not so cute ones won’t go away when u want them to. The too hot ones are tough to get any attention from but great place to hangout. Must see go go.

We hit it hard and was time to locate our taxi and get back to BKK. It was about 3 something in the morning and time was ticking. The taxi had rung many times while I was well, u know, since we had told him we would be ready by 2:30. Shit happens. Anyway we found him and he swung by our locale to pick us up. All good. We apologized for our tardiness and told him to high tail it home. And he did.

About 5 minutes into our ride our taxi started to slow down and I noticed one of the pattaya pickup truck taxis slowing down in front of us. Then another to the side of us and another behind us. Our Taxi said it was the pattaya mafia and we should stay inside. He got out. Wai’d them all many times and talked in Thai for a few minutes. Then he got back in and said we were cool. I was like I hope so but was really wondering what was going on. Turns out that this group of drivers in pattaya does not like Bkk drivers picking up people in pattaya for return trips. Since we had lined up our driver for a roundtrip we were safe but had he just picked us up for a return trip we might have had some trouble. This was bothering me.

I used to always feel pretty safe in Thailand. More worried about drunk farangs than anything else but this was a new twist. I had many questions? What would have happened if we were a random pickup and the pattaya guys wanted to make an issue? I am sure we would have had to find another ride but would they have done something to us or just the driver? Obviously this goes to show that people don’t get favorable rates when leaving pattaya since the mafia is trying to stifle competition. Since I live in Thailand and speak some thai I tend to not freak out over stuff like this but imagine if I were a random tourist. I doubt I would feel very safe in Thailand anymore. Anyway. This shit is bad since it screws up tourism and alters some of the very basic things that many of us take for granted. Simply jumping in a taxi and not worrying to much about what could happen.

Well. Pattaya was fun but I will be more careful and I probably won’t use the truck taxis encircling pattaya all the time cause I don’t like to give money to assholes. Will most likely use the motorcycle taxis instead.

carry on…

9 comments

9 Responses to “Beware the Pattaya Mafia…”

RobyG says:

November 8, 2006 at 10:16 pm

Dammers ! Baht Bus Mafia in Pattaya ! controllin commerce with the Bangkok Taximan tryin to make a livin. Frickin Bullies anyhow ! … let alone BigMango Boss as customers hanging on after the drinkin and eye candyin partyin. Sh@#$%@ it ! any tourist woulda been freakin and combo pissy at the Thai BS !
Heck same also goes for the Phuket Tuk-tuk Mafia Fags down there ! I hate em plenty cause they rip off many nice tourist. Bangkok has the Tuk-tuk freaks too ! I bad mouth em all and tell em to stay away! I will surely tell others bout this Pattaya taxi mafia scene…….Party On ! and get some and some more !
View all comments by RobyG
Johnny C says:

May 1, 2007 at 1:12 am

I’ve been to Pattaya,last december and I got ripped off by my hotel.I have left some 1600$ in safe at the reception,I did open it during my stay quite a few times to leave documents,watch,to take some money…And on the last day of my trip and was doing my check out,I took the money from the safe and there whre some 700$ missing!! I was pissed! They where very rood and they insisted they have nothing to do with it(they were all Thai at the reception and the only farang guy the menager of the hotel was “surprisingly” missing).So I asked them to show me survaliance tape of the reception,and they said that camera watching the reception is broken.Eventually I went to police station,but I just wasted my time,since they just took my statament and said they will to investigation.The name of the hotel is Penthouse hotel,so my advice is DO NOT GO TO PENTHOUSE HOTEL! And by the way they took some weed out of my room,at first I wasn’t so sure,I tought maybe I smoked it all,but at the end I realised they took it for sure since I can’t report it.
View all comments by Johnny C
pmmp says:

May 8, 2007 at 10:30 pm

JohnnyC: Bummer about the ripoff. I must say though that I had a wonderful few nights at the Penthouse my last visit BUT I didn’t leave anything valuable in my room. What you experienced though is not hotel dependent. Hotel safes in the room are not “safe” in any hotel. Some hotels have rooms with safes by the reception that are a little safer but both are prone to insider or ex-insider ripoff’s. I tend to hide my valuables in plain sight or elsewhere in the room (behind a refrig, in a lamp, etc.).
View all comments by pmmp
Stevie G says:

August 14, 2007 at 1:58 pm

i stayed Pattaya for 6 nights and was robbed 3 different times……..
first night a freelancer from a disco took my freshly bought stash of 12 porno dvds i bought from a guy on the street (i was gutted)
3rd night 1200 or so baht went ‘missing from my roon’ – i complained at reception but did me no good
and last night (this was a fucking killer) some slut stole my new mobile which was a week old (i even hid it under my bed and she got it while i slept)…….and heres the worse bit, she took my Breitling watch i got for my 21st birthday off my wrist when i slept

definately have to tread carefully – 1 night i was there i went lucifer disco and it was full of old football hooligans, was a bit scary
View all comments by Stevie G
SSB says:

August 14, 2007 at 5:32 pm

That is wacked. you got some karma issues.

Never been robbed yet in thailand but I don’t take much home and when it is a random bird I do it sober and in short time hotels.

I am bummed you lost the porn. that is upsetting.
View all comments by SSB
Stevie G says:

August 14, 2007 at 9:31 pm

1000baht for 12 high class european smut dvds – i bought another 12 from the same guy next day to make up for the loss and he looked at me as if i was warped

not that i DESERVED to get robbed (noone does) but i was in a bad state each night so i was defenseless, which knowing what its like here i shouldnt be as careless, but even so its still a bitter pill to swallow

im yet to think of an excuse to tell my mom where the fuck my watch is…….any ideas folks?
answers welcome via email to

robmeimapissedferangtwat@pattaya.co.th
View all comments by Stevie G
shanghai brit says:

August 21, 2007 at 4:56 pm

I have just returned from what was supposed to be a 3 day trip to pattya then move on but ended up staying for 2 weeks.

I got robbed buy a motorbike taxi, yes my own fault very drunk but always tuck your money well into your pocket they can be bloody crafty.

However it was a great trip. I recommend Oasis go go soi bcoy, between 7-9 50 baht a drink cannot go wrong for a warm up plus great girls all a great laugh as well, then soi seven for a few bars then onto walking street, well just before for a bit of thai boxing and alot to be said with those little beer bars u can find yourself a beauty and with a bar fine of 200 baht send her packing if she bores u.

If u are into live music just pop in climax on walking street just for a few drinks with the bird then the best gogo angel witch, so much better than Bangkok’s and often a free wank to. happened to me twice in 2 days

well worth it
View all comments by shanghai brit
sean says:

August 30, 2007 at 5:32 am

Hey Stevie G,
Tell your mom you took home a $10 underage Thai prostitute and that because you were so drunk she was able to take your watch right off you wrist while you were unconscious. Clearly not your fault. I’m sure mom will understand.
View all comments by sean
OMER says:

December 16, 2008 at 7:28 pm

been to Pattaya 5 times going again in jan 09 never been ripped off however hotel staff are dodgey but then again id hate to lose my porn probebly pack up and head home dude dont know how you did it
View all comments by OMER