Almost a Thai Gogo Bar

At the end of July, I got an unexpected long weekend (four days). The question was what to do with it. For me, based in the UK, seven days is the minimum turnaround for a trip to Thailand - and that’s hardly cost-effective. So I thought I’d try Prague. I’d read some good things about it on the forums - some even said that, when you factor the cost of flights into the equation, it is much better value than Thailand, and the girls are just as good. We’ll get to the girls later, but let’s begin with a quick look at the economics:

I can get a single ticket from a regional airport to Prague for between £12 and £29 (depending on time and date) on a low cost airline. A return ticket from London to Bangkok costs between £425 and £550 (sometimes much more). The cost of P4P in Prague is much higher than Thailand, ranging from about £40 - £80 per hour. However, it has to be said that P4P prices are rising at an alarming rate in Bangkok. In August, I was quoted 4,000 baht (+600 barfine) by a gogo girl in Soi Cowboy. That’s around £80 - admittedly for an all-nighter. I replied in Thai, “Pang maak!” to emphasise the fact that I was no newbie to be ripped off, to which she replied, unphased, “This Baccara!” I declined her offer, but was quite happy to pay 3,000 (+500 barfine) to a girl from another bar - that’s £50 approx. Hotels in Thailand are much cheaper; my usual in Soi 4, costing about £18 per night. Prague hotels are same same Central Europe prices - at least £80 per night for something reasonable.

To get round this, I booked into the Pension Ariadne (www.ariadneclub.com) which is basic to say the least, but only approx. £25 per night. However, it does have two advantages - there is a restaurant on the ground floor and a sex club in the basement - Club Ariadne. As a resident I qualified for free membership of the club. As I was checking in, the patron introduced himself and invited me to a stag party in the club with a group of young lads from Northamptonshire. That was a good laugh - you know the kind of thing - various strip routines followed by ritual sexual humiliation of the groom and his mates. After the show, the lads went out on the town, while I stayed to see what Club Ariadne was like. It advertises the cheapest P4P prices in town, and seeing the girls, I can see why. I will be kind and say only that they were not to my taste.

On Saturday I went to Atlas, which is just off Wenceslas Square in the town centre (Ve Smeckach 31), and was surprised at the difference - this was almost a Thai gogo bar! The main difference was that there was only one girl pole dancing. At first I was disappointed, as this hardly compares with a stage packed full of twenty or thirty brown beauties, but as I watched, it began to grow on me. Each girl put on a real show, lasting about 5 minutes, which included skilful pole dancing, stripping, and every now and again, a two-girl lesbian act. There are no daft laws about nudity in Prague, so whatever a girl was wearing when she began her act, was always on the floor at the end of it. Ethnically, there is much greater variety than in Thailand, from ebony black to blue-eyed blonde - and some of them are real stunners. If you are a tit man, this is definitely the place to be as, in that department, the good ’ole European girl can outshine her Thai counterpart any day (even though she may be deficient in other respects).

The real problem with only having one girl on stage is that all the others (and there were plenty of them - at least as many as a typical Thai gogo bar) are free to harass the customers. Within minutes I was hit on by a Czech girl named Monika - she was 29, but OKish, so I bought her a drink - and that’s when I got a real shock. Lady drinks were 500kc - approx. £12! While I was swallowing this unpleasant fact, she filled me in on the other prices: half an hour with a girl (including cost of private room) is 3000kc - approx. £70. If you really want to push the boat out, you can go for one hour in a private room with Jacuzzi and bottle of Champagne for 5500kc - approx. £132!

The following night I went to Darling which is billed as one of the top clubs in central Prague. It is opposite Atlas, and the Czech equivalent of Hello Girls (and boys) fight to persuade you to enter the club they work for. Darling consists of three bars - two small bars and one large show bar. I was shown into one of the small bars and almost immediately noticed a girl with the characteristic Isaan look. Unfortunately she was with a guy, but she did have a less good looking Thai friend. I signalled her over and tried out my Thai.

“Kun ben kon Thai, chai mai?” I began.

“Chai,” she replied, nearly falling off the barstool with surprise.

Unfortunately, my Thai doesn’t stretch to a full conversation, so we switched to English. She said she used English all the time in Prague, as she could speak no Czech - by the way, if you do decide to go to Prague, you’ll find that English is spoken more widely than in Thailand.

At this point, just as I would have done in Thailand, I offered her a drink. That was my first shock of the evening - lady drinks here are 650kc - approx. £16! All other prices are correspondingly higher than Atlas. She told me that her name was Fon, and that she was from Udon, and that her friend, Jiab, was from Korat. Both had previously worked in Diamond Agogo, Pattaya (a bar which I have visited more than a few times!)

I decided not to take it any further with Fon because, frankly, I wouldn't have given her a second look in Thailand. Her friend was different though. She had a pretty face, and was petite, or in Fon’s words: “My friend small, same same baby.” I got a chance to inspect the goods when her turn for pole dancing came. She had ‘girly’ hair - a cute confection of pigtails and ribbons, small breasts, tiny brown nipples, a very thin waist, shaved pubes and that typical Isaan olive-brown skin. Fon was 22, Jiab, 21. Unfortunately, I never got to talk to Jiab because she came straight off the pole and back into the arms of that lucky guy, who soon afterwards disappeared upstairs with her.

Not long after, I saw a gorgeous Eastern European girl with that sexy ‘Club Seventeen’ look. She had beautiful natural blonde hair and curves in all the right places - by which I mean, full breasts combined with a slim waist (large breasts are too often the result of fat in Western girls these days). Her turn on the pole was followed by my second favourite, a very slim brunette - slim almost to the point of being anorexic (I emphasise the ‘almost’). Later on, I saw them walking around the club holding hands - which was very sexy. They were obviously friends, and had it been Thailand, I would have invited them for a threesome - but at Darling prices, that would have busted my budget in just one session! Later still, I saw them sitting down and smoking - a European habit that put me off a bit and helped to console me for not being able to take them both to the Jacuzzi room.

While all this window-shopping was going on, I was continually harassed by girls - “You buy me drink?” “You want sex?” etc. My standard reply was: “No thanks, I'm watching the show,” but even this wasn't enough to get rid of the most aggressive of them - it was sometimes necessary to be almost rude! One girl actually lost her temper because I wouldn't buy her a drink. On top of this the waitresses were continually hassling for tips. I got the impression that some of the younger guys and newbies were practically bullied into buying drinks, or even having sex!

It made Nana Plaza look like Sunday School, but sadly, it seems that Bangkok might be going in the same direction. Patpong has long been dropped from the serious punter’s ‘must visit’ list, and Nana is fast gaining a reputation for the mercenary attitude of the girls. Even Soi Cowboy is not what it used to be, at least according to a recent Stickman’s weekly:

“A string of bars in Soi Cowboy have raised barfines to the 600 baht level and raised the girls' quotas from 130 to 150 drinks a month and 10 "offs". Fail to meet those levels and there is a salary cut. This has resulted in hard sell tactics from some of the staff desperate to meet the new minimums, despite the reduced number of customers the bars attract at this time of year.”

I wish bar managers would realise, for their own good, as well as the customer’s, that pushy girls do just that - push customers out. My unpleasant memories of the aggressive attitude of the girls will make me think twice about visiting Prague clubs again - at least, the ones in the City Centre. Of course, there is a message here for bar managers in Bangkok - if the girls get too aggressive, and prices go too high, then customers will simply migrate to Pattaya or the Philippines.

The customers in Prague are a different crowd from those who go to Thailand. On my first trip to Bangkok, I was worried about my age - would I, as a 50-something guy, look like an old fart taking a trip down memory lane? I was reassured as soon as I turned the corner into Soi 4, and saw that the middle-aged farang and the cash-strapped Isaan girl were made for each other. However, about 90% of the guys in the Prague clubs looked under 25 - mainly stag parties on the low cost flights from the UK and Ireland. Ironically, the girls seemed a tad older than in Thailand. I couldn't see any who looked under 20, and some were clearly 30-something. So in many encounters the girl would be older than the customer!

On my last night, I decided to take a look at Sweet Paradise, about which I had read glowing reports. The disadvantage of this club is that you have to take a trip into the suburbs on the metro, but flip the coin and the disadvantage becomes an advantage. Prices are half City Centre prices, and the girls are well managed - no pushiness at all. Sweet Paradise is much smaller than Atlas or Darling, and though it goes under the same generic name - Sex Club - it is more like a plain vanilla brothel. About 20 girls sit in a semi-circle on couches, and when you come in they file past you and introduce themselves. They then sit down again at the other end of the club while you deliberate on your choice. You can chat to a girl over a lady drink (only 200kc) to get to know her better and to help you make your mind up. This club has a very helpful website with all the prices listed and several photographs of each girl, so rather than list the prices here, I’ll just give the URL, http://www.sweetparadise.cz

So how does Prague compare to Thailand overall? In the end, it depends what you want. If you’re a wham-bam-thank-you-mam kind of a guy, I think it will suit you well enough. If you’re like me, and value the night out, the fun and the friendship as much as the sex, then it’s no substitute. If I go again (and if I don’t, it will be the fault of those pushy girls - managers take note!), I think I’ll know how to play it: go to the city centre clubs for the atmosphere, watch the girls, maybe buy one a lady drink and chat to her, then when I’m warmed up and in the mood, hop on the metro to Sweet Paradise and get twice as long with a girl for the same money. However, given my minimum turnaround of seven days or more, I wouldn’t give Prague a second thought. When all’s said and done you just can't beat Thailand!

© Rob