Dining Out: Ban Chaiyapreuk - dining with the ‘family’
Start of Silly Sunday: The Playpen ogling den will be celebrating Mick’s birthday on Sunday, October 21 with a special buffet kicking off at around 8:00 p.m. (balloon chasers please note).The Aussie grafter is also kicking off with what he terms ‘Silly Sundays’. The chrome pole palace opens for business at 2:00 p.m. and each and every Sunday (commencing October 21) will be serving house drinks - the amber fluid and standard liver wasters like vodka, gin and whisky - at just 35 baht while the top shelf gear can be ordered for a mere 70 baht. Dirty Dancing comes full circle: The fifth round of Dirty Dancing contests will be held this coming Sunday, October 21 at The Dollhouse (Walking Street, underneath Marine Disco). The contests always draw an appreciative crowd and with this next round being conducted back at the original home, expect the gyrations of the chrome pole fanciers to once again plumb the depths as they seek to snatch the 10,000 baht first prize. New in town: The Feigling Fun Pub, located in Soi Marine Plaza, behind the Lucky Star group of beer boozers, opened its doors back on September 5 and is slowly attracting customers. The late night boogie barn has a happy hour from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. with draught beer at 35 baht. Feigling also offers a free soft drink for ladies and if you come with more than four friends, you get one bottle of Thai whisky for free. Stairway to Heaven no more: Pommy Phil, the ebullient mine host of the Coral Reef beer boozer (top end of Soi 8), tells me he’s just placed his ‘x’ on a contract to keep the joint for another three years. To celebrate, Phil removed the spiral staircase at the back of the boozer and installed another bar so elbow-benders have somewhere to rest their leaden heads after partaking of a few too many Heinekens and Carlsbergs. Watching a Western in Welsh: The Asylum beer boozer and occasional noshery (Soi Chaiyapoom) shows two movies of an afternoon, sometime between Midday and 6:00 p.m. The flicks are usually old Westerns (‘Hang ‘em High’ and ‘Fistful of Dollars’ being a couple of examples) or maybe a Vietnam-era war movie. Not quite the Royal Garden Cinema but then again Welsh Rob is offering shorts at just 50 baht throughout the afternoon. Beats a bucket of popcorn any day. My lucky number is: Many ogling dens around Fun Town have introduced the Lucky Number board. These boards have 100 or so numbers from which to choose and charge 100 baht a time. Every number is a winner with prizes ranging from beer to bar fines. The management of the Sexy ogling den (Walking Street, opposite Stoney’s Place beer bar) claim they’ve got the best value Lucky Number board in Pattaya. For example, there are two numbers that offer a free bar fine (valued at 500 baht each) while punters can win two free Heineken’s rather than just one. If you don’t want a Heineken, they’re willing to change to two free Singhas or Carlsbergs. Now that’s what I call ‘tackle’: The Shrimps or Mr 99 noshery and beer boozer (Beach Road, just before Soi 7) is a kind of Alcazar Cabaret meets the Pattaya Fishing Park. The boozer employs a large number of persons of the second category who double as hostesses as well as dancers. It also has a swimming pool-sized water tank complete with a load of shrimps, or prawns. Customers can hire a fishing rod and bait and dangle it (the rod that is) over the tank and try to catch their dinner. Every once in a while the ‘girls’ get up on the front rim of the fishing tank and do a series of rehearsed dance routines to entertain customers and entice passers-by. Drinks are priced between 35 and 95 baht, depending on your choice of poison. Soft drinks are 35-55 baht, beer between 60 and 95 baht and spirits between 70 and 90 baht. A ‘Lady Drink’ is 65 baht. They also have a 99 baht international menu. Bigger schnitzel: Anybody who happens to enjoy chicken or pork schnitzel (which is just about the entire population of Germany, Austria and the eastern parts of Switzerland) then you are spoilt for choice here in Fun Town. However, the two nosheries that undoubtedly serve the biggest portions of schnitzel are the Old Vienna’s in Jomtien and the Sana in Soi Skaw Beach. Of the two, Sana offers theirs at an incredibly low 110 baht while the Old Vienna’s charges around 160 baht, but then it does have the edge as far as ambience is concerned. There are a couple of nosheries around Fun Town that seem to take pride in serving dishes that look like the waiter or waitress took a detour through a rainforest before reaching your table, such is the abundance of foliage on the plate. This is not the case with either the Old Vienna’s or the Sana. My e-mail address is: [email protected]
Copyright 2001 Pattaya Mail Publishing Co. Ltd. E-mail: [email protected] |