Unhappy New Year ahead for Pattaya bars without restaurant licenses

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Restaurants are slowly opening up for business hoping to salvage whatever income they can during the Christmas & New Year holidays.

Pattaya bars with restaurant licenses will have a happy new year. For every place else, it’s wait until next year.

The city’s nightlife took a major step back toward normalcy last week with Chonburi’s decision to allow alcohol sales in certified restaurants. While licenses are cheap and easy to get, straight up nightclubs, go-go bars and beer bars may have to remain closed until at least mid-January.



One of those beer bar owners named Sangduan in Wong Amat said getting the required certifications and licenses likely would cost her 100,000 baht in upgrades and new facilities. So she’s not going to bother.

She just hopes there’s no further delay from the approved Jan. 16 reopening for bars and clubs.


There is practically no hope for these bars to open again on a street that was bustling with lights, music and thousands of happy people just a couple of years ago.



This once dazzling bar has been stripped of everything except for a few dangling light casings and the tiled floor.