Pattaya-area officials again showed they will no longer tolerate abuse of tourists at the hands of Walking Street bar bouncers when they arrested one alleged thug and shut down his employer for 60 days.
Police on Oct. 22 arrested 29-year-old Daenthai Paksachart, a doorman at the recently opened Spicy Girls go-go bar, for allegedly putting a beat-down on a Kuwaiti army officer who complained about false advertising by a bar.
Maj. Col. Badun Nasun Alsubalin was seriously injured in the early-morning altercation in which he was beaten and may have been cut with a knife.
Alsubalin told police he and three friends had been lured into the bar by a Walking Street tout that promised them a sex show. Each was charged a 500 baht entrance fee into the bar that is free to enter for westerners. When they discovered that no such show was on offer they left.
However, Alsubalin forgot his sunglasses and went back to the bar to obtain them. While doing so, he reportedly made his displeasure about being ripped off known and was set upon by several of the bouncers.
The most disreputable of Walking Street’s go-go bars target Middle Easterners, Indians and non-Western tourists with touts and expensive entry fees for promises of shows that don’t exist.
Police and Banglamung District officials led by District Chief Sakchai Taengho returned to Spicy Girls, which opened on Sept. 14, and ordered it closed for 60 days. They also shut the downstairs Champion go-go bar – which was owned by the same operator – after discovering a cache of smuggled liquor behind the bar.
The closure is the second issued by Banglamung authorities in the past four months due to thuggish behavior by bar staff.
A bouncer at Walking Street’s Lucifer disco was arrested June 9 for allegedly assaulting two Israeli customers who belligerently refused to buy a drink. The disco was closed for 60 days as well.
