Even during Pattaya’s darkest days, there’s something irrepressible about Soi Welcome which unfolds onto Jomtien beach several kilometres out of town. Just about the only cafe still open in this tourist-starved district carries a huge sign Beware of the Dog. “Don’t worry,” says Pooky who has run the place for years, “he died last week.” A nightclub nearby is shuttered, but a uniformed guy offers to sell me the stock of go-go costumes and brief panties for a knock-down price. “They never paid me, so they’re mine to sell,” he says with confidence. I tell him they’re not my size.
Nobody seems to know the origin of the expression Soi Welcome. One story is that an early entrepreneur from Exeter, UK, opened the first bar here many years ago after the same-name street in his home town. Like most Pattaya legends, it’s hard to prove. Another tale is that the street is named after that song in the Liza Minnelli movie, Cabaret, which contains the key word in several languages. Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome!
In its heyday, Soi Welcome was a back-packer heaven offering cheap drinks, friendly hotels and instant gratification. British pensioner Ken Holmes remembers the good old days. “You could eat a hearty meal, have a few beers and get laid for 1,000 baht (just over 20 pounds). It was the nearest thing to kiss-me-quick Blackpool, but without the candy floss and the danger of going home alone.” He remembers his favourite haunts, long gone, were Young and Restless, The Tipsy Crow and Barfly. Those were the days when Pattaya never slept.
Now, of course, a walk down Soi Welcome is at best a trip down memory lane or, at worst, a tour with the graveyard shift. Girls still loiter at premises which used to be massage parlors, but aren’t officially any longer because of the Covid restrictions. A wordly lady, Khun Mee, is feeding the stray cats in a derelict building as she does every day. “My business has collapsed,” she explains, “but this street is my home.” She adds pensively, “Who would feed them if I left?”
At a former massage parlor, several ladies sit eating lunch. One asks if I would like to watch a video which, she assures, is not illegal under the government’s restriction orders. She shows me the selection which is severely limited to two choices: The Last Emperor (about Pu Yi, latterly emperor of Japanese-occupied Manchuria) and Clio Empress of Lust (hints of sado-masochism there). I politely decline, but then she adds, “Just as well. We don’t have a DVD player.”
Is there any chance of Soi Welcome regaining its former glory? “Not really,” says the Thai manager of a rare hotel still operating there. “The European, Australian and American boys really loved this street but they aren’t coming back.” I remind him that 2,000 American troops on R and R are scheduled to arrive in Pattaya in August during the Cobra Gold military exercises. “If that’s so, I guess the cost of face masks is going to triple,” he concludes with a smile.
