Bar fines: what kind of Pattaya bang do you get for your baht?

November 29, 2011

Among the frequently asked questions among newcomers to the bar scene in Pattaya is just what is a bar fine, and, to what does it entitle you?

Put very simply, a bar fine is simply an amount of money paid to the owners of a bar by a customer so he can take a lady working in the bar out of the joint earlier than normal. The bar fine is simply to recompense the owners for the fact one of their employees will not be working the full extent of her shift in the bar that night.

The ladies who caress the chrome poles, prop up bar stools, or serve drinks to thirsty imbibers are all paid a monthly salary. Their major source of income comes from customers who want to spend time in their company. For the bar, in order to keep a reasonable turnover of customers coming through the doors they need ladies dancing or working to attract custom. If the bar is devoid of ladies then it will be devoid of customers, so the imposition of a bar fine system is designed to at least make up some of the financial difference between having a bar full of working damsels and one where a rush of customers has denuded the joint.

The amount of a bar fine varies from chrome pole joint to beer boozer with the amount determined by the owners. The industry standard is between 500 and 600 baht, but over periods like Christmas and New Year, bar fines are increased to what appear to be astronomical amounts: 2,000 and more baht is not unheard of until about midnight or 1:00am. The reason is simple: this is the high season when bars make their money and it is the time when customers are hungry for female companionship. If a bar held its bar fine prices at the lower levels the chances are the place would be empty of dancers very early in the night. An empty bar does not attract drinking customers so overall income would probably be far less than normal.

Paying a bar fine simply entitles a customer to take the girl from the confines of the bar, nothing more. Any kind of extra-curricular activity is agreed between the customer and the lady, usually prior to him paying the bar fine. It does not mean the girl has to go and perform sexual athletics of an Olympic nature with the man who has paid the bar fine. Some men pay the bar fine for a brace of ladies but only intend to spend the between-the-sheets time with one of the damsels.

I heard of a case where one man came back demanding his bar fine money be returned because the girl he had taken the previous night had only permitted him one pent up release of liquid emotion. He had intended to reload, re-aim and fire again, but she wasn’t having any of it. Or she’d had enough of it the first time. He was under the impression that by paying her bar fine he had also, somehow, taken ownership of the lady for an unspecified period. The bar is not responsible for the girl’s ability, or otherwise, to sexually satisfy a customer. In case anyone is in any doubt, Thailand officially abolished slavery in 1905.

Ó Duncan Stearn