Your Worldwide Bar Hopping Guide
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Newbies Agogo Tips
What is a Agogo Bar?
First things First
What exactly is a agogo bar? A gogo bar, or a agogo bar, is a type of bar typically found in Southeast Asia's red-light districts. Inside, there is usually a raised stage with several stripper poles where the agogo girls can dance and perform shows while the customers sit and watch. Often the girls are dressed in revealing clothing, lingerie, topless or completely naked. These bars are mostly targeted towards male customers who are looking to spend time and money sitting with the girls and buying them drinks before finally taking them out of the agogo bar and back to their hotel.
Furthermore..
We should also mention that our agogo first-timers or newbies tips guide could easily be one-hundred tips in length. To keep things simple in the list we are only listing our top five tips but we will sprinkle in additional tips within our top five and if there is enough interest, we will create a follow up "Another Ten Tips"
Consequences..
Sugar Sugar Agogo - Soi Buakhao, Pattaya
#1 Pay Your Bill
It may seem obvious, in any country, if you run up a bill in a bar, nightclub, or any business, you need to pay that bill. However, in saying that, for some reason, when visiting Thailand there are a lot of people who seem think that they don't need to pay their bills.
Just as above, this is a problem in any country but particularly a problem in a country with lose laws like Thailand. If you refuse to pay a bill that you genuinely ran up, if you are lucky you will get yelled, maybe slapped a little, and then the business will call the police to deal with it. If you are unlucky you might be on the news after having been jumped by several Thai security guards.
If you'd rather not spend your vacation time in hospital, rather than on a beach, our suggestion would be to pay for the things that you genuinely buy. If you are the type of person that usually refuses to pay bills when drunk, we would suggest that you buy good medical insurance.
Sexy Agogo Girl
Sugar Sugar Agogo - Soi Buakhao
#2 Check Your Bill
There are of course many reasons for this, one such reason is that certain bars or even whole streets are known to overcharge customers. By checking your bill each time you order a drink, you can ensure that you are only paying for what you ordered and somewhat avoid being scammed.
With many entertainment venues in Southeast Asia operating on varying degrees of legality, including many agogo bars, it is important to always be vigilant when visiting new or unfamiliar places.
Even still, keeping track of how many drinks you ordered can become more difficult the more drunk you become. For this reason, some crooked establishments, or even upstanding establishments with greedy cashiers or mamasans, may try to sneak a couple extra drinks onto your bill under their own name to receive the drinks commission. In some cases, agogo bars may ask the customer to sign their receipt each time they order a round of drinks, to protect the customer and also themselves should the customer dispute the bill at the end of the night.
**Additional Tip
Following on from above, we think it is worth saying that it could also be advisable to avoid getting completely smashed in an unfamiliar bar that you are visiting for the first time, especially if you are a newbie who is not aware of many of the common scams.
Sahara Promo Board
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#2 Get What You Pay For (Alcohol)
Agogo bars are well known to be more expensive than other bars, so much so that many expats on a budget avoid them at all costs. The higher prices of agogo bars are usually attributed to the higher costs of hiring younger and better looking girls to work in the agogo, but this is not always the case. Regardless, when visiting an agogo bar you can expect to pay up to double the price for the same drink in another non agogo bar.
With that said, regardless of the eye candy on view, if you are paying 50%, 75% or 100% more on the price of a drink, at the very least, you'd expect the drink to be the real deal. As you can imagine, many agogo bars often improve their profit margin by watering down drinks or pouring cheaper alternatives. If this is a red flag for you, one way to avoid this is to only drink bottled beers, Chang, Leo, Singha, etc. Alternatively, you can order a whole bottle to your table and pour the drinks yourself.
**Additional Tip
Following on from above, many agogo bars, clubs and upscale venues offer bottle service and bottle discount promotions. If you are planning on staying in an agogo bar for a few hours or if there is a group of you and your friends, it is often much cheaper to buy a bottle and mixers rather than buying all your drinks one by one.
Sexy Armed Agogo Girl
Strip Agogo - Patpong Soi 2, Bangkok
#3 No Try Before You Buy
Nothing annoys the bar manager and bar staff more than customers who think they can "try before they buy". A little crude, but a catchy subtitle. What I mean by this is when customers come into the bar, walk around and start touching and feeling up all the girls. Basic agogo etiquette states that customers need to order a drink if they want to sit inside. If you don't drink then simply buy a soft drink. Following on from this, never touch any of the girls or staff if you didn't buy them a drink.
Bar Girl With "Fuck Me" Tattoo
Wicked Bar - Soi 6, Pattaya
#4 Don't Get Taken For a Ride
One reason that many men choose to visit agogo bars, apart from spending time drinking with the beautiful agogo girls in the bar, is for the chance to "barfine" one of the staff working in the bar. A barfine is where customers pay money to the bar for the staff to leave the bar early, usually to accompany the customer back to their hotel.
One common problem that can happen here is when a customer will buy their chosen girl five, six, seven or ten drinks to sit with them in the bar, only to find out when they want to barfine the girl and take them back to their hotel that the girl doesn't want to go. There may be several reasons for this; The girl may not like the customer, the girl may be completely comfortable getting drinks and drink commission from the customer but feel repulsed by the thought of going back to the hotel with them. The girl may have a farang or Thai boyfriend who allows them to sit in the bar and get drinks but not go back to the hotel with customers; A common excuse is that the girl is on her period but this is almost always a lie.
Whatever the reason, there are ways to avoid this happening. It is important to communicate your wish to barfine the girl early before you blow all your cash buying them and their friends drinks. A balance may be important here, it may take time to get to know a girl and whether you would like to barfine her or not. It may not be good to ask a girl if she would like to be barfined, only to change your mind after you get to know her a little more. And of course, you don't want to leave it too late. Depending on each person, perhaps around three drinks is a good time to communicate.
The next problem is she may agree only to make up an excuse and refuse later. Don't get angry, it happens to all of us at least once as newbies. One way to avoid getting "rinsed and refused" is to actually barfine early.. If you are enjoying yourself and are happy to spend all night drinking in her bar she won't stop you, in fact, if you try to leave early she may encourage you to stay and buy more drinks... but that only benefits her and her bar. For customers it's best to communicate what time or how many more drink later you expect to leave. If you still get refused after all has been communicated, pay your bill and leave, there's always another girl in another bar.
**Additional Tip
Following on from above, newbies are sadly often "taken for rides" in agogo bars. Sometimes in a good way but mostly in the bad way. One very common way that the bars and bar staff take newbies for a ride is asking them to buy drinks for all the staff in the bar, the dancers, the mamasan, the service staff, the DJs, the cleaners.. the list goes on. There is a fine balance between going with the flow and just enjoying yourself and not having your bank balance drained dry. What is important is the way that you accept or refuse to buy drinks for the staff. For newbies it may feel awkward or uncomfortable turning down staff. For those who have more experience they have no problem. Everybody has their own way of refusing but we recommend being polite about it either way.
Too lazy to read?
Five Agogo Bar Do's and Dont's - Discussion with Warren Gerdes
Coming Soon!..For those that don't have time to read
Check out Warren's YouTube channel @ https://www.youtube.com/WarrenGerdes
