Taco

Oh Bimin....by far the worst airline I have ever flown.  Bkk to Kathmandu with an overnight in Dhaka.  I figured why not see a new country and get a new stamp in my passport.  Oh was I wrong.  First the flight.  Bkk to Dhaka was not that terrible except the cold food and the smell on the plane.  Then we land.  They tell us nothing other then to wait in some area of the airport.  They then took all of our passports and made us wait another 2 hours.  I was not happy about giving up my passport and being held in this dirty room but it seemed like we had no choice.  Then they brought us out to mini buses and brought us to a hotel randomly picking out roommates.  I was with some Japanese guy.  Then they ordered us not to leave our rooms because we were not stamped into Bangladesh.  They literally had guards outside our rooms.  I tried to go out and they yelled at me.  All I saw of Bangladesh was a view out of our balcony.  Next morning a breakfast was a hard boiled egg and toast.  Back to the airport and everyone was in a shit mood.  They gave us our passports and we boarded.  Now this flight was shocking.  In came a lot of locals who had obviously never been on a plane before.  It was interesting at first watching their wide eyed stares and inability to figure out their seats nor operate a seat belt.  Then I saw something that widened my eyes!  The guy across from me started pulling back the pouch on the back of the seat in front of him and started spitting his red betal nut juice into it.  Oh my!!  And it only got better.  The plane was brown and dirty on the inside and after take off a giant cockroach that sat for about a half hour on the bulkhead.  Cockroaches on an international flight!  I was starving and excited to eat and of course one side of my tray was detached so I had to use one knee to hold up one side to try to keep the tray flat.  The stewardess were all overweight in underwhelming saris barking at all the locals.  The whole experience was unreal.  We landed, got to Thamel and first thing I did was book a one way flight back to Bangkok on Thai air.  Beware of Biman Air

As a long term business owner at Koh Phangan we just faced our worst 12 month period I have seen.  The full moon party is dwindling and Haad Rin is dieing.  Almost all restaurants closing or for sale in Haad Rin for good reason, how do you survive on 3-4 days a month business?  Demand for accommodation has shifted almost entirely to the west and north west side of the island and the businesses are moving there.  Chasing the customers makes sense to most but I think improving your spot and offerings improves your investment and the island greater.  Unfortunately the latter has not happened much and the travelers are just booking online possibly not liking their spot and moving on faster. 

The island has a lot to offer and the international food offerings here are top notch compared to prices in other tourist areas.  We don't need or want an airport here, flights to Surat are dirt cheap and if you want convenience you just pay more to fly to Samui.  The big question is will the powerful local business and land owners back a tourism marketing budget that shows this island as a whole and the amazing place that it is.  Basically the only beach front bohemian scene in Thailand, loads of good food choices, accommodation ranging from basic to luxurious villas, plenty of tours, activities, kite surfing and scuba, beautiful beaches and miles of green mountainous national park.  This island needs to be seen by the world as an ecotourism location with a heavy splash of party.  Alcohol is not cheap in Thailand and the parties in Koh Phangan are not cheap either.  Why would we chase a crowd that only has enough money to get drunk one or two nights spend all their money and be forced to move on with a rocking headache.  It makes no sense.  Its not time for same same its time for different. 

I own 2 restaurants here (not HH) and oldest is on its 14th year.  Slow season is brutally slow.  Heavy rain at 7pm can mean 0 sales.  On top of that business has been declining roughly 4 years straight and its not just me saying that.  Add to that the fact that now everything has to be totally legal which was not the case before.  Work permits for all Burmese, you, VAT on revenue, restaurant and alcohol licence, sign tax, land rental tax, your monthly work permit tax, social security tax for Thais and they even came in once and made me pay social security tax on Burmese staff.  They are collecting for everything now from farang business owners.  I had the tessaban come in and take a photo of my chalkboard menu wall and they said that is a sign with no Thai writing full sign tax 4000bt a year.  I said let me grab chalk and write Thai.  Nope next year can and will discount 50%.  Ridiculous can't even see it from the road.  You need one Thai minimum in the restaurant or its not legal to take cash from customers.

The only way I would open is if you have enough friends in the area year round that you think you can get them in at least once or twice a week to keep the bills slightly paid and to show passerby's people inside so more people might come in to try.  If you have a few staff expect to loose money May, June, September, October, November, first 20 days of December for sure and April, July maybe slight profit.  You do the math. 

If rent is cheap and location is good get a long lease so you might be able to sell the restaurant if it goes south.  Buy second had fridges or any other plug in equipment you can find. 

Your food better be damn good and nothing over 350 baht sells.  Oh and being Italian you have to have wine so have fun trying to make money on the overtaxed crap wine here.   Loads of Italian places selling the same dishes because pasta has a high profit but your on the water find the good local seafood and do Italian seafood grilled or some sort of different presentation (that is if you are busy enough to keep it fresh). 

sound fun to you?  Got a decent amount of money in the bank?  If so go for it and you got about a 20% chance of making money. 

I learned a lesson from this one.  Never fight wearing a heavy backpack. lmao

Do you know how hard it is to find even a fairly decent chef willing to work in this country?  I could get him a job in 2 days tops.  Too late now but at least he didn't go American crazy and get a gun and shoot up his old restaurant.

Business owners on Koh Phangan are wondering do the Police or Government want tourists to enjoy their holidays in Koh Phangan or in Thailand in general?  The last week farang owned businesses have been targeted by tourist police arresting and closing businesses for infractions that are ridiculous.  

I am guessing 80% of the economy of Koh Phangan is driven by tourism, yet all the businesses they visit are being hassled by tourist police and basically being told to not let tourists enjoy themselves while here.  For the first time the police are saying  no alcohol sales before 11am and from 2pm to 5pm in restaurants, bars and resorts.  For those that remember when the alcohol hour rule was put into effect it was to curb young Thais from buying alcohol after they got out of school.  This rule is for retail outlets and was not applicable to tourism related restaurants, bars and resorts.  Right?  I also thought the tourist police were supposed to ensure tourists have a safe trip and are here to answer questions and settle disputes with Thai businesses when language or laws were in question.   Apparently that is not the case. 

But, here we are in the middle of high season after a dreadfully slow low season the police are arresting staff for selling a beer to a tourist in a restaurant 5 minutes before 5pm?  5 hours in jail and a 3000bt fine for what?  They come barging in asking tons of questions, targeting all Burmese staff asking if they have ever touched the cash box, if so, off to jail you go even if all your documents are in order.  What is this ashtray doing on this table?  Take that away now.  Did you let that tourist drink a beer at 4:30pm?  Jail for you.  Your bar is open past midnight and you sold beer?  Jail.  You got a licence from the tessaban to host a party and you pay off the police?  Doesn't matter they come and shut you down.  

Pack your bags travelers and off you go to a country that welcomes your tourism dollars.

But wait a minute.... Here comes a Chinese lets get the red carpet out for them right away!!!

Insane.  I don't see the Chinese employing Thais, paying their social security insurance, borrowing them money nor staying long term and supporting the entire Thai economy.

I had a viagarita on my menu when I opened.  I thought it would sell better but I kept eating all the supplies. 

This number is total BS.  Maybe half that number is more accurate.  Post Songkran this entire year has been quietest I have seen in many years.  The business community is totally struggling.  I was in Siam Commercial bank today in tong sala and it was empty (second day after full moon and first day open since full moon) so that means there are few people depositing money from the full moon so they are holding on to what cash they got to pay off loans or their staff end of month.  All this false tourism news is just pre election propaganda to make Thais think the government is doing a great job.  There are going to be a lot of pick up trucks, businesses and land for sale on this island April or May after a lackluster busy season.  Maybe I should open a pawn shop. 

Its not only Phuket.  Been running my restaurant in Koh Phangan for 13 years and I have never seen a year like this.  Summer was a bust.  August awful and normally a good month.  Resorts are empty, no need to book ahead except maybe the few days over new years.  Samui is empty.  Each and every tourist related business is hurting.  The busy season has yet to come but I have low expectations.  Police and army show up to every party.  Hassling the owners, arresting the DJ's, confiscating speakers and DJ equipment and ordering some of the smaller parties to close at midnight.  If there is a crowd pretty much anywhere it won't last long as the police will come and shut down whatever fun is happening.  Customers are coming in asking for advice on where is fun and I have little good information to tell. 

There is no solution in sight.  The local business owners are not rallying the local government nor police to loosen the constant crackdowns on anything even slightly fun.  Us farang business owners have no power or sway to do anything but dread our monthly staff salary payments and swallow it.  If the baht lost about half its value I could see a bounce back but in my opinion if your in the tourism business money can now be made from Christmas till the end of April and that's it.  If your dreaming of opening your dream bar or restaurant in paradise you better have some money in the bank before you sign that lease.  

For those looking to visit I wish I could report prices dropping due to low demand but I have seen very few cases of that.  Thai economics reigns.  Fewer customers charged more per item to make up for decreased demand.  The icing on the cake is yes you might have that beautiful beach all to yourself!

1 million gallons is nothing in the scheme of any large piece of land.  At best would counter the water not entering the ground  from the 6 lane road in front of it.  1 inch of rain falling on one square kilometer is 6.68 million gallons.  This little pond is not going to help Bangkok.  But, hopefully there will be some fit Thai girls jogging around it or doing Yoga.

Just got back from El Nido Palawan Philippines and they are well ahead of the curve.  Thailand desperately needs to follow in this direction.  All plastic straws and plastic bags banned.  Zero anywhere.  All restaurants used either reusable bamboo, steel or paper straws.  Stores had paper bags or you could purchase a mesh bag for 5 or 10 pesos.  The result was obvious everywhere.  I saw one plastic bag in the sea in 4 days spending 10 hours on a private boat cruising around.