Bangkok bars battle to beat booze ban battering

[Jonathan Fairfield]

A ban on booze in Bangkok has forced bars to come up with novel ideas to make some cash, such as making fruity mocktails Jack TAYLOR AFP

 

Bangkok (AFP) The Thai capital's once-legendary nightlife has been hammered by a seven-month ban on alcohol service imposed to curb the coronavirus, leaving pub and bar owners with a major headache.

 

Thailand has registered around 1.7 million infections, the lion's share since April when the government called last orders after an outbreak traced to a cluster of high-end nightclubs.

 

With no government support, bar owners have been left with the choice of struggling to survive, flouting the prohibition rules or getting creative.

 

Before the pandemic hit, bar-hopping gin lovers flocked to Teens of Thailand, a lively cocktail bar on the fringe of Bangkok's Chinatown.

 

Full story: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211024-bangkok-bars-battle-to-beat-booze-ban-battering

 

-- France 24 2021.10.24

[Thailand]

Reopen the bars and ban government officials, should solve the problem.

[GeorgeCross]

booze is readily available.. beer glasses on the other hand.. ????

[bbko]

54 minutes ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Teens of Thailand, a lively cocktail bar on the fringe of Bangkok's Chinatown.

A cocktail bar named "Teens of Thailand"?  Was "High School Drunks" already taken?  

[Geoffggi]

24 minutes ago, Thailand said:

Reopen the bars and ban government officials, should solve the problem.

Excellent idea ????????????

[Chad3000]

Hostess pubs in thong Lor maybe?

[steven100]

I expect bars will be allowed to open & sell alcohol either Nov 15,  or Dec 01.     

It could very well be Nov 15.    

[petedk]

10 minutes ago, steven100 said:

I expect bars will be allowed to open & sell alcohol either Nov 15,  or Dec 01.     

It could very well be Nov 15.    

So I can dine out to celebrate my birthday. ????

[OneMoreFarang]

Is there anybody out there who wanted to drink alcohol and didn't find it?

[Clarkey611]

It was not difficult to get a drink last night. 

[4MyEgo]

I think once 1 November kicks in, the booze will start flowing and the rules will go out the window because the envelopes will start changing hands once again.

[spidermike007]

A total social ban on every member of this administration, and an unending parade of cat calling every one of them, every time they are seen in public, amounting to a total humiliation and denunciation of them, would be what is needed. And it would be appropriate for these utterly destructive and despicable goons. 

 

Don't ban booze. Ban Prayuth. Ban Anutin. Ban Phiphat and Prawit. Ban the army. Ban the proxy senators. Ban them all!

[itsari]

1 hour ago, Thailand said:

Reopen the bars and ban government officials, should solve the problem.

Tongue in cheek remark yet in reality the bans imposed are fair to all .

However there is a marked increase of closet drinkers developed from the bans with my self included.

[Brewster67]

Strange how the covid stats were cut in half overnight like a flick of a switch.

 

Much like everything to do with this virus, nothing makes sense at all.

 

Just saying.

[soi3eddie]

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

I expect bars will be allowed to open & sell alcohol either Nov 15,  or Dec 01.     

It could very well be Nov 15.    

My guess is 15th November too for bar reopening. This would allow 2 weeks after the relaxed entry rules to see if infection rates increase with foreigners arriving.

 

[soi3eddie]

41 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

A total social ban on every member of this administration, and an unending parade of cat calling every one of them, every time they are seen in public, amounting to a total humiliation and denunciation of them, would be what is needed. And it would be appropriate for these utterly destructive and despicable goons. 

 

Don't ban booze. Ban Prayuth. Ban Anutin. Ban Phiphat and Prawit. Ban the army. Ban the proxy senators. Ban them all!

A good idea IMO but these clowns are so insulated from reality that the general populace can never get anywhere near them.

 

[hotchilli]

1 hour ago, 4MyEgo said:

I think once 1 November kicks in, the booze will start flowing and the rules will go out the window because the envelopes will start changing hands once again.

Sounds like you're expecting a flood of tourists to enter Thailand and push the re-opening of bars & clubs.

It will be a trickle of sightseers spread very thinly.

The bars if they want to serve alcohol already have been.

[RichardColeman]

Surely they could get the customer buy the booze at the 7/11 and just charge them for the glass 

[Chad3000]

40 minutes ago, Brewster67 said:

Strange how the covid stats were cut in half overnight like a flick of a switch.

 

Much like everything to do with this virus, nothing makes sense at all.

 

Just saying.

I noticed this as well. We can't seem to get above 10k.

 

I've not known anyone to have come down with covid other than a few that work in wife's office. Wife's friends bf now has covid. So much for dropping numbers.

 

When they announced the opening the numbers were dropped about 1k per day

[The Hammer2021]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Is there anybody out there who wanted to drink alcohol and didn't find it?

In a bar or restaurant? Without fear of being raided, taken to police station, charged, fined 30k?

[lujanit]

39 minutes ago, Brewster67 said:

Strange how the covid stats were cut in half overnight like a flick of a switch.

The figures have been manipulated since day one.  Either by not testing or deliberately under reporting to meet an agenda.  Just look at the daily figures.  How come successive days report similar figures.  Seems like someone borrowed TATs’ calculator.

[spidermike007]

This all feels reminiscent of the history lessons about  the 1690's in the US? Puritanical Quaker type cleansing of the land? 

 

Gonna be a real hit with the 65,000 tourists who will show up for the remaining two months of the year, in what is normally "high season". Might as well call it "the Prayuth regression". Or the "nimwit obliteration". 

 

Woe is Thailand. 

[ikke1959]

The whole alcohol ban is only because the THai Government is xenophobia of alcohol.. Even in foreign movies it must be blurred.. When do they understand that we are living in the 21st century?? It is easy to control the alcohol consumption .. if you eat you can drink, no food anymore no alcohol, in bars and pubs the restrictions are the responsibility of the bartender or owner... maximun number of people in the bar ... Let people have a live instead of so called protecting them by putting them in jail for nothing

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

I was at a certain popular seaside destination last weekend. My wife and I had a certain enjoyable beverage served to us in discreet ceramic containers, as if it were coffee. ☕ It definitely wasn’t. ????????

 

I’m not driving down there from Issan 12 hours, through potholed country roads then BKK traffic, just to have coffee. The beachside proprietor agreed with me. The cheek of it!

Edited October 24, 2021 by CrunchWrapSupreme

[Burma Bill]

4 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

bar owners have been left with the choice of struggling to survive

"Happy hour" - now serving Kratom mocktails!!! (reference link to original article)

 

Kratom, which stimulates the same brain receptors as morphine but with much milder effects, came off the Thai government's banned list in August................ The move threw .......................a lifeline, though kratom mocktails sell for just $4 compared with regular gin and tonics at $11.

[Liverpool Lou]

55 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

The whole alcohol ban is only because the THai Government is xenophobia of alcohol.. Even in foreign movies it must be blurred.. When do they understand that we are living in the 21st century?? It is easy to control the alcohol consumption .. if you eat you can drink, no food anymore no alcohol, in bars and pubs the restrictions are the responsibility of the bartender or owner... maximun number of people in the bar ... Let people have a live instead of so called protecting them by putting them in jail for nothing

Who's being put in jail?

[The Hammer2021]

3 hours ago, Clarkey611 said:

It was not difficult to get a drink last night. 

Where, which city?

[The Hammer2021]

14 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Who's being put in jail?

Bar owners are being threatened with jail subject to court appearances and large fines here in Pattaya.

[nightfox]

Soi 7 next to the beer garden is a mini Soi 6 Pattaya, Music, Booz, Girls. Lock down restrictions don't exist in those bars as its prey much pre covid action there.

[The Hammer2021]

56 minutes ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

I was at a certain popular seaside destination last weekend. My wife and I had a certain enjoyable beverage served to us in discreet ceramic containers, as if it were coffee. ☕ It definitely wasn’t. ????????

 

I’m not driving down there from Issan 12 hours, through potholed country roads then BKK traffic, just to have coffee. The beachside proprietor agreed with me. The cheek of it!

But if the owner or customers get caught by the Pattaya police it's big trouble