5 hours ago, 1FinickyOne said:

I have watched as the hardworking farmers have gone from only one truck in the village to most families have both a tractor and a pick-up truck... 

And so mired in debt that if they don't refinance the loans annually they lose everything.
That external look of prosperity is a curtain the hide the house of cards it's built on.
Well, unless they have a working girl in the family send money back home.

23 hours ago, MarcelV said:

I have lived in that area of Thailand, the Muslim Deep South, for over five years. Besides a few crazy towns the rest of the region is quite normal and boring. Those nightlife enclaves like Betong, S.Kolok, where I do my immigration duties, and Dannok are all dead as a dodo now. Haven't been to Dannok in years myself but the few vlogs I saw about it showed it to be totally abandoned. Happy partying! ????

It's been about 4 years since I was in the area, good info thanks.

Edited December 13, 20214 yr by garyk

18 minutes ago, garyk said:

It's been about 4 years since I was in the area, good info thanks. It will pick back up when the borders open. The Muslems have a field day there. S. Kolok was my haunt. But, I was all over the border. 

Knew a few people in the area. 40+ Muslim guy I knew had just bought a 13 year old and married her. He was telling me what he paid. Pretty interesting. 

Hotels were the sh*t. But, partying went on all night. Fireworks the whole works... haha

I never really understood the Muslim's in the area , The locals from Malaysia would come in party all night then when I crossed the border (I lived in Malaysia for months at a time) they would lecture me on morality. Never made much sense to me.

 

If you've been to Kota Bharu a.k.a. the most Islamic city in Malaysia you would know why they like to enter Thailand for a weekend blow-out. I miss going to KB for its shopping opportunities, but every time I did I was always happy when I crossed the Pengkalan Kubor/Tak Bai border and re-entered Thailand. Home sweet home! ????

And in case you're wondering, I don't care about nightlife at all. It's just that KB (and the rest of Kelantan State) is a pretty dreadful, boring place. Not even movie theaters are allowed.

On 12/12/2021 at 12:24 PM, clivebaxter said:

The last time I went into Nanaplaza it was fully naked girls with lezzie sex shows, shower shows, dirty dance contests as well as the usual pussy shows, if that comes back wake me up. What has been around for the last few years is not worth the cost of a plane ticket IMO.

It could be quite distracting as well you know. I can remember sitting in a bar there sipping a beer and concentrating on fixing in my memory the various temples I had visited in a hectic day, and some bloke kept turning on the floor fans and blowing the admittedly abbreviated skirts of the dancing girls up around their waists - couldn't understand it at all me!

On 12/12/2021 at 11:56 AM, bbko said:

I guess he hasn't taken a walk around Pattaya's Tree Town, no shortage of buyers or sellers.  As more tourists arrive and when the bars open back up, things will pick up speed. 

Or  have a look at Patong. It has come back to life, though the coppers pull down the shutters at 11.

The money made out of this whole industry (a lot of it helping in particular being foreign income into Thailand) would make for a very brave & determined Government to close it down or water it down too much.The working girls look after themselves & in many cases keep their families above the bread line. They pretty much get on with it but without they would add to unrest against the Government of the day.

It may end up a bit like Bloc M in Jakarta which is nothing as raunchy as it's former self

 

5 hours ago, connda said:

And so mired in debt that if they don't refinance the loans annually they lose everything.
That external look of prosperity is a curtain the hide the house of cards it's built on.
Well, unless they have a working girl in the family send money back home.

Again, not in my village - though a fine cliche... The first guy who got a tractor, paid it off in one year. I lent my BIL 500,000 and he paid it off in 3 years... we live in a fertile area. 

With the present military government in power and loving their control, it will be a while before

anything changes.  When this pandemic truly ends, and life gets back to a more normal existence,

then I expect to see the entertainment areas and bars get reopened. There will be lots of new owners

as a lot of the old ones have become old or in some cases, broke.  As usual time will tell. 

  

On 12/13/2021 at 5:18 PM, connda said:

And so mired in debt that if they don't refinance the loans annually they lose everything.
That external look of prosperity is a curtain the hide the house of cards it's built on.
Well, unless they have a working girl in the family send money back home.

Ordinary Thai farmers are mired in debt, everything is bought on a loan.

It is totally false to say they all have tractors, in my village only 3 families have them and it's much the same in the surrounding ones.

Just as only a few have combines.

 

If everyone had one it would be totally even more uneconomical.

On 12/12/2021 at 3:03 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

Maybe a question to people who travel a little more.

Is there anything like Thai go-go bars anywhere else on the planet?

I don't travel much. But when I was in neighboring countries I found bars with bees and girls but nothing even near to Thai go-go bars.

I don't know how many people only like go-go bars compared to other places. But I am sure there are enough of us to fill a couple of bars.

The Phillipines in the day,were as good if not better in some instances,but as for these days I don't know.

On 12/13/2021 at 10:23 AM, HappyExpat57 said:

FAR too many nicer beaches than in LOS, but there is NO Walking Street anywhere else in the world.

Fields ave. in Angeles PI  was as good as Walking Street in the day.

As long as there are multitudes of men willing to pay significant money for the "company" of ladies there will be ladies all over the world willing to take that money and provide that company.   Bar owners also understand that having some hot girls available will always increase alcohol sales and keep those bar seats filled.