The Thousand Baht Rule

[KevinHunt]

At the end of a long day, I thought I'd relate an amusing incident at the pub today, just by way of un-winding, you understand.

     As I promised, I opened the pub early (for me) to show the Aussie Rules Grand Final. And although it was quiet  at 10.30a.m, which is when Australia TV said it started, it did fill up by 11.30 when the game finally started. So what amused me was that during the break in the second half one of the customers went out and returned with two bottles of Leo that he had bought, probably at 7-11. He had opened it and he was sat at the bar drinking it quite openly with the bottle along side the glass. We don't sell Leo so a member of staff that saw it pointed it out to me. Previously, him and his friends had been drinking jugs of Heineken so I was curious as to why he now decided to order from outside. I quietly pointed  out that we sell beer in the pub, as he already knew, and his reply was 'I've already spent 1,000 baht', as if that somehow explained it!! I walked away bemused. What does that mean, I wondered?

    To be more precise, him and his two mates had spent 1000 baht between them on beer and food during the 3 hours that they'd been there. No great amount in anyone's books. However, since I am ignorant of this rule maybe it applies to a group and not an individual. What I want to know is , does anybody know of some local bye-law or rule that says that after a customer (or a group) has spent a certain amount they are entitled to bring their own beer into a pub? Just curious, because he said it in such a way as to suggest that no further explanation was needed. As if it was common knowledge, possibly?

   Just to pre-empt the predictable 'Free Water' type respones (maybe), I didn't speak to him in any manner that may be construed as rude and I made no response to his explanation other than a look of bemusement, possibly. In fact, I almost admired his matter-of-fact attitude.

   

Edited September 26, 2009 by KevinHunt

[snuggzzz]

There is no such rule..!!!

He was taking advantage of your hospitality, irrespective if he even had spent 10,000 bht, it is your Pub, you set the rules.

[BlackArtemis]

Boohoohoo he already spent 1000B, hel_l only 500per person. Next time charge em "corking fees" for anything they bring in from the outside. The cheapness of some people astounds me...

If you bring any bottle into a club like Warm up or monkey, expect to pay at least 100B. It says so in the menus. I suggest rewriting that into yours.

[OxfordWill]

yea- corkage. Make it twice the price of a leo bottle, for kicks.

[endure]

Were they Australian? If so, there's no further comment needed...

[Loaded]

Most Australians I know do prefer sucking on a Leo. For sure, there should have been a cockage charge.

[endure]

Most Australians I know do prefer sucking on a Leo. For sure, there should have been a cockage charge.

Yes, I've heard that rumour too. I'm sure some of them must be straight

[junki3korean]

maybe they were running out of money....but still wanted coverage of the AFL

[jackr]

You should have kicked the <deleted> out or at least billed him for the price of a comparable beer. An Aussie chap I knew down south brought a crate into my mate's bar couple times during the Rugby World Cup. They were also mates and he certainly wasn't short of money but what an uncouth git.

[Ulysses G.]

You should have invoked the "No Riff Raff" rule and 86'd them!

[kurnell]

Bloke sounds like a real Leo wanke_r.

[Patriciachas]

You should have asked him and his friends to leave in what ever way you liked. if he wants to sit in your pub and watch your TV he drinks your beer or leaves.

[dave2]

kevin hunt.

the only thousand baht rule ive heard of recently is the joke the street girls tell me : )

dave2

[Gonzo the Face]

Kevin, if you know who they are , and if they are not regular customers, I would ban them. If they are regulars, the next time they come in and are sober, I would explain the program to them.

Chances are good that after 3 hours of eating and drinking they may have been feeling a bit feisty.

If someone like that does create a physical problem, explain the 1000 baht rule to them with your local BIB. The BIB are there and they must pay 1000 baht to them or surely they should be taken to a little room to cool off

.... and I think only the bottom half of the glass of water should be free...... as I didn't have the chance to comment before

gonzo

[Blinky Bill]

Were they Australian? If so, there's no further comment needed...

Definitely Tasmanians.

[iainiain101]

3 hours and had only spent 500 Baht each on food and drink??

Is that possible?

[Blinky Bill]

Can't you dills read? There was 3 of them and they'd spent only 1000 baht (mind you, they were Tasmanians and 2 of them were joined at the neck).

[Ulysses G.]

I don't care how much money he had spent. You don't go out and get a drink from somewhere else and bring it another bar.

[simro]

Typical English, putting down Australians, I would like to know when the lower class English will get over the fact that they sent there relations to Australian over 200 years ago?

Australians are not allowed to bring beer inside their own pubs back home; you obliviously had a few English migrants that had picked up the accent after being thrown out of England for being ignorant!

[thaimiller]

You should have just turned the TV off and said it was your 3 hour rule...

[IanForbes]

You said it all when you mentioned they were Aussies. Need I say more?

[Blinky Bill]

TASMANIANS.

There is a big difference between Australians and Tasmanians and fortunately there is the Bass Strait to separate the two.

[PeaceBlondie]

TASMANIANS.

There is a big difference between Australians and Tasmanians and fortunately there is the Bass Strait to separate the two.

Errol Flynn, born in Hobart to a Tasmanian professor of Zoology. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errol_Flynn

In like Flynn.

[rohitsuk]

At the end of a long day, I thought I'd relate an amusing incident at the pub today, just by way of un-winding, you understand.

     As I promised, I opened the pub early (for me) to show the Aussie Rules Grand Final. And although it was quiet  at 10.30a.m, which is when Australia TV said it started, it did fill up by 11.30 when the game finally started. So what amused me was that during the break in the second half one of the customers went out and returned with two bottles of Leo that he had bought, probably at 7-11. He had opened it and he was sat at the bar drinking it quite openly with the bottle along side the glass. We don't sell Leo so a member of staff that saw it pointed it out to me. Previously, him and his friends had been drinking jugs of Heineken so I was curious as to why he now decided to order from outside. I quietly pointed  out that we sell beer in the pub, as he already knew, and his reply was 'I've already spent 1,000 baht', as if that somehow explained it!! I walked away bemused. What does that mean, I wondered?

    To be more precise, him and his two mates had spent 1000 baht between them on beer and food during the 3 hours that they'd been there. No great amount in anyone's books. However, since I am ignorant of this rule maybe it applies to a group and not an individual. What I want to know is , does anybody know of some local bye-law or rule that says that after a customer (or a group) has spent a certain amount they are entitled to bring their own beer into a pub? Just curious, because he said it in such a way as to suggest that no further explanation was needed. As if it was common knowledge, possibly?

   Just to pre-empt the predictable 'Free Water' type respones (maybe), I didn't speak to him in any manner that may be construed as rude and I made no response to his explanation other than a look of bemusement, possibly. In fact, I almost admired his matter-of-fact attitude.

   

I am fairly sure that no such rule or by-law exists and what he probably meant was that as he had already spent Baht 1,000 HE considered you already had sufficient profit from him to justify his continued presence eating and drinking his own food.  A curious logic, if that is what it was, by any standard but there are some very strange people in the world and, sadly, a few of them fetch up in CM.

I know that in Australia a lot of restaurants have a BYO policy but not in any pubs I have ever visited there and I would not give much for his chances in the UK where he would probably be lynched.  The few restaurants which might allow you to bring your favourite tipple, if they do not stock it, would then charge you corkage equivalent to their profit margin on similar. 

If it becomes a nuisance, you might want to consider putting up a sign to ward off freeloading:  "You are entirely welcome to bring your own drink, if you so wish, but a per bottle facility fee of Baht 1,000 applies". That should put paid to it !

Cheers.

 

[Drew Aitch]

Ever since I was knee high tot a grasshopper I have heard the saying, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do!'

On my first ever visit to Thailand way back in 1990, I was amazed to see Thai's bringing their own food & drinks into some indoor restaurants. The Thais that I knew at the time said, and I quote; 'In Thailand you can do this no problem. So long as you also buy something at the restaurant nobody cares'. Btw, this was in Bkk, so I don't know if such tolerance is nationwide. It all sounded a bit cheeky to me, but then alien cultures and customs can be a bit of a surprise when you're not used to them, hence the term 'culture shock'.

Back to the 'free water' issue, while at the Irish Pub a few months back, our regular group of 4 ordered a meal each as usual, but was on this particular occasion was informed by the manageress that this would be the last time that free drinking water was available with food orders.

This didn't particularly bother me, but a couple of the olds protested strongly on principle. Since then, one of them pops into the 7-11 opposite and brings his own bottled water into the pub. He's then given an empty glass for his water free of charge.

The last few visits, the free water is back (off the menu) and without reason or explanation. However, whenever anyone requests water when asked what they want to drink, they are presented with a bottle. If you don't order water, the free glass now appears with the meal.

In the UK, you will be charged for water in most restaurants if ordered as a drink, but you will also get it free if you simply request tap water to drink. It's your right apparently! Of course, there's nothing wrong with an eating establishment making money from both food and beverages, even if that beverage is water!

So just because a western style restaurant or pub opens in Thailand (of any other type of business come to that), it's my guess they will fare better overall if they go with the local flow of doing things and leave some of their western business practices and ethics back where they came from – the West!

When in Rome do as ………………………

Aitch

[Donnyboy]

TASMANIANS.

There is a big difference between Australians and Tasmanians and fortunately there is the Bass Strait to separate the two.

last time I checked, Tazzie was part of Aussie

Im glad the Tasman sea is a greater distance to swim to NZ

[KevinHunt]

His argument seemed to suggest that he had already spent more than he normally spent on going out and so I should be satisfied, which is what bemused me.

He was a youngish guy and seemed to be living here, so I thought that maybe he was a teacher and so was financially challenged. Bearing in mind, that the AFL Grand Final is the Australian equivalent of the Super Bowl, I would have thought that most people wouldn't be too concerned about spending a bit more than usual on such a big occasion, so maybe he is poor. Another thought was that maybe he was the guy who made the original enquiry on TV about where the game was being shown. He (the poster) had said that his wife didn't normally let him watch more than 30 minutes of the AFL, and he also said that he didn't know any of the bars in Chiang Mai despite having been here for three years. I speculated that if he was the same guy, maybe his wife had only given him 400 baht pocket money, with strict instructions to be home before it got dark.

Anyway, it amused me, and I admired his matter-of-fact attitude, somehow. I was similarly amused by the recent post about the guy that told us all (in the Historical Pubs thread) that he had and his entourage had upped and left my place vowing never to return because the staff had mentioned a 100 baht corkage for his bottle. He never returned and that was 5 years ago!! His comments were totally irrelevant to the original post but for some strange reason he thought he would share his story with us. Personally, I wouldn't have told anyone. I'd be too ashamed. It was a similar attitude , though- 'we were going to spend loads of money, so you should have been grateful to have us'. All amusing, but not as amusing as the Free Water Johnny, I'm afraid.

To settle an on-going dispute - I'm almost certain he was Australian. He only had one head.

Edited September 27, 2009 by KevinHunt

[Ulysses G.]

So just because a western style restaurant or pub opens in Thailand (of any other type of business come to that), it's my guess they will fare better overall if they go with the local flow of doing things and leave some of their western business practices and ethics back where they came from – the West!

When in Rome do as ………………………

I am pretty sure that most Thai restaurants would charge a corkage fee for a case like this - maybe more than the cost of a beer.

[samuibeachcomber]

you mentioned the guy was young and aussie,most young guys in thailand have n't got a pot to piss in,so maybe you were lucky he spent 1000 baht,but at the point of bringing in byo leo beer i would have tossed the bugger out.

[Donnyboy]

His argument seemed to suggest that he had already spent more than he normally spent on going out and so I should be satisfied, which is what bemused me.

He was a youngish guy and seemed to be living here, so I thought that maybe he was a teacher and so was financially challenged. Bearing in mind, that the AFL Grand Final is the Australian equivalent of the Super Bowl, I would have thought that most people wouldn't be too concerned about spending a bit more than usual on such a big occasion, so maybe he is poor. Another thought was that maybe he was the guy who made the original enquiry on TV about where the game was being shown. He (the poster) had said that his wife didn't normally let him watch more than 30 minutes of the AFL, and he also said that he didn't know any of the bars in Chiang Mai despite having been here for three years. I speculated that if he was the same guy, maybe his wife had only given him 400 baht pocket money, with strict instructions to be home before it got dark.

Anyway, it amused me, and I admired his matter-of-fact attitude, somehow. I was similarly amused by the recent post about the guy that told us all (in the Historical Pubs thread) that he had and his entourage had upped and left my place vowing never to return because the staff had mentioned a 100 baht corkage for his bottle. He never returned and that was 5 years ago!! His comments were totally irrelevant to the original post but for some strange reason he thought he would share his story with us. Personally, I wouldn't have told anyone. I'd be too ashamed. It was a similar attitude , though- 'we were going to spend loads of money, so you should have been grateful to have us'. All amusing, but not as amusing as the Free Water Johnny, I'm afraid.

To settle an on-going dispute - I'm almost certain he was Australian. He only had one head.

hopefully, he might respond to this thread. I like to hear his 1000 baht theory and where he picked it up from