July 31, 201015 yr Running any business in Thailand is a joke. For no one but mugs. Thailand is for relaxing in and having fun. Leave anything serious elsewhere.
July 31, 201015 yr Tell your pal to grow some balls....it may sound harsh, but thats the way it works.If a man cannot survive here what is the world coming to??? if you read this site...you hear all the same stories. its time to move form junior school to senior.... If people can not handle it here then stay away...easy STOP fe#$ing moneing. Amazing how brave some guys are safely tucked away behind their keyboards - and a kick-ass avatar to boot!
July 31, 201015 yr collect some hard evidence on video and make it public, even see if some fellow business owners want to do the same
August 1, 201015 yr When I first came to Thailand I was going to open a bar and restaurant as that was my business in the west. One of the first things I did was establish a relationship with the Army. I met a woman who owned a Karaoke bar frequented by an Army Airborne Division in Bangkok. I met the commander of the division and bought him drinks and food and established a relationship with him. He told me to hand over to him any persons who tried to shake me down and he would take care of it. In Patttaya I have heard that the Navy trumps the police. But I don’t know that for a fact. I have also talked to a go go owner who was paying money to three police forces only one in Pattaya. The other two were from Bangkok. I am not new to extortion as this also happened to me once in Chicago and once in St. Louis. In Chicago they had a problem with the laundry service I used to clean my table clothes and napkins. St. Louis they were upset because I bought a couple of game machines for my bar instead of leasing them from the local mob guys. I know there are at least three large Pattaya bar owners who post on this forum. It would be interesting to get the word from the horses mouth. How much do they pay and to whom. In Chiang Mai the bars by the Muy Thai boxing thing used to pay the BIB a very small fee to stay open late. I only know because I was there one night when they collected.
August 1, 201015 yr Running any business in Thailand is a joke. For no one but mugs. Thailand is for relaxing in and having fun. Leave anything serious elsewhere. could you please elaborate how you got this conclusion?
August 1, 201015 yr Running any business in Thailand is a joke. For no one but mugs. Thailand is for relaxing in and having fun. Leave anything serious elsewhere. could you please elaborate how you got this conclusion? Sure, by seeing the amount of obstacles to success here, and the dangers that success here brings. I wouldn't advise investing in a very foreign developing country, where rules of law are gray, murky, and teeming with sharks. Yet when you don't have anything serious here, it's a brilliant paradise to have lots of fun in. Hence my comment. If you'd like me to explain any details further just feel free to ask.
August 2, 201015 yr Yet when you don't have anything serious here, it's a brilliant paradise to have lots of fun in. If you'd like me to explain any details further just feel free to ask. Yes..........please explain further. Always good to get the views of an expert on these matters.
August 2, 201015 yr If you are a farang with proper work permit for managing your bar - a very big "if" - and if you have all the correct licences, no special rooms, no obvious prostitution, no pirate videos or music CD's, and your visas etc are all correct then it is difficult for anyone to find reasons to extort. It is when you want to break any law, manage a place with no work permit and be allowed to do so, that tea money etc. can be likely to follow. But many cases of threats are just that and in my experience the Thai "nak laeng" don't tell you first when they are going to do anything like shoot you. Undercover guys are operating everywhere to find the law breakers from whom money can be extracted and not just targeting places that are successful. But I also know that a place can be put on a target list or specifically left off such a list so maybe I don't know as much as I think .....
August 3, 201015 yr If you are a farang with proper work permit for managing your bar - a very big "if" - and if you have all the correct licences, no special rooms, no obvious prostitution, no pirate videos or music CD's, and your visas etc are all correct then it is difficult for anyone to find reasons to extort. Very funny. Weren't around last year when the 'music license police' *ha ha* went around the bars, turned over the licenses, took photos of them not being shown correctly then extorted 10s of 1000s of baht. Did rounds of the cities up to Chiang Mai and Udon. Thais hit as well as farangs. Think there's a few threads of it on here. Business here is for fools. Fun is what Thailand is all about. Leave your serious business else where.
August 3, 201015 yr If you are a farang with proper work permit Sorry, that's funnier every time I read it. Have you read the conditions on a WP and what you are allowed to do and where? You're only allowed to do your specific work in the specific place. Anything else is out of bounds - moving stock or anything from the front door to your pick up for example - picking up anything - dropping off the daily cash etc etc. Sitting in an internet cafe they can come in and say that your sending emails to do with your business. Bit of cash from your competitor or business partner and it's a done deal. You have a competitor who doesn't like you, they give nice bit of cash to the police, it's bye bye you, bye bye business, bye bye money, bye bye Thailand. All the while we'll be relaxing and enjoying the fruits of Thailand for as long as we wish, stress free.
August 4, 201015 yr One inflammatory post deleted. Arnold Judas Rimmer of Jupiter Mining Corporation Ship Red Dwarf
August 4, 201015 yr If you are a farang with proper work permit for managing your bar - a very big "if" - and if you have all the correct licences, no special rooms, no obvious prostitution, no pirate videos or music CD's, and your visas etc are all correct then it is difficult for anyone to find reasons to extort. It is when you want to break any law, manage a place with no work permit and be allowed to do so, that tea money etc. can be likely to follow. But many cases of threats are just that and in my experience the Thai "nak laeng" don't tell you first when they are going to do anything like shoot you. Undercover guys are operating everywhere to find the law breakers from whom money can be extracted and not just targeting places that are successful. But I also know that a place can be put on a target list or specifically left off such a list so maybe I don't know as much as I think ..... You are correct, up to a point. The problem is the fact that it is so bloody hard to work entirely according to the law. Example 1: You have a restaurant, it's 3 PM and a customer is having a meal with a beer or glass of wine. Ooops, illegal, no alcohol between 2PM and 5PM...Never enforced obviously, but it is law, and if the time is there the BiB will use it for extra income... Example 2: Same customer is having said beer, and it is in one of those Singha Light bottle holders. Ooops, against the alcohol act, cannot have alcohol advertising... And now you are the official manager, holding legal work permit et al. So you are totally responsible for what happens in your place. Legally. BiB knows very well that if you, as a farang, are convicted by a judge, automatic deportation follows, and possible blacklisting. Don't worry about the fine, that's just a few thousand Baht. Best case scenario it's a massive hassle involving a trip abroad, new visa, and new work permit... And then follows the offer, a tidy sum and the problem goes away, or go the official way with all risks involved... I really must say, up to a few years ago this was a non issue, a bit of cash here, a bit there. Look at it as a bit of extra cash. Today, it seems to be much harder/expensive to go along and play the game...
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