The 2am Crackdown That Is Killing The Nightlife

[ralfbkk]

After living here since 15 years, I am so used to it. It will change again, once the new guys are settled in and the bar owners make new "friends" and connections. Nothing new to me and learned to live with their schedule. I used to head to town around 10pm and got back 0300 am. Now, I am just going around 0800pm and head home 0100 am. Last night I went out with friends and the lights came on 0150 am - Soi 11 that it is.

[TAWP]

If one works hard all day and gets off work at 5pm, the 2:00am closing allows for a mere 9 hours of pouring alcohol down one's throat. That's only 63 hours per week of pouring alcohol down one's throat socially. It forces people who wish to pour alcohol down their throats a respectable 100+ hours per week to supplement their drinking at home or on the job. Who benefits?

1) In Thailand most young people go out at 23.00, earlier than that and the places are dead.

2) Last Friday I left work at 1am and hence had only one hour before the police did their round.

3) Just because you like to go to bed early gives you no right to restrict other peoples lives or dictate their schedules.

4) If you have nothing useful to contribute with...don't. It is just trite.

and in reply to another poster

5) I didn't go out to hunt for girls (am married) hence a failure to 'hook up' by 2am is not a failure at all. I only go out with friends and sometimes we dance until 5-6am...

[aussiejosh]

What are you doing after 2:00 AM that's in any way worthwhile? Go home and go to bed.

What are you doing at 6 am which is so dam_n worth while. I don't want to hear its natural and respectable and blah blah my grandmother gives that argument. What is so healthy and holy to old people about being up at early enough to see as much daylight as humanly possible. (and yes I am assuming he wakes up early)

My grandmothers day consists of about 14 hours. From 6am to 8pm, I wonder are older people actually scared of these extra hours, my grandmother will often say that I am 'stupid' for staying out all hours, and that the way everyone else works should tell me there is something wrong with me, but seriously what is it that makes people so sure that nothing good or interesting can happen late at night?

We have invented lights.

Edited November 9, 2009 by aussiejosh

[trogers]

We have invented lights.

Isn't Mother Nature more inventive? Nocturnal creatures have been given night vision.

[PoeDogg]

Here in Hua Hin on Halloween, about 10:30pm the police decided that all the bars would close at midnight.

The bars were full of Falangs, and quiet a few Thai's, all dressed up and having a good time (and spending money).

Stupid is as stupid does.

It was not easy for most to find a taxi with all of the bars shutting at the same time.

P.S., for the old timers....my 78 year old friend was still out drinking (his 2 nightly margarita's), shootin the shit, and people watching when midnight rolled around....ahh, retirement....I can't wait.

[whistleblower]

Depending on the local needs of the police, you will find the enforcement (and the costs for not enforcing) variable in different areas of Bangkok.

I can hopefully shed a bit more light on this.

I own a bar in an area that is covered by the Thonglor police. Up until now we could close at 2-2:30 no problems at all, sometimes later. We payed our bribe money and were left alone.

Yesterday a copper came around and said from now on it's 1am, although if the pool tables are shut, the lights are off outside and there's no music you can stay on until 2am. We were thinking of changing our opening hours to fit with this anyway so no real bother there.

One of the partners in the bars girlfrind knows the copper we pay quite well, her mate is his mia noi (or one of them). She gave him a call and asked him to explain what was going on. I went something like this as far as I can understand:-

Because the head of police in Bangkok hasn't changed as per usual this year, then nor have the district chiefs. Nobody wants to move on to a new district and they are all trying to stay put. My first thought was OK, but why close the bars early - what difference does that make? Apparently it's because the top police guy actually monitors whether or not all the bars in the area are closing on time (I guess he sends coppers from Bangkok copper HQ to check), if they are this goes in the favour of the district police chief and means that he has more chance of staying put or at least getting a better position in the next shuffle I guess.

Now, this is just my take on it and I may be totally wrong on some points, please don't flame me if you know more than this - simply point out what's wrong with what i've written.

The other interesting thing he said (for bar owners anyway) is that it's not one o'clock that we should be able to open to, it's midnight. Only the bars with entertainment licenses are legally able to go beyond that. He also said that your better not having your licenses on the wall if they come in to challenge you on it, the max they can do if your not displaying the liceneses you have is a 500 baht fine whereas if you have them on display and you're breaking them, then they can drag the cashier down the cop shop and go for a much bigger fine.

Now that clearly doesn't make sense and I'm not sure I believe it myself, but that was what he said and this is a very senior Met copper operating out of Thonglor. Again, if you know differently don't flame me, correct me.

Tom.

What you said about the 12midnight closing is absolutely correct. Since the zoning laws came into effect, if you aint in the zone and dont have an entertainment license midnight is the'legal' closing time.

The 'dont show your license on the wall' story is also correct. If the BIB come round and ask to see it and you cant provide it, then 500bht is the fine. If its displayed and you go over your 'opening hours' They will drag the cashier to the nick and it will cost you more. (Lumpinni area at least)

The closing of bars on time from my opinion/experience has to do with who is in town and on their patch checking them out (similar to your explanation)

When they had the cremation of the kings sister all bars in my area were told to close for 3 days. One Thai bar was allowed to stay open and when i questioned this the policeman told me 'Thai mafia cannot stop!'

[HardenedSoul]

This crackdown is different from the one or two I've experienced. The last one didn't affect places like Spicy, Swing and Boss. I thought that because these places have close links with the police (perhaps part-ownership or something) they were generally exempt but they've all been forced to shut at 2am.

A couple of friends who work in these circles have said that they expect normal service to resume by next week at the latest. If tomster's account is accurate, let's hope the top police guy blinks before the distict coppers do.

[Hawkup2000]

Went to Song Salung last Friday about 23.00. Totally dead. The place was usually packed by 22.00 before they closed for renovation one year ago. Continued to Funky Villa/Demo not much more people there. The people started to arrive by 24.00. That leaves two hours of partying...

I guess that's better then what happened the week before that(Halloween); totally packed by 22.00. Took like forever to just move a few meters. In Funky Villa the mixer ran out by 22.30! If any of you guys were at the Demo "Alive" grand opening/Grey goose promo a while ago; it was twice as much people this time. We went on to Slim. It was the same situation there -they ran out of ice! How is that even possible?

I've noticed that Baroque closes real early these days, even earlier than the other clubs in RCA. Maybe Baroque heading to the same fate as Dude did?

Edited November 17, 2009 by Hawkup2000

[lazygourmet]

Actually, I was quite happy with the 2.00am closing, which was implemented by Purachai (interior minister at these times).

No more night temptations either for myself or my staff when had to do serious work the morning after!

Unfortunately, during that era, a lot of people lost their jobs and businesses closed (Ministry of Sound comes to my mind) due to the fact that most of their income were made between 2 & 6am. But if you cannot fight it, then you have to adapt...

Otherwise, there are still a lot of descent after hour parties (most of them legal and operating with a special temporary license) every weekend all around town... not to mention seaside areas where the law is taken in a more flexible way.

[Hawkup2000]

Where...?

I know where RCA is - are those clubs in RCA?

I think i'm getting old...

Slim is in RCA. Baroque is just across the street for RCA.

Song Salung, Funky Villa and Demo are in Thong lor.

DUDE was in RCA but had to close down because they didn't pay enough/follow the closing times.

Edited November 18, 2009 by Hawkup2000

[carmine]

In the UK night clubs always closed at 2 am - majority probably still do. When I first came to Pattaya the bars used to stay open till dawn. I always knew it was time to leave when i seen monks on the street. However, I now go to bed at 9 and get up same time as the monks - so I don;t have a problem and can see the error of my younger days.

2 am is about right - but seems a bit ill thought out considering the amount of toursim dependent jobs and income that depend on entertainment

in the Uk, well London anyway, pubs close about 12 (ish) 24 hour drinking as decried by the press when it was introduced didn't seem to encourage many pub owners to stay open all night! Bars/club type places usually 3am and larger nightclubs can stay open till 6 or 7am, all above board and legal although some stop selling alcohol at 3am.

There's always the good old fashioned 'lock in' in many pubs and there's always somewhere you can find at pretty much any time of the night to carry on if you want to. There always was even before the law 'allowed' it.

Even if you want to go to bed when it gets dark there's a thriving entertainment industry for people who don't, the clubs that open later (many in London don't open till after 11pm) get the custom from those that chuck out at 12 or 3am, the one's that are licenced till 6am are in non-residential areas, everybody knows the rules and some places get round them. Seems to me that what an individuals particular idea of the 'right time to go to bed' shouldn't really influence licencing laws. Business is business and if people want to party it's quite short sighted of a government to make it illegal as it doesn't stop it, they just don't get the revenue from it.

btw

Samui's had the BiB going round closing places at 2am too

I think the Samui thing is just a gesture

Edited November 18, 2009 by carmine

[bkkjames]

Where...?

I know where RCA is - are those clubs in RCA?

I think i'm getting old...

Slim is in RCA. Baroque is just across the street for RCA.

Song Salung, Funky Villa and Demo are in Thong lor.

DUDE was in RCA but had to close down because they didn't pay enough/follow the closing times.

Ah, RCA and Thong Lor. That explains why I've never heard of them, I live in the Sukhumvit bubble...

Those place's are like exotic lands where young people go and people over 30 just look wrong, kinda like pensioners wearing Levi jeans...

At the ripe old age of 35 I can just about get to 6am in the morning and that's it, i'm done. Or dumb. Never quite sure about that.

Anyways...

Last time I checked mate (myself?), Thong Lor was relatively near Sukhumvit. I could be confused again though.

[aussiejosh]

We have invented lights.

Isn't Mother Nature more inventive? Nocturnal creatures have been given night vision.

ZOMGZ we invented arguably better night vision?

[DP25]

Ah, RCA and Thong Lor. That explains why I've never heard of them, I live in the Sukhumvit bubble...

Those place's are like exotic lands where young people go and people over 30 just look wrong, kinda like pensioners wearing Levi jeans...

At the ripe old age of 35 I can just about get to 6am in the morning and that's it, i'm done. Or dumb. Never quite sure about that.

Anyways...

Depends on the club, but there's actually quite a few people over 30 in RCA.

The 2am crackdown hasn't really affected me. I don't really like any of the after hours clubs. By 2am I'm ready to head to a khao tom restaurant for another bottle of booze and some food, and those are never shut down.

[HardenedSoul]

Head doorman at Spicy intimated that Sunday night (22nd) should witness the return of normal service in the after hours joints all over Bangers.

[TAWP]

How was last weekend? (fri20-sat21)

Need to know for the upcoming Saturdays planning...larger group going out.

[TAWP]

Friend that visited The Boss on 27th reports that it closed at 3am.

Any other news?

[jonw8uk]

Friends that visited Spicy on the 27th reported that they left at 4.30am and it was still going, waiter informed them it would be closing at 6am.

Maybe starting to ease up??

[TAWP]

Seems so.

I forgot to report back; Narcissus closed at 3am on the 28th, so a slight improvement.