I read yesterday something about California Wow owing Bangkok Bank huge sums of money and were trying to avoid a bankruptcy case.

Today, I received an SMS that California Wow is closed until Monday.

Anyone else received a similiar SMS from other branches?

Which Branch of California Wow sent you the SMS?

My wife is a member at Paragon, no SMS from them...

Edited April 28, 201214 yr by beano2274

It is the Ekamai branch.

I have just heard that they announced the closure because of a power failure but that now the power has returned, so they are open as usual.

How on earth can they know that the power failure will last until Monday?

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not a power failure but maybe failure to pay the electric bill

theres an article in the pattaya news clippings section suggesting california wow is bankrupt and the bangkok bank is one of the creditors trying to get back 75million baht in loans.

Air con bills must be huge in some of these places, Theres no way they can be paying the same rate of electric as home users

Central world is very very cool and they keep it like that with the doors wide open when its busy, how much energy is wasted flowing out those doors every second ?

theres an article in the pattaya news clippings section suggesting california wow is bankrupt and the bangkok bank is one of the creditors trying to get back 75million baht in loans.

Yes there are two stories on TV about this running at the moment.

No aircon at Pin Klao yesterday.

search in Google for: "California WOW faces bankruptcy suit"

No aircon at Pin Klao yesterday.

There has never been any A/C at the Silom location either since they closed the 19th floor and no fans. There isn't even one water fountain. The sooner the place closes the better. I am sure another gym will open in Silom as the demand there is huge for a good gym.

I paid 6000thb 3 years ago for a lifetime membership.....I think I got my moneys worth

The AC at the Ratchayothin WOW has always been almost non existent. Power bills and cleaning staff has never been a budget buster for those scammers running the place...

(two year member)

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Given the exorbitant rents the company must have been paying for many of their locations, the notorious Thai business practice of employing 5 people for the job 1 person should be able to do, and not least the lack of enthusiasm and/or education about fitness, it was rather obviously a failed venture from the very beginning. Sometimes you wonder if these guys ever did any kind of feasibility studies or if they just sorta threw things together hoping for the best.

I used to train at Ekkamai and they have had power/AC outages since February and that was the last straw. I left then and went to true fitness, more expensive but its clean, most of the machines work but no way am i lifting in 35c heat.

Although it seems that true fitness at least the one on Asoke is slowly becoming a new Cali WoW with booming techno and club music, lack of towels daily, machines remain broken for weeks.

I used to train at Ekkamai and they have had power/AC outages since February and that was the last straw. I left then and went to true fitness, more expensive but its clean, most of the machines work but no way am i lifting in 35c heat.

Although it seems that true fitness at least the one on Asoke is slowly becoming a new Cali WoW with booming techno and club music, lack of towels daily, machines remain broken for weeks.

i train in a gym thats free and in another that costs 40thb per year

no aircon ,no mirrors,no music ,no modern art ,stone age equipment and big rusty weights ,

no carpets ,no fans ,no staff,no personal trainers ,just pain and suffering and ...............results

the way a gym should be

I used to train at Ekkamai and they have had power/AC outages since February and that was the last straw. I left then and went to true fitness, more expensive but its clean, most of the machines work but no way am i lifting in 35c heat.

Although it seems that true fitness at least the one on Asoke is slowly becoming a new Cali WoW with booming techno and club music, lack of towels daily, machines remain broken for weeks.

i train in a gym thats free and in another that costs 40thb per year

no aircon ,no mirrors,no music ,no modern art ,stone age equipment and big rusty weights ,

no carpets ,no fans ,no staff,no personal trainers ,just pain and suffering and ...............results

the way a gym should be

free huh?..in the grounds at Jattuchack park per chance?

I used to train at Ekkamai and they have had power/AC outages since February and that was the last straw. I left then and went to true fitness, more expensive but its clean, most of the machines work but no way am i lifting in 35c heat.

Although it seems that true fitness at least the one on Asoke is slowly becoming a new Cali WoW with booming techno and club music, lack of towels daily, machines remain broken for weeks.

i train in a gym thats free and in another that costs 40thb per year

no aircon ,no mirrors,no music ,no modern art ,stone age equipment and big rusty weights ,

no carpets ,no fans ,no staff,no personal trainers ,just pain and suffering and ...............results

the way a gym should be

free huh?..in the grounds at Jattuchack park per chance?

no,the free one is in a park opposite WAT PO

its usually army guys and off duty police that train there

ive never seen another farang there ,but the guys are cool

and i always put everything back in its place and try not to get

in anyones way or interrupt their exercises

sometimes they have benchpress competitions and im invited to join in

and its fun

Edited April 28, 201214 yr by wana

I workout at home but that is more expensive as going to a gym. Especially if you want good gear.

I used to train at Ekkamai and they have had power/AC outages since February and that was the last straw. I left then and went to true fitness, more expensive but its clean, most of the machines work but no way am i lifting in 35c heat.

Although it seems that true fitness at least the one on Asoke is slowly becoming a new Cali WoW with booming techno and club music, lack of towels daily, machines remain broken for weeks.

i train in a gym thats free and in another that costs 40thb per year

no aircon ,no mirrors,no music ,no modern art ,stone age equipment and big rusty weights ,

no carpets ,no fans ,no staff,no personal trainers ,just pain and suffering and ...............results

the way a gym should be

free huh?..in the grounds at Jattuchack park per chance?

no,the free one is in a park opposite WAT PO

its usually army guys and off duty police that train there

ive never seen another farang there ,but the guys are cool

and i always put everything back in its place and try not to get

in anyones way or interrupt their exercises

sometimes they have benchpress competitions and im invited to join in

and its fun

Out of curiosity, what kind of weights do the bench press competition winners lift? At CaliWow, there are about three guys who can lift any sets of 300 lbs or higher. Very few others can even lift four sets of 225 lbs.

Out of curiosity, what kind of weights do the bench press competition winners lift? At CaliWow, there are about three guys who can lift any sets of 300 lbs or higher. Very few others can even lift four sets of 225 lbs.

there are steroid freaks who can lift the full rack + chains and anything else that can be hung or balanced on the end of the bar but they have their own competitions

the little guys (normal sized) do rounds and throw on 5-10 kg each time until you fail to complete a rep

(that means your out and the competition continues without you )

it ends with the strongest man being able to do a rep as the winnerbut thats never been me

Wow sets of 300lbs that is a lot. I can do 5 sets of 5 with 275 but that is it. Not that i will go much higher in the near future as i am trying to loose weight. I even found that i lost a bit of strength lately.

Maybe Eric will have to sell one of his houses lol

http://homesoftherich.net/2010/04/eric-levines-65000-square-foot-supersized-thailand-beach-house.html

They won't close or the bank will get nothing for sure...

Given the exorbitant rents the company must have been paying for many of their locations, the notorious Thai business practice of employing 5 people for the job 1 person should be able to do, and not least the lack of enthusiasm and/or education about fitness, it was rather obviously a failed venture from the very beginning. Sometimes you wonder if these guys ever did any kind of feasibility studies or if they just sorta threw things together hoping for the best.

Would it surprise you that the "notorious Thai business practice" and "these guys" you refer to really can be traced back to one American founder of California Wow. He did not look very Thai to me.

Given the exorbitant rents the company must have been paying for many of their locations, the notorious Thai business practice of employing 5 people for the job 1 person should be able to do, and not least the lack of enthusiasm and/or education about fitness, it was rather obviously a failed venture from the very beginning. Sometimes you wonder if these guys ever did any kind of feasibility studies or if they just sorta threw things together hoping for the best.

Would it surprise you that the "notorious Thai business practice" and "these guys" you refer to really can be traced back to one American founder of California Wow. He did not look very Thai to me.

Would it surprise you to know that ANY company doing business in Thailand MUST as a matter of course employ Thais (generally, mostly Thais), and would it surprise you that a company doing business in Thailand is subject to the laws and many of the business practices of the country?

Next

I went to the Paragon center at 9AM, and it was open as usual. There have been many stories about California Wow closing soon, and have been ongoing for many years. For some reason, it seems as though many TVers want CA Wow to close, just to prove their point.