Mobi’s - The New Bar on Lake Mabprachan

[Mobi]

Show some BASEBALL...not everyone on the Darkside likes watching cars drive around an oval 500 times or a bunch of floppers taking a whack at a rubber orb with their feet and heads for 90 minutes!

Vey true!. How about cricket England/India.?

As a Brit I've tried watching baseball on TV and, while I enjoy it, some of the rules escape me. I guess I should read up on them.

Mind you, I suspect cricket is a mystery to many Americans etc. How can you play for 5 days and have a drawn match for example.

Mobi's simply does not have the space or facilities for multi screen viewing.

And some real "football" NFL style; and U.S. Open tennis as well.

As already stated, there are very few Americans living on the Darkside and the demand for NFL football would be extremely limited. I personally happen to enjoy the game and would like to watch some 'grid iron', but this is not about a few individual's likes and dislikes, it is about catering for the majority.

In any case, most, if not all NFL football, is out of our time zone, and that goes for the US Open tennis as well, although if there are some matches live in our time zone, I will try to show them.

[Mobi]

Mobi’s Sport

There is no Formula One this coming weekend, and here are the EPL football matches that we plan to show at Mobi’s.

Saturday 30^th

1845: Burnley / Manu

2100: Man City / Stoke

2100: West ham / Southampton

Sunday 31^st

1930: Spurs / Liverpool.

2200: Leicester / Arsenal

Come and join the fun with like-minded football fans....

[Mobi]

Mobi’s Tales from a Barfly

For those of you have been wondering, business at Mobi’s has been very satisfactory since last Saturday, when on that particular evening, we even held our own, despite the incredibly loud noise from the nearby bar party and karaoke.

Every day has seen enough customers to pay the rent, even though there have been periods of an hour or more when I did started to wonder.

Every day seems to bring a few surprises - in the guise of new customers or the return of old ones who haven’t been to the bar for a week or more. On top of that, we are continuing to attract the very late evening brigade, who turn up just as we are thinking about cashing up for the night.

On Tuesday, the last two customers had paid their bill and were on the point of leaving at around 11.30, when the heavens suddenly opened and it became obvious that they weren't going anywhere for a while on their trusty motorbikes.

So they proceeded to down many more beers, as they listened to Mobi’s music and sung along to many of the tracks. Their bar tab went higher and higher….

The rain had finally abated sufficiently by 2 am, to enable our generous customers to make their short journey back home and once again we ended up with a decent night’s takings.

Last night was another case in point. The last customer - or so we thought - left at around 11 pm and an hour later we were in the process of dimming the lights and preparing to close, when two ‘stalwarts of Mabprachan’s community’ showed up for a couple of late-late night-caps.

I don’t know why, but we always seem to mess up the drinks orders and /or the bills for these two venerable gentlemen. This always provokes embarrassment and profuse apologies from 'yours truly', and unconcealed mirth from the gents concerned.

‘We only come to see you Mobi, to find out how you’re going to mess up our bills this time around…’ said one, with a smile.

‘Yes’, added the other laughing his head off, ‘We want to see how you’re gonna eff everything up tonight.’

Honest to God, it rarely happens to anyone else, but it always happens to these two ….either they - or Mobi’s - must be jinxed.

We had a good chat and they had just paid their bills around 1.15 when two more punters showed up and begged a beer….

Never being one to turn away custom, we welcomed the two newcomers to our bar and I was surprised to find that one of the two was one a member of that very rare breed – a genuine member of the USA community, from the wilds of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

So they sat and supped and listed to the music and we finally called it a night just before 2 am.

All in all, not bad day’s take.

I wonder what tonight will bring?

[Chang_paarp]

Hope Mobi's keeps getting busier, look forward to visiting when next in town.

For those who need US styled sport fix, there are some hints in this thread, just after the plug for Mobi's.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/755420-where-to-eat-drink-socialise-in-siam-cc-mabprachan-area/

[Mobi]

Mobi’s continues to defy the odds and over the past few days we have attracted a steady stream of customers to our bar during these dark, ‘Darkside’ times.

Last night was another satisfactory evening, when, just for a change, we played disco music from around 9 pm to midnight which had everyone’s feet tapping.

Songs that most of us hadn’t heard for decades, (and the girls never at all), flooded back into our consciousness and a great time was had by one and all.

As had occurred earlier in the week, the weather conspired to work to our advantage, and the torrential rain which came late in the evening succeeded in preventing a group who had arrived on motorcycles from leaving. They stayed well into the wee hours, drinking away while waiting for rain to pass.

This weekend marks the second week of the new EPL season and we will continue to try and temp a few football fans in to watch the games on our two large screens.

The games today are:

1845: Burnley / Manu

2100: Man City / Stoke

2100: West ham / Southampton

Hope to see some of you there.

[Mobi]

.....we will continue to try and temp a few football fans....

tempt... not temp...

[OMGImInPattaya]

Mobis continues to defy the odds and over the past few days we have attracted a steady stream of customers to our bar during these dark, Darkside times.

Last night was another satisfactory evening, when, just for a change, we played disco music from around 9 pm to midnight which had everyones feet tapping.

Songs that most of us hadnt heard for decades, (and the girls never at all), flooded back into our consciousness and a great time was had by one and all.

As had occurred earlier in the week, the weather conspired to work to our advantage, and the torrential rain which came late in the evening succeeded in preventing a group who had arrived on motorcycles from leaving. They stayed well into the wee hours, drinking away while waiting for rain to pass.

This weekend marks the second week of the new EPL season and we will continue to try and temp a few football fans in to watch the games on our two large screens.

The games today are:

1845: Burnley / Manu

2100: Man City / Stoke

2100: West ham / Southampton

Hope to see some of you there.

How big are your screens, I've got 65 inches at home so no reason to go out for anything less.

[prk888]

I've been to Mobis and one screen is 75, (or maybe 77.5) and another is 115 so definitely worth a visit.

[petercool]

A number of posts removed because they add nothing to the sponsor's thread

[Mobi]

Just a reminder that the EPL games at Mobi's today are:

7.30 pm Spurs /Liverpool

22.00 pm Leicester / Arsenal

[petercool]

post removed ..

10) Do not discuss moderation publicly in the open forum; this includes individual actions, and specific or general policies and issues. You may send a PM to a moderator to discuss individual actions or email support (at) thaivisa.com to discuss moderation policy.

[Robroona]

Mobis continues to defy the odds and over the past few days we have attracted a steady stream of customers to our bar during these dark, Darkside times.

Last night was another satisfactory evening, when, just for a change, we played disco music from around 9 pm to midnight which had everyones feet tapping.

Songs that most of us hadnt heard for decades, (and the girls never at all), flooded back into our consciousness and a great time was had by one and all.

As had occurred earlier in the week, the weather conspired to work to our advantage, and the torrential rain which came late in the evening succeeded in preventing a group who had arrived on motorcycles from leaving. They stayed well into the wee hours, drinking away while waiting for rain to pass.

This weekend marks the second week of the new EPL season and we will continue to try and temp a few football fans in to watch the games on our two large screens.

The games today are:

1845: Burnley / Manu

2100: Man City / Stoke

2100: West ham / Southampton

Hope to see some of you there.

How big are your screens, I've got 65 inches at home so no reason to go out for anything less.

Thank The Lord for that.

[Mobi]

The Darkside – including Mobi’s – has been eerily quiet since last Saturday.

Quite possibly the worst three trading days in a row since we opened.

No day was a total disaster, but all three days were well below the sales levels I need to maintain to break even.

I’m not too sure why this should be. Maybe there are simply too many bars chasing too little business – another two have opened in the last few days, and a third is due to open any time soon.

Or maybe it’s just the time of year, although I did think things would start to pick up a bit in September. Maybe I have to hang on to October /November before the crowds start descending.

So far the EPL Football has not been a run-away success, and if it doesn’t pick up over the next two months I shall have to consider abandoning it, as the monthly cost simply adds to my financial problems.

On the positive side, we did indeed break even last month (August) and we even had a tiny bit of cash left over so we didn’t work for nothing, as has been the case for May and June.

I really don’t know what more I can do to attract new customers. For a majority of the time we have had a good supply of very friendly ‘hostesses’, we sell the cheapest food on the lake, and all our bar drinks prices are highly competitive.

Everyone seems to like our choice of music and the sound system is pretty good these days.

So what with my constant promotion in Thai Visa and in my blog there is little more I can do, and we will just keep plugging away and hope that things slowly get better.

If not…..????

[Mobi]

Yet another quiet day at Mobi's, although two gallant Aussies did travel all the way from Pattaya to seek us out yesterday afternoon as one of them had been reading my blog for many years. He had even bought my book!!! A rare event indeed….

Lek called me from home to advise me of their presence, so when I discovered that they had made a special trip out to see me, I downed tools and popped along to the bar and we had a lively chat for a couple of hours and they assured me that they will return regularly, as I’m sure they will.

The evening brought out three of my ever faithful regulars, and there was a slow trickle of customers throughout the evening. Just when I thought we were going to be able to close on time, who should make one of his regular late night appearances? None other than Thai Visa’s ‘Raro.’

Sometimes I think the only reason Raro graces Mobi’s is to get his mits on yet another cigarette lighter as he never has one with him; but once he was able to satisfy his disgusting habit, we sat and watched a few interesting music videos that were somewhat out of the mainstream, but nevertheless very enjoyable.

Only at Mobi’s can you listen to Paul Weller and the tragically vulnerable Amy Winehouse singing ‘Don’t talk to strangers’, followed by ACDC performing their classic, ‘Highway to Hell’ followed by a truly inspiring arrangement of Elton’s ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ sung by the American singer /songwriter Sara Bareilles who accompanied herself on piano, and then a mesmerising, live rendition of ‘One more Try’ by the gorgeous and supremely talented Beverley Knight, and then a sultry, jazzy rendition of ‘Will you still Love me Tomorrow’, by the multi- Grammy Award winning, utterly beautiful Norah Jones…

On and on till the wee hours….

All Mobi’s girls had long since retired for the night as Mobi, Raro and Lek sat in the darkness, and listened to some wonderful music.

As I say… where else?

[Mobi]

Mobi's Mr Ting Tong spars with Gentleman Jim while we snap our fingers to the Motown beat.

Yesterday was a bit better…

Lek travelled to Samut Songkhram, (about half way to Hua Hin), to attend the funeral of a close family friend and Auntie was left in charge.

I arrived at around 7.15 to find a couple of customers sitting in deathly silence.

I should explain that Mobi’s has no less than three music systems.

The first one we inherited from the previous owner and is a CD player system with its own speakers hardwired at strategic positions around the bar. While not particularly brilliant in quality, it is fine as a back-up system, and in the absence of either Lek or myself to crank up one of the main systems, then it should be turned on – and is generally used in the day time.

The second system is entirely independent of the first and plays the sound from the larger of the two TV’s by optical cable to an independent amp, and from there to a separate speaker system which is also hardwired around the bar.

We use the second system to play the sound track for sports events and also music from one the TV music channels.

The third system uses the same output as the second system (Optical output from TV to amp to speakers) but the input is video music files from a laptop via HDMI cables, which also transmits a video signal for the two TV screens.

So all auntie had to do was to turn on the back-up music system, or she could have even picked up one the remote controls, turned on the TV which was already tuned to a music station and the amp was also on and would have immediately played music and video from the CTH TV source.

‘Why no music?’ I asked.

Blank stares…

Too lazy to bother, I concluded, like the day last week when she forgot to turn on the Mobi’s street sign when it got dark and everyone thought we were closed – hence no customers….

Grrr….

Without Lek, I wouldn’t stand a chance….

When I arrived at the bar, I was so preoccupied with the lack of music that I responded to all the ‘Swasdi Kraps’ from the girls in a perfunctory fashion, without even bothering to look at which girls were greeting me.

One particular girl wouldn’t be brushed off by my offhand behaviour and insisted that I respond to her personally.

I turned around to look at her and to my utter astonishment, I saw that it was one of Mobi’s star performers, who had departed only a week earlier to set up home with a certain Belgian gentleman.

She had left our employment with our blessing and although we all had concluded that this particular relationship couldn’t possibly stand the test of time, nobody expected her to be back in the fold in the space of a few days.

The young lady – I shall call her Wan (sweet) is a lovely young thing in her early twenties and by general consensus is a bit of a ‘looker’.

She also happens to be a fun-loving person and always has the most winning of smiles on her face, regardless of the time of day and however tired she may be. She seemed to love the life of a bar girl, and 2 -3 times a week, she - with some of the other girls- would book a taxi in the small hours to take them to Pattaya where they danced the night away.

Wan used to work the bar like no other, and hopped from customer to customer every day, trying her best to make them all happy and earning a prestigious number of ‘lady drinks’ in return for her efforts.

So it was with much sadness that we wished her well when she announced her permanent departure with her elderly benefactor even though we knew in our heart of hearts that the ‘arrangement’ couldn’t possibly last long.

Several of Mobi’s customers of a ‘certain age’ had clearly become infatuated with her, and in the days following her departure , they would drive up to the bar, and immediately drive away again once they learnt that Wan was no longer working there.

But now she had returned, smiling and laughing just like the old days and she immediately slipped back into her old routine of working the customers.

The jungle telegraph must have been working overtime last night as within ½ an hour, two of Wan’s most ardent suitors were back at Mobi’s to wish her a rousing ‘home-coming’.

There may be trouble ahead…..

Our resident drunk, the estimable German Mr Ting tong, was one of Wan’s most ardent admirers, and a certain Englishman, who I shall call 'Gentleman Jim' was the other.

Mr Ting Tong got in first, but it wasn't long before Wan Tired of Ting’s Tongs’ drunken and erratic behaviour and lack of lady's drinks and decided to transfer her attentions to the much more gentlemanly, Gentleman Jim.

Mr Ting Tong decided to come and sit with me and insisted in shaking my hand every 2-3 minutes, repeating over and over: ‘You Mobi… very good man….’

But he wasn’t at all happy. He was pining over Wan and kept making furtive glances at the loving couple, which only provoked yet more despair.

The evening progressed and Mr Ting Tong became ever drunker, and ever more jealous.

I was busy with my music when I was suddenly accosted by Gentleman Jim who was in state of high dudgeon demanding that I keep Ting Tong away from him.

It transpired that Ting Tong had approached Gentleman Jim and threatened to punch him if he didn’t leave Wan alone and go home.

It was laughable. Ting Tong is about 5ft 6 inches tall, and I doubt whether he weighs much more than 100lbs. Furthermore he was so drunk he could hardly stand.

‘This usually genial drunk couldn’t possibly be much of a threat to anyone’, I thought to myself, but just in case, I called Lek out from behind the bar to deal with it.

She had just arrived back from her long drive to the funeral and back, and as ever was game for anything. After all nobody can break up drunken fight between two farangs like a petite Thai woman.

As expected, Lek led Gentleman Jim back to his seat with Wan at the far corner of the bar and banned Ting Tong from going near them.

Hostilities ceased for a while, but on his way back from the toilet, Ting Tong once again tried to accost his rival lover.

Lek was quickly on the scene, and we decided to refuse to let Ting Tong buy any more drinks and suggested he called it a night; but he stubbornly refused to go and continued to walk around the bar glaring at his rival from a distance.

In the end, Gentleman Jim decided to call it a day and drove off into the night.

By this time, Wan had had enough of Ting Tong and ran out of the bar to hide behind a bush. We told Ting Tong that she had left with Gentleman Jim, but Ting tong wasn’t having any of it, and he ran out to the parking area to see where Wan had gone.

Wan saw him coming and hot-footed it back into the bar by another route and into the rear area, while the drunken Ting Tong kept staggering around outside, looking for her.

And so it went on… Wan running around the environs of the bar and Ting Tong lurching hither and thither trying to catch her.

Wan was having a great game, and Ting Tong was clearly no match for her.

Meanwhile, back at Mobi’s, I had discovered that one of my other customers was an admirer of the Motown music genre and we were busy cranking up the music with a never-ending selection of Motown songs. He sang heartily to song after song - as did I - and the girls started dancing and tapping their feet to the irresistible Motown rhythms.

Keep on running, Reach Out, Higher and Higher, My Girl, River Deep Mountain High, Dancing in the Street, Tracks of My Tears, When will I see you Again?, Heard it through the Grapevine, and many, many more, kept us all on our feet; while the sparring between Mr Ting Tong and Gentleman Jim, followed by the Benny-Hill-esqe chases around the bar by Ting Ting and Miss Wan provided the visual entertainment.

What a night!

In the end, our Motown -loving customer finally called it a night and Lek somehow persuaded Ting Tong take a long walk along the road in a valiant search of his beloved, (who by this time was upstairs’ in bed), and we quickly pulled down the shutters to cash up and leave before he returned.

It almost worked, but just as we were getting ready to depart, back he came, complaining that a cop had arrested him outside another bar, but that he had been released after he satisfied the cop he had done nothing wrong - except get blind drunk…

I have no way of verifying the veracity of all this, and was still busy with my bar business when he finally disappeared. I didn’t see him go, but Lek assures me that he left unaided on his motor bike….

God help us all.

At the time of writing, (2.30 pm), he is back at the bar – drinking coffee – after having settled last night’s bill which he left without paying.

In spite of all this exciting activity, it wasn’t a great night – money-wise – but it was certainly better than the previous 4 days.

More than that, it provided some light relief and made us forget all our troubles for a short while during these worrying times.

[Mobi]

Mobi’s Sport

There is no EPL this weekend due to international matches, so we will be showing the Italian Grand Prix from Monza, uninterrupted by football.

Details are:

Saturday, 6^th September, 7 pm – Qualifying

Sunday, 7^th September, 7 pm – Main Race

[petercool]

A troll post and then its exact duplicate was removed. Please note the following forum rule for which warnings and a suspension have already been issued in the past ...

9) You will not post inflammatory messages on the forum, or attempt to disrupt discussions to upset its participants, or trolling. Trolling can be defined as the act of purposefully antagonizing other people on the internet by posting controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.

[tropo]

How big are your screens, I've got 65 inches at home so no reason to go out for anything less.

The size of the screen doesn't mean much unless you factor in your distance from the screen. I suppose it does give you some bragging rights....

Edited September 5, 2014 by tropo

[OMGImInPattaya]

How big are your screens, I've got 65 inches at home so no reason to go out for anything less.

The size of the screen doesn't mean much unless you factor in your distance from the screen. I suppose it does give you some bragging rights....

Interesting non-sequitur.

[metisdead]

A troll post has been removed.

Edit: Another post containing derogatory comments has been removed.

Edited September 5, 2014 by metisdead

[surangw]

"Too lazy to bother" maybe underlying thai jealousy of your success. and sabotage by small degrees

[Mobi]

Whatever next!!!

A thread discussing my thread…..

If I had thought of it I might have started it myself.

As they say in the trade: ‘there’s no such thing as bad publicity’, so a hearty thanks to all those who contributed to that thread, now, sadly closed.

I am pleased to report that after 5 pretty sparse trading days, we were back to our normal hustle and bustle on Thursday and Friday, and many thanks for all those who popped by for a while.

There is no doubt that trading conditions have never been worse, and many customers, including a couple of ex bar owners, have told me this is the quietest they have known the Darkside bars to be in more than 5 years.

Whether this is due to the political situation, the crackdown on ‘visa runners’, or simply the time of year is anyone’s guess, but we are certainly doing better than most, so I really can’t complain.

We will soldier on and hope things get better soon.

Tonight, Mr and Mrs Mobi will be having a rare absence from our bar duties as we are attending a 50^th Wedding Anniversary party in Pattaya, (not ours…).

In our absence, you will still be able to watch the F1 qualifying session that starts at 7 pm and Mobi’s girls will be on hand to tend to your every need as you relax to the sounds (and pictures) of Mobi’s eclectic selection of music videos.

We will pop by in the early hours on the way back from Pattaya to ensure that Mobi’s has not been wrecked or burnt to the ground in our absence…

Tomorrow, the Grand Prix from Monza will be shown live from 7 pm.

See ya there…

[Mobi]

On Saturday Lek and Mobi had a break from The Darkside and joined the ‘hoi polloi’ down at the Montien Hotel to celebrate the 50^th Wedding Anniversary of two of Mobi’s most loyal supporters.

It was a most enjoyable evening and meanwhile ‘back at the ranch’, things were quiet, but by no means desperate. We returned near to closing time and were relieved to find that the bar was still in one piece and no major emergences had arisen during our absence.

Yesterday, Sunday, saw a steady flow of customers, and those who were there early in the evening, enjoyed watching Lewis Hamilton triumph in the Monza Grand Prix.

For those who haven’t yet dipped their toes in, come on by and experience our unique blend of eclectic music, chat to the most friendly, non-pushy girls on the Darkside, or have a down to earth chat with yours truly, where you can pour your heart out or maybe rights the wrongs of the world…

And I’m never short of ‘worldly advice’, should you need it…

[ToddinChonburi]

I took a ride down from Bang Saen to mobi's on the motorbike , Enjoyed some good hot French Fries and a coke along with some good conversation.

[Pattaya Pat]

I took a ride down from Bang Saen to mobi's on the motorbike , Enjoyed some good hot French Fries and a coke along with some good conversation.

Rock n roll.

[Robroona]

With all this good publicity, Mobi, can we expect charabang outings from the surrounding areas? Car park will need enlarged a bit, I suppose

[Mobi]

Mobi’s Sport

There is no Formula One this weekend; the next race is on the weekend of 20^th/21^st September, in Singapore.

This weekend’s coming EPL football matches that will be shown live at Mobi's are:

SATURDAY, 13th SEPTEMBER

18:45

Arsenal / Man City

21:00

Tottenham / Sunderland

21:00

Chelsea / Swansea City

23:30

Liverpool / Aston Villa

SUNDAY, 14th SEPTEMBER

22:00

Man United / QPR

(There is no early game on Sunday.)

[Mobi]

Wow! What a night!

All I can say is that things have been picking up steadily over the past few days, and last night was the longest night that Mobi’s has ever experienced.

All I will say is that we were still serving customers when the sun came up and Lek and I didn’t go to bed until after 6 a.m.

At the time of writing, I’m still trying to catch up with my ‘lost’ day.

Full details in this weekend’s blog…

… or come by Mobi’s and hear it from the ‘horse’s mouth’….

[Mobi]

Hmmm… here we go, here we go, here we go…

Last night, (or I should say this morning), was yet another very late one. Is it possible that word has spread that quickly?

This time, it wasn’t as late as Tuesday when we were still going at sunrise, but it was well past 3 am when we finally made it back home.

I’m not complaining, as it is all helping to fill Mobi’s coffers and keep us in business, so long may it continue.

So come one, come all and don’t forget this weekend’s live sporting events which I have detailed in a separate post.

And many thanks to all of you who have tried us out and come back for more.

Your continued custom is very much appreciated.

[Mobi]

Sorry folks for the paucity of postings during this past week.

I’m afraid my stomach’s been playing up badly again, and I haven’t been my normal self. Writing has become a bit of chore when I am in and out of the loo all day long.

However, I did manage to make a post on my weekly blog today which tells the story of the late night events last week which have undoubtedly contributed to my current state of ill-health.

Anyway, its onwards and upwards, and I hope to make it down to Mobi’s tonight in time to make sure the TV’s are tuned into tonight’s EPL match featuring Manchester United and QPR, which commences at 10 pm local time.

In the meantime, if you want to know the latest ‘Mobi-News’, click on the link below to read today’s blog posting entitled, ‘The Night That Never Ended’…

http://mobithailand.com/