Patong is dead.

[DrDave]

<snip>

I have a theory on that DrDave and that is, that Tao is neither one thing nor the other, in fact it doesn't know what sort of place it is! It really is too small to have a live band playing or at least playing at the level which will get the folk dancing, and on that note the dance area is minimal.

The layout is not conducive to any one thing in particular and they have already changed the position of the bar and it wasn't too difficult to see that it was in fact an obstruction. And then there's the TVs......... for what purpose in a place like that?

I popped into the place just before it was completed and chatted with the owner, whom I know, and he was explaining how much money he had spent on the decor, the sound system, the stage, the TVs, and so on and when I took a good look round I really couldn't see for the life of me what its market was. Then when it opened the beers were about 200 baht minimum, so it had priced itself in the upper tier, however in my mind, it didn't seem to fit there.

I think you're right about Tao, X. It seems that the owner spent way too much money building out a space without a clear purpose in the design. Moving the band from the back to the front was a step in the right direction, but if he had placed the stage back a little further from the new location (toward the middle) and added more tables at the front and rear, then he would have the exact same layout as the very successful Red Hot, New York and Monsoon bars. There's no shame in copying a successful formula and there's also no need for expensive big screen video units in this incarnation. I'm also wondering if the glass walls at the front are actually hurting them. Again, looking at those other bars, they're all open-air to the street for the entire width of the property. Red Hot is actually open-air to 2 streets, which I'm sure doesn't hurt.

One thing going in Tao's favor is beer pricing, which is about on a par with Monsoon, and considerably less than Red Hot and New York, plus they're still running their 99 baht promotion on Singha Light. Hopefully Tao will find its market and prosper someday.

[DrDave]

<snip>

That stretch of road from Kalim to the roundabout at Patong is notorious for traffic jams at this time of the year and friends I know who live in the Kamala area and who used to come into Patong to catch up for dinner occasionally, just don't do it any more because of the traffic.

It is a bottleneck because of traffic coming from the Beach Road and wanting to go north on the road out of Patong, meeting up with the traffic from Kamala/Kalim on a road which narrows from two lanes to one, just metres from the roundabout, combined with traffic then wanting to turn right into Rat-u-Thid Road, as well as being held up at the traffic lights a little further up the road where the "new middle road" joins it..........in reality it reflects a microcosm of the traffic problems in Patong because of lack of planning, greed and stupidity, this especially with a one-way system which should have been changed some time ago.

I think that a one-way system is definitely needed on the beach road - but in the opposite direction. I remember years ago when it was two-way, it was almost impossible to get from one end to the other in a reasonable amount of time due to deliveries being made, tuk tuks slowly trolling for customers and the "Tonight! Tonight!" pickups driving at about 10kph. There was very little opportunity to pass parked or slow-moving vehicles.

I don't recall for sure, but I think I remember the one-ways on the beach road and Rat-U-Thit being reversed when the one way system was first put into effect a number of years ago. If so, I don't know why it was changed. Making the beach road north-to-south and Rat-U-Thit south-to-north makes a lot more sense that what's currently implemented. The sois connecting Rat-U-Thit and the beach road could become two-way again due to what would then be left-hand turns coming out of the sois, which would double the opportunities to reverse and head in the opposite direction.

Then, there's that cluster-f**** intersection where PrachaNukhro, SaiKor, Nanai and Sirirat roads all converge. I know that some will disagree with me on this, but I always felt safer when the traffic signal there was operational. Given the fact that most Thai drivers don't honor any common right-of-way rules, I always feel that I'm taking a major risk whenever traveling through that intersection. While the traffic signal may have caused some minor tailbacks, it brought a sense of order to the area, and eliminated the "I'm flashing my lights so get the hell out of my way" mentality.

</traffic rant>

[2fishin2]

High-Season is finally upon us boys! Problem is its getting shorter and shorter every year.

[SooKee]

<snip>

I have a theory on that DrDave and that is, that Tao is neither one thing nor the other, in fact it doesn't know what sort of place it is! It really is too small to have a live band playing or at least playing at the level which will get the folk dancing, and on that note the dance area is minimal.

The layout is not conducive to any one thing in particular and they have already changed the position of the bar and it wasn't too difficult to see that it was in fact an obstruction. And then there's the TVs......... for what purpose in a place like that?

I popped into the place just before it was completed and chatted with the owner, whom I know, and he was explaining how much money he had spent on the decor, the sound system, the stage, the TVs, and so on and when I took a good look round I really couldn't see for the life of me what its market was. Then when it opened the beers were about 200 baht minimum, so it had priced itself in the upper tier, however in my mind, it didn't seem to fit there.

I think you're right about Tao, X. It seems that the owner spent way too much money building out a space without a clear purpose in the design. Moving the band from the back to the front was a step in the right direction, but if he had placed the stage back a little further from the new location (toward the middle) and added more tables at the front and rear, then he would have the exact same layout as the very successful Red Hot, New York and Monsoon bars. There's no shame in copying a successful formula and there's also no need for expensive big screen video units in this incarnation. I'm also wondering if the glass walls at the front are actually hurting them. Again, looking at those other bars, they're all open-air to the street for the entire width of the property. Red Hot is actually open-air to 2 streets, which I'm sure doesn't hurt.

One thing going in Tao's favor is beer pricing, which is about on a par with Monsoon, and considerably less than Red Hot and New York, plus they're still running their 99 baht promotion on Singha Light. Hopefully Tao will find its market and prosper someday.

The bar was in a dumb position from the start. Then the band was at the end and many tables had no view of them. Now the bar is out the way at the back and now the band is stuck at the front out of view of many tables. Odd floor plan considering it was a blank sheet.

My guess is it will close before it prospers. Or it will morph into something else entirely. It's a money sink at the moment.

[Renter]

the heavy traffic does not reflect money spent, it really reflects the inefficient road system here. Many times I've been driving and someone is double parked while buying a roadside "delicacy" and everything is almost at a standstill for 100m both ways. No money in it to fix things - let them wait. I was driving along beach road Patong on Monday and it was the usual crawl then another suicide derby going over the hill.

This is just part of the bright shiny flashing colored lights illusion that is Phuket, it means squat as business people here are not making money & that's what counts for them. Just plenty of gawkers & walkers but few spending real money like was common years ago prior to the endless stream of bad publicity the Phuket has brought on itself.

I find what The Nation says about big spending Chinese tourists a typical newspaper fantasy. TAT went looking for new punters & got the Chinese so Nation comes on board saying you've picked a winner there. Yeah right - if your the seller of oily pork rinds like Big C where they load their shopping trolleys to overflowing with the stuff. Light as a feather so no overweight charge on the flight home.

As for Chiangmai I think I'll pass........ too cold, air no good with the burning off & now the problems with closing of some bars. There are much better places for me.

[LivinginKata]

<snip>

I don't recall for sure, but I think I remember the one-ways on the beach road and Rat-U-Thit being reversed when the one way system was first put into effect a number of years ago. If so, I don't know why it was changed. Making the beach road north-to-south and Rat-U-Thit south-to-north makes a lot more sense that what's currently implemented. The sois connecting Rat-U-Thit and the beach road could become two-way again due to what would then be left-hand turns coming out of the sois, which would double the opportunities to reverse and head in the opposite direction.

One way flow along beach road has always been south to north. On at least 2 times there was a plan to reverse the one way systems. The TukTuk mafia objected and that was the end of that. The new road was supposed to ease the through flow, but the double (even triple) parking has reduced flow to a crawl. And the big queue at the traffic light Pribarami end is a nightmare. I avoid new road as much as possible.

[NamKangMan]

The average Chinese tourist spends more than the average European tourist according to The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Chinese-tourists-boost-Thai-economy-but-stir-outra-30263782.html

The key piece of information that's missing from that article is what 5,500 baht/day is being spent on, and where its going.

Here in Phuket, most of the revenue appears to be flowing into Chinese tour companies and the Chinese-owned businesses to which they're shuttled on their tour buses.

A small percentage of the total tourist-spend ends up in the pockets of local Thai businesses (zero-profit hotel rooms beaten down to 5-600 baht), trinkets and souvenirs, and maybe some McDs and KFC. Big C does a brisk trade with Chinese tourists, but that's not really a local business. I think the local businesses making the most profit from the Chinese are probably the jet ski and parasail operators. In general, the Chinese tourists don't frequent the locally-owned bars, restaurants and businesses nearly to the extent that western tourists patronize these places.

So while the daily spend might be higher, the impact to the local economy could very well be lower.

"So while the daily spend might be higher, the impact to the local economy could very well be lower." - I agree. Even if, and that's a big IF, the average daily spend for a Chinese tourist is higher than the average spend for a European tourist, the Chinese spend in Chinese owned establishments, or establishments that Chinese tour operators have negotiated the price down to rock bottom per head, to cater for the masses.

It all goes towards devaluing the Phuket brand.

Seriously, in the past, it was not uncommon for a young western couple to spend 5000 baht in a nice restaurant on predinner drinks, a nice 3 course meal, with a nice bottle of wine, and cocktails after dinner, and then go out for the nightlife. They would spend the same in 2 hours what these reported Chinese spend in a day.

It all equates to not as much money floating around in the Phuket local economy, and we, as westerners, are starting to see its effect with the closure of what were popular establishments in the past.

Edited December 31, 2015 by NamKangMan

[Lashay]

I think you're right about Tao, X. It seems that the owner spent way too much money building out a space without a clear purpose in the design. Moving the band from the back to the front was a step in the right direction, but if he had placed the stage back a little further from the new location (toward the middle) and added more tables at the front and rear, then he would have the exact same layout as the very successful Red Hot, New York and Monsoon bars. There's no shame in copying a successful formula and there's also no need for expensive big screen video units in this incarnation. I'm also wondering if the glass walls at the front are actually hurting them. Again, looking at those other bars, they're all open-air to the street for the entire width of the property. Red Hot is actually open-air to 2 streets, which I'm sure doesn't hurt.

One thing going in Tao's favor is beer pricing, which is about on a par with Monsoon, and considerably less than Red Hot and New York, plus they're still running their 99 baht promotion on Singha Light. Hopefully Tao will find its market and prosper someday.

Think a lot of the design issues (TV screens, glass frontage, stage still not quite right) with tao are the owner not wanting to just bite the bullet from the mistakes (and more importantly the costs) from when he tried to make it a "upscale bar/girl bar/live music venue/night club all in one". He spent so much and it was all pretty much wasted.

Doubt it will turn around until he starts again from scratch. Thailand does suffer to far to much copying, but as you say, not shame in copying success, even better if you put in your own spin to improve on it and stand out, which would not be hard, while the others have better layout, they are all cheap builds and already pretty run down

And doing the live thai band late at night is not copying success either, for good reason half dozen such places have gone under over last 5 years, not big enough market with money to spend. Local thais with money don't really come down Bangla (Phuket town is where they go), which leaves just bar girls/staff/freelancers not looking for customers and thai bar owners and if they want to go out for fun late night most of them head down Soi Tan for Karaoke and lot cheaper prices.

Personally find it really sad, finally someone willing to spend some decent cash on more upmarket place on Bangla and he gets so much wrong that it bombs, got feeling many will take the wrong lessons from his failure

[Lashay]

The average Chinese tourist spends more than the average European tourist according to The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Chinese-tourists-boost-Thai-economy-but-stir-outra-30263782.html

The key piece of information that's missing from that article is what 5,500 baht/day is being spent on, and where its going.

Here in Phuket, most of the revenue appears to be flowing into Chinese tour companies and the Chinese-owned businesses to which they're shuttled on their tour buses.

A small percentage of the total tourist-spend ends up in the pockets of local Thai businesses (zero-profit hotel rooms beaten down to 5-600 baht), trinkets and souvenirs, and maybe some McDs and KFC. Big C does a brisk trade with Chinese tourists, but that's not really a local business. I think the local businesses making the most profit from the Chinese are probably the jet ski and parasail operators. In general, the Chinese tourists don't frequent the locally-owned bars, restaurants and businesses nearly to the extent that western tourists patronize these places.

So while the daily spend might be higher, the impact to the local economy could very well be lower.

"So while the daily spend might be higher, the impact to the local economy could very well be lower." - I agree. Even if, and that's a big IF, the average daily spend for a Chinese tourist is higher than the average spend for a European tourist, the Chinese spend in Chinese owned establishments, or establishments that Chinese tour operators have negotiated the price down to rock bottom per head, to cater for the masses.

It all goes towards devaluing the Phuket brand.

Seriously, in the past, it was not uncommon for a young western couple to spend 5000 baht in a nice restaurant on predinner drinks, a nice 3 course meal, with a nice bottle of wine, and cocktails after dinner, and then go out for the nightlife. They would spend the same in 2 hours what these reported Chinese spend in a day.

It all equates to not as much money floating around in the Phuket local economy, and we, as westerners, are starting to see its effect with the closure of what were popular establishments in the past.

Also, average Chinese is on Phuket 2.5 days where average westerner is 2-3 weeks. Spend per day is meaningless, it's total revenue per visitor that counts

[Renter]

this is all cynical meaningless chit chat to try and pacify those folk who are going down the drain at the rate of knots.

be unconcerned now as we promise you a better after life - so just stay in line & be thankful & quiet.

Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

[sebastion]

The Russian ruble took a dive today on the last day of 2015. The lowest its been in a decade.

Guess those well healed Russians wont be coming after NYE.

[Renter]

can't believe it - fewer ruble cheapskates coming. that makes 3 Xmas presents this year !!....... now hoping the Yuan implodes

[NamKangMan]

The Russian ruble took a dive today on the last day of 2015. The lowest its been in a decade.

Guess those well healed Russians wont be coming after NYE.

"Guess those well healed Russians wont be coming after NYE." - a lot of those "well healed Russians" are already living here.

Most are awaiting Interpol warrants to be issued from Mother Russia.

[xylophone]

Now 10 p.m. on New Year's Eve and I have just returned from Jungceylon restaurant alley, where there was a surprising amount of Russians around (in reference to the previous posts) and I have seen a few more over the past month than I had previously seen, but maybe the "migration" from Pattaya might be short lived!

Ate at Wine Connection and the fish and chips were great, especially the fish because the batter was absolutely superb and some of the best I've ever tasted. The place was absolutely full, with a few people waiting for tables to become vacant, so the owners will be pleased with that I would think. Not only that, I believe it gives good value for money, which is probably why it was full tonight.

Just to contradict a previous post, Churrasco was almost full and La Bodega about 60% full and the Italian restaurant (now called an Italian and Thai bistro) D' Wine had more people in it than I have ever seen since it opened and at a guess it would have been about 75% full. Just a couple of others in the strip were about 50% full with the remaining just about empty and that included the Italian restaurant La Casa, Pizza Hut, the German restaurant and beer bar as well as a couple of others down that end.

Maybe a sure sign that the Chinese don't spend too much would be the fact that the "upper class" Chinese restaurant that opened in the place of the Absolute pub, Chai Meng, seems to have closed. All of their signs have been taken down, the tanks which held the fresh fish and crabs etc have gone and the inside of the place looks like it is being taken apart.

Will not be going to Bangla tonight as feeling very under the weather with some bug or another, so an early night, no alcohol and a paracetamol will soon see me taking to my bed.

My I wish all of the folks who have taken kindly to my posts (and even those who haven't) a happy, healthy and prosperous 2016.

Xylophone

[Patong2]

On Patong beach at the end of Bangla Rd last night, same same for many years.

Surprising to me, but there were definitely more people on the beach than ever before..

Couldn't believe it as we have definitely seen a lot less people in Patong and around this season.

Lots of Thais near Loma Park but pretty mixed by Bangla police box with significant no of Chinese on the beach

[DrDave]

We ventured out a little after 10pm last night to see what was happening at the beach and Bangla for NYE.
Prachanukhro (from the point where Rat-U-Thit joins) and the Beach Rd were total gridlock. Once we reached the Beach Rd, we parked up on the footpath along with hundreds of other motorbikes.

The entire beach was loaded with people, which included a very significant number of Thais. Lots of fireworks and balloons being launched from the beach, and people selling drinks and food along the length of the footpath. I didn't see many people buying food, but the big seller seemed to be the light-up Minnie Mouse headgear. Progressing up to the Police box, the area from the footpath toward the water was barricaded, and this is where the NYE craziness started. Lots of people corralled in this area spraying each other with the multi-colored "silly string" and artificial snow foam.

Once getting across the road to Bangla, the entirety of Bangla was a mass of people. Very difficult to make one's
way along the road, and lots of people spraying anyone and everyone with the string and snow. The bars fronting Bangla
seemed to be packed with customers taking part in the spray-fest. We finally made it down to Soi Freedom where the
string and snow spraying was held to a minimum, and listened to the band for a while at our favorite bar.

Sometime around 1am we left Soi Freedom to head home. By that time, Bangla was a little improved in terms of being
able to walk from point A to point B, but there was still a lot of spraying going on. Looking down at the pavement,
I could see literally thousands of spent aerosol spray cans lying along the road. Walking along the beach footpath
back to the motorbike, there were mounds of garbage and empty beer bottles everywhere (both on the beach and on the footpath).
The traffic was still gridlocked on the Beach Road, so a lot of motorbikes were driving on the footpath trying to
avoid the traffic.

It looks like it was a good night for local businesses, which is really needed at this point. I think I'm going to hold off going down
to the beach area for a while until everything is cleaned up!

[xylophone]

We ventured out a little after 10pm last night to see what was happening at the beach and Bangla for NYE.

Prachanukhro (from the point where Rat-U-Thit joins) and the Beach Rd were total gridlock. Once we reached the Beach Rd, we parked up on the footpath along with hundreds of other motorbikes.

The entire beach was loaded with people, which included a very significant number of Thais. Lots of fireworks and balloons being launched from the beach, and people selling drinks and food along the length of the footpath. I didn't see many people buying food, but the big seller seemed to be the light-up Minnie Mouse headgear. Progressing up to the Police box, the area from the footpath toward the water was barricaded, and this is where the NYE craziness started. Lots of people corralled in this area spraying each other with the multi-colored "silly string" and artificial snow foam.

Once getting across the road to Bangla, the entirety of Bangla was a mass of people. Very difficult to make one's

way along the road, and lots of people spraying anyone and everyone with the string and snow. The bars fronting Bangla

seemed to be packed with customers taking part in the spray-fest. We finally made it down to Soi Freedom where the

string and snow spraying was held to a minimum, and listened to the band for a while at our favorite bar.

Sometime around 1am we left Soi Freedom to head home. By that time, Bangla was a little improved in terms of being

able to walk from point A to point B, but there was still a lot of spraying going on. Looking down at the pavement,

I could see literally thousands of spent aerosol spray cans lying along the road. Walking along the beach footpath

back to the motorbike, there were mounds of garbage and empty beer bottles everywhere (both on the beach and on the footpath).

The traffic was still gridlocked on the Beach Road, so a lot of motorbikes were driving on the footpath trying to

avoid the traffic.

It looks like it was a good night for local businesses, which is really needed at this point. I think I'm going to hold off going down

to the beach area for a while until everything is cleaned up!

The spraying of foam and plastic string really pisses me off as the foam does eventually soak into your clothes, so never keen on going out on this night (anyway was sick so didn't).

And seeing grown men happily spraying all and sundry with boxes of cans at the ready makes me wonder what they've got between their ears (foam perhaps) and a couple of years ago I promised one guy who was spraying just about everyone in the bar that if he sprayed me I would ram the can down his throat...........he smiled and pointed it at me so I angrily warned him again and shaped up to him and he thought better of it. Lucky guy, cos I meant it.

No need for this in the face, mass spraying in order to have a good time and welcome in a new year.

[DrDave]

The spraying of foam and plastic string really pisses me off as the foam does eventually soak into your clothes, so never keen on going out on this night (anyway was sick so didn't).

And seeing grown men happily spraying all and sundry with boxes of cans at the ready makes me wonder what they've got between their ears (foam perhaps) and a couple of years ago I promised one guy who was spraying just about everyone in the bar that if he sprayed me I would ram the can down his throat...........he smiled and pointed it at me so I angrily warned him again and shaped up to him and he thought better of it. Lucky guy, cos I meant it.

No need for this in the face, mass spraying in order to have a good time and welcome in a new year.

I'm with you on this! Call me a curmudgeon, but I have zero tolerance for those who have no respect for other people's personal space and property. Probably why I'm also not a fan of Songkran.

Luckily, we avoided most of the spraying, but we saw more than a few women who were singled out and "attacked" by drunken strangers, covered head to toe with string and foam.

[beechbum]

We ventured out a little after 10pm last night to see what was happening at the beach and Bangla for NYE.

Prachanukhro (from the point where Rat-U-Thit joins) and the Beach Rd were total gridlock. Once we reached the Beach Rd, we parked up on the footpath along with hundreds of other motorbikes.

The entire beach was loaded with people, which included a very significant number of Thais. Lots of fireworks and balloons being launched from the beach, and people selling drinks and food along the length of the footpath. I didn't see many people buying food, but the big seller seemed to be the light-up Minnie Mouse headgear. Progressing up to the Police box, the area from the footpath toward the water was barricaded, and this is where the NYE craziness started. Lots of people corralled in this area spraying each other with the multi-colored "silly string" and artificial snow foam.

Once getting across the road to Bangla, the entirety of Bangla was a mass of people. Very difficult to make one's

way along the road, and lots of people spraying anyone and everyone with the string and snow. The bars fronting Bangla

seemed to be packed with customers taking part in the spray-fest. We finally made it down to Soi Freedom where the

string and snow spraying was held to a minimum, and listened to the band for a while at our favorite bar.

Sometime around 1am we left Soi Freedom to head home. By that time, Bangla was a little improved in terms of being

able to walk from point A to point B, but there was still a lot of spraying going on. Looking down at the pavement,

I could see literally thousands of spent aerosol spray cans lying along the road. Walking along the beach footpath

back to the motorbike, there were mounds of garbage and empty beer bottles everywhere (both on the beach and on the footpath).

The traffic was still gridlocked on the Beach Road, so a lot of motorbikes were driving on the footpath trying to

avoid the traffic.

It looks like it was a good night for local businesses, which is really needed at this point. I think I'm going to hold off going down

to the beach area for a while until everything is cleaned up!

So the same as its been for ages.

[NamKangMan]

We ventured out a little after 10pm last night to see what was happening at the beach and Bangla for NYE.

Prachanukhro (from the point where Rat-U-Thit joins) and the Beach Rd were total gridlock. Once we reached the Beach Rd, we parked up on the footpath along with hundreds of other motorbikes.

The entire beach was loaded with people, which included a very significant number of Thais. Lots of fireworks and balloons being launched from the beach, and people selling drinks and food along the length of the footpath. I didn't see many people buying food, but the big seller seemed to be the light-up Minnie Mouse headgear. Progressing up to the Police box, the area from the footpath toward the water was barricaded, and this is where the NYE craziness started. Lots of people corralled in this area spraying each other with the multi-colored "silly string" and artificial snow foam.

Once getting across the road to Bangla, the entirety of Bangla was a mass of people. Very difficult to make one's

way along the road, and lots of people spraying anyone and everyone with the string and snow. The bars fronting Bangla

seemed to be packed with customers taking part in the spray-fest. We finally made it down to Soi Freedom where the

string and snow spraying was held to a minimum, and listened to the band for a while at our favorite bar.

Sometime around 1am we left Soi Freedom to head home. By that time, Bangla was a little improved in terms of being

able to walk from point A to point B, but there was still a lot of spraying going on. Looking down at the pavement,

I could see literally thousands of spent aerosol spray cans lying along the road. Walking along the beach footpath

back to the motorbike, there were mounds of garbage and empty beer bottles everywhere (both on the beach and on the footpath).

The traffic was still gridlocked on the Beach Road, so a lot of motorbikes were driving on the footpath trying to

avoid the traffic.

It looks like it was a good night for local businesses, which is really needed at this point. I think I'm going to hold off going down

to the beach area for a while until everything is cleaned up!

So the same as its been for ages.

I think you'll find the takings are down, way down, this year, so, not "the same it's been for ages."

[benalibina]

From my 1st visit to Phuket, Patong, at Christmas 1994 it always seemed to be more quiet in Patong after that. When tsunami happened many thought it was the final straw. So reading this thread it makes me wonder, about my own past observations as well, "Phuket"....Patong, must still have some attraction to keep it all going for all those years.

Is it really in The End Game ?

Edited January 3, 2016 by benalibina

[beechbum]

We ventured out a little after 10pm last night to see what was happening at the beach and Bangla for NYE.

Prachanukhro (from the point where Rat-U-Thit joins) and the Beach Rd were total gridlock. Once we reached the Beach Rd, we parked up on the footpath along with hundreds of other motorbikes.

The entire beach was loaded with people, which included a very significant number of Thais. Lots of fireworks and balloons being launched from the beach, and people selling drinks and food along the length of the footpath. I didn't see many people buying food, but the big seller seemed to be the light-up Minnie Mouse headgear. Progressing up to the Police box, the area from the footpath toward the water was barricaded, and this is where the NYE craziness started. Lots of people corralled in this area spraying each other with the multi-colored "silly string" and artificial snow foam.

Once getting across the road to Bangla, the entirety of Bangla was a mass of people. Very difficult to make one's

way along the road, and lots of people spraying anyone and everyone with the string and snow. The bars fronting Bangla

seemed to be packed with customers taking part in the spray-fest. We finally made it down to Soi Freedom where the

string and snow spraying was held to a minimum, and listened to the band for a while at our favorite bar.

Sometime around 1am we left Soi Freedom to head home. By that time, Bangla was a little improved in terms of being

able to walk from point A to point B, but there was still a lot of spraying going on. Looking down at the pavement,

I could see literally thousands of spent aerosol spray cans lying along the road. Walking along the beach footpath

back to the motorbike, there were mounds of garbage and empty beer bottles everywhere (both on the beach and on the footpath).

The traffic was still gridlocked on the Beach Road, so a lot of motorbikes were driving on the footpath trying to

avoid the traffic.

It looks like it was a good night for local businesses, which is really needed at this point. I think I'm going to hold off going down

to the beach area for a while until everything is cleaned up!

So the same as its been for ages.

I think you'll find the takings are down, way down, this year, so, not "the same it's been for ages."

The bars that always make the big money on NY's eve did again this year, the st was packed to the point of being hard to move around for a few hrs, cans of spray stuff were everywhere, so yeah the same as it's been for ages.

[NamKangMan]

We ventured out a little after 10pm last night to see what was happening at the beach and Bangla for NYE.

Prachanukhro (from the point where Rat-U-Thit joins) and the Beach Rd were total gridlock. Once we reached the Beach Rd, we parked up on the footpath along with hundreds of other motorbikes.

The entire beach was loaded with people, which included a very significant number of Thais. Lots of fireworks and balloons being launched from the beach, and people selling drinks and food along the length of the footpath. I didn't see many people buying food, but the big seller seemed to be the light-up Minnie Mouse headgear. Progressing up to the Police box, the area from the footpath toward the water was barricaded, and this is where the NYE craziness started. Lots of people corralled in this area spraying each other with the multi-colored "silly string" and artificial snow foam.

Once getting across the road to Bangla, the entirety of Bangla was a mass of people. Very difficult to make one's

way along the road, and lots of people spraying anyone and everyone with the string and snow. The bars fronting Bangla

seemed to be packed with customers taking part in the spray-fest. We finally made it down to Soi Freedom where the

string and snow spraying was held to a minimum, and listened to the band for a while at our favorite bar.

Sometime around 1am we left Soi Freedom to head home. By that time, Bangla was a little improved in terms of being

able to walk from point A to point B, but there was still a lot of spraying going on. Looking down at the pavement,

I could see literally thousands of spent aerosol spray cans lying along the road. Walking along the beach footpath

back to the motorbike, there were mounds of garbage and empty beer bottles everywhere (both on the beach and on the footpath).

The traffic was still gridlocked on the Beach Road, so a lot of motorbikes were driving on the footpath trying to

avoid the traffic.

It looks like it was a good night for local businesses, which is really needed at this point. I think I'm going to hold off going down

to the beach area for a while until everything is cleaned up!

So the same as its been for ages.

I think you'll find the takings are down, way down, this year, so, not "the same it's been for ages."

The bars that always make the big money on NY's eve did again this year, the st was packed to the point of being hard to move around for a few hrs, cans of spray stuff were everywhere, so yeah the same as it's been for ages.

Sure, that's Bangla, what about the greater Patong area????

[beechbum]

It was a response to DrDaves post, read it, he's referring to Bangla and the beach.

[wellred]

NYE might have been busy, but speaking to the girls it's been a poor high season. Not as busy in tiger generally in December. I remember going in December back in 2011 and it was rammed almost every night after 10. I later decided to go in January to avoid the Xmas rush but I guess it's not such a problem now.

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[sebastion]

NYE might have been busy, but speaking to the girls it's been a poor high season. Not as busy in tiger generally in December. I remember going in December back in 2011 and it was rammed almost every night after 10. I later decided to go in January to avoid the Xmas rush but I guess it's not such a problem now.

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You lost me at speaking to the girls.

They will moan to anyone will listen when they have 5 guys sending money from all corners of the globe.

Its encoded in their brains to tell sob stories to the next unsuspecting mug.

[NamKangMan]

It was a response to DrDaves post, read it, he's referring to Bangla and the beach.

I read the post.

Bangla Road is Phuket's biggest tourist attraction. It stands to reason it would be busy on NYE.

The thread title is "Patong is dead." Was the rest of Patong as busy as in the past on NYE, no, it wasn't.

Edited January 6, 2016 by NamKangMan

[phuketlive]

and patong is already quiet, some hotels are not full already when they were overbooked the years before, low season here soon...

[LeungKen]

Off topic posts removed.

[xylophone]

Driving down Rat-u-Thid Road yesterday, I noticed that the Deli is up for sale!

That was once a Patong icon where you could get just about everything, however over the years its position has been diminished by the fact that Carrefour and latterly Big C stocked a far greater range of "delicatessen" type items, and restaurants/stores like Wine Connection also stock a limited range of "deli" type foods. Plus of course plenty of other places to buy wine from and to be honest, the owner didn't keep good stock control on some of the wines and they could be well past their use by date – – however to be fair to him, he would change the wine if you took it back.

Another closure of an Italian restaurant, just opposite where Soi Banzaan meets Nanai was not a surprise, the only surprise here being that it lasted that long as the Italian restaurant about 50 m up the road also closed after a brief tenure, and the small bar next to it and the "all-day breakfast bar" have also folded.

Not a good place to have a business because there is absolutely no parking and they are on a fairly busy road, not to mention the fact that when the rains come there is at least 6 inches of mud outside of them.

The "mystery business" or whatever is taking place opposite the entrance to Soi Nanai 6 seems to have nearly come to fruition and as this has been going on for almost a year, I would be interested to see exactly what it turns out to be! It was a building with a massage parlour at the bottom of it and parking space for vehicles from the Tiger company or some such like, next to it. It seems to have components of a bar and restaurant in it, however these things have been changed and altered over time and quite why it has taken a year to almost complete is as I said earlier "a mystery".

If it is a bar and restaurant then it will be adding to the growing list of already poorly frequented places along Nanai Road, not to mention the closed shops now showing up in Soi Banzaan. And of course it will be exactly opposite the top floor restaurant which opened and closed in record time because no-one ate there.

Couldn't help but chuckle when I saw something in the Phuket Gazette with regards to an investment "Institute" being set up to encourage investment in Phuket. Can just imagine the developers of "Ace Condominiums", "The Park" and a couple of others being there to encourage investors to part with their hard earned cash, not to mention the Thai landlords who own the bars offering "great deals" for three-year leases, or perhaps organise a seminar entitled, "how to stop worrying about paying tea money, and learning to live with it".

Spreading farther afield, the Chai Meng Chinese restaurant at the back end of Jungceylon which looked to be closing a few days ago, certainly has now and it is a place to buy cheap shoes – – so much for catering to the Chinese market.

In some respects Patong is dead and another respects it is dying, so rather than keep along this morbid path, what would you do now in order to save it from its impending death. Consider it a brainstorming type exercise where any suggestions are welcome.........doesn't have to be a multi-page essay as a few well-intentioned bullet points would suffice.