There seemed to be a Grand Opening of Mandalay Night Club tonight as Moonmuang Rd was packed with cars lining both the left and right side of the road all the way between soi 1 and 2. It was very busy at midnight and I can only assume it will be going on till 3am or later.

As we all know, Chiang Mai has been under a curfew for the last year or more, with most places being forced to close at midnight, whilst Pattaya, Bangkok and other tourist destinations are very much 'business as usual'. Different theories have been used to explain the anomaly of Chiang Mai being under curfew, such as it being 'pay-back' for Chiang Mai's support of Thaksin and alternatively, it is because the local powers want Chiang Mai to be a Unesco City of Culture. My belief is that the latter is the reason for the clampdown.

The powers that be have been trying, quite rightly when all said and done, to clean up the image of Chiang Mai, and have been hassling the Loi Kroh bars and loud, noisy night-clubs for quite a while, sometimes refusing to renew licences. Indeed, the rumour was that Mandalay was originally shut down because of complaints from nearby guesthouses and hotels about the noise, and obviously it wouldn't get a new licence with the old format. So, with this in mind, I'm wondering what is the new format of Mandalay Night Club. Clearly it won't be a noisy techno disco-type place so my guess is that the new format will be Traditional Thai Dances, and Traditional music. I hear it is 200B to get in, which would be quite reasonable for such a show. Hopefully, something like this .... let's hope so. And NO ALCOHOL, I assume.

Surley you jest ... no profit without alcohol, the most expensive part of the Old CM cultural center is the drinks, I look forward to hearing from someone that knows the score.

Surley you jest ... no profit without alcohol, the most expensive part of the Old CM cultural center is the drinks, I look forward to hearing from someone that knows the score.

I'm assuming NO ALCOHOL because it doesn't get going till after midnight.

I put my head around the door of Mandalay a few weeks ago before they had really got going and they said that it was 200b entry to everyone, not just foreigners. In their previous life, under different owners, I believe, it was 300b for foreigners only, and when pressed as to why that was, they admitted it was because they don't like foreigners. Playing with them a little bit, I asked how much it would be for my son, who is half Thai, half Farang, and suggested it would be 150b. Keeping an equally straight face, they asked me how dark his skin was!!