Patong - The Wake

[Patong2]

I for one, thoroughly enjoyed many of the contributions on the "Patong is dead" thread and  I am disappointed it was closed.

Xylophone especially made some really insightful and balanced comments with very interesting detail.

 

Having visited Patong for increasing lengths of time over 20 years I can say with confidence that the old Patong as we knew it is definitely dead and the new Patong seems to need some life blown into it. This is the lowest numbers of tourists we have ever seen here at this time of the year.

 

What were your favourite sights in the old Patong? We really miss the pain in the ass (literally for some) of Soi Crocodile. It was always flamboyant and vibrant, many times annoying, but the dancers were always an interesting focal point for tourists new and old.

[GiantFan]

I miss the 2 Black Sheep.  Great place to shoot the breeze.   Met most of my Phuket friends at that place.

[LivinginKata]

"Xylophone especially made some really insightful and balanced comments with very interesting detail."

 

I agree, I always looked forward to his informative posts.

 

But that old topic needed closed, just too long winded after 168 pages.

[xylophone]

Thank you for your kind words Patong2 and I was sorry to see the thread closed, however it became necessary not just because of a vindictive poster taking aim at me, but because it had gotten a little stale and there seemed to be other ongoing disagreements/feuds.

 

We all have different points of view with regards to events here and how they affect us, however I used to find the posts such as, "if you don't like it why don't you go home" and "if it is so bad what are you doing here" type comments as unnecessary. Surely everyone has the right to comment on how they see the town in which they live and the things which affect them, and many times if it's a negative, it's purely because what could have been done to make the place better, simply hasn't.

 

Examples and instances of this abound from the beach fiasco to the overbuilding to the far too many tuk tuks and so on. Then of course there is the changing demographics and the TAT push into the Chinese market and all that this brings with it, debated by many and generally seen as a negative.

 

On that point I don't know if it's going to change any time soon as I was talking to a couple of guys in the real estate business and there are some of the "wealthier" Chinese buying apartments/condos here. There is a development which is offering a 7% return on the initial investment for 15 years, with the only proviso being that once the unit is bought it is allowed to be rented out and the owner only gets one month occupancy a year, so it sounds very much like the old timeshare model or indeed fractional ownership.

 

Having said that this particular development seems to be doing quite well along those lines although I'm not sure that I would "trust" the promises made of the returns and the fact that on one website these places are advertised with a "30+30+30 year lease".

 

Anyway, I digress, however I welcome you starting this thread and I had thought about doing something similar myself with a heading which would allow just about everything to be discussed, from infrastructure to corruption, to nightlife, to events, to property to low and high seasons etc, however perhaps your heading/thread can encompass this?

 

 

[xylophone]

11 minutes ago, GiantFan said:

I miss the 2 Black Sheep.  Great place to shoot the breeze.   Met most of my Phuket friends at that place.

Me too as I spent many hours day and night in that place when Kiwi Bill was running it and believe it or not I nearly bought a share of it sometime around 2006 (I think). Then John and his wife took it over and it seemed to be successful for a few more years and then they sold it. Never seem to be the same after that.

 

I do remember Bill hitting the booze a little too hard and when he did that, his "quiz nights" became a little too "off the scale" and I think selling the place was good for him because it may well have saved his liver! (No disrespect meant Bill if you are still around).

[dotpoom]

Just thought the headline was a strange choice of words....considering the times we live in.

[LivinginKata]

34 minutes ago, dotpoom said:

Just thought the headline was a strange choice of words....considering the times we live in.

 

I thought the title was quite clever. Previous topic was about Patong dying, and we all mostly agreed it was. So now we are into the wake period of mourning in the Irish party way ...

[jenifer d]

on my first ever visit to Thailand, in Sept/Oct 2008, Patong was where my traveling companion and i spent 25 days of our 

slightly more than 1 month holiday; staying at the Tropica and hanging out often at the Sailor Bar on the Beach road

(Bobby from there is still one of my dearest friends) and eating at Savoy and elsewhere... 

i got to know Patong quite well during this and subsequent visits...

when i visited again in Apr 2009, i stayed again at Tropica, for 12 days out of a 25 day trip, and explored even more of Patong

(this trip was also when i visited Koh Lanta for the first time; i would move to Lanta in Sept 09)

after moving to the Kingdom, i visited Patong every few months, for Thai friend's birthdays, Songkran (and my birthday, same time) 

and to consult with my Thai lawyer; at Thai friend's behest, i would often sit in w/bands and such at various bars-

i ceased going so frequently approx 3 years ago-

i was just in Phuket  for my dear friend Tikky's birthday this last December, and though she lives in Kamala,

her and i first met in Patong (she is my very first friend in Thailand, dating back to Sep 08, first day in the country)

where her and her husband Ole had a tattoo shop and then started quite a popular bar just a few bars down the walkway from Sailor Bar

2 years ago, they closed the bar due to the increasing number of ever-fatter brown envelopes they were required to pay;

she told me that 14 different people demanded money from them monthly and/or yearly...

we visisted Patong together a few times during my recent visit, and the changes were shocking-

Patong is now soulless and overrun with new development, but the tourist numbers, even in the middle of December,

were demonstrably down- i was quite saddened, Patong is dying, and i'm not sure if it can be rescued... 

[Destiny1990]

Maybe they can destroy patong beach simular like they did in Pattaya?no trees, more lanes for traffic,less space for walking and more parking slots for tuktuks.

[Prometheus33]

But, shouldn't it be , 

"Patong is dead . 

Long live PATONG !!"

[Honky69]

Lived there for 4 years and had a good time but all i can say about Patong  now is that it is far to expensive and they are pricing themselves out of the market. I have now lived in Pattaya for the past 6 years  and much more cost effective and see far less problems here compared to Patong. Many of my friends who use to go to Patong before only come to Pattaya for the same reasons I will not go back there. The other problem down there now is all the landlords are charging far to much for any leases on business places, making it very difficult to have a reasonable go. Patong deserves to Die a slow death.

[Monkeyrobot]

Full of Chinese, one of them walked up to me and started taking a photo of the shrimp yellow curry I was eating, strange people and the tuk tuk drivers don't like them either, they really haggle on the price, 

[Honky69]

3 hours ago, Destiny1990 said:

Maybe they can destroy patong beach simular like they did in Pattaya?no trees, more lanes for traffic,less space for walking and more parking slots for tuktuks.

Plenty of trees along Pattaya beach now, but not so keen on the water quality.

 

[NamKangMan]

6 hours ago, GiantFan said:

I miss the 2 Black Sheep.  Great place to shoot the breeze.   Met most of my Phuket friends at that place.

 

I liked the easy going music from the one man band there.  He would come and have a beer with the customers, and take requests. 

 

That bar had a relaxing atmosphere. 

[NamKangMan]

5 hours ago, LivinginKata said:

 

I thought the title was quite clever. Previous topic was about Patong dying, and we all mostly agreed it was. So now we are into the wake period of mourning in the Irish party way ...

 

 

So, is this thread the "wake" for the "Patong is dead" thread, or for Patong itself????

[NamKangMan]

6 hours ago, xylophone said:

Thank you for your kind words Patong2 and I was sorry to see the thread closed, however it became necessary not just because of a vindictive poster taking aim at me, but because it had gotten a little stale and there seemed to be other ongoing disagreements/feuds.

 

We all have different points of view with regards to events here and how they affect us, however I used to find the posts such as, "if you don't like it why don't you go home" and "if it is so bad what are you doing here" type comments as unnecessary. Surely everyone has the right to comment on how they see the town in which they live and the things which affect them, and many times if it's a negative, it's purely because what could have been done to make the place better, simply hasn't.

 

Examples and instances of this abound from the beach fiasco to the overbuilding to the far too many tuk tuks and so on. Then of course there is the changing demographics and the TAT push into the Chinese market and all that this brings with it, debated by many and generally seen as a negative.

 

On that point I don't know if it's going to change any time soon as I was talking to a couple of guys in the real estate business and there are some of the "wealthier" Chinese buying apartments/condos here. There is a development which is offering a 7% return on the initial investment for 15 years, with the only proviso being that once the unit is bought it is allowed to be rented out and the owner only gets one month occupancy a year, so it sounds very much like the old timeshare model or indeed fractional ownership.

 

Having said that this particular development seems to be doing quite well along those lines although I'm not sure that I would "trust" the promises made of the returns and the fact that on one website these places are advertised with a "30+30+30 year lease".

 

Anyway, I digress, however I welcome you starting this thread and I had thought about doing something similar myself with a heading which would allow just about everything to be discussed, from infrastructure to corruption, to nightlife, to events, to property to low and high seasons etc, however perhaps your heading/thread can encompass this?

 

 

 

"I used to find the posts such as, "if you don't like it why don't you go home" and "if it is so bad what are you doing here" type comments as unnecessary" -  I would not be surprised if many of the members who used to post such comments have actually left the island, for various different reasons. 

 

I particularly had a laugh at those who would criticize comments such as, "they are killing the golden goose" and "they are shooting themselves in the foot."  - where are these members now, with their posts declaring all is well with the tourism industry on Phuket????

[NamKangMan]

4 hours ago, jenifer d said:

on my first ever visit to Thailand, in Sept/Oct 2008, Patong was where my traveling companion and i spent 25 days of our 

slightly more than 1 month holiday; staying at the Tropica and hanging out often at the Sailor Bar on the Beach road

(Bobby from there is still one of my dearest friends) and eating at Savoy and elsewhere... 

i got to know Patong quite well during this and subsequent visits...

when i visited again in Apr 2009, i stayed again at Tropica, for 12 days out of a 25 day trip, and explored even more of Patong

(this trip was also when i visited Koh Lanta for the first time; i would move to Lanta in Sept 09)

after moving to the Kingdom, i visited Patong every few months, for Thai friend's birthdays, Songkran (and my birthday, same time) 

and to consult with my Thai lawyer; at Thai friend's behest, i would often sit in w/bands and such at various bars-

i ceased going so frequently approx 3 years ago-

i was just in Phuket  for my dear friend Tikky's birthday this last December, and though she lives in Kamala,

her and i first met in Patong (she is my very first friend in Thailand, dating back to Sep 08, first day in the country)

where her and her husband Ole had a tattoo shop and then started quite a popular bar just a few bars down the walkway from Sailor Bar

2 years ago, they closed the bar due to the increasing number of ever-fatter brown envelopes they were required to pay;

she told me that 14 different people demanded money from them monthly and/or yearly...

we visisted Patong together a few times during my recent visit, and the changes were shocking-

Patong is now soulless and overrun with new development, but the tourist numbers, even in the middle of December,

were demonstrably down- i was quite saddened, Patong is dying, and i'm not sure if it can be rescued... 

 

"she told me that 14 different people demanded money from them monthly and/or yearly..." - why do you think I call them "farang slaves?" 

[NamKangMan]

4 hours ago, Destiny1990 said:

Maybe they can destroy patong beach simular like they did in Pattaya?no trees, more lanes for traffic,less space for walking and more parking slots for tuktuks.

 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. 

 

As Pattaya became a City by the sea, Phuket will become an island City. 

 

Greed has pretty much destroyed a sustainable tourism industry on Phuket.

[Destiny1990]

1 hour ago, Honky69 said:

Plenty of trees along Pattaya beach now, but not so keen on the water quality.

 

Yes there are still trees standing now but they can be cut off and give more priority to tuktuk parking and an extra lane so big touring busses can drive full speed along the shore.its be done in other coastal cities so why not Patong?

[jenifer d]

18 minutes ago, NamKangMan said:

 

"she told me that 14 different people demanded money from them monthly and/or yearly..." - why do you think I call them "farang slaves?" 

i don't get your allusion; they were Thai, as were the 14 different official and unofficial entities extorting them

[NamKangMan]

1 hour ago, Honky69 said:

Lived there for 4 years and had a good time but all i can say about Patong  now is that it is far to expensive and they are pricing themselves out of the market. I have now lived in Pattaya for the past 6 years  and much more cost effective and see far less problems here compared to Patong. Many of my friends who use to go to Patong before only come to Pattaya for the same reasons I will not go back there. The other problem down there now is all the landlords are charging far to much for any leases on business places, making it very difficult to have a reasonable go. Patong deserves to Die a slow death.

 

Been common knowledge for some time now that the greedy Thai landlords were pushing the tourist market here to the edge and / or taking advantage of the newbie fool with ridiculously priced leases that would fail. 

 

The newbie fools are drying up, in lieu of the main tourists coming here now being Chinese, and the western tourists are not prepared to pay the higher prices for food and beverage here, when they can get the same for a lot cheaper in other parts of Thailand, and even cheaper again in neighboring countries.  As you mentioned, Pattaya.

 

I can't see the dozen or so big Thai families, who own most of the commercial property on Phuket, creating a market correction, in order to bring back the western tourist market.

[NamKangMan]

Just now, jenifer d said:

i don't get your allusion; they were Thai, as were the 14 different official and unofficial entities extorting them

 

Same Same. 

 

EVERYONE pays on Mafia Island. 

[Honky69]

1 minute ago, NamKangMan said:

 

Been common knowledge for some time now that the greedy Thai landlords were pushing the tourist market here to the edge and / or taking advantage of the newbie fool with ridiculously priced leases that would fail. 

 

The newbie fools are drying up, in lieu of the main tourists coming here now being Chinese, and the western tourists are not prepared to pay the higher prices for food and beverage here, when they can get the same for a lot cheaper in other parts of Thailand, and even cheaper again in neighboring countries.  As you mentioned, Pattaya.

 

I can't see the dozen or so big Thai families, who own most of the commercial property on Phuket, creating a market correction, in order to bring back the western tourist market.

They dont care the more Farangs that buy a business and fall over the better as they then sell the lease again........... GREED

[NamKangMan]

16 minutes ago, Destiny1990 said:

Yes there are still trees standing now but they can be cut off and give more priority to tuktuk parking and an extra lane so big touring busses can drive full speed along the shore.its be done in other coastal cities so why not Patong?

 

Probably because the tuk-tuk mafia will not allow the road to be widened, so they lose their parking spots, even though it is the tuk-tuk mafia that created the need for so many coach buses here in the first place. 

[NamKangMan]

1 minute ago, Honky69 said:

They dont care the more Farangs that buy a business and fall over the better as they then sell the lease again........... GREED

 

I agree, but with the majority of tourist coming to Phuket these days being Chinese, I can't see the Chinese buying a bar / guest house / cafe / restaurant, or taking an Issan bride.  

 

That makes for a lot of empty establishments here in the future, that previously catered for westerners, and we are already seeing it happening now.

[owl sees all]

6 hours ago, jenifer d said:

2 years ago, they closed the bar due to the increasing number of ever-fatter brown envelopes they were required to pay;

she told me that 14 different people demanded money from them monthly and/or yearly...

Excuse my ignorance but who are these people demanding money?

[metisdead]

A baiting post has been removed. 

[jenifer d]

23 minutes ago, owl sees all said:

Excuse my ignorance but who are these people demanding money?

just exactly how long have you been in Thailand?  

all sarcasm aside, the demanding parties were numerous, mafia, BiB, and some officials and/or their representatives, et al

some payments were monthly, some were yearly or seasonally

[owl sees all]

Just now, jenifer d said:

just exactly how long have you been in Thailand?

Longer than you but I've not got the same knowledge as you. You made the statement about 14 brown envelopes. I was just curious that all.

[Patong2]

Some pretty interesting posts here.

 

Being a "wake", we should celebrate highlights in the life of the deceased.

 

What about New Years Eve? I ran through some photos from 2003.

Bangla Rd and the crazy huge strings of double happy crackers let off in the street, unable to see the other side of Bangla for the smoke, mad Aussie young guys jumping on the fireworks. How there wasn't serious injury is a miracle (unless we just never knew it). And the noise? - but it was fun, never seen anything like it anywhere else

 

Sadly the next year was very muted