Patong - The Wake

[patongphil]

Why has this thread gone so quiet?

[LivinginKata]

21 minutes ago, patongphil said:

Why has this thread gone so quiet?

 

The entire Phuket Forum has gone very very quiet .....

[strikingsunset]

1 hour ago, LivinginKata said:

 

The entire Phuket Forum has gone very very quiet .....

because they are all stuck in traffic gridlock throughout the Island

[xylophone]

54 minutes ago, LivinginKata said:

 

The entire Phuket Forum has gone very very quiet .....

 

Yes it has, so I thought I would chip in and give it my 10 pennyworth (or more)!

 

As it happens I haven't been out to Bangla more than a handful of times over the last 2 to 3 months, mainly because I haven't really felt like it – – perhaps because I'm getting old. That aside, it has become distinctly "old hat" to me and a few of my friends, and as I am not one for sitting on a bar stool discussing nothing in particular, the whole place feels very boring.

 

So an update here, as I see it: – the few times I have been out, I have eaten at Blue Beach Café and Restaurant as one is assured of good food and good service, by excellent wait staff, so it makes a good start to the evening.

 

Although I have been past what was once my favourite venue to belt out a song or two, "Red Hot", I haven't had the inclination to go in, mainly because a couple of the band have left and I haven't seen the great lady singer Mayen there for a while, and she always helped me with the high notes on "Don't Stop Believing". To add to that a couple of friends who have been along have said that it is being populated by Russian folk, with the band adapting to the new clientele, by singing more Russian songs – – not for me thank you!

 

Now a good place to sit and watch the world go by on Bangla, is what used to be Smiley Bar and is now Blue Lotus café, so I will have to give that a try as in days gone by it was a good spot for people watching.

 

Soi Sansabai is certainly seeing a lot of activity with regards to new building/renovations going on, which makes it terribly crowded when trying to navigate a homeward path on the back of a motorbike taxi, because the building activity, new café's and restaurants and the inability of certain members of the human race to be able to keep to one side of the road, makes life very difficult.

 

Further up in Soi Banzaan, the previously named "Canada House", now turned into a bar, is struggling for custom (who'd have thought it??), so the ladies working in the bar have taken to sitting on stools on the side of the road so that they can be seen by passers-by, which doesn't seem to have had much of an effect and I don't think I've ever seen one customer in there?

 

Onto Nanai and the recently opened "Blue Sky" bar is about as popular as a rattlesnake in a lucky dip with customers. Further along, the long-awaited opening of the Italian restaurant "Verdi" (I think) happened a couple of weeks ago, but I have no idea if it is being frequented by customers or not, although on the few times I've driven by it doesn't seem to be busy in the slightest.......and that seems to be par for course in Nanai at the moment with the recently refurbished/reopened "Chang bar", almost opposite two other bars "Rock Bar and Long Time Bar" doing nothing much at all other than wasting electricity by being open!

 

The same could be said for many other bars such as the "Thirsty Lizard" and the recently opened black bar called "Hurricane Rock Bar". However the lack of activity in Nanai has not stopped someone opening a new restaurant venture in south Nanai where two other restaurant ventures failed in quick succession and I think I noticed something about a "Fondue" when driving by so whether that's what they are serving or the name of it, I'm not sure?

 

Traffic congestion seems to have eased somewhat what with the restriction caused by the roadworks/water works debacle, getting a little better, but it is still not fixed completely.

 

There are another couple of reasons I'm not been out recently, one is that I seem to have acquired some sort of allergy, which often happens around this time of the year, and I wish I could find out what was causing it, because it makes me feel very tired and lethargic should I say, so staying in and watching a movie seems a good option with a good bottle of red (please don't tell me it's the red wine which is causing it because I wouldn't want to change the habit of a lifetime, well almost anyway).

 

I'm hoping to get out to the restaurant called, "West" over the next week or so to sample their "Châteaubriand" as they call it, and being able to take a good bottle of my own wine along, helps tremendously. Either before or after that I will go to the Italian restaurant in Soi Patong Beach, "Amena e Core" which serves good Italian food, and lets me bring my good bottle of wine for a small surcharge.

 

Something else I will add which has made me think just recently was that the last time I went out I noticed that the lady drinks were now 220 baht, and having visited an old friend whom I've known for probably 10 years, at one of the bars, just to catch up and have a chat, I was surprised at the price of these lady drinks, so for this particular woman I slipped her a few hundred baht "under the table" as well as buying her a couple of drinks. Having said that I'm afraid my days of buying thousands of baht's worth of drinks for the bar girls has long gone, because at one time you could have a conversation with them, but now not so much.

 

I suppose that for someone like me who's been here for 17 years, it's only natural that the attraction of Bangla would wane somewhat, and it certainly has for me, and as I'm not one for sitting at a bar stool during the daytime, or really during the evening for that matter, more than say once a week, it's really to catch up with a friend or two, or to have a change from cooking my own food, and eating out – – luckily there are some nice restaurants around, a few more of which I have to try.

 

Anyway, high season is approaching and so the hustle and bustle, toil and trouble will be upon us again soon.
 

[London Lowf]

Since you mentioned Blue Lotus and Smilie Bar I'll jump in as I was in the former last night - as I have been many nights over the last month.

 

They always give me a huge welcome (the "Guard", the owner, the manager, the servers) and I don't know why as I NEVER buy ladydrinks but do always tip 10% - maybe they are accountants (as was I in a former life) and have calculated that my frequent modest visits are actually worth more than a once in a lifetime splurge from a two-week millionaire?

 

I love people-watching and most of the girls in Blue Lotus are extremely ruthless in their pursuit of ladydrinks and provide an entertaining diversion for me - the standard modus operandi is that a paleface buys a drink for one of the dancers but is immediately surrounded by three more and is too embarrassed to refuse a highly inflated round of drinks. Some guys are quite happy with this but some do look rather sheepish when they convert the tab back to their own currency.

 

And on that subject there was an interesting incident last night - a couple sat down and ordered six shots, two each and two for the server and that was how they were arranged on the table. However, it was clear that he was expecting all six to be at the same price and was somewhat peeved to see that, what he thought was a generous gesture, was treated to ladydrink pricing. He then re-arranged the six shots as three each for himself and his partner and had the tab re-issued at standard pricing. To be honest I was surprised that the bar played ball, but good on them!

 

Smilie Bar must wonder what they're doing wrong. The number of times that they are virtually empty while Blue Lotus next door are packed must have them scratching their heads. They did have a pole dancer (Xylophone's favourite!) but this week they have moved her stage a few metres so that it is now within Blue Lotus and I do wonder if this is a pre-cursor to a takeover.

 

As a footnote, I never notice any Russians on Bangla!

 

 

 

[HighPriority]

Glad to hear that you kids are still flying the flag

[zzzzz]

15 hours ago, xylophone said:

 

Yes it has, so I thought I would chip in and give it my 10 pennyworth (or more)!

 

As it happens I haven't been out to Bangla more than a handful of times over the last 2 to 3 months, mainly because I haven't really felt like it – – perhaps because I'm getting old. That aside, it has become distinctly "old hat" to me and a few of my friends, and as I am not one for sitting on a bar stool discussing nothing in particular, the whole place feels very boring.

 

So an update here, as I see it: – the few times I have been out, I have eaten at Blue Beach Café and Restaurant as one is assured of good food and good service, by excellent wait staff, so it makes a good start to the evening.

 

Although I have been past what was once my favourite venue to belt out a song or two, "Red Hot", I haven't had the inclination to go in, mainly because a couple of the band have left and I haven't seen the great lady singer Mayen there for a while, and she always helped me with the high notes on "Don't Stop Believing". To add to that a couple of friends who have been along have said that it is being populated by Russian folk, with the band adapting to the new clientele, by singing more Russian songs – – not for me thank you!

 

Now a good place to sit and watch the world go by on Bangla, is what used to be Smiley Bar and is now Blue Lotus café, so I will have to give that a try as in days gone by it was a good spot for people watching.

 

Soi Sansabai is certainly seeing a lot of activity with regards to new building/renovations going on, which makes it terribly crowded when trying to navigate a homeward path on the back of a motorbike taxi, because the building activity, new café's and restaurants and the inability of certain members of the human race to be able to keep to one side of the road, makes life very difficult.

 

Further up in Soi Banzaan, the previously named "Canada House", now turned into a bar, is struggling for custom (who'd have thought it??), so the ladies working in the bar have taken to sitting on stools on the side of the road so that they can be seen by passers-by, which doesn't seem to have had much of an effect and I don't think I've ever seen one customer in there?

 

Onto Nanai and the recently opened "Blue Sky" bar is about as popular as a rattlesnake in a lucky dip with customers. Further along, the long-awaited opening of the Italian restaurant "Verdi" (I think) happened a couple of weeks ago, but I have no idea if it is being frequented by customers or not, although on the few times I've driven by it doesn't seem to be busy in the slightest.......and that seems to be par for course in Nanai at the moment with the recently refurbished/reopened "Chang bar", almost opposite two other bars "Rock Bar and Long Time Bar" doing nothing much at all other than wasting electricity by being open!

 

The same could be said for many other bars such as the "Thirsty Lizard" and the recently opened black bar called "Hurricane Rock Bar". However the lack of activity in Nanai has not stopped someone opening a new restaurant venture in south Nanai where two other restaurant ventures failed in quick succession and I think I noticed something about a "Fondue" when driving by so whether that's what they are serving or the name of it, I'm not sure?

 

Traffic congestion seems to have eased somewhat what with the restriction caused by the roadworks/water works debacle, getting a little better, but it is still not fixed completely.

 

There are another couple of reasons I'm not been out recently, one is that I seem to have acquired some sort of allergy, which often happens around this time of the year, and I wish I could find out what was causing it, because it makes me feel very tired and lethargic should I say, so staying in and watching a movie seems a good option with a good bottle of red (please don't tell me it's the red wine which is causing it because I wouldn't want to change the habit of a lifetime, well almost anyway).

 

I'm hoping to get out to the restaurant called, "West" over the next week or so to sample their "Châteaubriand" as they call it, and being able to take a good bottle of my own wine along, helps tremendously. Either before or after that I will go to the Italian restaurant in Soi Patong Beach, "Amena e Core" which serves good Italian food, and lets me bring my good bottle of wine for a small surcharge.

 

Something else I will add which has made me think just recently was that the last time I went out I noticed that the lady drinks were now 220 baht, and having visited an old friend whom I've known for probably 10 years, at one of the bars, just to catch up and have a chat, I was surprised at the price of these lady drinks, so for this particular woman I slipped her a few hundred baht "under the table" as well as buying her a couple of drinks. Having said that I'm afraid my days of buying thousands of baht's worth of drinks for the bar girls has long gone, because at one time you could have a conversation with them, but now not so much.

 

I suppose that for someone like me who's been here for 17 years, it's only natural that the attraction of Bangla would wane somewhat, and it certainly has for me, and as I'm not one for sitting at a bar stool during the daytime, or really during the evening for that matter, more than say once a week, it's really to catch up with a friend or two, or to have a change from cooking my own food, and eating out – – luckily there are some nice restaurants around, a few more of which I have to try.

 

Anyway, high season is approaching and so the hustle and bustle, toil and trouble will be upon us again soon.
 

LOL
17 years it took ya to get bored?>  I got bored after 11  🙂 and when i left patong in '96 for kamala, never looked back
I do drive thru, about 1x/month, in the daytime.  Had a meal at the NEW taco bell last week in Jung ceylon

220 for lady drinks!!!! my god, whats bf and st  ? 4,000+++
 

Edited November 3, 2023 by zzzzz

[xylophone]

2 hours ago, zzzzz said:

LOL
17 years it took ya to get bored?>  I got bored after 11  🙂 and when i left patong in '96 for kamala, never looked back
I do drive thru, about 1x/month, in the daytime.  Had a meal at the NEW taco bell last week in Jung ceylon

220 for lady drinks!!!! my god, whats bf and st  ? 4,000+++
 

Well to be honest I got bored with it many years ago and it then became no more than a place to meet friends and to undertake an hour or so of people watching. Having said that there were a couple of bar owners I got to know and I occasionally popped in for a drink.

 

As for your question re. bf and st; well I don't know as do not partake of those services!!

 

OOPS......forgot that I did enjoy singing a few numbers in Red Hot, but as previously mentioned, not so now!

 

PS. Comments on Taco Bell please, if you don't mind 🙂

[xylophone]

Curiouser and curiouser.......the desire to own or open a small business here in Patong seems to override the basic business principles, or indeed common sense of some people.

 

I mentioned in another post about the businesses which close/and/or are not doing so well, and just yesterday I noticed more........a very small  "space" which about three incarnations ago opened up as a coffee and cake shop, closed down after two or three months because of no business, then was opened again a little later as another coffee/cake shop, which lasted about the same time and closed, and had been empty for a couple of months or more.

 

Then about two weeks ago I saw that it had opened up again as a – – yes you guessed it – – a coffee shop, but with a difference because it advertised itself as a "Healthy Café" (or similar) which also sold cannabis, or purported to. However I saw no activity in it and about a week or so ago, noticed a sign in the window saying that staff were needed (in English and in Thai), and just a couple of days ago noticed a sign next to that saying, "Business for Sale". Another short lived dream gone bust.

 

The newly opened Italian restaurant/café called, "Nice to Meat You" doesn't seem to be catering for many meat eaters these days, if any, although a few of the rooms have been taken by the looks of things.

 

This area of Nanai is not a magnet for foot traffic and would-be diners, neither is it for a massage shop, which was advertised for 400,000 baht (even though it had very little business) and was eventually bought by two older ladies for 250,000 baht (or was it 200,000 baht?) And as yet I've seen nobody go into the place, nor any of the usual giveaway signs of shoes being parked outside of the door. Don't see it lasting long at this rate.

 

The huge hotel, "Chang Residence" which needed major renovations because it had been left to the elements over the Covid period, is now being worked upon and tidied up somewhat, although there is still a lot of work to do, so it'll be interesting to see how that pans out.

 

Further north there are a few bars on the right-hand side, almost opposite Makro, which have one or two girls each in the places, with just a very occasional farang, so I don't see a long-term future for these places either.

 

Overall, I really don't see much in the way of a future for a lot of these places, but as long as there are farangs with money to spend, no business acumen and lust to be taken care of, then I suppose this will continue, as it has done in the past – – although I will add a rider to this, because in the past landlords were very reasonable with regards to rent they charged, whereas now this is not the case, so it's a whole different ballgame.
 

[xylophone]

4 hours ago, xylophone said:

Overall, I really don't see much in the way of a future for a lot of these places

After not posting for a couple of months, I seem to have gone ballistic, however this last event is an absolute doozy, so I just had to post here about it......... 

 

A friend enquired about the tapas in a recently opened tapas restaurant, only to be told that they didn't do tapas.

 

This gets interesting because not only do they not do tapas, which is on the sign outside of the restaurant, the owner is from Sweden (not famous for its tapas) and the name of the restaurant is the "Mayflower" (named after a flower or a famous ship?).

 

And to top the lot, on a billboard outside of the "restaurant" there are several pics of burgers with French fries and similar.

 

So we have a Swedish guy, opening a tapas restaurant which doesn't serve tapas, in Thailand and naming the restaurant the Mayflower, outside of which is an advertising board containing pics of burgers....hmmm. TIT.
 

[zzzzz]

13 hours ago, xylophone said:

After not posting for a couple of months, I seem to have gone ballistic, however this last event is an absolute doozy, so I just had to post here about it......... 

 

A friend enquired about the tapas in a recently opened tapas restaurant, only to be told that they didn't do tapas.

 

This gets interesting because not only do they not do tapas, which is on the sign outside of the restaurant, the owner is from Sweden (not famous for its tapas) and the name of the restaurant is the "Mayflower" (named after a flower or a famous ship?).

 

And to top the lot, on a billboard outside of the "restaurant" there are several pics of burgers with French fries and similar.

 

So we have a Swedish guy, opening a tapas restaurant which doesn't serve tapas, in Thailand and naming the restaurant the Mayflower, outside of which is an advertising board containing pics of burgers....hmmm. TIT.
 

ages ago, back in the 90's, i considered opening a advisement office with a thai lawyer services
My speciality would be to give advice to newcomers on the posible successfulness of their "Business plan"
but how to get client's willing to spend $$$, to have them told their "dream" is a stupid idea 

Also when i ran the Phuket Food, shopping entertainment guide, I would ask all new business to advertise>
sometimes would enter a new restaurant and present the book , only to be told that there were so many restaurant's in it already, at which i would smile and say < "yep, so why did you open another one"?   

5555

[Olmate]

14 hours ago, xylophone said:

After not posting for a couple of months, I seem to have gone ballistic, however this last event is an absolute doozy, so I just had to post here about it......... 

 

A friend enquired about the tapas in a recently opened tapas restaurant, only to be told that they didn't do tapas.

 

This gets interesting because not only do they not do tapas, which is on the sign outside of the restaurant, the owner is from Sweden (not famous for its tapas) and the name of the restaurant is the "Mayflower" (named after a flower or a famous ship?).

 

And to top the lot, on a billboard outside of the "restaurant" there are several pics of burgers with French fries and similar.

 

So we have a Swedish guy, opening a tapas restaurant which doesn't serve tapas, in Thailand and naming the restaurant the Mayflower, outside of which is an advertising board containing pics of burgers....hmmm. TIT.
 

You sure he,s Swedish and is a guy?? 

[xylophone]

3 hours ago, Olmate said:

You sure he,s Swedish and is a guy?? 

As told by a friend who went to the restaurant to enquire about the food (tapas) and I did see a guy rearranging the chairs when I went past, so............

[xylophone]

4 hours ago, zzzzz said:

ages ago, back in the 90's, i considered opening a advisement office with a thai lawyer services
My speciality would be to give advice to newcomers on the posible successfulness of their "Business plan"
but how to get client's willing to spend $$$, to have them told their "dream" is a stupid idea 

Also when i ran the Phuket Food, shopping entertainment guide, I would ask all new business to advertise>
sometimes would enter a new restaurant and present the book , only to be told that there were so many restaurant's in it already, at which i would smile and say < "yep, so why did you open another one"?   

5555

Had to smile at your post because it epitomises the situation which seems to exist here with regards to bars and restaurants and their "business plans", mainly because there are no business plans, just "pie in the sky" hopes that whatever they do will work out right, especially with the help of their newly acquired Thai GF (in many cases)!

 

PS. 

Just a small addition to this post – – there are bars in the likes of Bangla which can and do make money, although it's about a 50-50 split IMO. However opening a bar/restaurant in somewhere like Nanai Road is a gamble, especially given how many similar establishments have been opened there and which do very little in the way of business. In a couple of the businesses there are more girls sitting in front of the establishment than there are customers drinking in it.

 

Speaking to a friend yesterday who has just sold his reasonably successful bar in Nanai and he said that it had been "hard graft" for quite a while, especially having to sit in the bar every day in order to attract customers and friends, and he just wanted out.
 

Edited November 6, 2023 by xylophone

[xylophone]

On 11/6/2023 at 12:02 PM, xylophone said:

Speaking to a friend yesterday who has just sold his reasonably successful bar in Nanai and he said that it had been "hard graft" for quite a while, especially having to sit in the bar every day in order to attract customers and friends, and he just wanted out.

Well this thread has gone quiet, so here goes to post again, although I'm wondering if the title of it needs to be changed given the current circumstances??

 

Anyway with regards to the quote from a previous post in November, the bar sold by a friend is now suffering from the effects of "losing what was one of the bars most endearing features – the owner". I say this because there were often quite a few people in it when I went past, but since the change, it has been empty very often.

 

When I think back at the successful bars I have known in the past, then almost all of them had an amiable farang fronting it (or at least behind it!) And often as not it was because of this that the clientele visited it, so I just hope that the new owner of this bar doesn't suffer from this, because it would be one hell of a blow to his retirement dream to own a bar which loses money. But then again researching the premises, the area, the parking and the reason for its success (if indeed it is successful) should be/have been of paramount importance.

 

Bangla is crowded, as it always is at this time of the year and although the street itself is crowded, there is not always the volume of customers in the bars that there has been in previous years.

 

Quite a bit of building and renovation has been going on, especially in Soi Sansabai, which makes driving in it, a nightmare, and this is also happening in Nanai Road and I noticed that the old mini "Tesco Lotus" shop opposite Makro which has been completely gutted, is now being resurrected as a Cannabis shop, as if the place needed more of them!

 

Also, what was once the Chang Residence Hotel in Nanai, which remained closed all through Covid and became slightly dilapidated during this time, has now been renovated and renamed Diva and is advertising the facilities (swimming pool, sauna, restaurant etc) on a large "billboard" alongside it. It also features a restaurant in which was once a "recreation area" and despite advertising, I've only ever seen three or four people in it, so perhaps eating in an open-air environment, right next to a busy road is not everyone's idea of a good dining experience?

 

Although some of the long awaited road works have been completed in Patong, there are still areas that desperately need fixing, but obviously no money to be made by skimming off any small amounts allocated to this work.

 

Finally, I'm seriously thinking of spending this time of the year in another country, perhaps back in NZ or Australia, because the driving here is absolutely horrendous, and I've never seen anything like it in my life despite driving in some African countries which were also abysmal. If you add the already existing poor driving habits of the Thais, to the abject stupidity of the Russian contingent, who don't know which way they should be driving, or have any road manners whatsoever, to the annual visits of the French Africans, who seem to know no danger, by driving on the inside or the outside or on the wrong side of the road at breakneck speed, caring not for anyone else on the road, and you have potential carnage, and I don't intend to be one of the victims of it.

 

Tonight I will tentatively make my way towards a nice Italian restaurant, Amena e Core, to catch up with a friend who is visiting from England to hear his news and get his views on Patong now he is back here again for a holiday.

[HighPriority]

Thanks for the update Xylophone.

I’ll be over in May, it’ll be interesting to see the changes… and any similarities. 

[London Lowf]

It’s always good to read your contributions Xylophone and I’m glad to see that you are still getting out and about – a while ago it seemed that you had totally lost interest.

I agree that this thread has perhaps outlived its title – as far as I can see, and judging by the traffic and parking, Patong (or at least Bangla) is recovering quite well from the Covid disaster with one notable exception – that new Tiger bar complex looks like a bit of a white elephant, and I have never seen it at anything approaching busy. A totally pointless rebuild as far as I can see.

I did have one rather distasteful incident on Bangla just before I came home. I lady-drinked a girl (a very rare event as I think the whole thing is a con and I prefer to simply give the girl a B100 tip, but there was something about her aura and mannerisms that I found very endearing) and she was also serving a young falang couple at a nearby table. She went to get them a second round of drinks and they did as runner and, as a result, she was responsible for their tab. This was under the nose of the “guard” employed by the bar.

This is a disgusting practice by the management and would not be allowed in my civilised country. I played the white man and picked up the tab and luckily it was only B400, but that would have been a big hit for a girl that has to commute every day from Phuket Town as she cannot afford to live closer.

This was at a very successful and profitable bar – in fact one of a pair in the centre of Bangla and under the same ownership as an oft-mentioned restaurant down on the beach.

I used to drink in one or other of these bars five or six nights a week, but no more. My boycott is of course futile, particularly in peak season, but I feel that it’s the right thing to do. Sadly, I suspect that this practice of punishing the staff for dishonesty of customers is probably the norm.

I am back in the UK for a few weeks and glad to escape Phuket for the peak season but, after only a week back here, I am missing the good weather and daily scooter rides.

 

 

[xylophone]

19 hours ago, London Lowf said:

I did have one rather distasteful incident on Bangla just before I came home. I lady-drinked a girl (a very rare event as I think the whole thing is a con and I prefer to simply give the girl a B100 tip, but there was something about her aura and mannerisms that I found very endearing) and she was also serving a young falang couple at a nearby table. She went to get them a second round of drinks and they did as runner and, as a result, she was responsible for their tab. This was under the nose of the “guard” employed by the bar.

This is a disgusting practice by the management and would not be allowed in my civilised country. I played the white man and picked up the tab and luckily it was only B400, but that would have been a big hit for a girl that has to commute every day from Phuket Town as she cannot afford to live closer.

I played the white man and picked up the tab and luckily it was only B400........

 

That was a very noble gesture LL, and I would be inclined to do the same as you in that situation, and also like you, I now refrain from buying lady drinks at 220 baht per drink, and give them 100 baht in their hand.

 

I was out last night and the traffic was absolutely disgustingly horrendous, and that's putting it mildly. In fact my motorbike taxi driver came to a  halt just outside of Makro in Nanai Road because the traffic was backed up nose to tail from Soi Banzaan, and nothing was moving; oh the joys of high season in Patong.

 

I arrived at the Italian restaurant Amena e Core at 7:30 PM to meet up with my recently arrived UK friend, and when he arrived an hour late at 8:30 PM, I already had my entrée and unfortunately polished off probably three quarters of a bottle of very strong Italian red wine, which didn't bode well for my evening, or my sleep for that matter. However that was made up for by the fact that the food was good and plentiful.

 

We had a drink in the Blue Lotus Café and wandered down Soi Freedom to have a look around, but once past a few bars at the front, the rest of the place was dead – – plenty of girls and persistent lady boys but no punters.

 

Then on to Soi Sea Dragon to a bar managed by a lady I have known here for perhaps 12 years or so, and I didn't mind buying her a couple of drinks because she was good company and we were able to talk about mutual friends and old times, which helped pass the time and also assisted me to down a few rum and Cokes, which I swore I wouldn't do as I had a hospital appointment the next morning – – but the best laid plans of mice and men (you know the rest).

 

Bangla was busy and so were a few of the bars, but for me the biggest turnaround was that Soi Sea Dragon had gone from somewhere which had virtually no punters in it a few months back to a place that was very crowded indeed. Happy for the bar owners as things were looking pretty grim for a while.

 

As I wandered up Bangla, people-watching to a certain extent and slowing down to take a look at a lady boy, who was quite attractive, trying to coerce a youngish Asian man to come with her/him to the short time hotel in Soi Sea Dragon. He looked a bit bemused to start with, but he must have been interested because I heard him say the dreaded words, "how much?", So he must have known what was going on!

 

As I passed Red Hot I had a thought of going in to belt out a number, but was worried that I might be tempted to have yet another drink, however in that indecisive moment, I listened to the band which was playing at that particular time and it was nowhere near as good as the band I used to sing with in that place, so I gave it a miss. Not only that, it would appear that the punters were not that enthused with the band because there were not that many in attendance, nowhere near the number which used to swell that place in the past.

 

Something else which came to mind whilst walking towards my motorbike taxi and seeing the diaspora were the words to a Joe Jackson song:- "Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street........" , but having thought that, the reverse could have applied in some instances because every now and then I saw an horrendous female on the arm of some poor, probably desperate, farang.

 

New Year's Eve is fast approaching, however I won't be visiting Bangla at that particular juncture, mainly because of the drunken idiots who seem to relish squirting all sorts of coloured liquid and plastic spray in the eyes and faces of anybody who passes by – – I gave up that sort of thing 70 years ago and have no wish to partake of that lunacy again.
 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by xylophone

[zzzzz]

something many of you are missing regarding lady drinks>
many bars require a girl get x number of drinks/month or they are docked part of their salary, that is why they come across as pushy at times 
( unless this has changed as its been awhile since i was in a bar with  girls on the make 

[xylophone]

2 hours ago, zzzzz said:

something many of you are missing regarding lady drinks>
many bars require a girl get x number of drinks/month or they are docked part of their salary, that is why they come across as pushy at times 
( unless this has changed as its been awhile since i was in a bar with  girls on the make 

Some bars operate that way, others don't, although the girls at Suzie Wongs have to get their quota of drinks in order to get paid.......also many of them opt for just Coke (for example) and tell the punter that it is a "real drink". No problems with that as in many cases thay are looking after their health.

[zzzzz]

2 hours ago, xylophone said:

Some bars operate that way, others don't, although the girls at Suzie Wongs have to get their quota of drinks in order to get paid.......also many of them opt for just Coke (for example) and tell the punter that it is a "real drink". No problems with that as in many cases thay are looking after their health.

over the year's have seen many customers get mad at girls they buy drinks for girls thinking they are paying for a "real" drink not a coke or OJ ( for 150-200 baht) and tasting it 
so unless the girls says they are not drinking alcohol .....

[xylophone]

47 minutes ago, zzzzz said:

over the year's have seen many customers get mad at girls they buy drinks for girls thinking they are paying for a "real" drink not a coke or OJ ( for 150-200 baht) and tasting it 
so unless the girls says they are not drinking alcohol .....

Different perspectives I think, because if the girls said they were drinking orange juice or coke, but the bar wanted to charge 220 baht for it then the punters would still get upset! No win for the poor girls.

 

In effect one is really paying for the company of the girl with that 220 baht drink and providing the bar with a profit and to help pay the girls wages/overheads, so the argument for or against it is rather circuitous IMO.

 

I had often thought that the amount of alcohol that the girls put away in a month, in the old days, would soon lead to their demise, much earlier than nature intended, so I have no problem with a girl drinking whatever she wants – – her choice.

[HighPriority]

Mondo Bar had a big bucket out the back for the girls to “empty their stomachs” as required…

I knew girls who ran 2 jobs, one cleaning hotels/guesthouses and one at a bar.

They'd party/work hard at both jobs for a month, then drop the bar and recover for a month doing cleaning only, then back to the bar/cleaning routine.

These were girls who weren’t chasing the sex side of the bar work, if they were barfined, that was a bonus others saw the money from sex work and focused on that…

[London Lowf]

3 hours ago, HighPriority said:

These were girls who weren’t chasing the sex side of the bar work, if they were barfined, that was a bonus others saw the money from sex work and focused on that…

 

This is a good point - so many guys think that every bar girl is a hooker but the experienced hustlers can make as much from ladydrinks as they would on short-times. They may occasionally go with a punter if they were attracted to him to a degree.

 

I spend a lot of time people-watching on Bangla and would judge that, on any given night, less than one in fifty bargirls (as opposed to streetwalkers) are bar-fined and that the majority never have been.

[xylophone]

I went out to Bangla for the first time in over two weeks to catch up with a friend and have something to eat and thought we could meet and eat at Blue Beach Café and Restaurant, one of my usual haunts, mainly because I know many of the girls that work there and not only are they extremely good at their job, one can have a reasonable conversation with them, provided they are not rushed off their feet – – which they were last night because the place became almost full gone 9 PM!

 

On the way to Blue Beach the traffic was busy and backed up a way, but nowhere near what it had been just a few weeks back, which was pleasing.

 

Bangla itself was probably a little less busy than it has been in past years for this time of the year, but there was the usual mix of races/peoples, and as I have said before, attendance at bars was a little sporadic, some good, some not, with the perennial non-performer, Soi Freedom, being just about dead past the first few bars, and I feel sorry for the girls (and boys) in those bars. Having said this we did stop and have a drink with the manager at Smiley Bar, although the grinding/throbbing ear-shattering music?? drove us away.

 

So we found a little bar just inside the entrance to Soi Sea Dragon, which had a small air-conditioned room in which one could sit and drink if one wanted (no dancing girls included) however we chose to sit outside and it was a good move because the Soi music was not too loud and it was a good viewing point to watch the world go by, and as a bonus we knew one of the girls who was working in Sea Dragon from some 10 years back.

 

Around and about: – opposite a little massage shop in Soi Banzaan, the previous bar and guesthouse with about 4 to 6 rooms and it has been bought by Russians, and I think I mentioned this before, but now they have the clientele and they are mainly youngish men, and I've seen them parking their bikes outside and opposite, so I would imagine the owners are quite pleased to have the custom.

 

On a similar vein the Greek restaurant just inside of Soi Nanai six has been sold to Russians, however I'm not sure how the dish of beetroot soup will fit into the Greek menu!? It had been going okay earlier on, but had been quiet for a while, so I guess the owner thought it was time to sell up, and found some willing buyers in the Russians, who do seem to be buying up small businesses, and if the posts on the forum here are correct then they are also buying up expensive properties, but there again I doubt that all Russians coming here are millionaires/billionaires and quite how those who buy the smaller businesses like the one above, are hoping to make it through the low season will be interesting to see.

 

The lady manager of a massage shop that I know was bemoaning the fact that there were too many massage shops in Nanai/Patong, meaning less business for her shop, and I recall going past a shop in Rat-U-Thid Road which would have had around 15 girls, perhaps more (couldn't count them all as I drove past on my motorbike) standing outside touting for business.

 

The situation as regards punters in bars in Nanai hasn't changed much since my last couple of posts, with a few deadbeats waiting outside the bars for them to open at 10:30 AM in the morning and in the bars experiencing just one or two punters in the early evening, when they should be doing much better trade.

 

A friend I know who owns a large bar with a restaurant facility here, whom I bumped into about a week ago, was disappointed with the lack of customers, or should I say "fall off" as regards customer numbers, and he blamed the advent of far too many Weed shops opening up here, and I think he meant that folks were quite keen to go along to the weed shops, have a drink and a smoke and sit there in their own little world rather than go to a bar – – not sure that I can follow the rationale, but he seems to think that is the case. 

 

Having said that there are far too many Weed shops opening up and I wonder what's going to happen now that the government is considering making this particular pastime illegal?? If they do, it will be one helluva shock and surprise to the folks who have set up businesses around this pastime, not to mention the monetary impact for them.

 

One last thing, sitting with a couple of friends last night and we were reminiscing about when we first came here and for me it was in 2004, before the tsunami, and I remember meeting a few guys from the UK and Oz, and having a great time cavorting around the place, and they, like me, believed what others had said, in as much as, "this place is paradise/we are living the dream/fantasyland" and so on. We thought it true!

 

Now many years on and sitting outside of the bar last night we were commenting on how "the thrill had gone" and now it was just another place to visit before getting back to the real world – – however there is something which we agreed on, that when we got back to Blighty or NZ/Oz and stayed there for a few weeks (the real world), we couldn't wait to get back to Patong!

 

PS. Forgot to mention that at the far south end of Nanai there is a new restaurant, which replaced the previous restaurant/bar, which replaced the previous bar/massage shop, and it is called Le Bistrot and I do believe it was formerly in one of the roads leading down to the beach just past the strange little roundabout, which nobody knows how to use. I do believe it had a good reputation back then.

 

 

 

[zzzzz]

Regarding weed shops< more of them than 7/11's or massage shops  :-)
Cheap to open. high profits, but without a constant stream of tourists, wont make it thru the high season>
Few, if any locals ( expats as well) visit them, as you can get the same products delivered to ur door at half the price, using one of the many shops on fb and line. 

your friend ir is right>
Once one smokes weed, the desire to drink in a bar is gone    55555

Enjoy ur posts as haven't had a night out ( nor a desire) in Patong in over a decade

[stoner]

1 hour ago, zzzzz said:

Regarding weed shops< more of them than 7/11's or massage shops  :-)
Cheap to open. high profits, but without a constant stream of tourists, wont make it thru the high season>
Few, if any locals ( expats as well) visit them, as you can get the same products delivered to ur door at half the price, using one of the many shops on fb and line. 

your friend ir is right>
Once one smokes weed, the desire to drink in a bar is gone    55555

Enjoy ur posts as haven't had a night out ( nor a desire) in Patong in over a decade

 

most of them have bad flower too :)

[xylophone]

2 hours ago, zzzzz said:

Regarding weed shops< more of them than 7/11's or massage shops  :-)
Cheap to open. high profits, but without a constant stream of tourists, wont make it thru the high season>
Few, if any locals ( expats as well) visit them, as you can get the same products delivered to ur door at half the price, using one of the many shops on fb and line. 

your friend ir is right>
Once one smokes weed, the desire to drink in a bar is gone    55555

Enjoy ur posts as haven't had a night out ( nor a desire) in Patong in over a decade

Thank you for your kind words, and I have to say that I'm getting a bit like you these days with regards to nights out in Patong; from almost every night of the week when I first arrived here more than 17 years ago, to now perhaps once a week, and then mainly to catch up with a friend or two and have a bite to eat, with a couple of bars visited after that, and my days of singing at Red Hot are just about over because the band has changed quite markedly and I don't seem to have the same rapport with the new members.

 

If it comes to going out to Bangla versus a night in watching a good movie after eating something I've cooked, accompanied with a nice red wine, I choose the second option almost every time now!

 

1 hour ago, stoner said:

 

most of them have bad flower too :)

Never being a Weed smoker, apart from couple of tries in my teens, I've no idea what that comment means???

[stoner]

2 minutes ago, xylophone said:

Thank you for your kind words, and I have to say that I'm getting a bit like you these days with regards to nights out in Patong; from almost every night of the week when I first arrived here more than 17 years ago, to now perhaps once a week, and then mainly to catch up with a friend or two and have a bite to eat, with a couple of bars visited after that, and my days of singing at Red Hot are just about over because the band has changed quite markedly and I don't seem to have the same rapport with the new members.

 

If it comes to going out to Bangla versus a night in watching a good movie after eating something I've cooked, accompanied with a nice red wine, I choose the second option almost every time now!

 

Never being a Weed smoker, apart from couple of tries in my teens, I've no idea what that comment means???

 

think snake oil sales men. 

[DrDave]

In regard to the government possibly reversing position on weed, I think it's just noise at this point. In Bangkok, there's a proliferation of weed shops especially in the lower Sukhumvit area. These shops are occupying some extremely expensive real estate, and considerable money has been spent on fitting out the shops. I suspect that the owners are well connected, and have assurance that they'll be able to continue conducting business after investing hefty sums.