Patong - The Wake

[pagallim]

^

 

This is the current list of where travel is permitted from the UK with no return quarantine required.   Quite a few 'exotic' locations there for winter vacations, though I do note that Thailand is not on the list(https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-travel-corridors);

 

• Akrotiri and Dhekelia
• Anguilla
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Australia
• Barbados
• Bermuda
• Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba
• British Antarctic Territory
• British Indian Ocean Territory
• British Virgin Islands
• Brunei
• Cayman Islands
• the Channel Islands
• Cuba (added 4am, 29 August 2020 – if you arrived in England from Cuba before 4am 29 August you will need to self-isolate)
• Curaçao
• Cyprus
• Denmark
• Dominica
• Estonia
• Falkland Islands
• Faroe Islands
• Fiji
• Finland
• French Polynesia
• Gibraltar
• Germany
• Greece (except the islands of Crete, Lesvos, Mykonos, Santorini, Serifos, Tinos and Zakynthos. If you arrive in England from any of these islands after 4am 9 September 2020 you will need to self-isolate)
• Greenland
• Grenada
• Guadeloupe
• Hong Kong
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Ireland
• the Isle of Man
• Italy
• Japan
• Latvia
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania
• Macao (Macau)
• Malaysia
• Mauritius
• Montserrat
• New Caledonia
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Reunion
• San Marino
• Seychelles
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• South Korea
• South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
• St Barthélemy
• St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
• St Kitts and Nevis
• St Lucia
• St Pierre and Miquelon
• St Vincent and the Grenadines
• Taiwan
• Turkey
• Vatican City State
• Vietnam

[zzzzz]

didn't go thru the whole list but impossible to arrive as a tourist for Australia, Malaysia or Vietnam till the end of the year,

assume its the same for 80% of the others on the above list

so whats the point of the list?

[billythehat]

4 hours ago, pagallim said:

<snip>

• the Isle of Man

Unusual addition...????

[pagallim]

17 hours ago, zzzzz said:

didn't go thru the whole list but impossible to arrive as a tourist for Australia, Malaysia or Vietnam till the end of the year,

assume its the same for 80% of the others on the above list

so whats the point of the list?

Appreciate that some of these countries have their own entry/quarantine requirements also, posted to merely show the potential options for those for whom winter sunshine in lieu of Phuket/Thailand, and those that will not require self quarantine when returning to the UK.

[bloodyholly]

Sadly, I can’t see this happening in Patong any time soon. But good luck with this bars promo

[zzzzz]

2 hours ago, pagallim said:

Appreciate that some of these countries have their own entry/quarantine requirements also, posted to merely show the potential options for those for whom winter sunshine in lieu of Phuket/Thailand, and those that will not require self quarantine when returning to the UK.

But you CANT enter all these countries.

so........where is the potential to enjoy winter sunshine?

I'm confused

[Lashay]

2 hours ago, zzzzz said:

But you CANT enter all these countries.

so........where is the potential to enjoy winter sunshine?

I'm confused

UK no quarantine list makes no sense really. But to answer the question as asked.

 

Africa: Kenya, Egypt, Seychelles (actually about 1/4 of africa is open to some degree but these are only popular tourist spots)

 

Oceania: French Polynesia

 

Central America: Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras

 

Caribbean: Antigua, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos

 

Asia: Maldives

 

Europe: all the Euro Mediterranean countries

 

While there is some variation in rules, and some limitations on country's that can go, generally advoided any that is closed to tourists or has 14 day quarantine across the board.

 

 

 

[zzzzz]

saves me the time of going over to see how bad it really is

from Sept 12

[London Lowf]

A video paints a thousand words!

 

That is grim. Hardly surprising that many/most/all of the entertainment workers have given up and gone home to their families - broke.

 

I would love to come over and help out for three months in my own small way, but looking at the knee-jerk reaction over a single positive Buriram United player, Thailand is going to remain inaccessible for far more than the foreseeable future.

[Destiny1990]

Yes great to see patong without drunk foreigners now finally thais can enjoy the place for themselves ????

[pagallim]

2 hours ago, zzzzz said:

saves me the time of going over to see how bad it really is

from Sept 12

Though the YouTube file says 9th September, a Wednesday (though doubt there would be many more people any night).

[xylophone]

3 hours ago, zzzzz said:

saves me the time of going over to see how bad it really is

from Sept 12

Although on the Friday/Sat/Sunday it has been busier, esp later on in the evening, although mostly Thai folk with a smattering of farangs.

[Agusts]

Friday and Yesterday there was some sports festival on Patong beach, with a large stage set up, and also a 3km and a 10km run (I think latter was yesterday morning) , no idea how it was , as there was a lot of rain and bad weather.... - so bad luck for organizers...

 

Today was surf competition on Patong and Kalim beach, nice weather and some wave I think helped a good event - not many people though, I think they are not promoting these events much...

 

By the way, no food stalls at night on the beach this weekend , contrary to what I mentioned before, no idea if it returns next weekend, the stalls and infrastructure are still there, so maybe due to rain they didn't turn up...

 

Friday and Saturday nights are a bit better in Bangla than the video, those who don't like drunk farang should turn up and enjoy it during the week - if they prefer a quiet "wake" like atmosphere to party.... !   lol

 

 

[sekmet]

What is the checkpoint all about?

[Destiny1990]

20 minutes ago, sekmet said:

What is the checkpoint all about?

Carwash?

[redwood1]

On 9/14/2020 at 7:58 PM, Destiny1990 said:

Carwash?

I will never walk through one of those chemical misters ever.....

[xylophone]

Many threads on the TVF regarding the government's "proposed" plans for reigniting the tourist numbers for Patong/Phuket, but they are so convoluted and just about unworkable, and there have been a few different models proposed, so that one wonders if there is actually a functioning brain cell between their ears?

 

Meanwhile Patong continues to suffer and even more shops are closing down in Jungceylon, whilst the likes of Central Phuket and Tesco Lotus Phuket are mildly/moderately busy, but again that doesn't help Patong.

 

There appear to be only a few property booths/desks now operating in Jungceylon, when once upon a time they were everywhere in both sections of it, and of course it means that the girls who used to earn a living by promoting the condos et cetera have been out of work for a while, and it is causing some financial stress, with one girl I know trying to sell her low mileage 2016 Toyota Yaris, but no takers, and I would suppose that there would be plenty of bargains like this around?

 

The property situation got me thinking about the condos/apartments which were advertised as being for sale for around 5 or 6 million baht, and giving a return of 7% per annum for 15 years? These were very popular with the Chinese who were looking to get their money out of China and get a one month holiday p.a. for themselves.

 

Now the developer made it work because once the property had been sold (for a considerable markup to the actual building cost) and they received their money, they were then able to let it out through the likes of Air BnB at high daily or weekly rates, and once the difference between the 7% return given, and the income from the short-term lets was calculated, it left a nice profit........but now the whole situation has changed because there are no short-term tourists any more, so are the developers still paying the 7% return to the purchasers ?????

 

Really don't know how that is going to work out, but I imagine there would be a lot of very disappointed purchasers around at this moment in time, with little to no hope of getting the return they were promised, or indeed getting any traction trying to recoup their outlay.

 

I will endeavour to venture out this Friday or Saturday evening to see what is happening in Bangla, but I suspect it will be not a lot different to the last time I ventured out – – a smattering of farangs, with mostly Thai folk milling around, and not many of those either. 

 

Takes me back to the very first heading of this original thread, which I think went something like, "Patong is dying", or was it "Patong is dead"?
 

[DrDave]

6 hours ago, xylophone said:

<snip>

The property situation got me thinking about the condos/apartments which were advertised as being for sale for around 5 or 6 million baht, and giving a return of 7% per annum for 15 years? These were very popular with the Chinese who were looking to get their money out of China and get a one month holiday p.a. for themselves.

 

Now the developer made it work because once the property had been sold (for a considerable markup to the actual building cost) and they received their money, they were then able to let it out through the likes of Air BnB at high daily or weekly rates, and once the difference between the 7% return given, and the income from the short-term lets was calculated, it left a nice profit........but now the whole situation has changed because there are no short-term tourists any more, so are the developers still paying the 7% return to the purchasers ?????

 

Really don't know how that is going to work out, but I imagine there would be a lot of very disappointed purchasers around at this moment in time, with little to no hope of getting the return they were promised, or indeed getting any traction trying to recoup their outlay.

<snip>

 

This is something I've been wondering about the past few months. I was thinking about posting a query to get feedback from those who purchased condos under those terms in Patong and vicinity, but then figured investors would be reluctant to respond.

 

Even in the best of times, the 7% scheme is a stretch. On a 5 million baht property, the developer would be on the hook to the purchaser for nearly 1,000 baht per day, every day of the year regardless of occupancy! This on a unit that might pull 3,000 baht per night in high season, and maybe 1,500 in low season.   It would be very interesting to know if these developers are currently paying the investors, and if not, how they're avoiding payment. Is the 7% being mysteriously eaten away by maintenance and administrative fees? Has the developer re-organized to somehow nullify the agreements?  

[Destiny1990]

26 minutes ago, DrDave said:

This is something I've been wondering about the past few months. I was thinking about posting a query to get feedback from those who purchased condos under those terms in Patong and vicinity, but then figured investors would be reluctant to respond.

 

Even in the best of times, the 7% scheme is a stretch. On a 5 million baht property, the developer would be on the hook to the purchaser for nearly 1,000 baht per day, every day of the year regardless of occupancy! This on a unit that might pull 3,000 baht per night in high season, and maybe 1,500 in low season.   It would be very interesting to know if these developers are currently paying the investors, and if not, how they're avoiding payment. Is the 7% being mysteriously eaten away by maintenance and administrative fees? Has the developer re-organized to somehow nullify the agreements?  

How guaranteed  is the rental guaranty in Patong ?

[Agusts]

I thought that was just a fantasy number picked out of the air, and in reality they have a million little small print clauses to get out of paying it when they feel like it - but I'm a bit cynical when it comes to these things, who knows ...! 

 

[xylophone]

14 hours ago, Destiny1990 said:

How guaranteed  is the rental guaranty in Patong ?

Possibly about as safe as "The Ace" condominiums?? TIT after all.

[hansgruber]

On 9/22/2020 at 12:22 PM, xylophone said:

Many threads on the TVF regarding the government's "proposed" plans for reigniting the tourist numbers for Patong/Phuket, but they are so convoluted and just about unworkable, and there have been a few different models proposed, so that one wonders if there is actually a functioning brain cell between their ears?

 

Meanwhile Patong continues to suffer and even more shops are closing down in Jungceylon, whilst the likes of Central Phuket and Tesco Lotus Phuket are mildly/moderately busy, but again that doesn't help Patong.

 

There appear to be only a few property booths/desks now operating in Jungceylon, when once upon a time they were everywhere in both sections of it, and of course it means that the girls who used to earn a living by promoting the condos et cetera have been out of work for a while, and it is causing some financial stress, with one girl I know trying to sell her low mileage 2016 Toyota Yaris, but no takers, and I would suppose that there would be plenty of bargains like this around?

 

The property situation got me thinking about the condos/apartments which were advertised as being for sale for around 5 or 6 million baht, and giving a return of 7% per annum for 15 years? These were very popular with the Chinese who were looking to get their money out of China and get a one month holiday p.a. for themselves.

 

Now the developer made it work because once the property had been sold (for a considerable markup to the actual building cost) and they received their money, they were then able to let it out through the likes of Air BnB at high daily or weekly rates, and once the difference between the 7% return given, and the income from the short-term lets was calculated, it left a nice profit........but now the whole situation has changed because there are no short-term tourists any more, so are the developers still paying the 7% return to the purchasers ?????

 

Really don't know how that is going to work out, but I imagine there would be a lot of very disappointed purchasers around at this moment in time, with little to no hope of getting the return they were promised, or indeed getting any traction trying to recoup their outlay.

 

I will endeavour to venture out this Friday or Saturday evening to see what is happening in Bangla, but I suspect it will be not a lot different to the last time I ventured out – – a smattering of farangs, with mostly Thai folk milling around, and not many of those either. 

 

Takes me back to the very first heading of this original thread, which I think went something like, "Patong is dying", or was it "Patong is dead"?
 

That original Patong is dead was started by me. Started with talking about Jungceylon was dead when I took my son 10 pin bowling. The whole of Patong had a dead vibe about it. Over developed and sad. 

This thread is part 2 a much better than the original. It ended up so full of <deleted> it had to be closed. 

[Patong2]

9 hours ago, hansgruber said:

That original Patong is dead was started by me. Started with talking about Jungceylon was dead when I took my son 10 pin bowling. The whole of Patong had a dead vibe about it. Over developed and sad. 

This thread is part 2 a much better than the original. It ended up so full of <deleted> it had to be closed. 

hansgruber

Your original thread was excellent and the reason I started this "Wake" thread is that I thought there needed to be more comment.

The excellent and informative posts by nearly every poster and especially some of the regulars like the Xylophone, LivingKata and too many others to single out, have made these 2 threads extremely interesting and informative.

 

We are locked back in NZ and it certainly has kept us in touch with what is happening to our very local area and aware of the changes and challenges we will face when we get back. Xylophone's descriptions of conditions are excellent.

 

My thanks to all who take the time to contribute and to hansgruber who triggered it all.

[xylophone]

Sad times...........

 

Quite a lot to convey, so I will start with my visit to Starbucks at Jungceylon for a quick lunchtime snack on Saturday, where I was one of only three people in the place, and upon leaving I was informed by the staff that from then on in, Starbucks would be closing at 5 PM every day.

 

This didn't bother me as I was never in there other than for the occasional snack or tea/coffee, and I wondered how long the place would stay open anyway because of lack of custom, and to me it seems like cutting back on the hours will be a way of saving money with overheads including staff wages perhaps?

 

A friend and I decided to go out to Bangla on Saturday night, mostly to just get out of our own apartments and see what was going on around the place, so we decided to meet at the Wine Connection at 7 PM and go from there.

 

We were informed by the staff that this was their last night as they were going to close, so we both chose fish and chips as it's so hard to get round here. The problem was that my dish was very poor indeed with the chips smelling like they had been cooked in diesel oil, and the fish which was supposedly cod, having some very hard pieces (one being about the size of my index finger) inside the batter (no not frozen) which had no place in a piece of fish, so I left most of that – – not a good farewell for me from the Wine Connection.

 

So off we trundled to Bangla and called in to see if the Halfway Inn, in the car park behind the boxing stadium, was still open as it was closed last time I went. However it was open now although with no customers, and we decided to visit Bangla first and probably end up there, and I could then pop across to the live band in the Hippie Road bar and belt out a few numbers.....hmmm.

 

The stage at the top of Bangla was being used for some sort of "show" whereby little girls are dressed up in all sorts of gear, with copious amounts of make up, false eye-lashes and whatever else, to perform on stage much to the delight of the fairly large Thai crowd.

 

Not our scene, so we walked by and went to the Black Horse bar for a couple of drinks where we encountered a few Thai folk and no farangs. Even worse was the view across the road to the huge Bar Funk, which was absolutely empty and stayed that way for all of the evening we were there.

 

I walked down to Lion Bar to see if the lady singer was there and to acknowledge her, and although she has a great voice and was belting out a great number, it was to a total audience of two Thai women, one of whom I know works at the Sweet Lemongrass massage salon in Soi Patong Whiskey (off Rat-U-Thid road), and she greeted me with the fact that the salon was now open, so I said I would pay a visit over the next couple of days because it is one of my favourite bona fide massage places.

 

After a couple of drinks we decided to head to Suzie Wong's to check out the action and there's no doubt about it, there are some very beautiful women in that place, and as is fairly usual for me, I "fell in love again", but then again we all know (I hope) that the attention is just for the drinks we buy them, but a few drinks for spending the time in the company of a beautiful younger woman are well worth it in my opinion!!

 

Now the strange thing about that visit was the friend of mine was chatting to a very attractive younger woman, and he couldn't believe what he was hearing, because she told him that she and the other girls there really didn't want farangs coming to Thailand!! She seemed oblivious to the fact that we were one of about 12 farangs in the place and that without us the girls wouldn't have had any drinks, or the place quite probably would go bust! (sorry about the pun).

 

She obviously thought that the owner paid her salary and that had nothing to do with the amount of custom which was generated by farang visitors to the venue – – lucky she doesn't run a business of her own!

 

Bangla itself was pretty much devoid of any activity and as we made our way to the Halfway Inn bar, off Sansabai, we were accosted by a few Russian girls who were trying to usher us into a slim, dingy bar almost under the steps of Illuzion, but we carried on and had a few drinks at the Halfway Inn Bar with the owner and his wife, and I also checked out the Hippie Road bar, which was bolted shut!! 

 

I considered that strange as it used to be open come what may, but it was definitely closed and I was told that the previous evening (Friday) it had been packed, and I was wondering if the reason for that was that it was having its last night, and therefore a bit of a get-together/rave up for regulars and also the bands that play there??

 

Made it home by about midnight, and as I was being driven along a very deserted Nanai Road, I noticed that the doctors surgery, which was fairly recently opened, and always had a large black Mercedes parked outside of it, was now closed down.

 

Earlier on, I had noticed that Dons-B-B-Q was empty and that is unusual for an evening when there was English Premier league soccer on TV, but it was par for course for the evening, as the whole road was pretty much deserted apart from a few farangs in Don's other bar.

 

Now I haven't been closely following the varied news bulletins about amnesties/leaving/visas/whatever, because often as not they contradict one another, but my friend said that he had driven into Patong earlier in the evening and was shocked that there were next to no farangs to be seen anywhere, and he wondered if a lot of them had finally left because of all of the things mentioned above?

 

It didn't really hit home till later when I considered the number of farangs I had seen in Big C earlier that day, and true enough, apart from the whole place being damn near empty, I was the only farang in it?

 

As I said at the beginning, "sad times" and it doesn't look like it's going to get any better.
 

[GeorgeCross]

32 minutes ago, xylophone said:

Sad times...........

 

<snip>

 

Now I haven't been closely following the varied news bulletins about amnesties/leaving/visas/whatever, because often as not they contradict one another, but my friend said that he had driven into Patong earlier in the evening and was shocked that there were next to no farangs to be seen anywhere, and he wondered if a lot of them had finally left because of all of the things mentioned above?

 

It didn't really hit home till later when I considered the number of farangs I had seen in Big C earlier that day, and true enough, apart from the whole place being damn near empty, I was the only farang in it?

 

As I said at the beginning, "sad times" and it doesn't look like it's going to get any better.
 

 

RIP - i hope you turned off the lights as you left as it looks like its finally over

 

 

[xylophone]

48 minutes ago, GeorgeCross said:

 

RIP - i hope you turned off the lights as you left as it looks like its finally over

 

 

If not, it's certainly heading that way.

[xylophone]

PS. Forgot to mention something in my last long post, and I only noticed it when I was sitting across from my old favourite bar, "Smiley Bar", and that is the premises adjacent to Smiley, which included a pharmacy, a shooting range (not real bullets) and a small shop, have all been demolished right up until the corner with Soi Sea Dragon.

 

That leaves Smiley Bar standing on its own for the moment, and rumour has it that a bar owner from a little further down Bangla has been behind that and rumour has it that he wants to build.........yes, you've guessed it, another bar!

 

Bangla Road needs another bar like a moose needs a hat rack! 

 

But having said that, rumours still abound that the very large and vacant space at the top of Soi Sansabai will be turned into a bar complex. Seem to have heard similar rumours like that before?

[schlog]

On 9/27/2020 at 12:36 PM, xylophone said:

 

It didn't really hit home till later when I considered the number of farangs I had seen in Big C earlier that day, and true enough, apart from the whole place being damn near empty, I was the only farang in it?
 

Thought after your post xylo lets do the farang count today on my ride:

 

Kok Kloy 0

Maikhao 0

Lotus Thalang 1

Makro Patong 0

Gym Patong 3

 

Wooow didn't expect that low numbers. Looking on the positiv side, we are getting more and more exotic and handsome day by day.

 

Good indication how hkt is struggling are the numbers of red car registration plates. Counted only 3 today in 3 hours on the roads here.

 

Sad times like you said.....

 

 

[DFPhuket]

There is hardly any place left to eat at Jungceylon. In the outside eating street where Wine Connection is (and is closed), only Pizza Hut remains open (probably because they deliver). In the rear the food choices are McDonald's or the small menu at Starbucks, in the center court the Thai restaurant and KFC are open, and Burger King plus Coffee Club remain open in the front. 

[xylophone]

2 hours ago, schlog said:

Thought after your post xylo lets do the farang count today on my ride:

 

Kok Kloy 0

Maikhao 0

Lotus Thalang 1

Makro Patong 0

Gym Patong 3

In my trip around Patong today I counted a total of about 16 farangs, which was a lot more than I expected, however six of them were in one bar in Nanai, another three were in Soi Sansabai and the rest were in Big C.

 

I have to go to Phuket immigration in a couple of weeks time to get my extension for retirement done, so I'm wondering what it will be like at that place?