Patong - The Wake

[zzzzz]

1 hour ago, MajorTom said:

I was done with this when i was 30ish. Nothing to do with age. Just takes a certain time and exposure before you get bored with this game.

Also, It doesn't help that most of the attractive girls are long gone from the bars, and that the cost of barhopping is actually very expensive now. 10-15 years ago you could do a full night out throwing ladydrinks around, and it did not cost you an arm and a leg. With today's prices and exchange rates its very different.

agree; after the first 5 years, I quit buying lady drinks unless i was "interested"
the past 20 years,  no interest in bars.......  either

carry on, glad their some still out there supporting the hard working gals,
hats off to ya

[KarenBravo]

The GFE.......RIP.

[xylophone]

3 hours ago, MajorTom said:

I was done with this when i was 30ish. Nothing to do with age. Just takes a certain time and exposure before you get bored with this game.

Also, It doesn't help that most of the attractive girls are long gone from the bars, and that the cost of barhopping is actually very expensive now. 10-15 years ago you could do a full night out throwing ladydrinks around, and it did not cost you an arm and a leg. With today's prices and exchange rates its very different.

This is ground control to Major Tom......... ". 

 

Seriously, you make some good points in your post and it made me think as to why Bangla is not so attractive to me these days, and it's not just because of the things I mentioned in my rather long post.

 

I have had three good friends here who have owned bars, and successful bars at that, and I and a few friends would often meet there for a chat and a few drinks and a bit of fun, and none of the girls gave us any drinks hassle, mainly because we were well known and friends of the bar owner, however that didn't stop us from buying a drink or three for any of the girls who chatted to us.

 

If I fancied a night out on my own to get out of my apartment, I would phone and see if the bar owners were out that night, and if they were I would catch up for a drink, and there was none of the eardrum busting music blasting out, so a conversation was possible.

 

It made for an interesting night out and occasionally a whole bunch of us would get together and go to an Italian restaurant for a meal.

 

Things change over time as we all know, and the owner of a particularly popular bar died a few years ago and the bar changed hands and was never the same again; another owner friend of mine was conned out of much of his money, from his girlfriend, which was supposed to go to the landlord, and he subsequently walked away from his bar (and his girlfriend). Such a pity because it was a great bar and a popular meeting place for friends. To be fair, the falling custom and Covid also played a major part in him finally walking away.

 

Then, another very popular bar and meeting place, succumbed to the ravages of Covid (no customers) and overheads, and is no more.

 

Even my favourite Italian restaurant, Salute, just off Bangla, had to close because of lack of custom, and that was also a meeting place for friends and a couple of bar owners.

 

And lastly your comment regarding lady drinks was also spot on, and paying around 200 plus baht for a lady drink is ridiculous these days, and I may add, paying 160 baht for a beer in one of the music bars, is certainly getting up there, although I appreciate one has to take into consideration that it is an entertainment venue and not just a bar.
 

[London Lowf]

14 hours ago, xylophone said:

The other side of the coin is that to relative "newcomers" to Patong, the bar and go-go scene is new and exciting and is probably something they haven't been used to in the past

Well, I am a relative newcomer to Phuket but it wasn't that long ago when there were two Tigers full of young attractive girls and a few very talented pole/hoop dancers - I wonder what they're doing these days? Virtually every bar on Bangla had girls dancing (well, nearly!) on top of the bars - has that actually been banned by the authorities?

 

I enjoyed Bangla on my last visit as it still has some life to it, albeit a pale shadow of pre-Covid times, and it's still a good place to watch the world go by. Phuket is still (mostly) beautiful and Patong, compared to my home town in the UK, is paradise - and I live on what is jokingly referred to as "The English Riviera" - it's a s**t-hole!

[London Lowf]

10 hours ago, xylophone said:

And lastly your comment regarding lady drinks was also spot on, and paying around 200 plus baht for a lady drink is ridiculous these days

Yes, but Xylo, you have always been very kind-hearted and generous to the girls - you only have yourself to blame if they see you coming ????

 

Surely you know as well as I do that once you buy them one drink then you risk opening the floodgates and they keep an eye out for you from then on - some months ago I told the story of why I stopped going to Blue Lotus after a girl there got nasty when I refused to buy her further drinks.

 

[xylophone]

6 hours ago, London Lowf said:

Yes, but Xylo, you have always been very kind-hearted and generous to the girls - you only have yourself to blame if they see you coming ????

 

Surely you know as well as I do that once you buy them one drink then you risk opening the floodgates and they keep an eye out for you from then on - some months ago I told the story of why I stopped going to Blue Lotus after a girl there got nasty when I refused to buy her further drinks.

 

Some truth in what you say LLF, but as I go out infrequently these days, and don't visit the same bars then the "opening the floodgates" analogy doesn't really apply. More that the girls are "newbies" and not getting a salary, so they immediately ask for a drink, not realising that there is more to it than that, AND of course they are told by the owner to do just that.

 

As regards the Tiger bars, well I never was a fan of the new one, but Soi Eric, Soi Crocodile and a couple of others were great..........but that was then, this is now.

 

No matter what, I do object to paying 200 baht for a small glass of juice, or similar, for a girl to sit next to me and say nothing!!

 

As I said, Bangla has lost its allure for me, and the occasional night out to meet friends and have a small meal, is about the only useful purpose it serves.

[London Lowf]

In a way it's a shame that Bangla has lost its sparkle for you - it's probably only a matter of time before the same happens to me and I go off and marry an Esan girl and become a gentleman farmer!

 

But there are plenty of alternatives - you seem to enjoy the new place on the beach, and there are plenty of other bars and restaurants all over Patong, as you are well aware.

[xylophone]

On 3/27/2022 at 6:30 PM, London Lowf said:

you seem to enjoy the new place on the beach

Indeed I do, and I was there last night for the grand opening of the "Blue Beach Bar and Restaurant" and it was a huge success.

 

Every table was occupied (more or less) and the restaurant was working well to get the food out on time, and I enjoyed another Thai meal along with a few glasses of red wine and good company.

 

There was a Thai sax player who provided the background music, along with backup tracks which were played in order to give him a rest, and I have to say he was very good.

 

It is an excellent venue and one that I shall be making my "regular" now that my Italian restaurant has gone, and not only that, the vista is fabulous, the service is great and I know the owner and her partner, so there is nothing else I could wish for.

 

I met up with a few friends and a little later in the evening we ventured up Bangla, firstly to Soi Freedom, where there was not much going on, then on to the Blue Lotus Café, which on Friday was deserted, but last night had a few customers sitting outside, which did brighten the place up a bit.

 

Then on to Soi Sea Dragon, before eventually being ushered onto a table (with stools) outside of the Tiger complex, not really where I wanted to go, but we were tired of walking up and down and being unable to make up our minds, so we just plonked ourselves down there and ordered a drink.

 

It gave me a chance to catch up with an Australian mate of mine who has come over for a few months, because we were able to converse (no loud music) and he was ruing the fact that he couldn't find a "good" Thai woman who would be willing to accompany him on some travels in Thailand, all paid for, and he is a decent, good-looking guy, so I thought it would be an easy thing, but obviously not, and as I said to him, I doubt very much whether he would find what he's looking for in Bangla and its confines!

 

Away from Bangla and looking out of my window this morning at the heavy rain, which flooded the part of Nanai Road that I could see, and I could also see someone wading through it and the water was up to their knees!

 

Obviously the enormous gratings which were put in further up Nanai, over new and enormous drainage pipes, aren't working (again), and not only does this seem to have been a huge failure, it presents a danger to those folks driving their scooters around, but then again TIT and this is only to be expected here with the lack of experienced planners/engineers with any common sense.
 

[London Lowf]

Good to read a more positive post from you and it's good to hear that Blue Beach Bar seems to be a success - I must admit that, after my visit shortly after it opened, i thought that its hidden-away location would scupper it. I look forward to trying it again when I return later this year.

 

Your friend needs to search online - scouting for girls (????) on Bangla is history!

[xylophone]

16 hours ago, London Lowf said:

Your friend needs to search online

Indeed he is doing just that LLF, with no success so far.

[Rhacsyn]

Small world. Met a fellow TVF poster at Blue Beach and it was pleasing to note that they appear to have adopted a number of suggestions posted on this thread. Signs on beach road and lit signs throughout as well as on the beach. Extensive menu and extended happy hour from 4pm to 7pm. Flyers given out in form of menu to the beach vendors etc. All posted on here and together seem to be having a positive effect.

 

So may be an old thread but........

 

[HighPriority]

On 3/27/2022 at 9:00 PM, London Lowf said:

In a way it's a shame that Bangla has lost its sparkle for you - it's probably only a matter of time before the same happens to me and I go off and marry an Esan girl and become a gentleman farmer!

LL, nobody's going to confuse you with a gentleman !

????

[xylophone]

On 3/27/2022 at 6:30 PM, London Lowf said:

In a way it's a shame that Bangla has lost its sparkle for you

I have come back to that point LLF, mainly because I went out last night to catch up with a couple of friends and to have dinner at the Blue Beach Café and Bar (or is it, "Restaurant and Bar"?) and as before it was good/enjoyable, and although not packed, had a fair smattering of customers which is good to see as it is an extremely good restaurant and bar with unmatched views.

 

After eating and a couple of drinks, three of us decided to wander up Bangla to catch up with a girl that two of us knew from way back, who was just back in town.

 

That was pleasant enough, but the noise levels in both Bangla and the Sois was almost unbearable, and it reminded me of the point about losing it sparkle, because I really don't want to go out and get my eardrums blasted and be unable to hear what the friends whom I am with, are saying.

 

I now truly appreciate what it meant to be able to go to the pubs back in NZ and the UK, where light-hearted banter and laughs, gossip and local news, along with other tittle tattle, meant that the evening passed very pleasantly indeed.

 

Although I only go to Bangla once a week, in the main, I may well scale that back, because it isn't enjoyable any more, and only going to the Blue Beach café/restaurant and perhaps singing a few songs in Red Hot, are potential draw cards.

 

Bangla was absolutely heaving last night, and it had been for a few previous nights apparently, although possibly not on consecutive nights. 

 

I was surprised to learn that live sex shows were available in one "nightclub" where the "viewer" had to pay about 450 baht for a beer, and a friend of mine who had visited this particular place said it was bordering on the pathetic/disgusting.

 

Moving away from Bangla and having a quick look round Patong, there are signs of life, "it's life Jim, but not as we know it" – – to quote "Bones", and I say this because people seem to be doing the same old things that their predecessors did, as did their predecessors, and all to no avail because their little business endeavours have failed time and time again.

 

A perfect example would be the south end of Nanai, about 200 m north of the new roundabout, where there was a small restaurant/bar (Belgian I think) which opened about a year or so ago, and which has now disappeared, and in its place there is a large rectangular shaped "building" which has sprung from this restaurant and a shop which was adjoining it, and it is, believe it or not, "A Massage Parlour".

 

I say "believe it or not" because just 10 m north of that is another massage parlour, so in a small stretch of road where nothing else does business, there are two large massage parlours, almost side by side??

 

From what I could see, this latest one is a joint endeavour between an old farang and a younger Thai woman – – who'd have thunk it!!

 

I could have put them in touch with a couple of sisters I know here, both of whom run massage parlours, and both of whom would like to sell them because they're not making any money.

 

Four recently opened bars in Nanai have very few to zero customers on a daily basis, and one of the larger ones has just closed, and if one does want to delve back into the Bangla scene, then it will be noticed that at least 50% of the bars in Soi Sea Dragon have very few to no customers, and Soi Freedom doesn't fare much better.

 

So it seems as though the stories I was told when I first came here in 2004 have repeated themselves over and over again, and continue to do so – – farangs opening bars with Thai girls, losing money, closing bars; farangs opening small businesses with Thai girls, losing money closing said businesses – – and the beat goes on, so the song said.

 

For what it's worth, I still lament the closing of my favourite Italian restaurant, "Salute", mainly because it was somewhere to sit and have good food with no noise so that one could hear conversations, also if I had a special bottle of red wine (my passion) I could bring it along to the restaurant provided I let the owner's wife have at least a quarter of the bottle, which was no problem, and I wouldn't have minded paying corkage, but they wouldn't accept it!

 

Change is constant, and for me the constant loud noise in Bangla and its surrounding Sois means that I will change my modus operandi.

[London Lowf]

2 hours ago, xylophone said:

That was pleasant enough, but the noise levels in both Bangla and the Sois was almost unbearable, and it reminded me of the point about losing it sparkle, because I really don't want to go out and get my eardrums blasted and be unable to hear what the friends whom I am with, are saying.

Well, I have no friends and drink alone - I also have more than 50% hearing loss and so maybe that is why I still found Bangla bearable and generally enjoyable.

 

Also, apart from the odd "Where you from?" and "You come alone?" from a new girl, most of my regulars bars back in Phuket now know that I am perfectly happy to be left alone.

 

The pubs in my local south coast town back home are, with rare exceptions, populated by loud and foul mouthed yobs (male and female) and I can't wait to get back to the relative civility of Phuket. My local Wetherspoon (a huge UK pub chain) feels the need to have three quasi-police uniformed bouncers patrolling the place every night of the week, even when there are barely a dozen customers on a Monday/Tuesday - several other town-centre bars here have a similar setup. Would you want to drink in a place like that? By contrast, the "security" on Bangla is very discrete and only emerges from the woodwork if a punter has very seriously over-stepped the mark.

 

 

 

 

[xylophone]

Two items of interest here, one regarding Covid and Bangla, and the other regarding big after hours parties.

 

When entering Bangla Road, at the "checkpoint" one's temperature is measured and if the person isn't wearing a mask, then they are made to put one on; HOWEVER, once on Bangla Road, the majority of punters don't wear the mask, so the chance of catching/spreading Covid is somewhat enhanced, and this also applies to the bar staff.

 

In fact a couple of months ago, feedback from a few bar owners and others "in the know" was that they were finding it hard to fully staff their establishments because many of the girls had Covid, however some of the girls with milder cases were still working irrespective of being contagious!! Not a good look, and the bar owners were not always in the know about this.

 

Based on what I know, I would suggest that Covid is far more widespread in the Patong nightlife scene than has been reported!

 

The other newsworthy item is about the after hours parties being held at a certain resort in Patong, to which the local BIB turned a blind eye, which of course had nothing to do with the majority owner of the resort or his previous association with the law here, or heaven forbid, any brown envelopes changing hands!

 

It was absolutely no secret as just about everybody in the entertainment business here knew all about it and often recommended a visit if one wanted a drink after the "curfew" came into being.

 

So what does the above tell one about Patong? Well, nothing that we didn't already know, in as much as money is the key driver and will encourage sick girls to work and possibly spread a contagious disease (via airborne transmission, just to get the record straight) and money and power will buy a lot of "turning a blind eye" activities, and it will be interesting to see the result of this latest investigation into the Patong BIB activities........unless of course, more blindness occurs!

 

On my last visit to Bangla, I said it was "heaving", so despite all of the downside potential, Patong is working hard to regain something of its previous lustre, even amongst curfews, viruses and "after hours" shenanigans!

 

And for the record, I won't be out and about in Bangla for a while because I have got Covid and am self isolating and testing at home!! 

 

C'est la vie!
 

[xylophone]

I am now clear of the dreaded Covid, at least according to the last three tests I've taken, so after contracting "cabin fever" for being locked up for so long, I decided to take up an offer by a couple of friends to visit Bangla on Saturday night.

 

I took a motorbike taxi and went along Beach Road, and what was surprising was the number of restaurants and shops which were open, compared to what I remember being the situation just a few months ago, where the place looked like it was almost semi-derelict, so someone has done some good work on getting the place up and running again, and they were rewarded by a fair number of customers frequenting their establishments. Good news.

 

We started at the Blue Beach Café and Restaurant with a light meal and a few glasses of château collapso (well at least I did) and with the light background music and just a smattering of customers, it was good to be able to sit and talk and not have the eardrums ringing.

 

We had heard that the 11 PM closing time was going to be strictly enforced, so we were out on Bangla at about 8:45 PM, where we bumped into another couple of friends of ours and decided to have a drink with them in the Black Horse bar, which was always a favourite of ours, but now the current manager seems to be intent on damaging ones hearing with the level of noise, so two of my friends left after one drink, and three of us left a short while later – – I just will never understand why bar owners/managers decide that they should wind the noise and base up on music in a bar which is no more than 4 m x 3 m??

 

After that it was off to Red Hot to listen to a bit of music and for me to see if my voice had made it through Covid, which thankfully it had, and we caught up with a Finnish guy and his Thai wife there and it was good to see them as we had seen them a few times previously.

 

The place wasn't absolutely packed, but it was about 60% full and the band was, as always, excellent.

 

Bangla Road itself was fairly busy, obviously nothing like the halcyon days, but busy enough to let one know that there was still "life in the old dog yet" (and by "dog" I was meaning Bangla Road not me!).

 

It made a change from what has become somewhat routine for me, and knowing that I can sit and have something decent to eat, with a glass or two of red wine and have a chat to friends at Blue Beach Café and Restaurant, is comforting indeed.

 

If I then should decide to wander up Bangla for a look, then so be it, but it becomes the less important aspect of the evening, whereas once upon a time it was almost my "raison d'être".

[London Lowf]

Good to get an update Xylo and I'm glad that you have recovered.

 

I only wish that I was there to be able to contribute to the forum - but at least a five-month holiday last visit means that the next one will come around quicker ????

[Patong2]

There are a few more businesses opening up and things look a little better but more tourists are needed desperately.

Street lighting is terrible with large areas left in total darkness at night. The rear of Jung Ceylon from Soi Sansabai along Phang Muang Sai Kor Rd to the roundabout. Soi Sansabai is total darkness East of The Yorkshire. Beach Road from Bangla to Sawadirak to name just a few. It looks so seedy and rundown and no tourist in their right mind will venture along areas like that.

Patong needs to appear bright, busy and safe to drag the few tourists here out of there hotels at night and give them something other than Bangla Rd to visit after dark.

Easily fixed.

 

[KarenBravo]

I hardly ever go to Patong nowadays, but friends that live there say once you get out of Bangla, the place is a ghost-town.

[xylophone]

1 hour ago, KarenBravo said:

I hardly ever go to Patong nowadays, but friends that live there say once you get out of Bangla, the place is a ghost-town.

Yes it certainly was like that six months ago or more, but now there is a bit of a revival going on, even outside of Bangla.

 

The "roller-blind" shops in various places have started to open again, and the beach road has livened up quite considerably, and at night the place is busy with restaurants and shops open again, so there is hope yet.

 

However it is a bit of a mixed bag and where one shop opens, the same shop might well close down just a couple of months later, as has happened to a very large bar which recently opened in Nanai Road, and has now closed!

 

The restaurant which opened up in Soi Banzaan just pre-Covid start time, Le Drinkeria, is at this very moment being taken apart, and I've no idea what else is going there, but it was a strange place to put it, however feedback suggested that the food was very good as it was both a bar/pub and restaurant.

 

Just today I was sitting in the newly opened Starbucks which almost faces Bangla, and noticed how many tourists there were milling around, many of them from "Arabic countries" by the looks of things, so that avenue for tourists seems to be opening up again.

 

As I said, very much a mixed bag as a lady friend who manages a massage shop (two in fact) was bemoaning the fact that in the last two days they had only one customer per day, and suggested that they should probably close their shops just off Nanai, and look at moving down to the beach road – – but of course the rents would be much higher, so it's a bit of a "Catch-22" situation.

 

It's now coming up to low season so it'll be interesting to see how the tourist situation unfolds over the coming months.
 

[DFPhuket]

21 hours ago, Patong2 said:

Street lighting is terrible with large areas left in total darkness at night.

Most of those street lights have been out for at least two years. Pre-covid it wasn't noticeable since all of the shops were lit, but now it's creepy and dangerous. 

[zzzzz]

good friend of mine owns a "real" vs happy ending, massage parlor on 2nd road opposite Christians.
He tells me that he is doing better than a normal pre covid low season but not as good as high season>
 

[xylophone]

I did say in a previous post that it would be interesting to see how the tourist situation in Patong unfolded, and it seems to have gotten better if last night in Bangla was anything to go by.

 

Not only in Bangla, but I've noticed other groups of tourists from other countries around the place, and in particular from India and Arabic countries so the opening of the borders has helped somewhat.

 

Bangla last night was fairly busy, and more so as it is late May, and the friends I was with commented on that fact, however the point I should make is that there were quite a few people walking up and down Bangla, but very few bars which were full, apart from Kangaroo Bar which always seems popular. And to add to that, the Tiger complex had people sitting out in front, and also at the bars going back at least halfway down the complex, so they would be very happy, as about six weeks ago, the place was dead/empty!

 

I had a pizza at the Blue Lotus Café and bar, which was ordered from the Blue Beach Restaurant and quickly made its way to me, so I was pleased about that as I was getting peckish, and the food from the Blue Beach Restaurant is always good and this was no exception.

 

I and a good friend of mine went into Soi Sea Dragon, and although there were a few folk in there, for the most part it was pretty empty, and the bar at the front of it, which used to play host to the girls from Suzie Wong's was now looking sad because of the girls departure, and very few customers, but I did notice some girls dressed in what looked like a cross between an air hostess and a nurse's uniform, and very smart they looked, so hopefully they managed to entice some customers to the bar a little later on.

 

We also had a quick look down Soi Freedom to see what was going on, and there was still no sign of the promised live band, and the place was devoid of customers in the main, and I still have no idea why someone would set up at least a dozen tables, along with chairs, halfway down that Soi??? It looked like it was the start of a restaurant, however it would be the last place any sane person would ever consider starting a restaurant, and true to form there was still nobody in the place. The tables and chairs were all new and wooden and looked very smart, so the whole setup would have been reasonably expensive, along with leasing the premises, still, TIT, and who knows what drives some people in this place.

 

My friend picked up his girlfriend and the three of us went along to Red Hot to spend a good couple of hours there, and I managed my three regular songs, and also added my rendition of, "House of the Rising Sun" which went down a treat as there were a few folk from around my era, who remembered the song, with a couple of them saying it was better than the original!

 

Looking further afield, as I said previously it is a mixed bag, and the bars and shops seem to be opening and closing with regular monotony, and I fear for the future of the new French Patisserie which opened on Nanai just recently, this because I haven't seen any customers in it in my many times of passing by.

 

Shine Bistro, in Nanai, has now become, "Drinking lizard" and I don't think it's the same owners, so that would be another one to add to the list of closures.

 

In general, Patong has not died a death which led to folks to celebrate this with a "wake", but could well be described as starting to come "awake" and I sincerely hope this is the case because there are many small businesses who need an influx of tourists, and none more so than the rows of Tuk Tuks which were parked end to end for at least 200 m down on both sides of the road down Rat-u-Thid – – but then again Tuk Tuk drivers have never had great reputations here and are disliked by many, but personally I have always had good and fair service from them and the motorbike taxis.

[DFPhuket]

1 hour ago, xylophone said:

but then again Tuk Tuk drivers have never had great reputations here and are disliked by many

I wonder if the Bolt and InDriver apps might finally do some damage to the tuktuks. For a cheaper price you can be in a much safer car, not have to deal with the haggling, nor do you have to try to explain exactly where you're going. 

[xylophone]

19 hours ago, DFPhuket said:

I wonder if the Bolt and InDriver apps might finally do some damage to the tuktuks. For a cheaper price you can be in a much safer car, not have to deal with the haggling, nor do you have to try to explain exactly where you're going. 

I don't know much about the services you mention, however I do know that in the main, the Tuk Tuk drivers are very aware that they have to smarten up their act, and just a couple of weeks ago a friend of mine who wanted to get home from Bangla to Karon late at night, was charged 300 baht for that journey, which I thought was very reasonable.

[Agusts]

2 hours ago, xylophone said:

I don't know much about the services you mention, however I do know that in the main, the Tuk Tuk drivers are very aware that they have to smarten up their act, and just a couple of weeks ago a friend of mine who wanted to get home from Bangla to Karon late at night, was charged 300 baht for that journey, which I thought was very reasonable.

I don't have too much against Tuk Tuk drivers, of course I never use them, but I can't believe the sheer number of them, they fill up all parkings and some , which annoys me a bit..., no idea how they make money though, there isn't so many punters for all of them to go around...!  

 

Last night at 1am a couple were asking how much to Karon from Bangla, quote was 300b, they said no, they offered 200b and walked, further down a big 4x4 taxi offered them 250b but they still walked...., I thought due to so many tuktuk they probably get their price further down , but 250b for a proper taxi I thought was reasonable...!!!? 

[Patong2]

Tried the new/reopened restaurant apposite Red Hot in Ratuchit Rd last night. Surprised at just how many people were around and how busy that intersection with Bangla Rd and Soi Sansabai was.

Things are definitely looking up and towards a recovery.

 

Wandered up Bangla Rd about 9.30pm and there was a good crowd there and the bars looked busy and all trying to outdo each other on volume. Not conducive for a sit down and have a quiet drink but we are not the target customer, so I suppose it works for the folks they are aiming for.

Main demographic appeared to be Indian and Middle Eastern.

 

Even found Amena Burger open in Soi Sansabai near where it was 15 odd years ago. Same lady and she was as delightfully friendly as always. 

 

It's great to see a few of these familiar faces around again.

 

Things are definitely un the upswing. Now just get rid of the Thai Pass and Insurance and let the tourists flow in.

[xylophone]

On 5/27/2022 at 10:22 AM, Patong2 said:

Tried the new/reopened restaurant apposite Red Hot in Ratuchit Rd last night

I meant to ask you about that restaurant, and its menu and food, because there has been a dearth of good restaurants around the place, however having said that, last night I wandered up Soi Sansabai and noticed a few more restaurants open, so a restaurant close to Bangla would be ideal for me.

[xylophone]

I went to Blue Beach Restaurant and café last night and had a lovely small pizza whilst I waited for some friends to arrive. We sat around chatting to another friend of ours who is associated with the restaurant/café before heading out to Bangla for a look around.

 

Just entering Bangla from the beach area and I came across an horrific sight of a fairly large Russian (or maybe Ukrainian) woman who had undergone some face filling surgery and she could have had a starring role in a "Freight Night" movie as she was fugly in the extreme.

 

Bangla was again busy and even Tiger 2 had punters sitting outside and also inside, although Soi Freedom was still fairly quiet, despite the ladyboys parading up and down in their finery, as well as accosting passers-by on the road itself.

 

On that subject, Bangla now has many touts trying to lure punters into "sex shows" and the like, and they are very persistent to the point of being annoying, and I could see this happening from a vantage point I had taken up in Blue Lotus bar and Café on Bangla (formerly Smiley bar) where I sometimes like to sit and watch the world go by, whilst chatting to a friend.

 

Caught up with another friend and the three of us trotted off to Red Hot where I was hoping to sing a song or two and although it was reasonably busy when we arrived at around 10:30 PM, it started emptying out a bit later on and I think I pinpointed the reason – – they had changed their song repertoire and the songs they were singing/performing didn't really resonate with the customers, although there were some dancing on the limited floor space, but that again thinned out as the evening wore on, and even a friend of mine commented on this as he realised that the band did not live up to my description of them.

 

I did manage to get four songs off, and I had people giving me 100 baht tips as I was coming off the stage and I always put these tips in the tip bucket which the band has stage front, although one customer was adamant that she wanted me to have it and almost forced it into my pocket. Another customer did the same thing and I did manage to slip the hundred baht note to one of the band members before she could see what was happening.

 

I left after midnight and the place had thinned out quite considerably and the only disappointment of the whole evening was the fact that the band had not performed to expectations with their new repertoire!!

 

As usual. the motorbike taxi drivers were on hand to drive me carefully back to my apartment and they always drive slowly and carefully, which I ask them to do anyway, especially as they have a 95 KG old farang on the back, who may or may not be a little worse the wear for over-imbibing during the evening!

[London Lowf]

I would imagine that the increase in touts is because "entertainment" is now allowed? I see from a video that the girls are now back dancing on top of the bars.