Not sure what things were like last night but both Thursday and Friday the men in brown were out earning their paychecks - not the under the table kind since they were out shutting everyone down. We mentioned the new world order a few days back and everyone assumed we were joking. From my understanding Pattaya is still a bit subdued with only a few places staying open late and Bangkok is feeling the pinch for sure. Why is this happening? Who knows. It could be the new administration wanting to look tough or it could be the change the monied Thais have been seeking. All of this could blow over but who really knows at the moment.
BBK wrote an awesome piece yesterday about Thailand and how things work. Generally I agree with it but I still don’t quite understand what Thailand wants at the end of the day. In this post, Pattaya Rag mentions the huge tourist projects Thailand has tabled to kick things into gear. Okay. I still say though that Thailand does not really need to spend like this to attract tourists but they could stop doing all the stupid things that are driving tourists away.
The list of stupid things Thailand allows that is hurting tourism:
- Taxi corruption at the airport and all over town for that matter.
- The unclear smoking law.
- The non-drinking days that ensnare tourists but allow the Thais to drink as much as they always do.
- The zones. Let’s face it. The zoning of Bkk nightlife is idiotic at best. Most of the places the tourists hang out in are not zoned and therefore closed early but the zoned places like RCA allows the locals to drink later than the tourists.
- Ineffective tourist police. Have you ever seen them when a tourist is really in need?
I am sure there are plenty of other items one could list but I think these ones are pretty big and effect tourism to Thailand. The big fight is coming though. What is it?
The current administration has always been known for wanting to get rid of the neon - as I like to call it. The neon is the notorious places where Farang go to consort with Thai bargirls. I don’t think they will mess with the massage parlors, the g-clubs and the other large Thai entertainment venues but they would love to lose Nana, Cowboy and Patpong in a heartbeat. Can u blame them really? If you look at the activity around these places most countries would have already figured out a way to get rid of these areas.
Sure the police are making money from them and we all know that a serious amount of tourism has to be attributed to these attractions but I don’t think that will stop Thailand from wanting to lose these areas. You see this pressure in Pattaya and we all know the Farang oriented areas in Bangkok have only gotten smaller. Remember Soi 10? The Asoke corner? Washington Sq.? These places are either gone or a shade of their former glory. I will admit soi 7/1 was allowed to sprout up but net, net the total area of neon is less know than in the past.
Just look at the tabled tourism projects for examples of what kind of tourism Thailand wants and what kind of tourists Thailand wants to attract. Remember BBK’s post about the Golden Age of Thailand? They way I have always interpreted that post was that Thailand won’t get any better than it is today. So enjoy it whilst u can is my theory.
As for the crackdown on Friday. Spice and Tunnel were both closed by 1 and 2. Cowboy and Nana were closed by 1. I don’t know about RCA but my guess is that is stayed open until 2 or maybe 3. RCA is all Thai owned and usually not messed with. From what I understand though Spicy and Boss - all police owned clubs stayed open as normal. Even in this corruption filled world - the corruption is not as equal as people like to think since I am sure the owner of Spice who is connected to the Police pays tons of money to stay open late.
Cowboy and Nana are not in any zones so they will get the pressure until all of this is sorted. I am not sure what was happening in Patpong but they are zoned so probably stayed open as normal. Others who have been around here longer than me say this is business as usual and I tend to want to agree but somehow I think that things will change if the people currently running this place have their way.
As for the Lame Ass Bar Award (LABA) - I bestow this distinguished honor to The Tunnel. I try to love this place. Why? Well, for my taste, it is the best the after-hours scene has to offer. Great tunes, a better crowd and a decent bar selection. Given all this they get packed and they always have customers. Given this they treat their customers like shit. Here is my example from Thursday night:
I had a friend in from Singapore and he wanted to go late. So after hitting the Pent we headed to the Tunnel. I think we walked in right around 1:30 am. The place was open and gearing up for a normal Thursday night. I had a bottle card that still had a week left on it. My bottle was a 60% full bottle of Smirnoff. So we used that to get in. I ordered 4 cokes as mixers and a bucket of ice. They opened all the cokes. We started drinking and surveying the scene. Then right at 2 am the lights came on. Our waitress comes over and says they are closed. I asked why at 2? She said it had been all week at 2. So I confirmed that she knew they would close at 2? She said of course she did.
I did notice there were no police so the 2 thing was self induced - meaning they knew they were shutting down. So there we are with 3 unused but open mixers. Of course they would not take them back. So I asked them to take my 50% full bottle of Smirnoff and to give me a bottle card. She refused. So did the barman. They said the card had almost expired anyway but it had not and no one would get the card back for me to prove it.
Okay. Who cares? I have 50% of the bottle left and you guys closed early and u knew u were closing early. No one cared. They told me if I did not take the bottle with me they would just take it. Can u say assholes? I can. I did. The white guy was not around for me to register my complaints but I would have had he cared to listen.
This is the attitude I can’t stand in Bkk. The, I have customers most of the time, so I don’t care how I treat them. Sadly this is coming from a Farang owned bar since usually this is the attitude we have come to expect from some but not all of the Thais.
The Tunnel should have had a sign at the door saying they were closing at 2. They should have told me to buy a ticket instead of using my bottle card knowing they were not going to give me another bottle card. I would have thought it was lame and asked why. Then, knowing they were closing at 2, I would have probably moved on. To let me use my bottle, let me open 4 mixers and then to not give me another bottle card is just really lame. I hope they have a crappy month.
Therefore to the owners and staff at The Tunnel - I hereby present you all with the Lame Ass Bar Award.
Enjoy.
Thais don’t like foreigners and relish any opportunity to get over on them.
View all comments by Mr Sabai
mr - I think that is a little too simplistic since a big portion of the money brought in and invested around here is from foreigners. Also - many of the places shutdown were owned by Thais. At some level they don’t love us but I think there is more to it than that.
View all comments by smitty
smitty - The beer bars in soi 4 (Swan, Hilary, etc.) all closed at midnight last night. I asked the Thai manager of the Swan bar I was in (the big one - whichever number it is), and he said the police gave very firm orders that every bar outside of the plaza had to close at midnight. He said that he expected it to last about a week, but I’m sure that was just speculation. Walking up soi 4, it appeared that every bar had indeed closed. The plaza then closed at exactly 1.00.
On Friday night I had heard that Spice would be closed, so I went to Scratch Dog in soi 20. Apparently the Thai after hours places (at least some of them) aren’t immune to this little crackdown either. It was closed, and one of the people standing around outside told me that Renovate had been closed lately too (although I haven’t been there, so I’m not sure about that).
View all comments by FOD
Yup - I was at Forte (RCA) until closing on Friday night. Left sometime between 2 and 3, I think. No cops in sight, but the smoking ban is being observed - smoking area on a little veranda outside.
Your experience at the Tunnel is depressing. LABA well and truly deserved.
View all comments by TAFKABBB
fod - so it looks to be pretty evenly enforced then. From what I can tell this is fiercer crackdown than I have seen in a while. Seems to be the only places immune right now are spicy, boss and lucky. all police owned. I also hear that bar yan tree has been staying open late. Interesting times.
t - RCA is in the zone and doing okay but further points to the tourists getting screwed and the locals making out okay.
I need to design the LABA award and probably make it a monthly ceremony.
View all comments by smitty
I heard from a friend in Pattaya that they are still closing places early. Most places at 2 and the After Hours places at 3.
As FOD mentioned, Nana Plaza went down at 1 and also Soi Cowboy closed at 1 on Friday night and probably the same last night. The Nana Hotel parking lot was rammed last night after 1 as one would expect.
Rumors keep coming in that it’s only for a few more days. Not sure why it would be temporary seems like it will stick a bit longer.
View all comments by pmmp
p - that is what I think is funny about all this. The Thais think this will help clean things up but it will just move the girls to the streets. Lumpini park has a had quite the numbers of girls roaming it lately…
View all comments by smitty
unless it reopened again later, Spicy was also closed at 1 am on Friday.
View all comments by anonzo
anonzo - just want to be clear if u mean spice or spicy.
spice is soi 11 and was closed.
spicy is rong muang and thursday it was open and a friend called to say it was open on friday as well.
View all comments by smitty
The important distinction is not whether a policy or action is good for Thailand, i.e. it will increase GDP or the standard of living of the average Thai.
What is important is whether the people with the power benefit from a particular policy.
The Thai government, the Thai bureacracy, and the Thai policy don’t give a shit whether tourism increases or decreases.
They only care if there is some way for them to divert part of the money into their own pockets.
Now that there is a new sheriff in town after the elections, the new sheriff has to start closing everyone down early, strictly enforcing the smoking ban, and other mindless regulations so after the “crackdown” when things ease up they have something to sell to all the venue owners.
It’s sort of like with the new government all old arrangements are void and have to be renegotiated.
BigBabyKenny
View all comments by BIgBabyKenny
Spicy closed at 3 on Friday, Saturday it was open later.
On Saturday Renovate lights came on at 2 but people continued to drink. Unlike Tunnel, not only did they give out cards, but our waitress gave us a discount card for Baryantree. Baryantree has been staying open until 5 consistently.
View all comments by bk22
I figured it will only be a matter of time until the blog is renamed “The Farang whines 2 much”.
Welcome to the 3rd World guys.
View all comments by bo
yupp i def mean spicy.. got there at about 1.15am and the guy outside with the torch was waving cars away saying ‘bit leaow’.. guess i shouldn’t have taken his word for it.
View all comments by anonzo
“Our waitress comes over and says they are closed. I asked why at 2? She said it had been all week at 2. So I confirmed that she knew they would close at 2? She said of course she did.”
Expecting cooperation from a waitress at an afterhours venue? You are an optimist!
I would have been kind of pissed off, too. Have the same feelings as you re The Tunnel.
View all comments by rick
Me, I’m glad places are closing earlier. As a Senior Citizen with a bus pass and varicose veins the size of soi cables, I’m grateful to the new administration for recognising that the Gray Baht needs to pick up a Nana carpark takeway at a reasonable hour. It’s nice to negotiate the zimmer through a crowd of young flesh at 1pm, in the knowledge that I’ll get a decent night’s sleep if I manage to digest that cheese-heavy pizza after my wretched and mercifully brief attempt at sack action.
View all comments by Pants Elk
Last Friday was by far the most disapointing night out in BKK in that everything shut at 2am max. No Lucky, Spicy, or Spicy 2, which all stayed opened until 5am the previous days. This was certainly a co-ordinated effort by the police hitting all the known after hour venues in force. The inevitable txt msg’s and phone calls at 1.30am to check for places that are open are becoming a bore. Taxis though are making a roaring trade going to and from one shut venue to the next.
Some say this is an effort to show off to Thaksin and his cronies.
Others say it is to out muscle the current boys in brown on the take since the coup…a diversion of the flow of cash from one bunch of corrupt officers to another.
Either way, it certainly screws up BKK’s reputation as a place to party if all your left with at 2am are the foodstalls and pool halls.
View all comments by kalonman
Thanks for the good news.
I’m with the guy who likes early closing.
Three years ago, the bars and Nana used to close at 1. Remember?
And really, what good can come from being in a Bangkok bar after that hour?
Gotta’ set the alarm and hit the lot tonight.
I’m all goosebumps.
View all comments by Mr. Kotter
To be fair, I’d bet “dollars to donuts” (for Americans) that they didn’t touch the Thai after-hours hangouts, of which Bangkok has hundreds, if not thousands.
If the after-hours scene is dead, you get hordes of girls on the streets, or rather at the bars that crop up on the streets. Swings and roundabouts…
View all comments by TAFKABBB
Offtopic…..Does someone know a reputable abortion clinic in bangkok?
View all comments by yesman
Mai Sprog Abortion Clinic & Spa …. soi 11
View all comments by doctorbond
BBK got it right. The tourism megaprojects are nothing more than the latest plan for government officials to line their pockets. Suvarnabhumi, and every other megaproject, are just opportunities for officials to dispense contracts to the biggest briber - er, bidder.
The reason they are tourist industry megaprojects this time around, is that tourism is flavor of the month for voters. All the Thais up in Isaan, the biggest voter pool, have heard about all the tourist dollars pouring in, but they haven’t seen any yet. And guess what? One of the megaprojects is to promote the Mekong destinations. Another is a Thai-Khmer cultural route. Woo hoo! Bill Gates is on his way to Buriram!
And don’t forget the new tourism route to Burma, for those northern voters. Never mind that all the other countries in the world have been boycotting Burmese tourism for decades.
As to the Government’s seemingly contradictory attitude towards late-night tourist venues and the nightlife scene in general; they are just telling the voters what they want to hear. Most Thais are good Buddhists - and the rest still want to be viewed as such. They are ashamed at their country’s slutty reputation, and they want to hear that the government is doing something about it.
Farangs shouldn’t take it personally. It really has nothing to do with tourists and mongers - it’s just the money. If they could sell farts, the government would tell everyone to eat beans, then pass draconian laws against unlicensed bean farming.
View all comments by MrLucky
bkk22 - a stunning display of customer service. I am impressed. I still need to check out baryarntree
bo - the new JD. thanks for the fine tip.
rick - just looking for them not to be assholes and take the piss out of their regularly paying customers. someday karma will bite the tunnel gang in the ass. rest assured.
kman - this is so true:
Either way, it certainly screws up BKK’s reputation as a place to party if all your left with at 2am are the foodstalls and pool halls.
and no matter what people think. this hurts tourism. thailand needs tourism in a bad way and the big boys will eventually hurt over this too. so none of it really makes sense.
mr lucky - can’t really argue with the statement but to to think that they can kill tourism and eff up the nightlife without consequences is silly. see all paint an glue sniffers on silom? I do everyday. Never saw them a few years ago. see all the office girls hooking from time to time? prices are inflated here and wages have barely budged.
yes I know the rich are in control and they like it that way. but the little people are hurting and the nightlife/tourism is where most of them make their rent. so look for more girls in the streets and more paint sniffers. could all be easily fixed. expand the nightlife hours, make farang zones and accept bkk for the party/slutty destination that we all know it really is.
View all comments by smitty
Wonder if the cops will give grace and allow the Irish venues to open til the wee hours?
View all comments by But Different
BBK: Right about the (non-)care for tousism of Thai authorities.
I support an equally enforced closing law. But to closebars and even clubs at 1 or 2 a.m. is just ridiculous. Keep the bars open till 2 and the clubs till 5 or 6, as it is the way in even most other Asian countries with much less “party-tourism”.
Now to cherish the equal enforcement of a senseless closing-time law as done by some submitters here is more than doubtful. I as a tourist don’t have any interest in such nonsense closing-times. I want to party, drink, and have a good time all night. Make a new tourist-friendly law first and then enforce it equally. Wasn’t tourism the largest industry in Thailand?
And now I am here since Saturday and wander around half-drunk in deserted street at 1.30 a.m. in the morning when in most other countries the party would have just started.
The Spicy opened late last Saturday, but I really don’t like it so much to go there every night as the only clubbing option.
But all my talk has the basis in assumptions that are not valid in Thailand. I don’t care so much for Go=Go’s but rather pick up random freelancers, so if I would not have such a nice GTG in Bangkok I would fly to the Philippines on my next trip, for sure. I want to love Thailand, but I can’t anymore.
View all comments by Phoenix
Yeah, smitty. There will be consequences, no doubt. As you note, we’re seeing them already. The little people are going to hurt a lot more, while the rich bugger off to their estates in Hong Kong, Singapore, London…
The only real solution is education: training the poor with the skills to turn Thailand into a country that produces competitive products for international markets, instead of cheap labor for Japanese- and Western-owned factories.
View all comments by MrLucky
p - this is all I have been trying to say, tourists will vote out bkk as the party place. thailand has done nothing to replace bunch and the girls will suffer which will move more to the streets.
1. the idea that thailand can give the nn a shutdown without coming up with alternatives is silly.
2. the idea that tourists are told when to stop drinking and go to bed is equally ridiculous.
yes. i know. 3rd world. thailand does what it wants. folks - they used to encourage the tourism, the nightlife, the bars and the girls.
so why the turnaround and how will they make up for it?
View all comments by smitty
Tafkabbb.. Your right on the money mate!!!
View all comments by Rusto1
In an effort to reduce binge drinking in England, especially everyone pouring out of the pubs at 11 and fighting Tony Blair introduced 24 hour drinking…. Of everything he did, this I liked best.
View all comments by Young Royal