For some people this may be of no interest at all but being in business in Thailand I thought this was of note and just shows you how hastily decisions are made in Thailand even to the confusion of large Thai owned businesses. Last night we had a meeting with one of the large breweries and beer distribution companies. He was late to our meeting and was explaining he had been on the phone all day and meeting with some Thais in the Ministry of Culture. People may or may not know that there has been a lot of discussion about banning all forms of alcohol advertising and promotion in Thailand. It seems a last minute decision was made to ban all forms of alcohol promotion and advertising along the footpath of Khao San road. The purpose is to protect the Thais from drinking too much and thinking about booze. Last time I checked Khao San was a massive tourist draw but maybe I am missing something.
This exec discusses further that alcohol sales are down overall and he feels the reason is the tourist issues and of course all the closings but he lamented that his stats show the tourists venues have been affected the most since cheap Thai booze is moving along fine. For me it makes no sense at all and I still stand by the fact that this will affect tourism in the log run. Obviously this could blow over and then again maybe not but the exec went on to say that they will now curtail investing in that area because they don’t know the long term decisions. This means hiring less staff, less pr girls and buying less equipment which must have some trickle down effect on consumption.
For example - as I was closing the pub the other night I had a nice UK family come in looking for a place to watch some of the Euro football games. Of course I had to close at 1 cause as a fully licensed law abiding pub owner I am not allowed to stay open past 1. Yes - open an illegal stand on Sukhumvit and you can pour all night. They asked where could they see the game. I told them their best bet was their hotel but of course what is the point of going on holiday to a foreign country and staying in a hotel. I gave them some other options but frankly all the decent places would be closed since only slutty after-hours places stay open late. That again makes no sense. The family even mentioned why can places like Patpong with young women for sale be allowed to stay open but a decent place to get a drink, food and watch the game had to shut. I agreed that it was all pretty dumb. So I still stand by my point. This current crap is not cleaning up anything and is inflicting more damage to the standard tourism trade than it is to naughty nightlife which really is pretty dumb if Thailand wants to progress but maybe none of this is really about progression.
Maybe they just don’t care.
View all comments by Young Royal
yr - it could just be that simple.
View all comments by smitty
I like the pics of the escalators. Did anyone ever bang a girl or got a BJ on an escalator and came before he reached the top? Just curious…
View all comments by Phoenix
Look what happens to the quality tourists that Thailand is enticing to visit.
After being toosed out of the pub, that poor family then needs to use one of those horrible baht busses to get back to the room.
View all comments by Khun J
p - thanks. being the stats whore that I am I figure posts with pictures always get more readers. Enjoy the escalator porn. I got a few more in the can.
kj - or worse they got ripped off by a taxi but we can’t talk about taxis here anymore.
View all comments by smitty
SMITTY…”…I thought this was of note and just shows you how hastily decisions are made in Thailand…”
No, actually it seems to me that the more important point to make is this: decisions AREN’T made in Thailand. No self-respecting Thai (and that’s all of them, mate) would ever be caught making ANY decision without covering all his bases and making exactly the opposite decision, too, probably the very next day.
To whit……
We’re going to ban all liquor advertising…no, we’ll just ban some kinds of liquor advertising, but not all…okay, we won’t ban any liquor advertising…no wait, maybe we will ban some liquor advertising after all….
We’re going to close the old airport and combine all local and domestic flights at the new airport…no, we’ll open the old airport again and move the domestic flights back…okay, we’ll move some international flights back to the old airport, too…no wait, let’s move all the flights back to the new airport and close the old airport again…
We’re going to have an elected government…no wait, we’ll have a military government…no, let’s pretend to elect a government and have a military government, too…fuck it, let’s not have a government at all…
You get the idea.
View all comments by Old Asia Hand
Which brings up the subect of tourists with baby strollers and tourist families, you know, mom, pop and version 2.0 kids.
I keep seeing these on soi 5 - 1.
Now it’s a free country but I don’t get it.
First, it’s a billion degrees.
Second, the sidewalks weren’t designed for strollers.
Finally, seen one temple and one mall, and you’ve seen ‘em all, haven’t you?
Shouldn’t they be on a beach or at d*sneyland?
What’s up w/ that?
View all comments by Mr. Kotter
k - I am always weirded out more when I see them strolling walking street pointing at the girls. I figure they should all be at Ripleys at the top of the Royal Garden Plaza.
View all comments by smitty
I think the escalator idea could grow! How about hotties on escalators? Phoenix - I haven’t unfortunately. Good idea though!
View all comments by auk
auk - interesting but why ruin the simple allure of the escalator with pictures of young thai girls in a modified uni outfit baring their naked ass from behind as they blissfully ride the machine unaware that I am perving. Please…
View all comments by smitty
I need the pure steel of the escalators, no distracting human flesh please. Auk, the one of us who makes it first and can provide pics to prove it wins…. an escalator?
View all comments by Phoenix
Guys, been reading this blog for a while now as it’s a great site to learn about expat-life in Bangkok/Thailand….keep up the good work!
As for this post: eventhough I can imagine that all this turmoil can be frustrating, it beats that highly overorganized bullshit with all its petty rules that I live in here in Amsterdam…..
I hope to be back in BKK soon (maybe next month) and I don’t care that much what airport I’ll land on……..maybe the new Mango will be open, I’ll be sure to come around for a beer or to!
Cheers from Amsterdam,
P.
View all comments by Paraquat
You pay more or you make a policeman a Thai partner in your bar and you stay open later. Simple. Foreigners always look for Western logic in non logical country. Until the end of time I think foreigners will be coming to Thailand and then posting their dribbles about why doesn’t this or that follow normal rational? I guess they will always find an audience that is willing to commiserate, but there is one simple answer for most “How?” and “Why?” questions in Thailand: Money = Influence = Power
By the way Smitster, I think you should do an edit on your Word Press theme. Mainly would be good to edit some of your theme files so that it shows author’s names on posts. Would make much more sense. Otherwise you never know who’s words you are reading unless you add them into the title of the post. I would also switch to a 3 column theme, but that is just me. The Cutline 3-Column Split theme is one of the best and easiest on the eyes. They also have a support forum and very easy to edit and customize the theme.
View all comments by Cheapolay
I’m still waiting for the porn on the escalators shots. Anyone got any?
Is Nana’s escalator still down and out?
View all comments by arttv
Escalators again? Ugh!
View all comments by Cheapolay
Well, until about a year or so ago (not sure of the exact date), all pubs in England had to close by the ungodly hour of 11:00pm.
Like you guys, though, I’m at a loss to understand why the policy exists in BKK.
Smitty…what would have happened had you let them in and just served soft drinks or tea? Is that VERBOTEN as well?
View all comments by The Asian Badger
p - agreed but the worry is if shit like this keeps up then it will get as bad as the normal world. who wants that? hope to see u in the mango.
cheapo - the brewing company I mentioned in this post is one of the largest thai brewers. the sidewalk decision is moving the brewers away from the direct marketing. you always bring up the thai connection stuff and how to run a bar and I agree with u. But this was to show u that even the big thais right now are getting screwed by the current administration. This is nothing to do with a farang thing.
we have mentioned on the blog many times - all reader submission will tell you who they are by. pmmp is using that format as well. everything else is me.
thanks for the theme advice - this is a 3 column layout.
a - they put in a new one. not sure it is running yet. they also used glass which I predict will get bashed up over time but glad to see they put a new one in.
c - more shots on the way. glad u like em.
ab - yeah - we are all at a loss right now.
I can let them in. they already were in but I needed to close. point is - no one really wants to stay open for another hour or so for a few people. not a lot of money in that. my point is why is it like this at all?
View all comments by smitty
Yes, I see your point about what is happening with the bar rules and I will try and feel for you. I wouldn’t actually call it being screwed though. When you open a bar in Thailand you are never promised that you can do anything by anyone except possibly the person who is selling you the dream. People generally know these things when getting into this business in Thailand and that they will have to make pay offs in order to be able to operate their business at all, that more influential competitors may try to put them out of business using unethical practices, and that the permitted legal hours of operation can, may, and will change at any time (STCWN). Getting into the business and saying you did not know these things and that you are being screwed when there is a change in policy at any given time is pure negligence and stupidity I am afraid. If people don’t like the rules of that game then there are plenty of other business models in Thailand you can get into which are not affected by those powerful forces.
As for as the changes themselves go, basically the original policies of the Thaksin administration are now coming back since his administration is back in power. It is just going back to what it was 6 years ago, nothing new. So you probably won’t see a laxing in any of the old rules (which seem new) unless there is a big fundamental change in the government again, which seems pretty unlikely at this point. Unless there are a large number of big players affected who can somehow influence the new government policies, I fear things may only get worse and may eventually reach the grinding halt that I predicted will happen with at least the go-go bars within a few more years. Personally it won’t make any difference to me, as well as most of my friends who don’t spend their nights in and around bars, but I do understand it will affect bar owners and people who like to stay out late drinking. Most bar owners I have met in Thailand though are not the nicest of people to put it lightly, so not much tear shedding will happen there. In fact, it will be a good way of doing a general clean up if and when it comes down. But at least 7-11 will stay open 24 hours, so grab a foot long and a big ole glass of Nahm Daeng instead!
As for the site layout, my suggestions still stand. Your assumption on people knowing who the authors are is just that, an assumption and I had no idea. And I realize it is 3 column layout now, but having all the content one side and then two columns bunched up on the right doesn’t seem ideal.
View all comments by Cheapolay
hey cheap - put down the chang and pull back on the horse.
no where in here do I see this as being about me. I am talking about a huge brewery who by the way did sway some people the last time some shit happened around here cause they threatened to build their new brewery outside of thailand. The big brass can thump their chest all they want - they still need business to grow here. end of story.
i am not bitching about being in business here either. I just write about it. We always have - from day 1. Some people do enjoy it and we have met a lot of cool people by opening up about it all. Maybe u know it all already so don’t read the stuff then.
I agree with u - this is just Thaksin coming around again. Funny thing is Thaksin fucked a lot of the tourism up. His big ideas like the elite card are doing real well last time I checked.
Normal tourists are tiring of it. I see it every day. They complain about not knowing when and where they can smoke, not knowing what stays open late and what does not. This is nothing to do with the naughty shit - just normal folks looking for a beer and burger.
Personally as a bar owner - I don’t mind the cleanup or the crackdowns since the licensed, obeying the law places will do even better if the clean up really happens.
I also agree they will try to choke off the naughty nightlife and they probably should but why throw the baby out with the bathwater?
Thanks for your blogging tips. No layout is perfect but changing something that works and people are used to probably holds little value at this point.
I just wish 7/11 had some decent dogs.
View all comments by smitty
No worries Smitty, and you seem like a good guy, so I wish you all the best with your new business once it gets going.
As for the disgruntled and confused tourists you refer to, not a bad thing either in light of the big picture. Inflation in Thailand is fast becoming a problem here, not just for local foreigners, but for locals as well, so a force that curbs the number of tourist visitors coming here could help to add in a much needed control factor to inflation at the moment.
With tourism being a continuously growing business in Thailand, it definitely plays into the cost of things here. A lot of inflation is blamed on the rising cost of oil and that it affects everything down the line. It is true to a degree, but largely they are taking the piss in many situations. And when the Baht loses value against other currencies they raise prices to compensate. But when the Baht goes up in value what do they do? Raise prices again. I see it every day despite the fact the Baht is the strongest it has been since before the 97 crash.
In most economies though there are different built in means of controlling inflation. Here it is only supply and demand and nothing else. No government intervention, programs, stimulus plans, etc. So curbing the supply will control the demand and thus hopefully reduce inflation a bit. And as other regional border countries like Vietnam start opening up to tourism more and more, it may eventually help to balance things in Thailand a bit more as well.
The reason I often raise the points you say that I already know about is that a lot of it may not be so obvious to a number of your readers here who are just getting one view of a situation from reading the author posts on this site. Not everyone reading this site is a seasoned navigator in Thailand and many of them are probably overseas newbies trying to get a feel for things before coming here and jumping into the cauldron. So what seems obvious to you obviously is not so obvious to others and giving them only one side could be misguided. I realize a lot of what is written on here is for the sake of banter and sensationalism, I am guilty of it myself, but when I feel there is a topic of interest, and it deserves a dose of reality, then I cut the bull.
Understood on the blog layout, but many web sites revamp their look all the time to try and keep things fresh. Another way of looking at it. The great thing about a content management package like Wordpress is that you can change the aesthetic look with just a couple of keystrokes and as often as you want without it ever affecting the content.
View all comments by Cheapolay
As for the hotdogs at 7-11. Maybe try ordering all 31 flavors at once and have them slice them all and put them in one big mixed bag together. Since Thailand is known for having something for everyone, maybe this is the approach you need to take with the 7-11 hotdogs as well.
Then dowse the whole lot with ketchup, mustard, that stuff they call mayonnaise, cucumbers (cucumbers on hotdogs?, yes cucumbers!), tomatoes, chopped onions, that garden weed they pass of as lettuce, and wash it down with a litre of nahm daneg mixed with nahm keow and you won’t even know what hit you. In fact your heart might be doing so many palpitations from all the cholesterol and sugar mixed together that you probably won’t even notice that bars closed a few hours early, Yeehah!
View all comments by Cheapolay
cheap - thanks for the kudos and hope do drop in for a beer sometime. I also hope u put up a reader submission at some point. I think u have a lot of interesting angles.
Inflation is a huge problem and going unchecked. I have said for a while Thailand needs another crash.
I am also in the export business for plastics and have been watching Thailand lose business very rapidly to Cambodia and Vietnam. The strong baht is way out of line and coupled with the US peso is killing it for some exporters here. Of course any factory layoffs will send some more girls down to nana or cowboy so it can’t be all bad.
feel free to cut the bull all you want. Write something up to contradict everything I say - honestly that is the beauty of the blog.
This current version of the blog is a revise and being a stats whore I have found that the audience seems to drop off more with a redo and then slowly come back. For now we just figured people are used to it and they know how to use it.
Wordpress rocks. We have pushed it to new uses with this site:
http://www.durianseed.com
thanks for commenting.
View all comments by smitty
smitty, i was thinking of you guys when i first heard about this law - the alcoholic beverages control act. it’s obviously turning into a big pain in the ass for the major distributors, because they don’t know what they can do in terms of advertising as it’s not an absolute ban (you can show the product as long as it’s in a way that doesn’t encourage others to use it, “directly or indirectly” - whatever that means. there is another equally vague exception as well). apparently, they can still do the types of ads you see at the theatres here (like the singha one with the competing drummers at the beach where there’s no mention of singha until the very end and it’s just an image of the bottle with the words “with music comes friendship” or something like that).
it’s even a bigger headache for pub owners like you guys. promotions are no longer allowed (i.e. offering alcohol at a discount). it may also be that you can’t have signs with images of the bottles or the containers either, or girls with green heineken shirts for that matter.
fortunately, the act calls for the establishment of two national committees and one for each province to “help” clarify all of this. sounds like another no smoking law - i.e. another chance for the powers that be to collect a little extra cash.
View all comments by go go groupie
gg - thanks for pointing this out.
A lot of people translate my bitching about some of this into whining - when it is the exact opposite. What customers don’t want to talk about is things like this are creating inflation in the bar biz and the cost has to be passed on to someone. And it will be the customer.
I plan on writing more about this but people keep pawning of these things as typical Thailand. This is not typical - it is new and it will affect the biz. Currently beer companies in Thailand give free equipment, promo kegs, promo girls and lots of advertising support.
Pretty simple. No free equipment then bars have to buy it.
No promo girls means that to preserve the level of service customers expect - bar owners may have to increase staff. These promo girls are free to the bars.
Promo kegs even out the cost of the pour. No promo kegs means beer prices might go up for bars to preserve their margins.
No advertising means that the bars are not promoted via the beer companies so the bars may have to suck some of this up if they want to kepe their presence known.
so this little act will have big ramifications. Most of which will eventually hit the cost to the customer.
In case no one has noticed inflation is way up in Thailand. Cooking gas, basic consumables for the kitchen, and fuel going up hitting transportation cost means that bars are getting cut into already.
This so called advertising protection act is another blow. A lot of bars are not exactly rolling in it - contrary to popular belief so none of this helps.
And to top it all off this will just be another market for the police - as u stated. The list of items the police are now making money on is larger than it ever was - even for totally legal bars. And believe me - having a Thai partner means nothing with this stuff.
View all comments by smitty