I don’t know why I get irritated so much but nothing is bugging me more lately than when I am kicking back in a go go bar, drink in hand - staring at the ladies when my solace is broken not by a cutie looking for a drink but by a scary mamasan who stands next to me while waving her hand magician like in a big arc symbolizing - hell I I don’t know what but basically letting me know that there are women on the stage. Wow. Really, I did not know. We need a term for this gesture. Something.I have decided to come up with something for a our bar girl series shirts that will be used specifically for the mamasans. Something like: yes. thank u. I now realize there are women on the stage available for take out. Need to work on the translation of a bit more.
Fyi on the shirts. I am bouncing around ideas for number 2. So if anyone has a any suggestions please comment or email. Some ideas are:
What province do u come from?
This is a useful one since anytime u ask them where they are from u wlll usually get a - I come from Thailand. Well we need more details. By knowing their province u can better determine sack skills. Girls from Buriram are great in the sack. Girls from Trang are not so good.
Do u like girls or is it just a show?
This is an important one since they say they do but u need to find out if it is serious or not. This could play a role down the road.
Anyway. Hopefully u get the point. So send in your suggestions.
Was cruising Patpong the other night with a buddy and we hit King’s Castle 3. The famous, we are all cut men, go go bar. I must say. It was packed on a monday night. The music was cranking and the “girls” were actually having fun. I dig the ladyboys but it gets me down that the best bars these days are the ones without the girls. What gives folks? Couple this with every Crown Bar in Nana Plaza is mixing the boys with the girls.
There has been some news of a major crackdown in the nightlife business but honestly I have not been able to discern any real facts. Here is one link that seems to have kicked it off:
http://forum.myredbook.com/dcforum2/intl/4437.html
It seems to me that this is more of a cleanup in Pattaya which frankly needs a little cleaning up in my opinion. I love the party scene but not the rest of it. I have written before about my own run in with the mafia and word is on the street that a record numbers of bars are for sale in Pattaya. I for one think Bkk is better but what I love about Pattaya is the nudity and the late hours. Frankly if that stops Pattaya has nothing on Bkk. Same way I feel about Cowboy over Nana - if Nana could show as much skin it would be just as busy. The idea that one spot has better girls or a different feeling just does not hold water with me. Let’s hope there is not a crackdown across the board - Thailand is hurting enough.
Well. I plan on posting Full Moon Day 4 soon but nothing can top day 3.
I recently had 1000 baht of drink/barfine vouchers for a certain gogo, but had to leave after one beer due to the mamasan who thought she was a damn mime and the ugly bikini filler who thought this young and handsome man prefers the lower primates. Hope the pretty thing on stage I was smiling at gave them an earful later, although I suspect it is too late if the management has let it get that bad. Not surprising the place was nearly empty with just me and a few obvious regulars, and I hear the regulars are starting to move to greener pastures too.
View all comments by Cabby
My all time un-favourite mamasan is currently the old bat that runs the show, such as it is, at Moonshine Joint on Soi Cowboy. When I was last there there was exactly one attractive girl there, one marginal and the rest were ‘orrible.
I’d barfined the one good one and when I brought her back to the bar said mamasan wanted a drink. I brought her one to be polite - it was a tequila. She downed it and immediately wanted another. “My” girl looked embarrassed.
I wish I knew the Thai for “sorry I’m not going to feed your alcoholism”. I left as soon as I could and have not been back.
View all comments by Arthur
Hey guys,you’re the paying customers….you call the shots!
Sure,you want to be nice,well-mannered but when things get dis-respectful you have to be firm.The bars thrive on weak customers.
Mamasans are the most two-faced fuckers going.Hope she choked on her tequila.
One strategy I have used in the past,which was very amusing,to upset the management happened in Bus Stop on Soi 4.This was before the recent revamp.It was lunchtime with a skeleton staff,about 10 waitresses from memory.Plenty of falangs in for a drink and some food but not a place renowned for bar-fining.Myself and three friends thought we’d liven the day up by bar fining the waitresses.The fine was low about 300 baht each from memory so we clubbed together our three thousand baht and bar fined the lot.Sat them at our table and watched the management struggle trying to serve drinks and food etc.Very amusing. Moral of story;your money,it’s your call.
View all comments by ChelseaBlue
I hear u - I am not saying they have any power over me. I almost never give out drinks to anyone but the girl I am sitting with unless it is a crew of fun girls that I have known for some time. My point was more how irritating I find the whole - mamasan walks over points to the girls and looks at me. Or the ones that come over and ask for u to pay bar after one drink. I think all bars should fire mamasans. They should only work on recruiting - not be present in the bars.
View all comments by smitty
I can’t recall a mamasan I’ve met who who hasn’t been an annoyance, or provided any useful service for me. A couple of months ago, I told a mamasan ‘No’ when she said “drink?” and pointed to herself, only to see her about 5 minutes later returning to my table with a drink and barchit.I sometimes go into Rainbow 4 only to talk and buy drinks for some waitresses I know there. These waitesses make a show (for both the dancers and mamasans) of waving their hands toward their anorexic, robotic dancers, even though they know where my interests truly lie.
View all comments by DJ
A bit more annoying for me than a Mamasan pushing girls on me is something I’ve experienced at Mandarin my last two times out. My friend gets a lady in his lap and buys her a drink. The three of us chodi krap with our drinks. Then the girl feels I need to be hooked up so she walks off and then comes back with her dumpy friend and sits her on my lap. Thanks sweetheart. Now what, I have to buy her a drink? I don’t think so. Now I have to politely dismiss her. Thanks for the pressure. My guess is the Mandarin mamasans are behind this tactic. Lame.
One more thing, imho Angelwitch mamasans are the worse. Never buy them a drink. They will expect one everytime you come back. Also, if you think it’s good to cozy up to a mamasan so she will give you the inside track on the girls, think again. They are only out for themselves not for you so you really don’t know why she would suggest a particular girl. I’ve known the AW mamasans for a while. When I first came to bkk I bought them tons of drinks and they were my best buddies. A few months ago I needed them to help me with some inter-bar business regarding a problem between some bargirls and they totally blew me off. I couldn’t believe it. I thought they loved me. Not. I guess I should have bought them a drink first.
View all comments by pmmp
On the pattaya cracking down article, a few posts on redbook got it right. It’s all about the Police getting paid at the end of the day. The stricter the laws, the more the Police get paid to let you break them. Police, not the government and people via license revenue and taxes or the owners who stress everyday to keep the biz going, make waaaay more money than anybody else on Thailand nightlife business. It’s disgusting the greed and manipulation that goes on. Only honest press and honest politicians could possibly stop this. Ain’t gonna happen. The good news is that the nudity and bars staying open all night will NEVER end. If it does the Police will not get paid.
View all comments by harveywallbanger
Ya gotta wonder when they crack down on the Russian mafia in Pattaya. The hotel owners know it is a serious problem because in some cases they prohibit or severely restrict (e.g. large guest fees) “non-Thai” guests, which appears to be as direct a prohibition as it gets-for now. No problem for me because a) I was told that the good looking Russian chicks were priced at a premium (which I am not going to pay just to get my head blown off, and besides they did not look all that good), and b)I did not run out of Thais when I was there, although I surely tried my best.
View all comments by PB
I totally sympathize with your irritation at the redundantly gesturing mamasans. I went through the same thought process:
“Why the hell are they distracting my attention from the dancing girls….to show me that they have dancing girls?! Did I look like I was about to whip out a copy of Sarte’s ‘Being and Nothingness’ and bury my nose in it?”
After the initial incredulity, I quickly progressed to annoyance. I’d stare fiercely past their inane gestures. That, of course, had absolutely no effect and they continued to pester me.
Finally, my annoyance was transcended into surreal amusement, and I started messing with them. Everytime a mamasan or waitress would invite me to look at the dancers, I would gaze intently somewhere else - at the ceiling, at their shoes, at the couple mashing behind me.
They’d get a confused look on their face and gesture at the stage again, and again I’d look somewhere else - over at the bathrooms or at the bewildered punters being dragged in the entrance.
When they finally got the joke, I’d usually get a laugh and the mamasan-customer formalities would break down a little, and sometimes it even resulted in special treatment.
Though of course they’d have forgotten by the time I returned a week later and we’d be back to redundant gesturing….
View all comments by Mr Lucky
wow
I think this post has attracted the most if not the longest comments of any in a while. Good stuff.
Seems there is a shared irritation there for sure.
I feel a shirt coming on…
To all the bar owners. Curtail your pain in the ass mamasans and I bet u do a better trade.
laterz…
View all comments by smitty
Smitty, I’ve said the same thing myself so many times. And the clod in the red baseball cap at Playskool, NEP is by far the worse.
I normally either:
1. Feign shock and surprise - “My God, it’s full of pussy!”
or
2. Tell her to get fecked
or
3. Drink up and leave
Pmmp - yup, I get hounded every time I go to Angelwitch - the “two fat ladies” can be a laugh, but their incessant begging must end.
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
In defence of mamasans …
The gogo bars have many young, straight off the farm girls. They do need a bit of supervision otherwise it will be chaos. Good mamasans keep in the background and solve problems before the customers notice. Like any good supervisor really.
So far I have nothing but good to say about the mamasans at Rawhide. I have never been bothered by any of them, nor asked for a drink. I think they are a big part of why the bar has a reputation for being friendly.
View all comments by Arthur
Another blow to Pattaya:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6467073.stm
View all comments by smitty