Things are right busy these days and I can’t exactly explain why but hopefully it will all come together. I have not been planning to go out all that much but I end up going out anyway. Business in Thailand right now is just the shits. No other way to put it. Bar owners are not sure when to close, when to sell alcohol and when to allow smoking. You may assume that there is some agency or someone we can call to get these answers but that is just not the case because if they made all the rules black and white, enforced them equally and made it all public knowledge then the police would lose all their chances to make money. Frankly it is a mess and for sure it will continue to affect tourism and then next month some smart guy in the government will be quoted in the Nation explaining that tourism is down and they will spend 10 million baht to figure out why. Look folks - let me help. Quit shutting down the bars. Stay open later. Allow smoking or at least enforce the no-smoking law fairly. Quit telling Farang they can’t drink during election times. Last time I checked we can’t vote anyway. This place is mad. Anyway. More on the smoking ban later.
FYI : We are doing are best to update this Forum Thread as we get info on bar/drinking closures.
America. It pains me that my mother country keeps trying to enforce their pathetic view of the world on everyone else. Now they going after cock-fighting.
Samak. This guy is a character. First we have Samakonomics (basically Thaskinomics) and his delusional recollection of history. I wonder what will be next, handing out money at the airport for tourists to pay for the overpriced taxis who refuse to use the meter?
Ended up at a few of the after-hours venues recently and the music situation just plain sucks. Tunnel is about the only decent place for after-hours that has good music but they tend to repeat their sets a lot. Then there is Spicy and Spice. If you get to these places around 1:00 am or so they tend to be playing house, dance or top 40 mixed music. All good stuff, fun to dance to and generally appeals to everyone. Then for some stupid ass reason they shift to crappy hip-hop around 2:30 am or 3:00 am and the whole vibe changes. The only ones dancing are the girls and everyone else is bored. So tired of it. Sick of the HIP-HOP.
The other night a buddy and I decided to stop in and check on a few places we had not been to in a while. Namely the Hard Rock and CM2 in the Novotel. It was ladies night at CM2 so we wanted to see how good the pickings were. Let me just say that both these places are horrible. There we go. I have said it. I see no reason for anyone to ever go there but the more I pondered it the more I realized what a service these two places are doing for Bangkok and us locals. Think Tractor Beam.
Let’s loosely apply this definition of a Tractor Beam for purposes of this post.
- As a means of preventing an enemy from escaping, analogous to grappling hooks.
The enemy in this case is Farang guys who don’t know where to have a good time in Bangkok. Given this they somehow end up in CM2 or the Hard Rock thinking this is the best Bangkok has to offer for good times and P4P action. Let’s be honest though. These places suck. They are overpriced, have tired house bands, have worn out girls and service staff who could give a shit about customer service. The girls working these places are not the most attractive in Thailand and they are skilled only milking non-locals. You walk around and hear girls quoting 3,000 baht short times while they sip their cocktails that were purchased for themselves and their 3 friends.
At the Hard Rock you will pay about 250 baht per basic drink plus service charge and VAT. So Suddenly you are forking over 500+ baht for 2 basic drinks with the service staff asking for a tip on top of that. Both places just reek of the Hong Kong like freelancer joints where all the girls are over quoting and getting it and all the drinks are high priced and low quality. So why would you ever go to these places? You would not but still we should he happy these 2 lame ass bars exist.
Why? They permanently attract the worst freelancers in town from both the local and foreign market. CM2 is rammed with ugly Russians and Eastern European girls who quote 4,000 baht on up for short time thinking that they are somehow worth more than the locals. Please. They should be paying me. A simple walk around CM2 is like walking through 4 different bars all under one roof. You have the scary ladyboy section, the not so scary ladyboy section, the Thai hookers with attitude section and then the newbie but not so hot Thai hookers section. A couple of loops around the room is more than enough for any local guy to realize that there is absolutely no reason to come to CM2. For the Hard Rock - well. There are just not that many girls, they all have attitude and the prices are just ridiculous.
Still though - thanks to the forces of the Tractor Beam, these places attract all the guys who don’t know any better. They flock to these joints, drop a lot of money and take these girls to their hotel. Perfect. Keeps these guys out of the real freelancer places, keeps these girls from going to the real freelancer places and generally helps to ensure that the rest of Bangkok is free of these types of girls and the guys that pay for them. Perfect. Long live CM2. May the Hard Rock stay hard forever. I just won’t be going there.
More on the dis functional non-smoking law, the logistics of 3somes, the danger of Thai girls working in Singapore and why being a bargirl is sometimes better than being a farm girl.
Smitty… maybe if you could dance, you coud ‘bump n grind’ with all the girls?
Most girls I’ve come accross (literally
) tend to like hip-hop, so surely if the clubs have a set that the girls like and dance to, isn’t this a good thing?
View all comments by Daywalker
dw - u make a solid point but I say after hours clubs are all about me - the customer. The one buying drinks for the girls and the one paying the door fees and the one generally propping the place up.
Everyone dances to good dance music. The girls will dance to anything cause they have to.
so more dance music - less hip-hop will be better for everyone.
View all comments by smitty
Is this your way of saying that your next venture will not be a Hip-Hop club?
View all comments by Daywalker
Just thinking about this………
Without the girls, would there be any customers? Would you go to a place that has that horrid dance music (ahh.. those Ibiza days) if all the people there were male.
(I know penfold and yesman would!)
View all comments by Daywalker
dw - the girls will dance to anything. so I don’t think it is a big issue. I however tend to leave after about an hour of the tired hip hop. all my point is - I am bored of most of the AF hours joints right now and it is solely related to the lame music. Tunnel still rammed as usual due to the good tunes. I also like the type of girls real dance music attracts versus any old girl listening to hip hop. would any of the clubs still have girls if they had better dance music? I think so.
u may be thinking too much…
View all comments by smitty
Well, I am all fired up to come and patronise your new establishment, slam down 1000’s Baht every night and tell all my friends etc etc - that leaves you only two weeks to get your act together - I would hate to slam all that dosh down on someone elses bar-top.
View all comments by doctorbond
Hip hop, dance, garage etc. All types of music is alright provided the girls don’t get bored with it. When a place becomes tired it is usually down to repetitive, inane, boring music that can be of any type. I am a fan of the hypnotic isaan shuffle. You know that the dancers are saving all their energy for me later.
View all comments by RJ
So if all the ugly eastern euro girl go to cm2 then where do the hot ones go?
I stayed at this cheap hotel last summer and it must have had 10 euro girls staying there, clearly hookers and all hot.
Really I should have asked them.
View all comments by yesman
Smitty, ever been to Twisted in Soi 11 (opposite of the Ambassador)? Had a great time there last weekend, international dj’s (as in ‘European’) did a great job playing great house/dance-tunes, the dancefloor was packed with folks, loads of hot women. Don’t know how many of them were working girls. I immediately like the vibe of the place when I walked in there. Tunnel I liked too, music-wise….I only find the place a bit too dark…..still a good place.
I had ome to Thailand (2nd time in only 2 months) expecting a smoking ban as we are used to here in Europe, I was a bit surprised that is was hardly in effect!
Was in CM2 last Monday, the place looked a mess…..still picked up some hot Thai ladies to go to Tunnel with for a good time!
View all comments by Paraquat
drbond - not sure what u mean about a new establishment but u are welcome at the duke anytime.
rj - such a selfish thought.
y - u should have asked. I have rarely seen a hot ee in any of the freelance or after hours venues. One in a while but rarely. my guess is they are working as escorts, online or being pimped out but the girls in CM2 are not hot. Neither is the kazak crew that hangs in spicy. they also quote 4000-6000 baht.
twisted is not my fave but some say getting better. however it is not an after hours joint. tunnel is the best after hours when it comes to the music but yes a little dark.
will write about the joke of the smoking ban soon.
View all comments by smitty
@Doc,
Let us all know when you are slamming dosh on the Duke bar, and we’ll all come and help you. (spend your cash that is)
View all comments by Daywalker
The Duke it is - two weeks today - March 9th? Having landed that afternoon and having visited SOL I should be a fairly soft touch (no pun intended)for a few beers
View all comments by doctorbond
I’m doing my hair that day…
View all comments by Daywalker
which one?
View all comments by doctorbond
Interesting point… o.k.. I’m polishing my head?!
I’ll be propping up the bar the next day… slamming my wad of 1000’s (20’s) on the bar and lining the owners pockets.
Shall see you there if you have any 1000’s left?!
View all comments by Day Walker
Look forward to it - two beers and a quart of hair tonic it is.
View all comments by doctorbond
Cool.. and I’ll have 2 beers and vodka shot.
View all comments by Day Walker
View all comments by doctorbond
@Smitty - when you say the clubs play crappy HIP-HOP music, do you mean pure underground hip-hop that nobody has ever heard of? Or do you mean hip-hop from recognized MTV artists?
Variety is the key and I don’t like too much of the same music. The last two times I went to Bed, they just played stupid house/techo crap the entire time I was there. Everything sounded EXACTLY the same…just electronic melodies and beats with moronic drunken farang twisting on the dancefloor like they were having a seizure.
As for the places in Hong Kong…do you mean LKF and Wanchai? I’ve heard quotes between 500 - 1000+ HKD. Not too far off from the prices here considering that HK is way more expensive. You can find cheaper prices in Mongkok and the 141 girls but it’s more of a local scene as the girls don’t like foreigners.
View all comments by anon
anon - for me hip hop is hip hop is hip hop. I just hate it.
I love techno and house and funky house and so on but there can be bad music and or DJ in any genre.
I guess my point is that no girl in bkk should be quoting prices anywhere near hk like prices.
View all comments by smitty
true…but tell that to the folks at poseidon!
View all comments by anon
reference hot east euro girls.
They left ever night sometime around 10pm and would filter back between 6- 8 am. So I am thinking they were going somewhere. Maybe an after hours joint. A bkk mystery i guess.
View all comments by yesman
CM2 used to be a great place.
It started tubing when they let the Russian prostitutes out of the far back corner.
I guess it hasn’t recovered in the last 5 months.
The ladyboys are something new. It used to be a ladyboy free zone.
I sounds like they didn’t listen and haven’t made any changes in the band.
If only all the bar and club owners read the Big Mango Blog and listened–:)
http://www.tfs2m.com/?p=416
BigBabyKenny
View all comments by BigBabyKenny