wowpow
July 18th, 2006, 20:30
Many restaurants in Asia have lots of hard surfaces and few carpets and curtains which absorb sound. For some reason I find Pattaya restaurants noisier then elsewhere but there are prime examples in Bangkok.. I am full of admiration for the Bangkok MRT subway which is all granite, glass and stainless steel but, thanks to amazingly effective acoustic ceiling tiles, remains quiet.
Piped Music, Major offender - Designers put in sound systems imagining soft background music - harpsicords, pan pipes or muted strings. The staff come in in the morning and put in their pop cds and these stay on all the time - inappropriate, too loud and not even heard by the staff. Oddly I rather like V9 restaurant at Silom Sofitel where they have a DJ and play loud music but the quality of the sound is superb - same same Jupiter 2000 go-go bar.
Babies and Young children - Fine in Macdonalds and KFC and places with a playground. You know that sinking feeling that you get on a flight when at, the last minute, the young parents with the babe in arms and a ton of baby related equipment arrive for the 12 hour plus flight. Restaurants are the same. In one of Pattaya's better restaurants this week, a couple arrived at nearly 10 p.m. with a suckling infant which screamed incessantly. Why are the parents so thick skinned that they don't take it outside to spare other customers? Is it that they no longer hear the noise? I am of the old school and think that toddlers should be in bed by 6 p.m. and in a holiday resort , have a baysitter in case they have a problem. Asian babies seem to be genetically programmed only to gurgle and chuckle but I have never seen one in a good restaurant. The, newish, Park Food Court at Bangkok's Emporium Mall is by far the worst case that I have experienced for this class combined with the foulest accounstics imaginable.
Raucous groups. I am not thinking of LMTU at a PGF Charity dinner but large groups often with Thai ladies of short aquaintance, all wearing shorts, sandals and sweatshirts, swilling beer and having shouting competitions. In my experience the Germans excel in this class. There's little to be done but pray that any sensitive restaurant manager will not seat you near. My worst example was in a Micheling starred London restaurant sitting in a small side room next to a henparty of sixteen American wealthy wives - they could out-decibel the Germans any time without even trying.
Minor peeves which seems to be reducing are women who wear high heeled shoes which clack as they walk across a hard floor and toddlers in shoes that are designed to squeak loudly with every step that they take.
I often smile on skytrain stations when deafened by the amplified sound of The Whisper of the Wind, Green Music - soft and easy for relaxing and healing - as it blasts around the forcourt.
I am also bemused by the Thai capacity for not hearing things that they want to ignore and this can include loud music at a neigbours party.
Yes I do travel with ear-plugs and I am about to get some sleeping tablets for the flights.[/i]
Piped Music, Major offender - Designers put in sound systems imagining soft background music - harpsicords, pan pipes or muted strings. The staff come in in the morning and put in their pop cds and these stay on all the time - inappropriate, too loud and not even heard by the staff. Oddly I rather like V9 restaurant at Silom Sofitel where they have a DJ and play loud music but the quality of the sound is superb - same same Jupiter 2000 go-go bar.
Babies and Young children - Fine in Macdonalds and KFC and places with a playground. You know that sinking feeling that you get on a flight when at, the last minute, the young parents with the babe in arms and a ton of baby related equipment arrive for the 12 hour plus flight. Restaurants are the same. In one of Pattaya's better restaurants this week, a couple arrived at nearly 10 p.m. with a suckling infant which screamed incessantly. Why are the parents so thick skinned that they don't take it outside to spare other customers? Is it that they no longer hear the noise? I am of the old school and think that toddlers should be in bed by 6 p.m. and in a holiday resort , have a baysitter in case they have a problem. Asian babies seem to be genetically programmed only to gurgle and chuckle but I have never seen one in a good restaurant. The, newish, Park Food Court at Bangkok's Emporium Mall is by far the worst case that I have experienced for this class combined with the foulest accounstics imaginable.
Raucous groups. I am not thinking of LMTU at a PGF Charity dinner but large groups often with Thai ladies of short aquaintance, all wearing shorts, sandals and sweatshirts, swilling beer and having shouting competitions. In my experience the Germans excel in this class. There's little to be done but pray that any sensitive restaurant manager will not seat you near. My worst example was in a Micheling starred London restaurant sitting in a small side room next to a henparty of sixteen American wealthy wives - they could out-decibel the Germans any time without even trying.
Minor peeves which seems to be reducing are women who wear high heeled shoes which clack as they walk across a hard floor and toddlers in shoes that are designed to squeak loudly with every step that they take.
I often smile on skytrain stations when deafened by the amplified sound of The Whisper of the Wind, Green Music - soft and easy for relaxing and healing - as it blasts around the forcourt.
I am also bemused by the Thai capacity for not hearing things that they want to ignore and this can include loud music at a neigbours party.
Yes I do travel with ear-plugs and I am about to get some sleeping tablets for the flights.[/i]