Your all off topic....move on
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Your all off topic....move on
^ Which of course are you too in posting the above - and as am I with this very reply - and you know what, look, the world is still turning and no one has died ! ( well I'm sure quite a lot of people have died in the time it took me to type this and you to read it but hey they certainly didn't die because a thread on a gay forum went off topic ( for the millionth time) so perhaps we can all finally move on past all this "its off topic nonsense" when the subject is nothing weightier than the volume in bars ( for the millionth time).
Well, back on topic, although I liked the diversion on Scooters. Recently in Boyztown, Pattaya at Oscars bar and noted that the bar next to Oscars, Serene, had increased their noise/music level. Serene is one of the worst noise offenders in that location. I suppose in two more weeks they will be back at the 747 jet noise level as before. Sad.
And that's one of the problems. If one bar turns up its volume, neighbouring bars compete. And so on.
One of the things I learnt a couple of years ago when Copa was having its early-morning parties in the soi for a dozen people, was that there appears to be no co-operation among the business owners. A few weeks ago, Le Cafe was blasting-out massive volumes of music at 1730 to the consternation of others ...bars and hotels alike. The bar-owners should understand that Boyztown needs all of its bars and hotels to succeed; this puerile attempt to engage in "volume-battles" is ultimately ruinous to all.
I should add that I found the noise levels improved this month; with the exception of Le Cafe. Its karaoke nights, when drunks sing tunelessly through the wee hours at astonishing volume-levels while everyone else is trying to sleep are unbearable.
Regarding Serene bar or "Serene Night Club" as they bizarrely call it:
The last time I wasn't in Thailand I (obviously) imagined that their noise level is in inverse proportion to the number of patrons they attract.
Most evenings they seemed to have a maximum of 3-4 customers during the entire night and the handsome, dark haired waiter with the pink/yellow top and the impossibly tight, bright trousers spent most of his time just standing and looking into the soi.
On the rare occasions they had customers then often it was the same group of 4 younger ones who would buy a bottle and burst into laughing and whooping every so often (which is fine), but with one of them loudly and unexpectedly screeching at the top of "her" lungs in that affected way that some young queens do to get noticed.
I bought one drink there just to sample the atmosphere and even though I had the lowest of expectations I was still disappointed.
A rather bizarre venue altogether.
I miss the music outside and the party atmosphere. However, I stay at Ambiance Hotel and do appreciate a lot to have the choice for a sleep before 4 am.
Indeed, Oscars is often packed with many customers and Serene just next to it is empty. Maybe the sweet staff?
The staff at Oscars are not shy about, pardon the pun, sucking up to their customers. I love it.
In Hua Hin there's a straight bar called The Romantic - for a long time now, when the noise from neighbouring bars ratchets up, they turn their own music off.
- it's a very popular bar..
I find a definite distinction between 'enclosed bars' aka..Agogo bars, and beer bars. The same sound level in an enclosed venue is completely different from that of an outdoor beerbar. Serene might well be the exception as it sees itself as an open fronted night club and in high season, specifically high Russian season it is exactly that, and so increases the volume accordingly at times.
Often the show element in Agogos or the specific showbars is too loud realistically for the size of the venue, but I can rarely think of an occasion in a Gogo bar where I've felt the volume too loud when the boys are dancing. Anyway I'm there hoping the boys onstage will entertain by...erm...dancing and so disco music is required. I disliked the can-hear-a-pin-drop atmosphere of old funny boys, but rule of thumb for me is, if in a Gogo bar and I can hear the monotonous drone of either Germanic or certain North American booming voices then the music volume is clearly too low.
In beerbars again, I cant really think of a situation where it has been too loud, the volume dissipates outdoors anyway. Against the argument for no/very quiet volume were the Jomtien Bars in the days immediately following the Kings passing where next to no music was heard, and it was eerily quiet with no atmosphere. The Dolce Vita waiter told me the boss there had put on some music just to cover the silence and the female next door at LN snooker bar complained to him, so he switched it off immediately. It was more about what one was 'seen' to be doing in relation to 'respect' rather than any reality. In the following days when the volumes gradually increased it added to the enjoyment immensely. Here I'm not talking about 'partying' level volume as clearly that would have been totally unacceptable, I'm talking about a reasonable volume background music.
Again, there is 'loud music' and 'extremely loud' music. I class the clubs and discos as extremely loud, in Hollywood it is often simply too loud to enjoy, often NAB likewise. But you know in advance they are going to be extreme so the choice is there at the door...go in or not.
So in the agogos/beerbars a) and b) .In clubs probably c).