Current Thailand Trip- a few updates/reviews.

[christianpfc]

There was a survey [citation needed] how the tips are distributed among staff, or rather how the collected tips are used, and one place (or rather the owner of the place) uses the collected tips to pay the electricity bill.

One more reason (I don't know where the money is going) for me not to tip. (That can be helped by giving it directly to the staff, so he can keep all of it to himself - but that would be unfair to those who do work in the background, and in a restaurant it's the cooking that is important, serving could be done by a machine).

[aussie_]

I was in DJ Station the previous weekend. It is a huge fire hazard especially when packed on the weekends. If you can get out you would still be trampled in the stampede to escape down the narrow entrance /exit. At 200 am it closed on the Saturday night and there was a mostly orderly exit but still some pushing from people in a rush to get out. If there was a fire at DJ it would almost certainly be a major disaster. I hope it never happens but it is so obvious there are too many people in such a dangerously confined space.

[newalaan2]

There was a survey [citation needed] how the tips are distributed among staff, or rather how the collected tips are used, and one place (or rather the owner of the place) uses the collected tips to pay the electricity bill.

One more reason (I don't know where the money is going) for me not to tip

Yes, but really CPFC you might be talking about one rogue owner amongst dozens, that is more like an excuse not to tip than a genuine reason. I always leave Bt20 in any folder anywhere, it's nothing....so even if the owner does steal it, big deal. But in reality you know and I know the bulk of folder tips are shared between staff. Like you I tend to tip directly to a waiter or staff member who has deserved it for whatever reason, but always leave 'something' in the folder. What irritates about the 'coins' at the bottom of the folder is the intent to mislead you or try to shame you into leaving an excessive over-the-top tip for virtually no service aspect. Agogo.....they take your order and bring it to your table sometimes without a word never mind any other 'service' aspect, yet 'expect' you to leave a tip of minimum Bt60 and try and trick you into leaving even more. If a customer was na

[Marsilius]

If a customer was na

Oh, dear. Can we assume that there is something other than the dreaded pound sterling symbol that causes posts to terminate without warning in mid-flow?

[cdnmatt]

Moses, change the charset of the database tables to UTF-8. Bet that solves it.

Your database tables are probably on the default charset of "latin1", which means they only allow 4 bit characters. The pound sign is an 8 bit character, so need to change to UTF-8 charset to support that. Just one simple SQL statement against each database table should do the trick.

[gerefan2]

Agogo.....they take your order and bring it to your table sometimes without a word never mind any other 'service' aspect, yet 'expect' you to leave a tip of minimum Bt60 and try and trick you into leaving even more. If a customer was na

Hang on a sec, what gogo bar expects a 60 Bt tip for bringing you one drink??

Sometimes I would leave that at a restaurant where the waiter has taken my order, delivered my meal, got the sauces, taken away the dirty plates, bought me the check bin, then taken it to the cashier and bought me the chance.

BUT a there's no way a fucking waiter would get that tip for bringing me a glass of bloody water.

[Moses]

Just one simple SQL statement against each database table should do the trick.

then half of mods will stop to work and any update will turn sets back or will make mess... thank you... developers know about this bug over 1 year and it is fixed only in v.5.x for now, but we are using 4.x and still waiting for fix...

[newalaan2]

As a fellow night owl have you been to either the new Black Jack club or the club with the big number "8" hanging from the ceiling?
I don't think either of them are gay clubs but I have seen a lot of gay guys posting Live videos from both these venues recently

Sorry Colmx didn't get round as many places as intended....always the same. But what I did not notice was the change in many of the boys attitudes to where they like to enjoy their spare time after work etc.. maybe it was a low-season change or maybe I was influenced by the opinions of our crowd but Walking St was mentioned a lot when suggesting late(r) night fun. Most of the guys still like NAB but it is definitely not the be-all end-all must-go place of previous trips. We too are just as happy nowadays to go to any club/pub/bar we enjoy and a specifically gay connection not now that important.

We did have a few late nights but there was a very wide ranging and mixed consensus about where the best place might be on a specific night. For instance after bfs birthday bash on BzBzBz terrace there were a lot of suggestions on where to go....maybe because that stage of the bash was to be a shared bill effort with neither me or bf allowed to contribute as a present to bf from friends...so maybe more wanted their 'say', but this was nearing 1am when a 3m curfew was possible so NAB was dropped right down the list in favour of Walking St as we were close to there...so that was first consideration agreed on...then where...Stonehouse, Insomnia, 808 club (possibly where the 8 hangs down from the roof colmx was talking about?) Walking St Pub, AZab, Stonehouse 2 (Soi16Pub)and others all quickly discussed but Marine Disco was favoured because all wanted another bottle aand it was expected Marine would be open long enough to make that worthwhile (5am?). So that's where we headed, put 3 tables together and had a great time....but a shock came here to as Marine Disco on this night did not avoid the 3.30am curfew (this was couple of weeks ago 23rd last month). Also more gay lads are going to Marine for late night fun, there is a gay boy area, Katoey-ladyboy area and the rest straight. Some are just happy to go somewhere close to BoyzT, Sunee which stays open late 5-6am.

A note on changing attitudes...years ago it was the 'norm' for westerners/farangs like myself, colmx, martin etc to head to the current fad disco of the day (until shunned the fickle gay crowd for the next one) and there was always quite a few farangs in the clubs, but now those set ups are less common, even few and far between in low season, and while boys still love their late night fun after work or if not offed now mainly have to pay for it themselves, and so the share aspect kicks in or the buy a SanMig BacBreez and make last while the dance the night away in some Walking St club. If they go for the boozy night with a bottle NAB is simply too expensive as an initial set is Bt2000 to start, so Tam Nan Issan and the likes are essential where a bttle is Bt1000 and mixers 3 for Bt100 easily shared, even a bottle at Stonehouse is too expensive for Thai lads, whisky bottle is a 'reasonable' Bt1200 for 70cl but the mixers are Bt90 each! so outside even a shared bill limit. Marine Disco is a good example where bar boys can enjoy late night fun at not too expensive cost as Marine has a double pricing system which is vital to bring in enough Thais for the farang/foreign customers. Thais get a beer in Marine for Bt120, foreigners pay Bt170. If a Thai is with a foreigner and pays the bill the higher price is obviously demanded.

We did visit Insomnia, 808(pet-soon-pet)drank beers there, they have Bt30 frozen shots at Insomnia the Thais seem to love, but the boom-boom dance beats and rap-crap do my head in after about an hour of the repetition as it's just too loud to have a laugh or a conversation of any kind, so I much prefer the likes of Stonehouse which is more like the old version of Hollywood with Live Band playing mix of western, Thai rock-pop, decent dance music for the DJ section. Current trip we came across what is referred to as Stonehouse 2, really Soi16 Pub at the far end of Walking St past Tonys towards the Indian, Arab end of Walking St, it's an expensively laid out bar with very high ceiling, everything brand new, two floors with toilets, snooker, relaxing area upper level and big stage and sound system on lower flor. House band(s) is/are excellent musicians/vocalists and can turn their hand to just about any request western/dance/Thai. While not cheap, they do have specials most nights Bt90 for beers, or 3 for 2 on bottles beers/bac breezers etc... as it's still getting off the ground with sometimes 30 customers in this huge place and 15 waiters to serve. I dropped in by a few nights here on way to elsewhere in Walking St and had a great time. Even couple games of pool upstairs overlooking the main area.

Couple nights in Tam Nan Issan were usual top fun. Tons of guys arriving after 1am from the bars all out for maximum fun. No low-season at Tam Nan Issan! Went to huge Morlam on Xyte old place Sai Sam on 30th, Bt140 entry sponsored by Leo so small Leos Bt50 and large bottles poured into plastic cups Bt100. At least half the massive crowd was gay/femme/katoey, was there for two hours with a friend and was approached multiple times for 'cheers' and not many foreigners there. Toilets are usually, from what I remember, outside the Morlam area but there were decent toilets (Bt5) in the arena this time. If your really want to see how much fun half a dozen gay lads together can squeeze out of 2 hours then a Morlam Night is a must.

So many bar boys/gay boys not too bothered about not hitting NAB and are happy with Walking St, Tam Nan Issan, and other smaller venues which have popped up in Soi Korpai, North Pattaya etc...

[colmx]

Thanks for the update NewAlaan - 7 weeks until my next trip... so not long to go!
We tried a few of the places on Walking st during our last trip at Songkran, we like to east at sunset in Pattaya Beer Garden, so often pop in to Zaab cafe or stonehouse for a few starter drinks.... But it seems we always ended up in Hollywood, NAB, Tum Nan Chon or Tum Nan Issan in the end.

Actually probably ended up in TNC more than anywhere else last trip... its a real hit and miss. if you have the right crowd and table it can be fantastic.... Bad table usually means crappy night!

Speaking of the "olden" days... Myself and BF loved Heart of Darkness in Phnom Penh when we went back in Jan, it reminded us of the much missed x-ray with the friendly crowd and waiters... Liked it so much that we have decided to go back to PP again on this trip!
Had some issues there with an ignorant drunk farang, but $5 bought us a private bouncer for the night to keep him at bay! Kinda like the wild west!

[colmx]

So many bar boys/gay boys not too bothered about not hitting NAB and are happy with Walking St, Tam Nan Issan, and other smaller venues which have popped up in Soi Korpai, North Pattaya etc...

Like you say, I have noticed on FB that they go to NAB when there is a sponsor.... but tend to hit walking when they are trying to have a night on the cheap!