TotallyOz Posted July 16, 2008 Posted July 16, 2008 The former Kaos is up for sale. A sign was posted tonight for anyone interested. With the Birdcage going under and now this, it seems like hard times for the bars here. I was in Pattayland Soi 3 last night and the bars that are closed really does take a toll on the way the place looks. I had coffee with a lovely gentleman tonight (perhaps the most in the know guy in all of Thailand) and he kept me up to date with all the new closings in town. It is nice to have someone with so much knowledge and insight to shed some light on why all this is happening. I guess for him as well as many of you who have been here for years, it is nothing new. For those of us newer to the scene here, it is always surprising to see how fast things happen and how fast things change. What is the life span of a go go bar in Pattaya? Is it different than one in Bangkok? What about Chiang Mai? Quote
Gaybutton Posted July 16, 2008 Posted July 16, 2008 By the way, most of the staff of the former Kaos- Villa Rouge has moved to the K-Boys bar. Many of the same boys, mama-sans, staff, etc. are there now. Quote
Gaybutton Posted July 16, 2008 Posted July 16, 2008 What is the life span of a go go bar in Pattaya? There's no way to answer that one. There is no particular average. I've seen some come and go as quickly as a couple of months and others have been there since before I ever started coming to Thailand. Often, a bar closes, but a new one opens at a different location and the owner is the same person who owned the bar that closed. Now there seems to be more closings than openings. I've been saying for a long time that I can't see how these bars can remain open when they have very few customers and sometimes no customers at all. How can they afford to pay the bills and the boys? Obviously they can't and now that problem is catching up and forcing several to go out of business. Just within the past several days Pattaya has lost Bondi, Birdcage, and Villa Rouge. Minou is closed, but I don't know anything about that or whether they will reopen. Gentlemen Club is gone. The old location of Star Boys is being gutted out. Gacuya is gone, although Louis opened Tai Boys again in a different location. The old location of Tai Boys is now a Family Mart. Just a few years ago there were four go go bars on Soi Day-Night. Now there are none. Some may remember the Moonlight Bar, near Pattayaland on Second Road. It's been gone for years now. Playboy and Boys Studio are both long gone. I can't remember the name of the bar, but a few years ago the first gay bar in Pattaya that featured a swimming pool and swimming show opened about halfway to Jomtien Beach from Pattayaland on Thappraya Road. It too is long gone. The ICON Hotel and the show bar are both gone. A few other bars that once existed in Sunee Plaza are gone. The old Monty's pool is still closed. That buffet restaurant right next door has a For Sale sign up. Between the costs of running a bar, paying the staff, dealing with the Police, and the lack of customers, the prognosis seems awfully gloomy to me. It hasn't been all that long since most of the bars were packed almost nightly and there was no shortage of customers even in low season. Now, high season can't even compare to the low season that existed not all that long ago. Right now it's the middle of low season. I'm almost ready to rename it 'dead season.' Quote
Guest lester1 Posted July 16, 2008 Posted July 16, 2008 This is bound to bring a whole load of criticism upon my head but if I may act as a Devil's Advocate here, a large proportion of the depression in the Plaza is because something happened that numerous gay posters on this board have wanted for a long time. This is the big move that the authorities made towards cleaning up the place of those farangs who liked the younger Thai male. As I said before, above this layer of farang were a whole raft of others, bigger in number, who knew that they were relatively safe in making relationships with the hugely available 16-18 year old teens who populated the plaza and bars in great numbers. Realising that they were now in the crosshairs, as it were, they have moved out or become more circumspect. In my mind, there is something unique and great fun about Sunee Plaza when it is full to bursting with bars and farangs. It has an atmosphere that the more pedestrian Boy's Town cant get near. This means it has a future under the right conditions. Perhaps now the massive number of posters on the various boards who have long wanted the Plaza cleaned up will perhaps do something about releasing this potential. Quote
Gaybutton Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 Perhaps now the massive number of posters on the various boards who have long wanted the Plaza cleaned up will perhaps do something about releasing this potential. I hate to break the news, but it's no more cleaned up now than it ever was. Several of the bars still have under-age boys and there are still quite a number of under-age street kids roaming around. Quote
Guest luvthai Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 I am sorry to see the old Kaos gone. The owner tho has ignored the warnings and previous closings and continued to do it his way. Hopefully someone will take it over quickly but I am sure as we get closer to high season some one will open it. Would be nice to see Sundance move back into it. Quote
