Gaybutton Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 Last night was the final night for the Rock Hard bar in Jomtien Complex. The story I'm getting is there simply was not enough customers to sustain the business. From what I understand the closing is permanent. I hope the owner somehow manages to reopen, but it doesn't look that way. It's really sad to see what's happening to the bar scene in Pattaya. Not too many years ago the bars were consistently packed. Now you're lucky in many of the bars if you even see anyone in there besides yourself. Quote
Guest lvdkeyes Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 Financial hard times will get worse. A friend lives in VT 5 and his condo looks over Avalon and he says there are virtually no occupants. Quote
Gaybutton Posted June 21, 2009 Author Posted June 21, 2009 his condo looks over Avalon and he says there are virtually no occupants. I'm not surprised. The authorities can try to paint as rosy a picture as they want, but anyone here can see that the tourist industry is in real trouble. I've never seen it this bad. I think there are going to be more venues going out of business, especially if high season turns out to be another disaster. And high season is still some months away. I hope the businesses can survive until then, but that's hard to do when you're lucky if you get even ten customers per night. Quote
Gaybutton Posted June 21, 2009 Author Posted June 21, 2009 I spoke with the owner this afternoon, at the bar, as he was packing everything to go. I can now confirm the first post on this thread. He said he does actually make money there, but not enough to justify putting up with the problems, the time, the problems with the police, the problems with the boys, etc. He said he's moving on to other things. He's not sure yet what he'll be doing next, but he said he's had enough of the bar business. He does intend to remain in Thailand. For those of you who enjoy the Memories bar in Sunee Plaza, you might recognize some of the items from Rock Hard. They bought most of the furniture and accessories from Rock Hard and a lot of it was being packed up to be moved to Memories while I was there. Quote
Guest TOQ Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 For those of you who enjoy the Memories bar in Sunee Plaza, you might recognize some of the items from Rock Hard. They bought most of the furniture and accessories from Rock Hard and a lot of it was being packed up to be moved to Memories while I was there. Were you checking the "packing" of the boys as well :) BTW, are any of them headed to Memories? john Quote
Gaybutton Posted June 21, 2009 Author Posted June 21, 2009 are any of them headed to Memories? That's a good question. It never occurred to me to ask if anyone knows where the boys are going, but wherever they go I doubt they will have any problems finding another bar, if that's what they want to do. Besides, a number of them were freelancers and not working directly for the bar. Quote
Guest HeyGay Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 I have been saying this for the last 15 years, any bar that has more than 20% lady/fem voiced Boys, will close for lack of customers, in a low seasonal period and with all the added reasons for customers not to come to Thailand, you concentrate on the few that are here and I can tell you they will not be interested in sitting in a Bar with Lady Fem Boys, they will go to Bar where they have the majority of Man Alpha Male Guys. If you think I'm making this up, have a look at the bars that are doing well and your see. the one bar that has everything a customer would want, is Funny Boys, funny enough, but apart from that, I wish they would spend their profits on looking for Man Boys and pay them more if necessary. I know the easy way out is lady boys, but its the easy way into disaster for any Go Go bar. Quote
Guest ButterballBruce Posted June 21, 2009 Posted June 21, 2009 I walked past Happy Bar two nights ago and a sign said they were going to reopen in September. Any idea where their boys are working now? Quote
Gaybutton Posted June 21, 2009 Author Posted June 21, 2009 Any idea where their boys are working now? They don't all team up and go to just one bar. The ones still working in bars at all are scattered between several bars. Some found other jobs. Some freelance at the beach. Some work the personals sites, especially Gay Romeo. Some gave it up entirely and went back to the rice farm. Quote
Guest TOQ Posted June 22, 2009 Posted June 22, 2009 I walked past Happy Bar two nights ago and a sign said they were going to reopen in September. Any idea where their boys are working now? It is my understanding that quite a few of them went to Krazy Dragon. john Quote
Guest ButterballBruce Posted June 22, 2009 Posted June 22, 2009 Thank you, Tired Old Queen. P.S. You don't look tired at all. Quote
Guest thaiworthy Posted June 22, 2009 Posted June 22, 2009 Thank you, Tired Old Queen. P.S. You don't look tired at all. Choa keeps him young! Quote
