mardhi

Bar Anaconda has kept on recruiting new super cute girls and here are some examples. This is OPP

Both Emmy & Yuki are now working at Guess Bar in Bangkok and appearing very unlikely to return to Pattaya other than for party nights. New updated pics of them and others are on the Guess thread.

Yuki, Rose & Emmy followed by Um, Toy & Apple

Emmy, Um, Yuki

Here are the first pics of the new Anaconda bikini and Red/Christmas outfits, just in time for the BBQ Bikini party on 23rd Dec.

Probably best to blame it on her time of the month LOL - trying to fathom out in a western mind set how regular Thai GG's think is difficult, with LB's its just near damn impossible. She actually popped in a couple days later probably en-route to Dave Man Club and sat chatting with everyone, except Moo who was jet/power washing the floor while drinking two glasses of whiskey simultaneously (don't ask). She certainly seemed her normal bubbly self (Ning that is, the Jury is still out on Moo !!!!)

Your guess is as good as mine - she always looked happy whenever I saw her (which was not that often).

A selection of another new uniform style - this time Gold leather dress with white boots. The new uniforms seem to be have started coming in thick and fast now the floods have reduced and the country seems to be getting everything back together.

Indeed there will. That well area - in the above picture where the girls are standing will be blocked at one end and filled with 50cm or so of Jello for a ladyboy wrestling competition between Anaconda and Guess bar. The event will take place on the 4th February. Also in December, events are already lined up for the 23rd with an inter-bar dance contest. 24th is a party BBQ sponsored by TT Chang and the Christmas night party will anything but traditional with sexy red pvc outfits for the girls. New Years Eve party will be a masquerade theme in black & white. Lots happening at the bar, that is for sure.

Recruitment of new staff continues at a rapid pace. Lots of new girls started already and many more on the way. Expecting to be at 25 come Christmas. Here are a few pics of the new girls + the newest uniform set in the bar.

What has been quite amazing is how many of them were never earning a salary before :excl: :excl: I suspect they are going to be blown away when they get their salaries on the 1st - all of them have beaten their targets and will be very happy to actually get paid some serious dough. As for Ning and Aun they are both doing great. Joy is going back to Guess Bar on the 1st Dec and Ning will switch onto the service team to replace her. She will still be able to dance but everyone thinks that is where her strengths are and financially she will be better off on that team. For the time being Moo, Toey and Tong will remain in Pattaya. Now running on 15 staff and probably 2 more due tonight as they no-showed last night, however this is quite common.

Some team shots + Apple

Nancy seems to be settling in well and looking better every day.

I assume this one came from the Sunee factory as she is friend of AUN.

For all the Tong supporters here are some more taken last night and for some reason Tong featured heavily in the pics (they were taken by Moo).

Selection of pics as the staff numbers grow - now up to 14 staff with more to come.

All I am trying to point out is that the cost differential between Pattaya and Bangkok is now the smallest its ever been. As you will well know Dave, whenever I see you we never seem to get away with less than 10 beers each and are still in the bar we started in. However Streetwalkers pricing chart has many prices that are wrong and he freely admitted he had not visited many places to update them. Anaconda is correct and shows what great value it is, especially on spirits and lady drinks. However I know for a fact that almost every LB bar is now at 85-90b for things like Singha. However, what I am eluding to is that most places will continue to increase prices. Costs in Thailand are going up continually, the economy is not in recession and we are about to see a 50% increase in minimum wage coming in. Is it all a balloon about to burst? Who knows but at the moment, costs are rising. Cheers Mardhi

Actually Matchman who many of you know from LB69 made a very good point over there. He was commenting that the rising costs everywhere are playing on his decision making. He often goes into GG bars and there the increases are massive compared to LB bars. Just to barfine a decent looker can set you back 1500b in Pattaya now, such are the huge level of salaries they are needing to pay to get people. People assume, Thai's work for 200b day. Yeah right - I can guarantee that is not the case as I employ over 50 of them in businesses nothing to do with the p4p sector. The minimum wage coming in is 300b day - however you actually try and hire someone with common sense for less than that and see what you get. Typically for a waitress, we are paying 12000 + food (they eat for free), uniforms, tips, bonuses etc and typically it adds up to be about 19,000b per member of staff (these are waitresses don't forget, not managers). Even then, the liklihood of getting some half decent is hit & miss. Unfortunately Thailand has a very very low rate of unemployment. The guys are too lazy for the most part to get of their arse, so it falls to women. Many businesses pay a very low taxable wage - however make it up with lots of cash bonuses/tips - someone working at an Issan nightclub will be earning about 300b day purely in tips. that is 9,000b on top of their base salary.

I personally do not believe the costs are as far apart as many people perceive them to be. I do live here and I do earn my salary in Thai baht - however I am also very observant of different pricing. IMHO, Pattaya has over the last 5 years especially surged in price upwards. Bangkok has to all intent, stayed the same 'IN BAHT TERMS". So 5 years ago, Pattaya was much better value for money than it is now. In real terms, with inflation (not that many will care about that), Bangkok is cheaper than it has ever been. For example, In Pattaya a barfine typically was 200-300b in a bar. Now its often 500b. In Bangkok it was 500/600b and today its 500/600b A beer in a bar/gogo in Bangkok is typically between 110-145b at full price. These prices have been pretty constant for 5 years. In Pattaya, as has recently been reported, some bars are now asking 115b for a beer in a non aircon bar beer. 5 years ago they would have been 50-60b. Huge inflation in Pattaya, nothing in Bangkok (however tax on beer has risen about 20% in that time). However the beer is the not the thing to be looking at. lots of movement has taken place on spirits and now in many bars, even ones people talk fondly off, they are at 145b. Take that as a ladydrink and its 30b higher, so you are at 175b. It all starts to add up. The analogy I use, is to view 300 LB's in Nana, you can get away with buying 5 beers. i.e. one beer per bar - so say at most 750b. To do the same thing in Pattaya, you need to buy probably 20 beers up (as each bar has much fewer LB's) - so your looking at about 2000b not including the 10b's for each baht bus you need and 5b to have a leak. If you like pub crawling - then sure, Pattaya will win hands down, but make no mistake there are way more working LB's in one street in Bangkok than almost the entire city of Pattaya working in dedicated LB bars. But the cost differential is much less than people assume - I often will spend 2,000b in a bar no matter where I am. It never seems to make much difference if its Pattaya or Bangkok - the overall cost of the night is very similar.

Probably because the brewers who control Thailand's market did not want it. namely Singha & Chang. It was only when Asia Pac breweries started draft with Heineken and Tiger, that the others woke up to it. However to this days its almost impossible to get Singha draft except in their own beer garden places that pop up about this time of year for the cooler season. You can get Chang draft and also something called Federbrauer which Chang thought, "Well it sounds German, so we will call it German Beer". Most of them though are pretty grim taste wise. AP Breweries have done a pretty good job with Tiger & Heineken though. They kept the draft containers smaller (20L from memory) and they fit inside a fridge unit connected to the dispenser. They come around once every week or second week as I recall to clean all the pipes. However don't quote me on that - its one or the other and just going on memory from 3 years ago when we had it in our restaurant (however it was not popular so we pulled it). It would appear Singha really do not want to get involved in all the maintenance hence you hardly ever see it. No idea about Chang or Federbrauer or whatever they are calling it these days. Singha is famous for adding formaldahide to their beer to prevent it going off - its basically so badly stored and often in direct sunlight - it needs it, but always make me smile to think of drinking embalming fluid in that way.

Total of 5 new beers/ciders going into the bar this weekend. For Cider fans, Blackthorn & Olde English will be supplied in 440ml Cans and be 150b each due to import duties. Beer Lao is also being stocked and light beer is 85b bottle with the dark for some reason being more expensive at 105b although everyone seems to much prefer the dark Beer Lao. Carlsberg is also making a comeback and this will be 85b. Unfortunately still no sign of the draft beer, can only assume flooding has disrupted the supply for draft beer, which is odd as bottles are readily available. Cheers Mardhi

Tong has returned to Pattaya after brief visit home and will likely be in Anaconda for a couple weeks before heading back to Guess bar in Bangkok which is her base. Another girl started last night but as of yet I have not been sent any pics. Will update once I get them.

Capital city costs are what they are - nothing much can be done about it but BKK is still busy despite the flood problems. Most of the bars customers actually live & work in Asia - they get salaries that have not been hammered by the pound/euro/dollar weakness and compared to other places like Singapore or Hong Kong - Bangkok is still cheap. Unfortunately we cannot do anything about exchange rates but if anything the focus in BKK is upwards and continuing to go higher end. Simply put, you just cannot get & retain good staff if you don't compete. The new bar in Pattaya is doing very well, but its not coming near BKK in terms of revenue, staff ability or anything else yet. Early days of course, but I doubt it will ever beat BKK in terms of revenue numbers. Having said that someone like Moo is now clearing a 5 digit salary each and every month - her role has changed and she wanted to progress. To her absolute credit she is a grafter and deserves all the success she has got. I am rarely impressed by ladyboys ability/focus anymore, but she has proved me wrong big time.

Its 800b barfine for service staff and PR and 600b for hostess staff - been that way for about 8 months now since all the salaries got uplifted (higher salary than the Gogo's pay now). While the service staff can be barfined, they are supposed to be providing drinks service hence their are two bands now. Currently you have Ink, Aui, Cherry and Nui + 2 GG's providing service or PR in the bar. All the others are at regular barfine.

Bar Anaconda fashion show & BBQ Sunday 27th November Unveiling for the first time, all the 7 daily uniform sets created by and for the girls working at Bar Anaconda. The BBQ will commence around 9pm and feature another set of firsts. Marinated Prime Rib beef kebabs from Australia English Pork Sausages (which went down a storm at Noon's birthday) Bacon wrapped Shrimp Kebabs Chilli Chicken Kebabs with new sauces Crispy Potato skins with cheese, bacon & sour cream dip The catwalk show will feature all the staff from Anaconda and start around 10pm - don't forget your cameras guys, the outfits are seriously sexy. Cheers Mardhi