xyzzy Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Stickboy Bangkok - Redlight Rebellion: Bar Owners Threaten to Quit Nana Plaza http://www.stickboybangkok.com/news/redlight-rebellion-bar-owners-threaten-to-quit-nana-plaza/ 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pdoggg Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Great article that most of you guys will enjoy! According to the article rent for a bar like Obsessions is around 25K baht a DAY. Add to that all other expenses and it doesn't seem easy to break even. Article says rents are much cheaper on Cowboy. I much prefer the physical layout of Cowboy to Nana. Too bad there isn't a cluster of ladyboy bars on Cowboy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArchieBunker Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I dont go into bars nearly as much as i used to. Not a big fan. I am wondering if the point is to strangle the bars out of existence. They squeeze the bars with high rents, which is win for the land owners. Then when they cannot afford the rents anymore, they sell on the land or lease it to someone who CAN afford the high rents, which is also a win. IMHO its an evolution. Nowadays there are more ways to meet girls for liasons. the bar used to be the main conduit. Thats just not true anymore..... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soiboy Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 It is evolution, but different avenues to meet working girls is only part of the equation. Larger economic and tourist trends are at work. I saw the beginnings of the proverbial "writing on the wall" a few months ago when I was on Soi 4 eating an early (i.e., pre-mongering) dinner at a favorite place, the Bustop, when I saw directly across the street workmen putting the final touches on a couple of joined Middle Eastern restaurants. The Muslim Quarter has been expanding outward from Soi Arab for years. Other than gawking, the red light district of Nana has little to offer the Muslim families...well, until the indentured servant (i.e., "wife") goes to sleep and the sheik of the manor waddles out the hotel door in all his excessive body hair glory to play... Evolution takes time, though. I'm not sure the time is right just now for the demise of Nana, so in the end I think a deal will be struck with the bar owners. But, the writing is on the wall... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaibound Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 evolution indeed. my first time in bangkok i thought nana plaza proof god exists. now i can barely tolerate the place. same with religion. someone told me a decade ago: 'if the music is too loud, you're too old'. clearly they've never been to nana. soon, maybe they won't have to. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffs Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 it was only a matter of time before things came to a head , plaza is like a ghost town these days owners forced to keep drink prices high to pay the rent , even cascades forced to cut staff levels to balance the books . these days more mongers seem to be drinking in the soi 4 bars , beers are a lot cheaper and are packed for over twelve hours , great views of the soi and still have the option to hit the plaza later to score or even wait till the go go's close and save on the bar fine . 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globetrotter Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I went to Nana a few weeks back and didn't care for it much at all especially after a month of paying Pattaya prices and relative pressure free drinks and no superstar attitude 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimslim Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I am wondering if the point is to strangle the bars out of existence. They squeeze the bars with high rents, which is win for the land owners. Then when they cannot afford the rents anymore, they sell on the land or lease it to someone who CAN afford the high rents, which is also a win. Could well be over the last year or so the place has been a lot quieter , any Nana ladyboys I meet are worried for the future This discussion has come up many times over the years with the majority always swaying that Nana will continue on as it is for the foreseeable . This time however it could go out with a whimper rather than a bang many well known bars have closed already . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xyzzy Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 I like Nana Plaza although it's been a bit over a year since I was there. Skipped BKK last trip but it is back on the schedule next trip. I kind of think Nana is the glue that holds Soi 4 (and lower Suk) together monger wise. But I maybe wrong and it's developed to the point it can do without Nana. Hope we don't have to find out soon. One good thing about the LB world even at Nana is we don't get hit with the prices the GGs ask and get in GoGos. Soi Cowboy is very expensive. Especially those bars owned by the Arab (who is actually a Persian). I don't know how well one can bargin at Cockatoo but the couple of times I've been in there I've been asked for crazy prices by the LBs compared to Nana. So high I didn't feel like barganing. I have the same impression of Patpong, perhaps unfairly, as I've only been once. The same really is true in Pattaya. GoGo GGs ask and get big money on Walking Street and often that includes bigger BFs than in the past. Not sure about LK Metro? But if I had to pay WS GoGo prices for LBs I would likely be visiting someplace other than Thailand. But I am a bar type. Not that I don't take the occasional FL (especially in BKK) but bar hopping is my MO. Oh well, I've been hearing almost since I started coming to Pattaya that Soi 6 was doomed. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomcat Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 they probably charge high rents due to money laundering where bars dont care if they make a profit or not... just clean that money up or . Go get it cleaned elsehwere in other words if you dont like it The bar owners will pay up im sure ...or most of them.... How many well known cash bars work on normal economic principles. All the girly bars in Hong Kong have been empty for years yet they are all " Thriving" ... ha ha.. and the real estate there is very precious. Its not even a secret 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seven Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 they probably charge high rents due to money laundering where bars dont care if they make a profit or not... just clean that money up or . Go get it cleaned elsehwere in other words if you dont like it I have no doubt this is what goes on there. Personally i couldn't care less if they shut the place down tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomcat Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 sob ...sob... i would cry for years if they closed it down Obsessions has some of the best i see in years now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seven Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Obsessions has some of the best i see in years now... Thats a shame ( or good for you) since I won't set foot there again. I hate Nep with a passion, but i know how nice the lbs can be in Obsessions. You're not jap, or Korean though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomcat Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 ha ha Annyeong Chingus we cant all love the place but i agree that being from South Korea and 25 years old helps catch the eye of the pretties, some of whom wont go with westerners for sure ... mmmm.... from what i see in a very brief trip was that none of those shunted out of Charades are working elsewhere ???.. with one exception Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M1954 Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 According to the article rent for a bar like Obsessions is around 25K baht a DAY. hard to believe a bar can cash in that amount in margin for the rent, then there is staff, utilities, tea pocket etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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