13 replies to this topic

[pattayaloverforyou]

A few days before Christmas and the streets/bars are empty. Nobody is here.

Why ?? pls. fill in the dots.............

[liamog]

A few days before Christmas and the streets/bars are empty. Nobody is here. Why ??

Excellent. I'm over on holiday soon.

No customers, loads of boys and little old me


To answer your question: something to do with the Police raids that are being talked about in other posts?

[dolypardon]

quote:No customers, loads of boys and little old me

No not to many boys, and the once who were there not very handsome.

Last Sunday I went out and Pattaya was really dead. Maybe the boys and farangs stayed home because it was to cold to go out. I visited many bars and in most of them I was the only customers. Also the choice of boys was very limited in most bars.

Why ? yes it is cold but I don't think that's the reason..let me fill in the dots........ was it the coup ? or is it the strong baht?is it the problems in the south? is it Purachai with his early closing hours ? is it the bad quality of services provided in the gay bars( dirty toilets,water downed drinks,cilicone dicks),( to noisy music,broken furniture,smoking boys) ?is it to expensive to fly ? Is it because they scared "would be" house buyers with this anti company policy ? or is it that they are afraid of another tsunami?

[Village Idiot]

I think high/low seasons don't mean what they used to.. It is more like medium season most of the time,
with a very quiet low season and a high season in peak times.. This year thou, it is quieter than usual
but there are more Thai boys/men in Pattaya than ever before..

Maybe a weaker currency will attract more tourists.. Maybe we are not seeing the Chinese groups and
Eastern Europeans/Russians as they tend to stay in other parts of town, but when you pass by the open
girlie beer bars most look empty which is queer for this time of year..

[Snowy]

let me fill in the dots........ was it the coup ? or is it the strong baht?is it the problems in the south? is it Purachai with his early closing hours ? is it the bad quality of services provided in the gay bars (dirty toilets,water downed drinks,cilicone dicks), (too noisy music,broken furniture,smoking boys)? is it to expensive to fly? Is it because they scared "would be" house buyers with this anti company policy ? or is it that they are afraid of another tsunami?

If things are as bad as you make out, I don't think there is any one factor to blame but more a combination of many. The ones 'highlighted' above are undoubtedly having a big effect - I know two fairly regular visitors for instance who have put off their holiday for the time being because of the huge rise in travelling and exchange rate costs.

The rising cost of flying however is with us to stay - as a result of higher 'security' taxes and rising fuel costs which are likely to get worse because of plans to tax carbon emissions.

Exchange rates will fluctuate as they normally do and most of the time it is a case of hoping a planned visit falls at the time when the rates are favourable to the traveller.

The early closing has been quite extensively reported in the UK and adults are not prepared to visit places where they are told they cannot drink or party after 1 a.m. and generally treated like naughty children.

The continuous re-emergence of cases of bird flu in Thailand and SE Asia - again well reported - have not helped.

Additionally the several murders of British tourists in the past couple of years, especially women, hit the media headlines making it appear that Thailand was a less safe place to visit.

The plain fact is that the popularity of particular tourist destinations worldwide is fragile and it does not take a lot for a particular destination to slide down the favourites list. At the moment Cambodia and Vietnam, rather than Thailand, seem to be the flavour of the month for UK tourist agencies.

[gay_grampa]

quote:..let me fill in the dots........ was it the coup ? or is it the strong baht?is it the problems in the south? is it Purachai with his early closing hours ? is it the bad quality of services provided in the gay bars( dirty toilets,water downed drinks,cilicone dicks),( to noisy music,broken furniture,smoking boys) ?is it to expensive to fly ? Is it because they scared "would be" house buyers with this anti company policy ? or is it that they are afraid of another tsunami?

I guess dolypardon is right about things affecting tourist incomers but its got to be a combination of all them factors.

But, I was out in Bangkok on last weekend and things were really buzy. Up and down Silom it was real difficult to get thro the crowd. My friend and me went to Soi4, had a wonderful meal at Sphinx and then had a gin or 3 at Balcony. Thers a little bar over the soi called cafe4 and they were spilling out the door it was so full.

BoySoi was buzy too and we went to a club next to Dicks Cafe where the show was nuthing like you see in Pattaya. Those BIG boys OUCH How do they get away with doing that on stage?

My friend wanted to go to DJStation but by the time we walked round there the place was full so we went back home.

[buaseng]

My Thai friend rang me on Saturday last and was complaining bitterly to me about the lack of farangs this year. He told me that many of his friends who came down from Surin to Pattaya for the "high season" were planning to return home or move on to Bangkok or Phuket if things didn't pick up in the next two weeks.

[Motel69]

A few days before Christmas and the streets/bars are empty. Nobody is here.

Why ?? pls. fill in the dots.............

Judging from my experience booking a flight to Thailand, I'd have to say things will get very busy in the country on either side of New Year's. I made reservations (Narita-BKK) in the middle of October, and everthing -- every flight, every airline -- was booked solid from 23 Dec. to 8 Jan. With the exception of Christmas day, when one airline had one flight that still had a few seats open. And that's the airline that's spent the past year explaining all its safety problems.

But just because the flights are full doesn't mean Pattaya is gonna get hoppin'. In fact, in late October it was quite easy to make hotel reservations (not sure I'm gonna use them) for the first week in January. So perhaps things will stay slow.

So why am I thinking of not following through with my reservations? Because the last time I was in Pattaya the boyz just didn't do it for me. Most of them were fat, and of the ones who weren't none were knockouts. And all the bars were the same. A decade ago every bar had several drop-dead gorgeous guys who were full of energy and sanook. Really fun to be with. Two years ago, in every bar I walked into, I thought, "My god, I wouldn't have sex with these guys if they paid me."

Let's face it, if the boyz aren't cute and sexy, there's no other reason to go to Pattaya. If you want an explanation as to why the place ain't what it used to be, there it is.

[DollyLamma]

Let's face it, if the boyz aren't cute and sexy, there's no other reason to go to Pattaya. If you want an explanation as to why the place ain't what it used to be, there it is.

Amen. I thought it was only me who felt that way. Where have all the handsome No. 10 boys gone ?

[Richard]

The boys in Bangkok are likewise complaining there are too few customers.

Perhaps we should take this opportunity to suggest to bar owners that trade has dropped because their off fees are too high

Dick

[Gaybutton]

The fact that the flights are fully booked still doesn't mean that the passengers are all coming to Pattaya. There are actually other destinations in Thailand where people go.

For the last four years I've watched the high season in Pattaya looking more and more like the low season in Pattaya. It's not a ghost town here. It's definitely not as bad as all that, but the numbers of tourists seem to be dwindling. This time, last year, on a weekend if you were driving you couldn't get near the beach. Now there is relatively little traffic. In the past, at this time of year if you weren't at the beach by 11:30 AM, then you would have a rough time finding a place to sit. Now, all the concessions have plenty of available chairs no matter what time of day you get there.

You know what is the main indicator to me that the tourist numbers are way down? Bar boys at the beach. I'm seeing more and more bar boys working the beaches during the day, looking for "farang." When there are plenty of customers, you don't see them very often. That means the bars don't have enough customers for these boys to be getting the "offs" then need. So, they head for the beaches trying to pick up some extra money.

[Up2u]

You normally find when Houses sell back in Europe or America, you see many people come to Thailand or on there way to Australia, many more come to visit Thailand after they have spent the Christmas with there relatives. at home ready for the New Year...

"...many more come to visit Thailand after they have spent the Christmas with there relatives..." Agreed. I don't know why people seem to get stressed out over tourists numbers....I certainly don't. Quite frankly I'm not looking forward to the crowds at Jom Tien or in the gay venues around New Years. The Yanks are coming!....I personally know of about 6 friends who will be visiting between now and mid-January.

[DollyLamma]

I also think some people are underestimating the effects that internet dating here is having on the hunt for Thai men, who are flooding into the internet as an alternative to working in bars or cruising the beach.

Many of these guys now have regular non-bar jobs and do their hunting for short-time income on the net.