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New Zoning/Early Closure Thread


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"On March 1st..

 

1. Khun Thaksin could declare that its 2. a.m or even 1 a.m. for everyone. In his opinion 70% chance of that happening. If he does this, expect also the statement that? no NEW entertainment licenses can or will be issued outside the zones.? Thaksin definitely does not want any new places springing up outside the zones. "

 

 

Looking like 100% now, as the Interior Ministry sent yesterday Friday, a new draft saying anything after January 13th 2004 is what they are concerned about. " The draft follows the Prime Ministers views"

 

Existing entertainment businesses stock just went "limit up" ( maximum price increase in one day) :-) Horray for the good guys, the party guys and even us the soi dogs!

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Thanks LaoHuLi

 

However, a broken clock is even right twice in a day.

 

Just reporting, what I heard, so now I will owe the honorable gentleman dinner and at least it won't be crow! :)

 

By the way, LaoHuLi you always make me hungry when I see your post. :hubba:

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well thanks just the same for putting the info here.

 

Now lets hope they find some resaonble accommodation to the opening hours or a lot of them are still in the shitter.

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Belem said:

Agreed. The last time the atmosphere in Thailand was fun IMO was the peak season of 2000-01.

 

Between the closing hours and no-showing in go-gos, that really does take some wind out of the overall atmosphere for me at least. I remember when it was a much more "loose" atmosphere in the go-gos with the girls acting up and being themselves without being so covered up.

 

Right now, it is the business end that is being restricted, but if the authorities start with the customers, such as urine testing,ID checks, on a repeated basis, that would kill the nightlife industry faster than anything else IMO.

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The early closing times made the front page of today's International Herald Tribune in a sarcastic and thorougly entertaining article. The Hearld Tribune is published by the New York Times, which means it may have made the news in the US.

 

The article makes Thailand's authorities sound like they are trying to impose the type of rules you would expect to find in the Islamic Middle East. It will likely put off even tourists that would have no interest in seeing Thailand's purient nightlife, but do enjoy a beer or two while on vacation. I recognize that one article, even in the august New York Times, does not an image make, but I can easily see this snowballing. There is now other developing news that will also further enhance Thailand's reputation - see headlines in today's The Nation and Bangkok Post. Yep, this will be great for tourism.

 

It will be interesting next year, if and when the statistics become available, to see if Thailand acheives the one third increse in tourist revenues it currently projects.

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I am willing to fly thousands of miles and spend the money to come to Thailand,because of the Thai nightlife.

 

If it becomes too restrictive, even the tourists who do not come for the nightlife, do want to experience something different I would think.

 

If Thailand tries to imitate western way of tourist areas, like overpriced hotel rooms,boring ass shows, and too many shops selling "tourist crap" to bring home, well, you might as well stay in your own country and experience the same thing.

 

Oh well, like everybody else, I'll just sit back and see what eventually happens with the closing hours and whatever else happens.

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,' but if the authorities start with the customers, such as urine testing,ID checks, on a repeated basis, that would kill the nightlife industry faster than anything else "

 

Seems worth saying that as far as I know targetting falang customers in these kind of ways has happened very little and does not form part of the social order campaign as I have seen it publicised

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O.k. let's say the compromise is everything closes at 1 a.m. next time it will be 12, then what? This is far from over, no matter the outcome in the next few days...it will suck if NOTHING is open late...I can see a crack down on the late night street scene as well...

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I dont think anything is gonna change really - this is probably the end of this game for a while. Even this new licence thing is weird as it could mean some bars in a complex such as Nana or Cowboy could remain open later than others as they were opened post Jan 13th - keeping tabs on this whole charade will be nigh impossible.

As Thaksin appears to be retracting from this, the emphasis on enforcement (of a law that hasnt been passed or communicated) is looking less likely by the minute, you may get some initial over zealous cops doing things, but i would doubt it would last too long. Check out the Real Time section in the B Post for a bunch of stories, as well as the NY Times which is also having a swipe

 

 

From The New York Times

 

24-hour 'fun city' closing at midnight

Seth Mydans NYT Saturday, February 28, 2004

 

BANGKOK Imagine a city where bars, nightclubs and even movie theaters

shut down early, where young people are off the streets by curfew,

where universities stage surprise drug tests and where a woman cannot

enter a restaurant without a male escort.

.

That would not be the racy, all-night Bangkok that people like to call

"fun city."

.

But it is Bangkok - and the rest of Thailand - as imagined by powerful

government reformers who have already begun to put a crimp in the fun.

.

Nearly three years ago, they began what they call a "social order"

campaign, enforcing a 2 a.m. closing time that nobody had ever

bothered about, and raiding nightspots and testing customers for

drugs.

.

To almost everyone's surprise, the politically popular campaign has

persisted despite the resistance of powerful businessmen and the

complaints of Western tourists.

.

Now the screws are beginning to tighten.

.

On March 1, most nightclubs, bars and discos will have their closing

times moved back to midnight, one of the most stringent curfews in

Asia. After March 29, under another new regulation, all youngsters

under 18 will have to be off the streets by 10 p.m. unless they are

with their parents.

.

This month, the Interior Ministry announced a 100-fold increase in

license fees that, if put into effect, is sure to put scores of

restaurants, ballrooms, massage parlors and other entertainment places

out of business.

.

With Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra intimidating the press, packing

the courts, the police and the military, and all but eliminating

political opposition, and with social order added to the mix, Thailand

could begin to be a somewhat different place.

.

There are those, indeed, who warn of a creeping dictatorship as the

popular and powerful prime minister moves systematically to bring the

country into his grip.

.

"There is a very troubling hint of a yearning to gradually turn

Thailand into a police state," wrote Pravit Rojanaphruk, a political

commentator, in the English-language daily The Nation last week.

.

"The state is now trying to become big brother, and if this occurs

without any resistance from both young and old it is not too

far-fetched to imagine that the government will impose more measures

dictating how people should or should not behave."

.

Government officials are not shy about saying pretty much the same

thing.

.

"I want my children to grow up in a polite, peaceful and orderly

society," said Purachai Piemsomboon, a former interior minister who

instituted the crackdown, in a television interview last year.

.

Curiously, polite and orderly Singapore is moving in the opposite

direction. Last summer, the police announced that bars would be

allowed to open around the clock and that patrons could dance on

tabletops.

.

As soon as it was started, Thailand's campaign was widely popular,

with polls showing that 70 percent of the public backed it. For the

moment, Purachai has become the most popular politician in the

country.

.

"Students are reveling without a limit," he said. "Dancing is not

dirty, but how they behave matters. They must not have sex in lifts or

toilets. That's pathetic." This is a time of wrenching change in

Thailand as traditional social and family structures give way to the

modern world. Purachai was voicing the fears of many people who see

their country, and their children, running out of control.

.

On the other hand, there are critics who say that Purachai and his

fellow reformers have gotten a bit out of control themselves.

.

At one point, a police district in Bangkok, resurrecting a

long-forgotten law, ordered entertainment places to turn away any

women who tried to enter without a male escort.

.

"If a girl walks alone in an isolated place, police have to check on

her," Purachai said, although the orders are never likely to be

enforced. "This isn't infringement but a precaution."

.

Early last year, the police raided movie theaters in a shopping mall

and ordered them to close at midnight, citing an old martial law

curfew that was still on the books.

.

"Although the law was established 30 years ago, it is still practical,

especially for today's generation, who face too many temptations,"

said Somchai Petprasert, a police colonel working as an adviser to the

Education Ministry.

.

It has only been a little more than a decade since Thailand was ruled

by generals, and the rights and freedoms of its democracy are still

fragile. It was only at the end of 1997 that these were codified in a

new Constitution.

.

Thaksin's six-year-old government has been systematically rolling back

those reforms, weakening safeguards against corruption and electoral

fraud, muzzling government critics and using economic pressure to

stifle the press.

.

Public morals and social behavior may prove to be a greater challenge,

though. There is a forlorn hope that the problems of a changing

society can be corralled by crackdowns.

.

"We are helping them keep their virginity," explained Nikhom

Jarumanee, an Education Ministry official, when an experimental curfew

was tried on Valentine's Day two years ago.

.

Plenty of people here think this is balderdash.

.

The Bangkok Post, an English-language daily, summed up the mood in a

sarcastic headline last week: "Lock Up the Young, This Is Thailand."

.

The New York Times

 

http://www.nytimes.com/

 

 

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