Relocate nightlife to Issan?

[ricosuave]

What with all the crackdowns, early closings and zoning bollocks that is going around at the moment regarding the nightlife and gogo bars, there is one solution that would please almost everybody, although it is a tad controversial.

Why not relocate the whole lot to the Issan towns of Udon Thani, Khon Kaen and the rest. Set up the gogo bars there, or create mini nightlife centres on the outskirts of the towns, even build a whole new Pattaya, which for those not in the know, was only a small village itself not so long ago. Please bear in mind this is a last resort, and would only come about anyway if Bangkok’s/Pattaya’s falang scene closed down.

Tourists – Lets face it, for those who only have a few days in LOS, most of us don’t really care about anything else in Bangkok except ogling the ladies, taking them home and having some fun. When you’ve seen one temple you’ve seen them all, and when you’ve sat in one traffic jam for over an hour, you don’t wish to go through it again. Many of us don’t even bother leaving Sukhumvit Road except to go to Patpong or the airport. Does it really matter what part of Thailand were in as long as there’s gogo bars, ladies and hotels.

Ex pats – Losing the gogo bars may hurt some of you, but when you’ve been here a while you have enough savvy to find Thai girls elsewhere, and with less overpaying newbie’s around, less competition. Ive read on several threads that many of you (including the prominent Khun Sanuk) wouldn’t really miss the gogo scene if it disappeared anyway. Who knows, it might even tempt a few English teachers up north to help those who want to learn English and better themselves in a different way.

The girls – It is well known that Issan girls are the girls who invariably end up working in the falang scene, so it stands to reason that Issan will suffer most if the falang gogo scene goes bottoms up. This way, they get to stay close to their families, thus hopefully avoiding some of the alienation that comes from being so far away from home. They could easily avoid the stigma of being a gogo dancer by working in another Issan town, eg a Khon Kaen girl could work in Udon Thani, which would leave them near enough to visit their families on their days off.

The families – While I appreciate that rural Issan towns may not particularly like the idea of falang gogo bars on their doorstep, everyone has to face tough choices, none tougher than the people of this region. If Thaksin goes ahead and closes the nightlife scene for falangs, then a lot of Issan families who depend on that 5000/10000 monthly ‘daughter baht envelope’ for their survival would much rather see a few idiot falangs staggering pissed around the town than starve. With less ‘Thai girl must haves’ to tempt them, such as mobiles, jewellery and fancy clothes, the families would see even more of the money, not to mention the increased revenue from hotels, souvenirs, food outlets etc.

Thaksin – Okay so this is all his call at the end of the day, but to be honest, im sure he doesn’t care as much about Issan as the rest of Thailand, and especially Bangkok. By tucking away the nightlife in a poor part of the country, it is out of sight for the majority of the people he is trying to impress (business contacts) and attract (family holidaymakers who wouldn’t dream of visiting Issan anyway). By allowing the falang scene to continue in this way, it helps allieviate his future problem of poverty in Issan as a result of less falang sex dollars should he close the Bangkok/Pattaya scene down.

Im sure im going to be flamed to high heaven for this, but to be honest, im past the point of caring. Its only one persons opinion anyway.

[Guest]

Very thoughtful indeed. Reminds me of Angeles City in the Phillipines.

Roland

[Guest]

Ricosuave

It is not my intention to insult you but I did make some remarks in between

 

“Why not relocate the whole lot to the Issan towns of Udon Thani, Khon Kaen and the rest. Set up the gogo bars there, or create mini nightlife centers on the outskirts of the towns, even build a whole new Pattaya, which for those not in the know, was only a small village itself not so long ago. Please bear in mind this is a last resort, and would only come about anyway if Bangkok’s/Pattaya’s falang scene closed down.”

 

Did you ever visit towns like Udon Thani, Khon Kaen or even further up to the north??. Are you aware of the boogie-woogie places exst in these towns?.

 

“The girls – It is well known that Issan girls are the girls who invariably end up working in the falang scene”

Are you not stereotyping women from Isaan??, by saying that all of them ending up in bars and pubs.

[Guest]

Oh Dundee,

Now you've let it out and all our quiet gogos and girlie bars will be overrun...For everyone else...There is no pay for play in Issan so stay home!

As to stereotyping the girls..there is also no pay for play in the North or South though I can't vouch for the western part.

Some of you guys slay me

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

Interesting idea, but I think there are some stumbling blocks, money and information.

In order to build up a nightlife scene similar to BKK / PTY in one or more cities in Isaan would take a tremendous amount of money, and since it would also mean a very big risk I can't really see anybody investing several million US$.

Furthermore, how are people to find out about it? Sure, boards like this would help, but how many of the people visiting the bars really read these boards? It could take years before people catch on.

As for the expats, I agree that many would be able to live without the nightlife (may even turn into tourists as well ), but the ones that do visit the bars contribute a large portion of the income, especially in the low season. Move the bars away from the expats and this will drop dramatically. It is one thing to visit Pattaya from Bangkok, but it is another thing completely if you need to travel all the way to Udon for some fun.

Finally, if the reason for the clampdown is to clean up Thailand's image, then moving the scene to Isaan won't make that much of a difference. Most tourists don't even see much of the scene now either.

Sanuk!

[ricosuave]

Khun Sanuk and others.

Thanks for your comments, rather than the slaying i expected, they were thoughtful and exposed several holes in my ideas. I appreciate that many tourists have little knowledge of thailand if they dont use message forums like this one, although im sure they would be plenty of people in Bangkok only to happy to point them in the right direction, for a small price of course.

As for the ex pats, my scenario assumes that Bangkok and Pattayas nightlife has been closed, and Issan is the only alternative. Maybe Udon is a bit too far, but Khon Kaen is reachable, although your point about the bars not generating enough income is a viable one, and initial investment may be hard to find if the bars wont make as much money as before.

As for our good friend Mr Thaksin, i still stand by my original theory that although he probably doesn't care too much about Issan, he wouldn't want the problems that increased poverty would bring should he stop those lovely Issan honeys proping up the family with our money. I cant see them doing too well in the Thai sanuk scene personally.

I just hope Thaksin does something, having visited Issan a few times on my recent trips, and had some good times there i feel for the people who will be affected by a falang nightlife closedown. I know Cambodia will become an option for the falang sanukers, but there are certain qualities about Thailand and its girls that Cambodia doesn't generate, and it seems a shame if it should end.

[Guest]

Grimmbro

Dam it; I should have keep my mouth shut.

 

Actually I was not referring to the hard-core sanuk scene, and you should neither expect to see go-go bars or “screwing live on stage” type of scenes when visiting Isaan.

As a working expatriate, I do hardly visit the scene, unless bringing customers for entertainment and personally, I can live without the whole scene. Of course, the scene in Thailand along with the tourists is creating a large cash flow, so Thaksin will think twice before doing anything.

[Flashermac]

Back in the VN War days, the big nightlife centres were in Isaan. That's because the US Air Force bases were there. I saw the GI strip at Udorn a bit before it closed: maybe a mile long on both sides of the highway ... nothing but bars, massage parlours, restaurants, tailors etc. Things definitely got a lot wilder there than in Bangkok, where nudity was still a no-no. But that was a military government trying to keep their allies happy. I doubt if the current government would tolerate much upcountry any more.