Is Nana going .......

[Lamock Chokaprret]

Suadum,

 

Do you really believe that when the crackdown on showing first occurred, the police said "sorry you can't show anymore so you don't have to pay us as much money"

 

I'm sure the tea money stayed the same and the bar owners are simply trying to avoid paying more to reinstate the way things were.

[Ed Zeppelin]

I don't know if anyone has read this before, but here's a good insider's view on the decline of Nana from the owners of the Big Mango:

 

Link

[Gadfly]

I think that the bar owners have found that they do not have to show to get customers. Therefore, they do not need to pay off the coppers.

 

Let me frame the issue a bit differently: do you think the bars in NEP would refuse to show if the police allowed it?

 

Or let me put it this way: if you are right, and MiB would permit showing (if the price is right), wouldn't this be a tremendous opportunity for one of the bars to gain a tremendous edge over all of the others in NEP? Or is the price just so high that it isn't economically feasible? Or is just forbidden?

 

We see how this edge is making a big difference between NEP and Soi Cowboy. Imagine the advantage a bar would have in NEP if it was the only one allowed to have Soi Cowboy shows.

 

Sure other bars might complain, but if the MiB were getting paid enough, it wouldn't matter. So the issue is how much is "enough", which suggests that the difference here is the police districts.

 

I cannot see all of the bar owners in NEP, collectively, being so dim as to not see this opportunity. The fact that no one has seized this opportunity suggests that it doesn't not exist.

 

If it is a matter of price, the price is prohibitive in NEP while it is not in Soi Cowboy. Or perhaps it is just vorboten in NEP?

[..]

Yes, I am convinced that is exactly what they are doing (refusing to show, or more accurately, refusing to pay the fee). The latter I know is true from conversations with some owners.

 

There are three "conglomerates" in NEP, and a couple of them are intermingled by other business interests the owners have together outside of NEP. They run the joint. If they do not want to do something, then it doesn't get done. It is not only $$, but connections. The big guys have the good connections. The little guys just keep their heads down and eat the scraps.

 

Put another way, if one of the small players wanted to show, and even paid the "fee," they would be shut down very quickly because the big guys would see to it. It is clear that they feel the $$ made without showing are greater than if they do.

 

Cheers,

SD

[Faustian]

So a monopoly type situation exists, one which will ultimately kill this business interest of theirs...quite the clever chaps aren't they...

 

The 'Nana is going to be developed' argument is an interesting one...to me Sukhumvit is a shit hole, much of the business exists because of the p4p scene, Nana etc is the honey pot...say it gets closed and developed, a hotel being likely, what then? Why would tourists come to this smelly highly polluted dirty city? As a stopover sure, on their way elsewhere, but Bangkok has a limited appeal and there's not a lot to do once you've looked at some historic bits.

[Old Hippie]

Bangkok gets non sex tourists. The planes are full, yet the bars are empty at times...so not everyone goes to bars.

 

I do agree with you though, the area does not need another hotel, especially if they remove the main draw.

[Stickman]

No way. The owners desperately want to show at Nana - I'm talking the big guys here. You know the amount they pay really is not that much, at least in terms of the big picture. It's like the recent rent increases - to the big bars we're talking peanuts. The big bars average well over 100,000 baht a night and profits easily exceed 1,000,000 baht a month in many bars. In Rainbow 4 you can comfortably double these numbers. The idea that bars make more by not paying the show fee is way, way off base.

[bibblies]

You say 'no way' but it's not backed up with any visible evidence whereas the view of Suadam and myself is. Have you been to the bars much in the last few months or are you just trusting what a few (self-interested) people tell you?

 

Visible evidence is this:

 

Some bars are more adventurous and at least three regularly get away with pasties or even bare nipples. Another gets away with pantie-less.

 

So if Rainbow and Crown are really champing at the bit to show, couldn't they at least try something?

 

Further evidence: The showing situation has been with us for some years now. Yet Rainbow, for example, has made no effort to adjust. It could, for example, try making its bikinis a bit smaller to show more of a girl's breast but has it even tried that? Fuck has it.

[preahko]

So a monopoly type situation exists, one which will ultimately kill this business interest of theirs...quite the clever chaps aren't they...

 

The 'Nana is going to be developed' argument is an interesting one...to me Sukhumvit is a shit hole, much of the business exists because of the p4p scene, Nana etc is the honey pot...say it gets closed and developed, a hotel being likely, what then? Why would tourists come to this smelly highly polluted dirty city? As a stopover sure, on their way elsewhere, but Bangkok has a limited appeal and there's not a lot to do once you've looked at some historic bits.

 

The answer is the Arabs...for some reason they love coming here, and they bring their whole families. Maybe it's 'cause in any given month of the year it's 20 degreees cooler than where they live, haha...

 

And they're just like the hippies on Khao San, they rarely stray from their own ghetto...they wanna come to an "exotic" place but still speak their language, eat food they're used to, etc...sound familiar?

 

5 years ago, the Muslim Khao San (saying "Arab" isn't inclusive enough, since there are plenty of African Muslims in the tourist population I'm talking about as well) was largely confined to Sukh soi 3/1...now they've TOTALLY taken over soi 3...and they're making inroads in many other places, all the way up to soi 11 and beyond, and, slowly, very slowly, into soi 4.

 

I predict that in 5 more years, Nana will no longer exist...and the number of "five star" hotels will increase by 10 times...and these hotels will be increasingly filled with Muslims. from Africa, yes, but mostly from the middle east.

 

hey, these bitches have money. LOADS of money. and--for whatever fucked-up reason (it's only partly for pussy--or, should I say, in their case, RECTUM), they love to come to Thailand.

 

within 10 years, mark my words, you will not see a white face from Sukh soi 1 all the way to Asok. it'll be completely Muslim. and all the girls who go with farangs will be gone, only blonde Russians and Thais who are willing to take it up the backside will be left, working-girl wise (the populations of sex workers who go with farangs and those who go with the Muslims are pretty distinct). and you will find almost no hotel under 5,000 baht a night.

 

and "Nana Plaza," my friends, will be long gone.

 

preahko

[The_Munchmaster]

....Maybe it's 'cause in any given month of the year it's 20 degreees cooler than where they live, haha....

Actually, for about 5 months of the year it is significantly cooler in the Gulf than in LOS.