Patong - The Wake

[kevozman1 258]

On 6/28/2017 at 4:52 AM, xylophone said:

Perhaps that is the case and I've not really noticed it, however a few times of late I have witnessed something I have never witnessed here before..............

 

I meet friends in a local Starbucks quite a few times a week, so you could say I'm a regular visitor and have been since it first opened and there follows just a few things, which for me epitomises the depths to which we have sunk here.

 

A Chinese guy with his wife sitting in Starbucks clipping his toenails (and the skin off his feet) and they were flying all over the floor and the table. I was mortified as was the manager of Starbucks and promptly told him to stop, whilst the shop girls swept up the clippings from the floor. By the look on his face he thought it was a perfectly normal thing to do.

 

An Indian guy sitting on an armchair in Starbucks, with his shoes off and his dirty feet resting on the table. I stood over him and suggested that it wasn't good manners to put one's feet on the table, especially as other people had to eat from those very tables, so he reluctantly took them off. Again, it seemed like the norm for him.

 

If you want to see mess, then look at the places where a Chinese family have been drinking and eating. For at least 75% of the time there will be food and drink on the floor, not to mention wrappers and other rubbish and the lovely Thai staff are always having to clean up after Chinese families have been there and indeed all of these girls who speak a little English say to me, "China, I don't like".

 

As if to add insult to injury these Chinese families have no control over their children and let them run around the place shouting and screaming as they see fit and on at least a couple of occasions I have stood over the family and asked them to quieten down, telling them it is a restaurant/coffee shop, not a playground. They have no respect for other people's comfort or well-being.

 

At the back of Jungceylon, a Chinese woman decided to let her child defecate on the area which has seats in it (where people could sit and relax), when there were toilets no more than 100 m away.

 

These are instances that I have witnessed in one particular place in Patong, so lord knows what is happening in other areas and for me this is a sure sign that this place is on the slide with regards to its tourists and the quality thereof.

 

 

Painting quite a picture there lol...

[bimbob 0]

Best memories, or at least a couple that is most prominent

 

In year 2000 I was in Thailand for the first time, staying at Patong Resort. I was amazed by the enormous lobby with pleasant air condition and staff opening the door. It looked very classy and still does in my opinion, even if they don't open the door for you any more. I was even more amazed when I found out that staff in the establishment next door (with some local knowledge I am sure you know which I am hinting at) had the same logo on their t-shirts as the people serving breakfast.

 

My first Tom Yum rivals this memory as number one, I had it at Charlies Biergarden. I ate everything with great pleasure and pain, it was really spicy. I later found out it is better not to eat everything. I miss the Biergarden and have somehow made Savoey my lunch place now, location is great still but it lacks the charm, why did they have to make it so big?

 

I'm not missing the sewage smell in Bangla road, granted it is still there but I think it was much worse before.

[NamKangMan 5,621]

On 28/06/2017 at 6:23 PM, Prometheus33 said:

Neither Patong nor Phuket has failed .. both are alive and doing well ...... Perhaps one can say that it isn't doing as well as it used to. That's  for sure .. have you taken a look at the world economy recently ?! .. Most people can't afford a decent holiday because they simply do not earn enough these days !! Tourism in Patong / Phuket has taken a hit same as other tourist spots at other places .. 

I was in Patong recently (@ the Burasari) and enjoyed my stay  .. as did my son and his fiancee ( she flew Prague Moscow Phuket , I mention this because the focal point of her / their holiday was Phuket / Patong not Bangkok or elsewhere ) , both have just completed their MBA and I dare say very discerning travellers !! They spent 15  days in Patong and 6 days in  Kata and say they will be back  again .. When young people feel a place is worth going back to, well, I reckon there is hope yet !! 

 

 I find your post very contradictory. 

 

"Neither Patong nor Phuket has failed .. both are alive and doing well"  - by tourist numbers, or revenue????  One doesn't mean much, with out the other. 

 

"Perhaps one can say that it isn't doing as well as it used to. That's  for sure" - but you just said, "both are alive and doing well."  Ok, so, some are still making some money here, but not as much as before.  Have you considered that is now an economic trend on Phuket????  How low will that trend go?

 

"Most people can't afford a decent holiday because they simply do not earn enough these days !!" - but the cheap Chinese, Indians and Russians are coming here, in record numbers.  They represent the majority of tourist to Phuket now.  They can afford a holiday here, they just can't afford to spend anything when they get here. 

 

"Tourism in Patong / Phuket has taken a hit same as other tourist spots at other places .." - but the tourist numbers are up, so "the hit" you are talking about must be baht.  Right?

 

"I was in Patong recently (@ the Burasari) and enjoyed my stay" - so, do you holiday here, or do you live here?

 

"I dare say very discerning travellers" - where else have they been in South East Asia?  What do they have to compare Phuket to, for this region?

 

"When young people feel a place is worth going back to, well, I reckon there is hope yet !!" - a lot of the western market returned her for holidays.  Where are they now????  How long before your son and finance shun Phuket, as many others have in recent times?

Edited July 7, 2017 by NamKangMan

[Yahooka 947]

What were your favourite sights in the old Patong? Bangla Road pre-year2000, Gonzo Bar,the group of bars(and small disco) in Soi Sunset,Firehouse a go-go and the thai resturant next door,Rock Hard  was still great,Didi`s, the clear(compared to nowadays) water on Patong beach.............and many,many more ......aaaah memories .

 

[KarenBravo 10,265]

The huge tamarind tree in Soi Bangla that was beside the Expat Bar and stretched over the road to the Kangaroo Bar.

[phuketrichard 4,063]

Pre 2000   Titanic disco...  after we closed and sold the license... Shark club till the police shut it down in 2002

Expat Bar late at night

Doolies

 

 

[Ron19 60,535]

A flame post has been deleted

[xylophone 11,748]

I was about to reply to a couple of other posts, but I see they have been removed!

 

I will tread lightly here for fear of upsetting anybody, however surely TV members can post about the place as they see it these days, whether it be good or bad because there are many on this thread who think that Patong is going downhill or is not as it could be/should be, whereas there are others who think that everything is fine and surely that's the right of everybody here, to post as they see things.

 

I really don't have any time for those who post things like, "if you don't like it here go home", or "what are you doing staying here if it is so bad" etc etc.

 

This brings me onto a rather humorous post from "Old croc" I think it was when he was using the analogy of his dog with regards to another poster (not that I thought it was called for you understand, but it was humorous) however it was more than matched by the reply from NKM and I had to have a chuckle over both of them.

 

Staying with the dog analogy, I suppose that folks who live here and "criticise" the place could be likened somewhat to somebody who describes his dog thus, "he's an ugly dog, full of fleas and smells, but I love him".

 

I'm not saying that Patong is that bad, but I'm sure you get my drift.......those who criticise the place still love it for one reason(s) or another. 

 

PS. This is NOT aimed at the mods.

Edited July 13, 2017 by xylophone

[DrDave 1,329]

Getting back to best memories... I used to hang out almost exclusively in the old Coyote Bar in Soi Seadragon. That was well before Seadragon was remodeled/renovated. Coyote was a tiny, single bay bar with a live band every night. Generally packed during high season (which means they probably had 15-20 patrons), and it seemed to do a reasonable business during low season. It was owned by Freddie, a Norwegian, who ran it along with his girlfriend Ae. After being away from Phuket for some time, my wife and I returned to Soi Seadragon one night to find Coyote closed, and a memorial to Ae setup outside, as she had passed. I don't think Coyote every opened again, and I never heard what the situation was regarding Freddie, Ae and Coyote. 

[xylophone 11,748]

10 hours ago, DrDave said:

Getting back to best memories... I used to hang out almost exclusively in the old Coyote Bar in Soi Seadragon. That was well before Seadragon was remodeled/renovated. Coyote was a tiny, single bay bar with a live band every night. Generally packed during high season (which means they probably had 15-20 patrons), and it seemed to do a reasonable business during low season. It was owned by Freddie, a Norwegian, who ran it along with his girlfriend Ae. After being away from Phuket for some time, my wife and I returned to Soi Seadragon one night to find Coyote closed, and a memorial to Ae setup outside, as she had passed. I don't think Coyote every opened again, and I never heard what the situation was regarding Freddie, Ae and Coyote. 

I remember it DrDave and I went there a few times and thought how small it was to have a live band playing, however business did drop off quite markedly. Now whether that was a result of his wife's passing or not I don't know, but I did see Freddie around once or twice after it closed (he was friendly with a mate of mine, more than me).

 

All that seems so long ago now and I can't really recall what the old Sea Dragon looked like (prob too much red wine and a few too many boozy nights!).

[steelepulse 5,831]

Always liked Flash for their shows after putting in a couple hours at Rock Hard and Rock Country.  After that Shark before going up the hill to Chairat's place. Non typical nights included U2 and spending time with Didi before he got "Das Boot" from bangla.

 

 

[xylophone 11,748]

On 6/25/2017 at 5:25 PM, Monkeyrobot said:

Full of Chinese, one of them walked up to me and started taking a photo of the shrimp yellow curry I was eating, strange people and the tuk tuk drivers don't like them either, they really haggle on the price, 

Well the Chinese were supposed to be the saviours of the place, so much so that we wouldn't be in the mourning period (Wake) for very long, although some of us long-timers had a different viewpoint!

 

So I thought I'd post a few interesting snippets of info on that: – just a few days ago I was talking to the GM of Big C and we were talking about the Chinese influx and I mentioned that in the early days there used to be rows and rows of dried seaweed packets all over the place, but I hadn't seen them so prevalent of late. To which he replied that I was quite right and they had to scale back the amount of packets of seaweed they were ordering because the demand had dropped off??

 

And this is an excerpt from the South China Morning Post so perhaps we are experiencing some of this...........

 

What Chinese Tourists Want.

Chinese tourists, whose voracious shopping for everything from milk powder to rice cookers and toilet seat covers have disrupted supplies all over the world and made substantial boosts to economies, are shifting gears. They're increasingly travelling for the experience, not for shopping.

 

Shopping dropped to third place as the motivation for China's 122 million outbound tourists last year. In 2015, shopping was the second-highest motivation, the report said.

 

Chinese travellers are spending less, and budgeting less on overseas shopping, as the advent of online shopping on platforms like Alibaba Group Holdings' Tmall Marketplace have brought Macy's to China.

 

Shopping dropped to third place as the motivation for China's 122 million outbound tourists last year, behind sightseeing, recreation and entertainment, according to a survey of 2,000 respondents………….

 

Still, there are tourists who travel to shop, known as "intent shoppers," but they come from the lower income brackets, compared with more affluent travellers who already have everything and are seeking the joy of seeing and experiencing new places, the report said.
 

From what I've seen here I would say that these Chinese tourists do seem to come from the "lower income brackets", not only judging by the way they dress and look, but by their manners, or should I say lack of. Of the many dozens of Thai shop-workers and service folk I have spoken to here, not one has a good word to say about them and many of them outright hate them.

 

Jumping around here, but I notice that there are some signs advertising Chinese food outside of the small metal shipping-container-type stall at the back of Jungceylon and it looks to have had a change of ownership with a few Chinese folk milling around it. 

 

What started off to be an outlet selling "fries and sausages" which was sold after doing not much business at all, then taken over and started up as "Patty Moos Authentic Fast Food (established 2016)" now seems to have changed ownership and menu, and the only thing that hasn't changed is the fact that customers are scarce. Maybe bowls of cheap noodles will entice some Chinese clientele, but then again not much profit in that when one has to rent space in an expensive shopping centre.

 

So if a lot of the Chinese spend on travel finds its way back to China as many people have said, then the only thing left for the likes of Patong is the spend on shopping and other experiences, and if the shopping is in decline and the other experiences are not as good as they could be, then a few rich connected folk here will be happy, but IMO a lot of the smaller businesses will continue to struggle.

 

The place still has potential and even if it has a seedy side with Bangla Road and environs.....(doesn't every city or major tourist drawcard) then there is so much more that could be done to make it a desirable location rather than a place attracting the lo-so folk and bogans.

[grumpyoldman 2,064]

Ya, showed up somewhere 92-93. Took a flat on Bangla,,,, Nordic Bungalow, my room shared a wall with the then Hard Rock on Bangla. No worries could keep the beat with lass of the night ha,ha,ha.

 

Later years, the Shark club, then to Safari,, damn if the sun of the morning at that point wasn't a nuisance...sheilas dou jour sleep till 3 do it all over again. Rock on, ain't what it was but no where is.

 

[sekmet 64]

I don't know which Tiger you speak of but the one that burned down, prior heaved with bars and patrons. Since the rebuil6, practically empty.

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[xylophone 11,748]

4 hours ago, sekmet said:

I don't know which Tiger you speak of but the one that burned down, prior heaved with bars and patrons. Since the rebuil6, practically empty.

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk
 

Don't know whose post you are referring to, but I know them now as "resurrected Tiger" (rose up from the ashes of the burnt down place) and "New Tiger"cos it was built from new AND you are right, there are so many empty bars in the resurrected place.

 

Having said that a lot closed in New Tiger after the initial "rush" and quite a few have been replaced with pool tables. Even in the high season the customer numbers were down for most of the bars..........not surprising with bar fines at 1500 baht and lady drinks between 220 and 250 baht.

 

Times they are a-changing!