All of Me and All of Me Too bars close permanently as of August 30

[TomUK]

I was sorry to learn that All Of Me and All of Me Too have also closed for good now. They had been my favourite bars in Pattaya for quite a while. When I read about the activities they had started recently I was really looking forward to another visit.

My first visit to All Of Me was in 2012. I went there with GB and some of his friends after we had a meal at the La Marina restaurant in Sunee Plaza. I enjoyed the atmosphere in the bar and went back the next evening. There was a member of staff I really fancied but with me being a bit shy and fairly new to the bar scene in Thailand I did not approach him. Unfortunately this also happened to be my last evening in Thailand.

In 2013 I went back to Pattaya and spent a lot of time at All Of Me. There was a great bunch of guys working at the bar and they really made it fun to go there. On several occasions I shared a bottle of whiskey with them and a couple of times we had a meal together with food from the restaurant next door (closed now).

When I went back in 2014 most of the staff I knew had gone and the bar was no longer the fun place it used to be. I spent more time at All Of Me Too were I not only enjoyed several massages but also stayed there for a drink or two. This was by far the best massage place I have ever been to.

In 2015 I went to All Of Me again and other than the waiter I was the only person in the bar. It really made me want to cry thinking back to the good times I have had two years earlier.

All Of Me and All Of Me Too are just two of the places (gay and otherwise) which I visited often and which are now closed. Where will it all end?

[a447]

High season is not too far off. Here's hoping more businesses can hang on there until then.

I'll be coming to the rescue Dec/Jan. Lol

[Gaybutton]

High season is not too far off. Here's hoping more businesses can hang on there until then.

That's not the problem. The problem is what happens after high season. I'm hoping high season will rescue the bars that are still open. I don't think high season can do much for the bars that already closed. But I do believe if after high season the bars will be profitable, then maybe some of the closed bars will reopen, whether under previous or new ownership.

It's like the Clinton-Trump election. At this point no one can safely say just what is going to happen.

Along with that, even if bars do reopen, I hope the owners will have finally figured out that it's going to take much more than hiring a few boys and hanging out a sign.

[Undaunted]

I hope the owners will have finally figured out that it's going to take much more than hiring a few boys and hanging out a sign.

You can hope all you want but after reading many posts about Sunee the sleaze factor was the draw, that just is not present anymore and having a bar with 5 gay boys sitting on chairs playing with their cell phones just doesn't cut it.

[TomUK]

You can hope all you want but after reading many posts about Sunee the sleaze factor was the draw, that just is not present anymore and having a bar with 5 gay boys sitting on chairs playing with their cell phones just doesn't cut it.

The sleaze factor was actually what kept me away from Sunee Plaza. I had been coming to Pattaya for eight years before I visited the first gay bar in this area.

I agree with what you say about bar staff playing with their phones instead of looking after the customers. I once had a similar experience in one of the larger bars in Sunee Plaza. When I arrived one table was occupied by one or two farangs surrounded by all the boys. After I sat down I was served my drink and then ignored by the staff. They did not even bother asking if I wanted another drink, so I just paid and left. Needless to say that I never returned to this bar. I can't say that I was very surprised when I heard that it had closed down.

[Gaybutton]

After I sat down I was served my drink and then ignored by the staff. They did not even bother asking if I wanted another drink

That is part of what I mean when I say bar owners better start doing much more than simply hiring a few boys and hanging out a sign. Why bar owners often are not even there goes beyond me. And why they don't exercise more control over the behavior of their staff also goes beyond me.

What do the boys think they've been hired for - to have a party and get paid for it? When a customer buys a bottle and shares it with the boys, guess who is going to get all the attention, to the exclusion of other customers.

Why do bar owners permit their employees to sit there staring into their mobile phones while ignoring customers? I don't understand why bar owners permit the boys to use their mobile phones at all while 'on duty.'

I also often see the boys gathered together in their little chat groups while customers are being ignored.

Meanwhile, some of the bar owners can't figure out why customers don't come. If I go to a bar and can't even get enough attention from the boys to at least be able to order a drink, guess which bar I don't go to again.

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

[Alex]

In fairness, it's difficult to get that point across with Thais who don't work in bars, too. Some of my colleagues had tears in their eyes when I told them that, no, they cannot have phone conversations with their mom while being at the office, unless it's justified due to a genuine emergency obviously. The number of Line messages I receive from Thai friends while they're at work (regular office or shop assistant jobs) also never fails to surprise me.

A bar owner's (only) advantage is that his staff are cuter than average, I don't think they are any easier to "handle".

[Gaybutton]

A bar owner's (only) advantage is that his staff are cuter than average

That is a problem too. I don't think you need me to tell you that cuteness is in the eyes of the beholder. Boys I consider cute might very well be boys you wouldn't give a second glance to. There is no universal cute.

[Captain Kirk]

From my last visits to Pattaya, my impression is that there simply isn't enough folk looking to go to Sunee to save the area. Seems to be going downhill steadily over the last few years. It isn't suddenly going to take off again.

[Gaybutton]

my impression is that there simply isn't enough folk looking to go to Sunee to save the area.

I agree with that impression. I believe the reason that impression is based on reality is because bar owners seem to me to be living in a dream world, thinking all they have to do is display some boys and the gays will be flocking to their venues. It worked that way in the past, but we're no longer in the past.

The reality is the numbers of gay holiday makers coming to Thailand at all anymore have massively dropped and I don't see many bars doing much of anything about it other than raising their prices. Gary, former owner of the now closed All of Me and All of Me Too bars, made a sincere effort to attract customers again. The effort failed. I believe the reason it failed was because he was doing everything on his own, without cooperation from any other bars, and that simply was not enough to bring back customer numbers. I believe if all the bars that still had not ended up closing had joined with him in a cooperative effort to re-attract the gay customers who still come to Thailand at all, it would have had a much greater chance of success.

I haven't been to the Boystown-Pattayaland bars in a long time, mainly because I'm not about to pay their prices. I'm not here as a holiday maker. I can't comment on customer numbers there. But what I do see is a far greater number of gay farang in Jomtien Complex than I see in Sunee Plaza. Several Jomtien Complex bars are still doing well enough, but even there the customer numbers are way down. I'm usually in Sunee Plaza once a week or so and lately every time I'm there I still see a few bars getting good customer numbers, but I'm also seeing some of the bars completely empty of customers. A week ago I went to one of the three still-existing Sunee Plaza go-go bars and stayed about 40 minutes. The entire time I was the only customer in there.

As I said, this year's high season, beginning about a month from the time of this post, hopefully will turn things around for the bars that still are operating. The way I see it, the future of Sunee Plaza depends on whether this year's high season succeeds in producing enough customers to keep those bars able to continue operating.

Just how long they will be able to continue operating, I believe, depends on how successful high season will be and how successful they will continue to be once high season is over - about mid February. I believe if the bar owners get together and make a genuine cooperative effort to attract customers back to Sunee Plaza, that's their best chance, not only for themselves, but also the best chance of convincing potential bar owners to reopen bars that are now closed. But if they continue business as usual, which simply does not work anymore, then I too see a gloomy future for Sunee Plaza.

And those who are concerned that the middle easterners might eventually take over Sunee Plaza, that concern might very well be realistic. Madam Sunee is no fool. Maybe the bar owners aren't going to do anything, but I believe Madam Sunee is not about to just sit on vacant venues with no money coming in from them. If gay bars won't fill the vacancies, guess who will.