Farang news round up for Pattaya April 16 • By Barry Kenyon

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Re: Farang news round up for Pattaya April 16 • By Barry Kenyon

Post by Dodger »

Gaybutton wrote: Wed Apr 29, 2020 6:11 pm Try using things like "in my opinion", "to me", "in my view", "I think", "I believe", "In my estimation",
I agree we should get back on topic, but I want to say that "in my opinion" you are totally off base with this. Two other respected members have stated in-so-may-words that you were misinterpreting the intent of the statements I was making, and that I was in fact presenting what I was saying simply as "an opinion", and not as a matter of fact as you have continually implied. I have re-read the statement that you're concerned about myself several times, and honestly read it clearly as being presented as "opinion".

Regardless of who's right or wrong, this is your board, and you will have the final word. I hope the clarification I've provided you "twice"'suffices in ending this meaningless conversation so we can get me on track.

No further comments from me on this subject.
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Re: Farang news round up for Pattaya April 16 • By Barry Kenyon

Post by Gaybutton »

Coronavirus offers Pattaya clubs a bleak future

By Barry Kenyon

May 3, 2020

The owners of Pattaya’s 200 or so night spots offering vibrant forms of entertainment to foreign tourists fear that the virus pandemic could be a further nail in their coffin. Business was well down before Corona appeared on the scene as the hordes of fun-loving westerners have been gradually replaced by zero-sum, Chinese package first-timers in recent years.

All Pattaya clubs, as well as many other leisure businesses, are padlocked for the foreseeable future under the state of emergency regulations. Taweesak Chimdee, owner of a large nitery on Walking Street, said, “We are about socialization and not about social distancing. If our future lies in a customer ordering a drink from a person wearing a mask and a face shield before taking off his own mask to consume it, then that’s not going to work in Fun City.”

He also doubted that clubs could use the internet to livestream live bands, entertainers and even go-go dancers from empty night clubs. “That might work in Europe, but here in Pattaya we work on a shoestring budget and the staff depend on actual customers to make tips. There is no such thing as a “virtual” income with someone watching at home.

Daphne Sumtimez, a local drag queen who used to work several transvestite cabarets, said, “Gay clubs are in decline, that’s for sure.” She shovels the blame onto technology, the rise of dating and hookup apps epitomized by the market leader Grindr. But that’s only part of the story. Gay westerners have been finding countries nearer home both cheaper and more accommodating to LGBTQ. The ones left here are mostly ageing or aged retirees.

Pattaya club owners across the spectrum are attempting to adapt to the new reality. Some believe that customers will soon get used to temperature checks and hand sanitizers since they will be well-nigh universal. Others are adapting to new markets by planning to appeal specifically in the future to wealthy Asian visitors from Singapore, China and India. Still others hope that a secure vaccine will come riding to the rescue, whilst a few talk about fun-drones which will fly around dance floors advising people not to get too close.

The broader issue, of course, is whether Thailand can hope to secure the huge number of tourists overall which the government’s statistics people are forever proclaiming, nearly 40 million last year. If airlines are forced to reduce the seats on planes by between 35 and 50 percent in an attempt to enforce social distancing and company employees are dressed in white uniforms resembling nuclear plant technicians, one is bound to ask whether travel will ever be worth the trouble.

Maybe we should all take comfort from the French writer Voltaire whose favourite book by the way was Gulliver’s Travels. Voltaire’s anti-hero Candide travelled the world but became disillusioned by everything he saw including misery, poverty and plagues. He ended up saying the thing he had enjoyed the most in life was sitting in his own back garden.

https://www.pattayamail.com/featured/co ... ure-298012
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Re: Farang news round up for Pattaya April 16 • By Barry Kenyon

Post by Gaybutton »

I believe a major part of what attracts tourists to Thailand is the adult venues. After all, how many people are going to take expensive long haul flights to spend all their time looking at temples and ancient archeological sites?

I have no idea what the powers-that-be can do, but I agree with Mr. Kenyon that face masks and social distancing is not going to work for the bars and entertainment venues.

I think if Thailand truly wants to restore the tourist industry, which was already in trouble long before the Covid-19 crisis, they're going to have to come up with something - and fast.
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Re: Farang news round up for Pattaya April 16 • By Barry Kenyon

Post by RichLB »

I don't understand why Thailand has to resort to an either-or tourist strategy. Plenty of countries have managed to provide cultural and milquetoast options together with adult options. I can't think of a single city that doesn't have a red light district - and those cities include top family tourist destinations. Even in Pattaya, there's plenty to interest tourists not seeking adult entertainment, but why slam the door on those that want a spicier adventure. I urge the powers that be to work to provide both options.
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Re: Farang news round up for Pattaya April 16 • By Barry Kenyon

Post by Gaybutton »

What happens to Pattaya golf, snooker, darts, quizzes and bridge after the pandemic?

By Barry Kenyon

May 5, 2020

The leaders of Pattaya’s farang-orientated leisure pursuits are wrestling with the future of their chosen activity.When the pubs eventually reopen, it’s not all going to be plain sailing simply to resume where everyone left off in March.

Local golf courses, of course, have already opened their doors, howbeit with the tough health and safety regulations recently announced.But the players often begin by assembling in chatty groups in pubs early morning, then travel shoulder-to-shoulder in minibuses and frequently imbibe the amber liquid in the same hostelries during the evenings.

Pubs are even more essential to the fans of snooker, darts, quizzes and contract bridge.These indoor games are almost exclusively pub-based in Pattaya.The usual system is for the playing society to pay a nominal monthly fee, or none at all, but the management keeps the profits of food and drink sold there.

So what’s the problem once the pubs reopen? It’s that social distancing of course.These sports and leisure activities all involve close group activity and holding stuff already touched by others, whether it be a sheet of pictures in the quiz or the cards at the bridge table.There’s much more to these evenings than simply holding a glass and performing an activity to the best of your ability.It’s about togetherness as well as the booze.

These games absolutely promote social bonding and group solidarity whilst offering the men – as women players are a rarity at these events – an opportunity to get away legitimately from the wife or whoever.How matters would turn out once the group’s members have to sit or stand at least six feet from each other while play is in progress is not at all obvious.Many of the pubs are crowded during these team events and won’t be keen to lose income by removing tables and chairs.

Temperature testing and sanitizing fluid to check those nasal and oral droplets are alright so far as they go.But Coronavirus can be spread by snooker table cues, missiles thrown at a dartboard, quiz question papers and answer sheets, packs of cards and the plastic holding trays which are then circulated from table to table every 30 minutes or so.It is very difficult to avoid such items being touched by many different people in the course of an afternoon or an evening.

Whilst rich institutions and international corporations are already experimenting with contactless temperature guns, remote health monitoring, autonomous disinfection routines and robotic cleaners, the management of an average Pattaya pub is in no position financially to entertain such technological novelties.It was hard enough to pay the exorbitant rents and staff salaries even before the coronavirus pandemic.

Much depends on the future of the virus in Thailand generally and in Chonburi province in particular.Optimistically, if there is not a second wave of infections and an effective vaccine looks to be on the cards for next year, a combination of obvious health precautions and widely distributed disposal or washable gloves might be enough in many pubs.

Meanwhile, the leisure leaders should be considering how to run a quiz without members of the team whispering the answer in the captain’s ear, or without golfers en masse automatically shaking hands with the guy who just achieved a hole-in-one. And bridge players mustn’t any more shuffle cards already handled by several other contestants.Yes there are answers to all these dilemmas.But nobody asked them in the past.Now the pandemic is changing the agenda.

https://www.pattayamail.com/coronavirus ... mic-298161
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