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#1
15-12-2007, 19:03
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All quiet in Phuket?
Where's the tourist onslaught?
Down here in Rawai/Nai Harn it seems especially quiet considering we are into the 3rd week of Dec now. Speaking to a few people out and about confirmed that Patong was quiet as well. Is this right? Are we to believe the arrival figures boasted about recently or is it the change in visitor types that is giving the impression that it is quieter than normal for this time of year? Keen to hear from bar owners and the like what they think. Not ventured out of my area for a while but it definitely feels a bit on the slack side right now. 
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#2
15-12-2007, 19:22
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Been out a few nights in patong lately and seem to be plenty of couples walking on soi bangla but the bars are very quiet, and once you get up the bar sois and into the bar areas off bangla its dead.
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#3
15-12-2007, 19:43
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Supposed record numbers of arrivals for this high season...they can't all be here for just a couple of weeks of that period! Also got me thinking of another conversation I was having recently about how Patong was changing...their argument was that Patong was becoming ever more sleazy...yet I was claiming the complete opposite, truck loads of Japs/Koreans/Chinese doing their early evening gawping before bussing off to their hotels, most soi's seeming tamer than 3/4 years ago too. Last year there seemed to be a sudden influx of european couples with young kids which I don't remember seeing much of before either. Can't imagine it will be the same place in 2 or 3 years from now. I think Jungceylon will put paid to that, not that I am saying it is a bad thing, but all that place does is encourage more and more people into town that the local infrastructure can not handle - with or without the middle road.
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#4
15-12-2007, 20:00
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Agree with you there as there seems to be far more familys around these days and far fewer of the single male tourist. As for getting seedier I think the opposite is happening and the place is much tamer than it ever was. Cannot see the bar scene ever disappearing but as the destination becomes more and more family orientated the scene will get less and less. As for that being good or bad I'm not really sure, but myself like many others originally came here for the bar scene and don't mind the odd night out playing up in the bars when the missus will give me a pass-out
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#5
15-12-2007, 23:45
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I think we get more single guys other times of the year instead (leveled out over the year) while couples and families take over Dec/Jan, well, we will have to see how Jan turns out first. But so far in December nightlife pretty quiet.
At Patong beach in the daytime it is pretty busy!
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#6
16-12-2007, 00:12
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So does this bode well for the future for the bar owners? or is it something that Patong (bars) will have to adapt to? If that is the case then surely it would signal a reduction in the girlie element of Patong. Not necessarily a bad thing if the change is business is catered to I suppose. Kind of ties into the threads I was just reading about the big name dj's coming over...just cannot see that working in Patong while there is a bias towards girlie entertainment...you need punters booking their trips knowing there are dj's regularly in town providing that sort of night out. Can't say I'd really like to see Patong go that way myself, not in terms of the music as imo it's dreadful currently and needs a kick up the a**e, but the change in the type of visitors descending on the place for their 2 week binge of the year.
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#7
20-12-2007, 08:00
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I agree, during the day the beach is very busy
the bars at the end of the soi's are dead at midnight, I think the single blokes head to Pattaya these days. the ladyboys posing for photo's in bangla seem to always have the same number of gawkers. They do very well milking tourists for photo money. my GF isnt getting the usual 6-8 massage customers a day in the high season , maybe just 2 or 3 at best... she has less than 1 a day low season no point waiting all day to make 100b and pay 80b for the motorbike taxi. I have only been coming to Patong for 3 years but I noticed the changes too.
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#8
20-12-2007, 08:24
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While the news media in the U.S. are reporting normal sales this holiday all of the economic reports are predicting a huge financial crash just about to happen. Everything I see around me shows very little luxury money being spent. Air sales are down as well as the hotel / dinning industry Nation wide.
While the media keeps telling everyone that the dollar is ok I think most people are taking a wait and see attitude. I have not been in Europe but I understand from others that money is getting pretty tight there as well. 
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#9
20-12-2007, 09:06
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Well my doom and gloom financial predictions have been a long time coming.. I still think theres a hard landing up ahead with a real property crash and massive inflation due.. What that does to discretionary spending, holiday spending, early retirees, second home / holiday villa purchases, etc would seem to me to be obvious. Yet town seems to have ever increasing numbers, the island has ever increasing developments and those developments have ever increasing top end prices.. So those two trends have to intersect at some point ??
__________________
Men have only 2 emotional states, hungry and horny.. So ladies, if you see me without an erection, make me a sandwich.
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#10
20-12-2007, 12:13
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The glory days for the massage/beauty salons is well over. It's not that there are fewer customers...it's because of the explosion of new shops. 2 more have opened in Nanai road in the past 2 weeks...that makes at least 15 in Nanai road alone and it's not even anywhere near the main tourist drag. 5 years ago there were probably 25 or so shops in the whole of Patong...maybe not even that. Now there are 100+ and still more opening all the time. Look at Soi Kepsap...wall-to-wall massage shops...20+ in a very small area. Great for the customer ;-) Hope you're not that naive that you believe she only makes 100 baht for every massage!! In 12 years and 100's of massages I've only ever known 1 that wouldn't provide some sort of happy ending.
__________________
 Thai girl saying:"This my brother - not my boyfriend"...
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#11
20-12-2007, 12:16
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Nah, it's just that the mongers are socially responsible and giving up their annual trip to the flesh-pots in order to reduce their carbon footprint.
Seriously though, have been involved in e-commerce in the US and UK markets for four years, in areas that are sensitive to economic performance as well as the 'need' sector that doesn't really get hit by economic downturns easily. The first turned down dramatically about 3-4 months ago, and the last was hit seriously since two months ago. Things are looking distinctly wobbly.
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#12
20-12-2007, 12:40
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Lots of factors at play :-
- Higher oil prices have pushed up airfares and high season airline prices get silly in any case making a bad deal - worse. - Experienced visitor who knew about the up coming election are staying away as apart from (daft) bar closing there is real risk of another coup - civil disorder if the results dont suit certain parties. - Prices here are higher - hotels have raised room rates and real inflation here is running at >8% p.a. (I'm sure Seft will say this is conservative). - Stronger THB is especially hitting US visitors. - Eastern Europe (Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Czech Rep) much cheaper and nearer options for the P4P single guy. - Xenophobic anti farang under current - with visa situation and duel price rip offs putting off returners. - Increase in arrivals from Russia, India, M.E. and China which tend to be the 'zero dollar' herds which dont spend long in Bangla. Yes - Phuket is changing and moving more in the direction that Samui is taken - P4P is heading to Pattaya, it will survive in Patong to an extent but its become much less important than Phuket's other attractions - beaches, diving, shopping, and spas.
__________________
Its My Life ..........!
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#13
20-12-2007, 13:32
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Yet another big shopping plaza has just started construction on the "yellow brick road"...just along from Baan Zaan market and not far from Jungceylon.....absolute madness.
__________________
Thai girl saying:"This my brother - not my boyfriend"...
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#14
20-12-2007, 13:47
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It's not just the discretionary spending that's been hit, for reasons the "man on the street" do not understand a lot of people are losing their homes. Didn't I read about a bank run on a major bank in th UK a few months back? UAE just bought Citi and a bunch of banks here are laying of thousands. The only thing holding up the U.S. economy right now is the upcoming election. A lot of the investments you see in Thailand are people with money desperate to find a place to put it that could be safer then some of the more volatile markets out there. Look at the big money flowing into China for the same reason? I am just holding my breath and hoping to get back home (LOS) before things get to desperate.
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#15
20-12-2007, 16:31
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I came to Phuket for the first time in 1991, and there were only 2 massage salons in Patong: Hatuvat and Patong Lotus (Soi Post Office). A lot has changed.
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#16
20-12-2007, 16:54
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Beleve it or not,China is the biggest bubble waiting to pop. P/E ratio`s there are 2 to 3 times those of the Western equity markets.  Although China will be a growing rapidly for a long time to come,it`s still risky at the moment,IMO.
__________________
Live Fast.........
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#17
21-12-2007, 13:19
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Yup, that's when it all started... with the US subprime market. That's when my UK loans market tanked. Where it's all going nobody knows, but it would seem like the deep south may be the destination. Central banks are pumping money into the system like crazy but it doesn't seem to be helping one iota. That's worrying...
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#18
21-12-2007, 13:25
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It will ... worry not mate ... 1929 crash - recovered with ~ 5 years 1987 crash - recovered < 1 year 2000 crash - taken 5 years for S&P to make news highs. With so much cheap money slooshing around the capital markets now - we're set for one almighty rally! Happy & Prosperous New Year  
__________________
Its My Life ..........!
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#19
21-12-2007, 15:41
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I think the cheap money is gonna take longer to stablize than a year.. I see this as deepening for 08.. maybe 09.. By then housing and general economy looking bad but the rabid inflation will make measuring assets in nominal dollars not look as bad as it is in purchasing power.
I still think precious metals are going to the moon this time round.. 1000 in 08 on gold but that the chance of many multiples above what we now have in next half decade looking very real to me.
__________________
Men have only 2 emotional states, hungry and horny.. So ladies, if you see me without an erection, make me a sandwich.
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#20
21-12-2007, 16:29
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I really like Phuket but after this visit Im not so sure, its just pure madness right now...families, farang chicks in bars because its 'cool' to be in one and tell friends back home. Girls asking for 1,500 ST and 2K LT (up yours!). Safari was full of birds who Im sure were high on something...before you coukld always see a few good ones who'd missed the boat in Patong And of course...the shirt pullers...cant sell you anything without tugging at your shirt. I also saw a 1hr oil massage in Lets Relax advertised for 1,200B, just because it has a pond and music that sounds like mating whales..WTF.
I dont know the economics of it but phuket is trying to be something its not at the moment. I think low season is way better. But before I sound like Im having a terrible time, let me assure you Im not...its just all getting pricey and harder to ferret out the good deals on pussy and all else.
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#21
21-12-2007, 17:37
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Sod that, I'm cashing my ticket in and staying put in Rochdale. Tch! Spa's..........What next?
__________________
The idea is to die young.........as late as possible. 
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#22
21-12-2007, 17:57
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Last edited by floppy : 21-12-2007 at 18:11.
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#23
27-12-2007, 16:14
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Good Thread...
Let me give ya my 2 cents worth... I phoned a buddy in October and told him I was going to Phuket for a couple months. He said "WTF are you going there for? Phuket is way too expensive now". This seems to be the consensus from a few world traveller friends. So I get here and I'm walking around in Patong and they wont leave me alone..."Taxi...Tuk tuk...massage...where you go?" Then I realized why none of my friends wants to come here. It is too expensive...the Thais have become greedy and aggressive....they have lost their charm...it definitely isn't the same place it was 10 years ago. The funny thing is, nobody seems to know it. I brought it up on my first post and it upset a |
