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Arcadius
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I think Patong is a special case, isn't it - these are provincial not national measures?
whitespider
You're kinda asking the impossible here, as nobody really knows (that's why the reports are so conflicting). Nobody really knew what was going to happen about the March 1 deadline until the day itself. That's just the way LOS is - everything is fluid until the last minute. Even if new regulations are introduced, you still have to wait and see if they're going to be enforced, and even if they are enforced, you have to wait and see for how long.
My own guess (no more than guess) is that it will be kicked into touch again until the whole issue has been rethought. Since 1 March there has been a cabinet reshuffle and the Interior Minister removed - reportedly over the southern situation, but possibly because Thaksin was dissatisfied with his performance in general.
Absolutely no point in fretting about it - just come anyway. Que sera, sera.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 3:01 pm on Mar. 16, 2004
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UK Shaga
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I dont care at all really about this closing early thing. It just means to me that I will start drinking earlier and get my women earlier. I always say its 12:00am some where in the world right now anyone for a beer, you round aint it.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 3:15 pm on Mar. 16, 2004
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power24
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Quote: from UK Shaga on 4:15 am on Mar. 17, 2004
I dont care at all really about this closing early thing. It just means to me that I will start drinking earlier and get my women earlier. I always say its 12:00am some where in the world right now anyone for a beer, you round aint it.
But the issues were also concerned with later opening times and zoning which would potentially lead to devastation for NEP and cowboy. Do these points not concern you?
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 4:00 pm on Mar. 16, 2004
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UK Shaga
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Perhaps I did not right it correct my typing is pants I know. It dose not matter what time a place closes unless you have a set work time and you live there. Most customers go to LOS for a holiday and do not have any commitment on time. So instead of starting to drink at 8:00pm you start drinking at 6:00pm. That’s why I said its always 12:00 noon somewhere in the world. In the UK Banks used to close at 3:00pm people just managed there bank time around it. If the clubs and bars shut at midnight the people that want that action will just manage there action time around it. Unless I am wrong and the law is going to change and say you can only open for 3 hours 9:00pm till 12:00pm. I also understand that Patpong and some other zones will be allowed to open to a later time. A 2 hour difference will not make me want to go to Patpong I hate the place. People will try Patpong first then go to Soi cowboy and NEP another night and spot the difference and they will say ok, we will start earlier in the good places. Its like this a top restaurant opens at 6:00pm and shuts at 12:00pm but you like to eat late but the only place that is open late is the shi*&y chip shop, what do you do, you go to the good restaurant just a bit early. Well I am in a buyers market and I choose what I want and I do not choose Patpong not matter what the time. I am a Soi Cowboy man and I will stay that way NEP is number 2, Patpong is a number errrrrrrrr 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000ish
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 4:21 pm on Mar. 16, 2004
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whitespider
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Hi
I take your points about the ambiguity but wouod apprecaite being kept informed.
the reaqson I ask is that I am a frequent short visitor (about 5 times a year for 3 - 5 days at a time) - this time I arrive about 4.pm. Hotel and showered by 6. Want to know closing time so I don't piss about showering and eating in valuable drinking time 
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 5:21 pm on Mar. 16, 2004
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UK Shaga
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Now that's a wise man he is concerned about drinking time, I really can not say anything wrong about that. Get a few in on the plane. Take a hip flask on the plane as well. I do. I am sure that the drinks carts on the streets that I use after closing time will never stop as most of them are owend by the men in brown, so its just the getting the right girl in time. Peace
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:26 pm on Mar. 16, 2004
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Arcadius
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whitespider
Well, if anything does happen, I'm sure you'll read all about it. Until then, it's all pretty much useless speculation.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:35 pm on Mar. 16, 2004
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shark68
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Very wise ARCADIUS.... 
that is amazing Thailand, never get despaired  , confused  and angry  in Thailand before the situation has actually come... you never know how it is going to work out 
I will FR after being there in April 
Below is an update on the situation:
Thailiban gives nightlife a reprieve
By Richard S Ehrlich
BANGKOK - Thailand's bars, nightclubs, massage parlors and other adult entertainment places are thanking their lucky neon stars for permission to remain open past midnight.
Doom was supposed to come last Monday, March 1, after an increasingly puritanical government demanded that most of this country's nightlife shut down at midnight, except for a handful of "entertainment zones" that could stay open until 1 or 2am, depending on their services.
Critics had dubbed that schedule the "Cinderella decree". So amid loud warnings of a dark, financial apocalypse - including a drop in foreign tourism and a surge of unemployment among Thais - government officials reluctantly reconsidered their "social order" crusade and canceled the prim closing times.
Bar owners, restaurant workers, taxi drivers, prostitutes, tourists and others are cheering the change, which was suddenly announced on Monday, the day when most were expecting bad news.
"Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has made a very sensible decision over this issue when the Thai government backed down," a European who manages a strip-tease bar said in an interview while asking to remain anonymous.
"The new Thai statement is that the midnight closing [rule] has been scrapped. This comes as tremendously good news, not only to bar owners, but to hundreds of thousands of people who work in the night entertainment industry," the manager said.
And night entertainment in Thailand is much more than just a successful, multimillion-dollar sex industry. In most Thai cities and towns, warm evenings all-year-round also feature delicious dining establishments, jazz clubs, outdoor "beer gardens", handicraft markets and places where parents can bring their children to experience tourist-friendly, sanitized fun after sunset.
Every night in Bangkok, international backpackers and hip young Thais cram Khao San Road, which is lined with shops, cafes, discos, Internet booths and souvenir stalls catering mostly to international travelers. Khao San has become one of the most crowded, multicultural neighborhoods in Asia, and it is especially so at night.
More slick tourists wander Bangkok's upscale Sukhumvit Road, which offers hedonistic and conventional nightlife above and below the belt.
However, earlier this year business leaders, tourists and others were shocked to discover that Khao San and Sukhumvit were not part of the new zones and would be forced to shut at midnight - blacking out two of the most popular, money-earning attractions Bangkok offered after dark.
Soi Cowboy and Nana Entertainment Plaza, other nightspots popular with foreigners seeking prostitutes, food and music, were also scheduled to shut at midnight.
"The Thai middle and upper classes appear to be so out of touch with what is happening in their own country, to their own people," the European manager said. "They should go down and see hustling, bustling Khao San Road, full of tourists, visitors, backpackers and Thai students. It is vital to the Thai economy. And Sukhumvit Road is a hub of tourism.
"Everybody just wants to relax, have a drink, have a meal, late at night," he said.
In Thailand's big cities, many entertainment businesses traditionally remain open until 2am, though occasionally are ordered to close at 1am. Under the now-shredded draft of the Entertainment Act planned for March 1, only three "zones" in Bangkok were awarded the right to party after midnight.
Among them was Patpong Road, one of the most famous streets in the world for commercial sex. Patpong also features an outdoor night market packed with tourists who are sandwiched among strip-tease bars, restaurants, shops, discos and massage parlors. Two neon-lit roads favored by Thais seeking fun - Ratchadaphisek and New Petchburi - also won permission to stay open after midnight.
Places outside those three zones would have been forced to shut at midnight, affecting an estimated 70 percent of Bangkok's entertainment venues. Many of those unfortunate establishments would also have been barred from opening until late in the afternoon or early evening, further squeezing their business hours to an unprofitable schedule.
"What kind, and class, of tourist does Thailand want to attract?" asked Frank Rockport in a letter published in the Bangkok Post. "Seriously, my friends and I feel insulted being told that the only option we're given to enjoy a drink after dinner is the seedy and decrepit cesspit called Patpong.
"We can't go to the Grand Hyatt bar or any of the world-class pubs and bars elsewhere because some politicians want to send us to the prostitution-infested wasteland areas of Patpong and Rachada," Rockport wrote.
"Go to Singapore for a weekend! Or even Kuala Lumpur," suggested The Nation newspaper in a sarcastic story about "outsmarting the midnight crisis". After all, "As Bangkok tightens its grip, these world cities are loosening theirs," said The Nation, which was among the Thai media in castigating the no-fun lawmakers as "Thailiban".
Though the ban was to apply throughout Thailand, in northern Thailand, Chiang Mai city was allowed to stay open to 1am - or in some cases 2am - as were some other special sites. The new reprieve, meanwhile, allows all places inside and outside the zones to remain open until 1 or 2am.
As of April 1, according to a published schedule, the new, countrywide stopwatch permits:
*"Nightclubs and bars" to function from 9pm to 2am.
*"Pubs, discotheques, cafes, restaurants with live bands and cabarets" to boogie from 6pm to 1am.
*"Massage parlors" to give the rub from 4pm to midnight.
*"Lounges and tea houses" to open from 11am to 2pm and again from 6pm to midnight.
All new entertainment venues that applied for operating licenses after January 13 or do so in the future, however, must shut at midnight if they are outside the zones. "This measure can be considered a compromise," Deputy Interior Minister Pracha Maleenond told reporters.
Thailand's debate about nightlife schedules and zoning came amid an overall tightening of this majority Buddhist nation's tolerance. And though the time ban didn't quite pan out the way it was intended, the puritanical effort appears to be having an affect in other ways. In Bangkok, where the sex industry's nighttime cabaret acts have featured sex toys, lesbian shows and other live entertainment, more recently go-go dancing by slightly more demure damsels in swimsuits appeared to be the norm.
(Copyright 2004 Richard S Ehrlich)
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 8:47 am on Mar. 22, 2004
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ringthebells
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gentlemen.
I really don't know what this fuss is all about.
I cam e home saturday morning at 4 am. I came home sunday morning at 5.30 am.
there are lots of places AND girls still available in bangkok until the wee hours.
I know where there is great food until 6, 7 am. incl. freelancers and booze. just 3 minutes off cowboy.
there is a new venue that just opened in bangkok, and it opens only at 2 am, there is the place at soi fourtysomething.
there are COUNTLESS more, just ask your local taxidriver.
and there is always "star wars street cafe".
okay na??
rtb
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 8:57 am on Mar. 22, 2004
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compexec1
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So what is the norm at Nana now, are any of the BG's naked anymore?
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:22 pm on Mar. 24, 2004
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