The fire is going out in Patpong, Bangkok's leading nightlife area in Thailand.
The latest 2am closing rule in Thailand has become a nightmare for most business in the famous Bangkok a-gogo bars, and the coming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting in Thailand is making things even worse. There will be no life shows during Apec, explained a bikini-clad girl. The Apec summit is to be held in Thailand from 12 to 21 October 2003.
A Thai business owner who has been running bars in Patpong for decades said: Before, Patpong's came to life around 10pm and the area peaked with tourists from midnight until four in the morning. Closing the bars at 2am has cut a significant amount of our business income.
The business owner cited an example of a second-floor bar in Patpong with normal earnings of 1.3 million baht (US$ 32,500) when live-shows were tolerated, then suddenly those shows got banned and earning dropped to only 500,000 baht. Then the 2am closing ban fell on our head and the income from the bar could no more cover the general expenses and staff's salaries, so the bar had to be closed down.
Khun Prapan Poomchawsuan, president of the Patpong Residents Club, who owns several entertainment businesses in the Patpong area of Bangkok said: I myself have already lost more than 15 million baht since the crackdown in Thailand, a average of 1 million baht of lost income a month and many staff are now without a job and income.
The Apec clampdown in Thailand has also swept all vendors of fake branded goods from the streets, once those street-stalls were the lifeblood of Thailand's street-markets and Bangkok's night-markets. Without them, those normally crowded "Made In Thailand" street and night markets look very empty.
Apec delegates are not to see or find pirated goods in Thailand, Khun Prapan explained.
Life Music pubs and local restaurants, also an important part of the Patpong nightlife and the entertainment scene in Bangkok, are also suffering from those latest rules. More music please, shouts a Westerner as the music stopped and the lights came on promptly at 2am in a very well know Bangkok music-pub.
The pressure on Thailand's entertainment life may still intensify soon, if a proposal to ban the sales of alcohol in bars during daytime, goes through. Patpong businessmen are asking why the entertainment business in Thailand has been chosen for repression.
Don't forget, said Khun Prapan, that Patpong and other known nightlife entertainment areas in Thailand were once known in the world as the symbols of fun and vacation nightlife and that they have earned a lot of money for the country and attracted many tourists to Thailand.
Our beloved Patpong will die if things go on like this, Khun Prapan added.
