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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2015 20:59:08 GMT 7
First flash fiction for a couple of weeks -
"I'm good to go, you see. Here I am with my 1/14th share of my Grannie's house - living the dream in Thailand. I've got me my hooker girlfriend - well, bar girl, it sounds nicer - and here I am sitting in my 19 square metre bar that turns over a hundred and fifty bucks a day.
I'm only thirty-two, I can do this forever - except Ding wants a new car - and she's talking about a house in the village. She thinks I've giit plenty of money but she doesn't know that I'm down to the last 1/80th of my 1/14th. When I bought this bar from the Swedish guy, he gave me a great deal - he said it was half-price, 300,000 baht I paid for it. I told my Dad about my great deal and he said "no one sells half price unless there's no one else in the market."
What does my Dad know? And yet, Sven looked mighty relieved when I handed over the cash. He was gone in sixty seconds - I never saw him again. He's just another farang failure - I know what I'm doing. All those tourists in here ringing the bell - I love that. But I hate it when they expect me to ring the bell back - my ego says yes, my wallet says no.
I think I'll need to cut expenses - I don't know why Ding has to have a cashier - we could be doing without that wage. And now she's talking about hiring another girl to serve. She can handle the whole place herself - but I think she wants to play the part of Queen Bee. We'll need to have a chat.
Living the dream in Thailand - all thanks to my Grannies House.""
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2015 21:20:40 GMT 7
Yes well grandma's looking down unimpressed but grandpa on the other hand. ...
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Post by rgs2001uk on Sept 15, 2015 21:32:58 GMT 7
A few years ago 3 amigos opened a bar in the lower Suk ghetto, on their own decent enough guys, together they were a total miss match.
First guy was an alckie, just wanted a place to drink for free, bar bills, no problem thanks for popping in, always nice to have someone to drink with, put your money away its no good in here, thats on the house.
Second guy was a womaniser who spent all his time in Soi Cowboy, only popping into the bar to put his hands in the till when he was short of money or had ran out.
Third guy installed his bar girl girlfriend in to run the place, she invited her hooker mates round to drink for free and freelance in the bar.
Well you can guess the rest, it was a fricking zoo.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2015 21:44:17 GMT 7
A few years ago 3 amigos opened a bar in the lower Suk ghetto, on their own decent enough guys, together they were a total miss match. First guy was an alckie, just wanted a place to drink for free, bar bills, no problem thanks for popping in, always nice to have someone to drink with, put your money away its no good in here, thats on the house. Second guy was a womaniser who spent all his time in Soi Cowboy, only popping into the bar to put his hands in the till when he was short of money or had ran out. Third guy installed his bar girl girlfriend in to run the place, she invited her hooker mates round to drink for free and freelance in the bar. Well you can guess the rest, it was a fricking zoo. Sounds like any number of bars. Which raises the question, can a bar be run successfully by westerners in Thailand? Seems lots don't last. |
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Post by rgs2001uk on Sept 15, 2015 21:53:35 GMT 7
^^^, plenty of bars being run successfully by farangs.
The one thing that always gets them in the end, is when the lease expires and new rents have to be paid.
I know a guy in Pattaya that will be facing this very problem in a couple of years, if he raises his prices customers will go elsewhere.
The first mistake many of these mugs make is in thinking coz their mrs worked in a bar she knows how to run one.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2015 22:06:33 GMT 7
Yep the upping of the rent at whatever price the landlord decides. Not just a farang only issue.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2015 22:10:08 GMT 7
^^^, plenty of bars being run successfully by farangs. The one thing that always gets them in the end, is when the lease expires and new rents have to be paid. I know a guy in Pattaya that will be facing this very problem in a couple of years, if he raises his prices customers will go elsewhere. The first mistake many of these mugs make is in thinking coz their mrs worked in a bar she knows how to run one. I agree - I've seen some cat one shambles of operations - and some pitiful one's too. And yet, there are diamonds out there too. There's a cracking place near CM Gate that earns plenty - and on low overheads. I'm notgoing to spill the figures as I know a couple of muppets will read this as guests - none of their business. The interesting part of this story is how it came to be that this Thai/Dutch couple came to own the place. A European guy, ( I think German ) spent a fortune doing the place up with his teerak - straight out of Bar Girl central casting. It's a lovely looking restaurant - plenty spent on it. Anyway - he went home for a couple of months, walked back in - and was surprised to see my pals behind the bar. Even more shocked when he found out that they had bought it, and his teerak had bolted with the money. To be fair, it was a shock to my pals too - the skank had kept it quiet. I can't remember how much money was involved - lets say 1.5 million. At that time the wage rate in CM was around 7,000 a month - so lets just round it out to 100,000 a year. What was on offer to the Bar Girl skank was fifteen years wages - by merely ripping a deludopath off. Too tempting - way, way too tempting. To me, when you are dealing with Thais in this regard, always compare the size of the deal to the average wage. Then convert that deal to your own personal circumstances. So lets say you earn $100,000 a year x 15 years. What your being tempted with here is a $1.5 million bonus ball - hey, I know plenty that would do what the skank did. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2015 22:16:59 GMT 7
Yep the upping of the rent at whatever price the landlord decides. Not just a farang only issue. Yup - The Olde Bell pub in CM was a decent business that was forced to close due to rapacious rent increases. From memory the owner was paying 540 K a year - then indicated he wanted to sell - so the landlord agreed the transfer as long as the new tenant paid 600,000 a year. The deal was done - until the landlord's son got involved and demanded 690,000 a year - and that was that. It ended up a fire sale - The premises then lay empty for over a year. Stoopid is what stoopid does. |
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Post by rgs2001uk on Sept 15, 2015 22:29:57 GMT 7
Yep the upping of the rent at whatever price the landlord decides. Not just a farang only issue. True however, many of the Thai owned bars are still around, have been for years, and will continue to be around, for the simple reason, the owners actually own the premises. I know a place upcountry that cant compete with the local Thai place across the road, Somchai and his mrs are quite happy to pull in 20k per month profit. Farang wants to make at least 4 times that amount coz he refuses to live like a Thai. Called my a snob and a Thai apologist coz I refused to pay his prices and went across the road and drank with the locals. I have no problem pay top shelf prices if thats what is on offer, but I aint paying Bkk prices for Nakon Nowhere service. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2015 22:30:14 GMT 7
^^^, plenty of bars being run successfully by farangs. The one thing that always gets them in the end, is when the lease expires and new rents have to be paid. I know a guy in Pattaya that will be facing this very problem in a couple of years, if he raises his prices customers will go elsewhere. The first mistake many of these mugs make is in thinking coz their mrs worked in a bar she knows how to run one. I agree - I've seen some cat one shambles of operations - and some pitiful one's too. And yet, there are diamonds out there too. There's a cracking place near CM Gate that earns plenty - and on low overheads. I'm notgoing to spill the figures as I know a couple of muppets will read this as guests - none of their business. The interesting part of this story is how it came to be that this Thai/Dutch couple came to own the place. A European guy, ( I think German ) spent a fortune doing the place up with his teerak - straight out of Bar Girl central casting. It's a lovely looking restaurant - plenty spent on it. Anyway - he went home for a couple of months, walked back in - and was surprised to see my pals behind the bar. Even more shocked when he found out that they had bought it, and his teerak had bolted with the money. To be fair, it was a shock to my pals too - the skank had kept it quiet. I can't remember how much money was involved - lets say 1.5 million. At that time the wage rate in CM was around 7,000 a month - so lets just round it out to 100,000 a year. What was on offer to the Bar Girl skank was fifteen years wages - by merely ripping a deludopath off. Too tempting - way, way too tempting. To me, when you are dealing with Thais in this regard, always compare the size of the deal to the average wage. Then convert that deal to your own personal circumstances. So lets say you earn $100,000 a year x 15 years. What your being tempted with here is a $1.5 million bonus ball - hey, I know plenty that would do what the skank did. Yeah maybe by the German going home for a while was the bit that saved his life. I mean theres always "What happened to Tony " right? |
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Post by rgs2001uk on Sept 15, 2015 22:31:07 GMT 7
PS, another thing not yet mentioned, key money.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2015 22:42:57 GMT 7
@kris "What Happened to Tony," - great thread  And I agree, rgs. The thing is, you may as well be talking double-dutch to the deludopaths. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2015 22:46:33 GMT 7
Yes those nice neon bar signs do funny things to some.
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