phuketrichard wrote:

OrangeDragon wrote:makes sense thai food would cost more here than in... well... thailand. it's marginally an "exotic" dish.

western food costing more is likely do to the increased cost of western ingredients... depending on what you mean by "western food".

but riverside is always pricey. tourist bait.

why?
it is the same ingredients.

I am talking about NEW Places and my take is the high cost of rent that is driving prices up

Do u really think 100 + hostess bars can survive in PP>??

I dont

Rent could easily be it... and it may not be the same ingredients (or quality of cook). Just going on burgers, there's a far cry between "beef" and a proper bit of hamburger/mince... in price and taste both. A lot of the cheaper places tend to have a lower quality of beef. This equates for a lot of the main ingredients and effort in cooking. For instance, a garage burger vs a burger at blue dolphin. "Same ingredients" as far as local beef/etc... much different result.

As to the hostess bars... they seem to. Been that way for a while. I imagine most of the hostess bars are running at some pretty low expenses... and the clientele tends to "hop around" on any given night from bar to bar to see what the action in each place is buying 1 or 2 drinks per bar. Been on such crawls a few times with the boys. While that's working the number of bars doesn't really matter much. It's also why they cluster like they do. You get groups of guys going from bar to bar buying a drink and maybe a lady drink in each one through the night. Sometimes more. Our average is around 4-6 bars a night. 8-10 on a good night .

A few regulars who pop in 1-2 nights a week and stay for 3-6 drinks, a handful of floaters as mentioned above, nearly zero staff cost, minimal rent by being off the main part of the riverside... totally doable. You won't get rich at it... but you can get by. Especially if you live on premise. Meanwhile you spend each night drinking with mates and surrounded by pretty girls... living the dream for some.

I agree with most of it Richard, but IME a night out high end farang place is WAY WAY more expensive in Thailand. Even if the menu prices were the same (which they aren't) one saves a bundle here on the wine and drinks. I paid for a $600 dinner/4 last year in PTY that might just have made it to $200 at an equivalent place (like Armands) in PP. Yeah, we drank a lot of wine, but just decent stuff, nothing crazy.

phuketrichard wrote:

why?"

because travel insurance is invalid in Thailand under the junta?

It is cooked.

Cheaper and more delicious- but cooked.

There is a reason for that- the "other" costs, and the opportunity cost.

Falang are just profit centres.

You chose a Khmer Wife Rich, so fess up.