PattayaPete

To celebrate finally re-opening we are having a party from 1pm to 6pm. We have lots of giveaways from our suppliers and will have free sangria as well. Come and blow off the past two years of misery. Everyone is very welcome.

The "health nazis" were only there for one day, yesterday. From today we will be doing what every one else is doing and anything we do will be done by our own staff.

The rumors of my sanity are highly exaggerated!

We will be open tomorrow and every day from 1pm to 10pm. We are only running 1 shift hence the shortened opening hours. As soon as turnover justifies it we will be back to normal opening times. Ten pm is still mandated closing time although the powers that be are discussing that tomorrow and may allow later closing and also the opening of bars and nightclubs. We will see. With a skeleton staff of just 20 vs the normal 100 it may take us a few days to get things humming, so please forgive any slowness or sloppiness in the service. I am fairly confident things will be fine but until we are running I can't be sure. We will tweak it as needed. On a personal note, I am stepping back from day to day operations. Twenty five years in the bar and restaurant trade in Pattaya is a pretty good run but I am not as energetic or motivated as I was in the past. Old age sucks :-). My Thai step son, Eckapon will be the new manager. He has been around me for 25 years (he is 27) so hopefully has a good understanding of "crazy" farangs. Eck has excellent English so feel free to have a chat with him anytime and your opinion on the operation and farang friendliness of the place are welcome, both in the bar and here on this forum.

I am reluctant to name a date given all the delays we have had. Our plan at the moment is to open again on 18 March. Fairly confident of this baring any new changes in the situation with Covid.

Sadly no. We are ready to open and will do as soon as the Corona (government) situation allows tourists to enter Thailand with out unreasonable restrictions and alcohol can be sold.

It seems that while closed the PBG has still been feeding the masses. Unfortunately the masses are insects and the food has been our wooden tables and chairs. The work crews are rebuilding the furniture and expunging any insect infested wood from the premises. A bigger job that I expected. We have tentative plans to re-open on 15 January for limited hours and with a limited menu. Probably 3 - 11 pm. Nothing is sure yet as the situation here remains fluid and Omicron has yet to hit heavily. It's the government response to Omicron that remains the big unknown although the health minister has stated unequivocally that lock downs will not be reinstated. We will see.

Yes, The Pattaya Beer Garden will close again (temporarily), with Tuesday 29 September being the last day for the public. We gave it our best shot, after reopening following the initial Covid closure. We have tried now for 3 months but never looked even close to breaking even let alone making a profit. I have been subsidizing the losses to try and keep the jobs going but if I keep doing it I will soon be broke. Our lease came up for renewal during all this and we have signed up for a further 3 years. As soon as the business looks even remotely viable again we will reopen. We have an internet group subscribed by all staff so it is easy to keep in touch and simple to bring them all back again. Thanks to everyone who visited during these trying times. As soon as we decide to open again I will announce it here.

Jacko, the bar area will be open, all usual services will be available.

No plastic partitions. My understanding is they were never required just an over reaction by some owners.

We will be open again from 10 am to 12 midnight from Wednesday 1 July. The staff have been busy these last few days getting everything clean and ready to go. It is amazing how many things deteriorated or just broke over the three months we were closed. However everything appears good now and we are keen to get back into it. I have no idea if we can survive and I'm expecting a hard time to even break even with no tourists in town and Cov19 fears still very much on everyone's mind. We are going to give it our best shot though. I do believe the Beer Garden will be a safe venue with ocean on three sides and a nice sea breeze to blow that nasty virus away. Amazingly our liquor supplier agreed to take back old stock beer and replace it with new stock. Still can't quite believe that happened. So break out from that lock-down and come and enjoy yourself at the Pattaya Beer Garden. Feel free to pass on the invite to others on different websites or Facebook. I know there was some speculation here and elsewhere that we would never re-open. It was all fake news ? 555 .

Frosty, I can and will definitely help through either sponsorship, advertising or donation. I am back in town after 1 March, lets get together and talk about it then.

Reviews are strange things. If you read the reviews for the Beer Garden, even just the first two pages you may think that the Beer Garden is too expensive, while being very reasonable the food is great but average the staff are fantastic but ignore you its as good as it ever was but going down hill service is very friendly but rude food is served very quickly but takes forever It gets confusing to say the least. I try to follow up bad reviews with the managers to find out what actually happened. Sometimes we just did a bad job, sometimes the customer was unreasonable and sometimes nobody remembers what is painted as a major incident. The biggest problem I think is managing expectations. Looking for a fine dining experience and looking for a cheap bite to stave off hunger are very different requirements. Your reaction to a place is probably as much about your expectations as anything else. The Shed at Dulwitch became the No 1 restaurant in London without ever serving a meal. Here is the fascinating story of how that happened -

I can confirm that he has not sold the PBG.

We sell cigs at the Beer Garden. Wholesale price for L&M went from 63 to 83 baht and for Marlboro went from 88 to 115 baht. That's a 30% increase.

I got the following reply. "Your SIM does not support 4G. Please upgrade your SIM card (free) at AIS Shop. That's disappointing.

This story is interesting but not for the reasons given by Reuters. It turns out that the evidence used by Wired and Gizmodo that Dr Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto (bitcoin creator) was fabricated by a blackmailer trying to extort Dr Wright. Here's what is interesting. Dr Wright is in a tax dispute with the Australian Tax Office over tax credits and VAT refunds around a company he started that is now in bankruptcy. Nothing to do with Bitcoin. ATO says he owes them 3 million and are withholding a 5 million tax refund while it is sorted out. In other words if the investigation goes against Dr Wright he will only get 2 million instead of 5 million in his tax refund. Dr Wright's tax status is not clear at the moment and there may be more to the non-bitcoin part of the story that has yet to been revealed. As the article states, within 2 hours of the story in Wired being released Dr Wright's Australian home was raided. The tax dispute has been ongoing for many months. Why the sudden raid? Australian authorities say it's just a coincidence. Satoshi Nakamoto did mine the first Bitcoin into existence and over the next while he mined a further 1,000,000 bitcoin. We know it was him (her, them) because it is the first account on the blockchain. Those Bitcoin have never been touched or moved. It drives people crazy to know that the creator of Bitcoin has over $400,000,000 in Bitcoin but has never spent or used a single one. It appears it drives the tax authorities crazy as well. Is Satoshi's stash taxable. Well we don't know which jurisdiction he lives in but generally the tax position would be zero at the moment. Clearly there was no law covering Bitcoin at the time they were mined in 2008. No money changed hands to create them. As long as they are not sold then no capital gain has been made. It is unknowable which jurisdiction they were mined in and clearly any tax law would have to be retro-actively enforced. It's a huge stash of wealth the authorities can not get their hands on. They can see it. They can admire it. They can lust after it but they can't touch it. It must be very painful for the tax man. I almost feel sorry for him.

If you owned 300 bitcoin that would have been around a 250,000 baht gain in 3 days. Just saying :-). Bitcoin - the best performing currency in the world for 2015.

I don't have a regular time but I try to come in every second night between 8 and 10 pm. You can always ask the staff if I am about or send me a PM and I will tell you when I will be in.

Martin, it's 393.74 now so you will be up a little. Turnout was a little disappointing - only Martin turned up! So I don't think I'll do it again. How about this instead. Anytime I am in the Beer Garden, if you approach me and ask about Bitcoin, I will give you 100 baht's worth for free Just ask and you will receive, limit one time per person.

Today is the day. Don't forget to turn up for your free Bitcoin between 3 and 5 this afternoon.

Not so much. If you want to do serious money laundering I'd recommend the experts, HSBC Bank. They have done serious work in the drug trade laundering money for Mexican drug cartels and avoiding tax in the UK by laundering money through their Swiss branches (all widely reported). The problem with any sort of criminal activity with bitcoin is that you leave a permanent trail of the transactions on the blockchain. While this in itself will not get you caught you have to be very careful you don't give away your identity when converting to fiat money. It can be done if you are careful and understand exactly how bitcoin works but criminals will usually take the easy way out and use a money laundering expert like a bank or just plain cash.

I will as long as you promise to accept monopoly money in your bar and convince another half million merchants to accept it too, as they accept Bitcoin, including Microsoft, Expedia, Overstock.com and Save the Children Fund. PS You should talk to me about accepting bitcoin in Sugar Baby. I'd tell you about how you have zero risk from charge backs, zero fees and can instantly access the money as opposed to credit cards where you are always at risk of charge backs, pay substantial fees and can not be sure you get to keep the money until at least three months after it was spent.

With 15 baht to spare. What a deal!

This Sunday between 3 and 5 pm I will be giving away 100 baht worth of Bitcoin at The Pattaya Beer Garden, to anyone who asks. I'll be sitting at the first inside table with my "Free Bitcoin Here" sign. You can immediately spend the bitcoin at the bar or keep them as you wish. That's at least one free beer. To collect the bitcoin you will need a cell phone or a laptop. I will assist anyone who needs help installing an appropriate app. I recommend Mycelium for Android or BreadWallet for IOS. You can install an app beforehand if you like or I will walk you through the process when you arrive. I do not claim to be a bitcoin expert but I have been using the currency for a few years and I am reasonably familiar with it. I will be happy to answer any questions that I can. I also like discussing the merits of Bitcoin with anyone that cares to listen or argue. Depending on how it goes and how much it costs me, I may make this a regular Sunday afternoon occurrence. Everyone is welcome and FREE MONEY has to be a fairly unique offer.