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Asoke Plaza Crushed
Bangkok, 01 January 2005 William R. Morledge |
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A Public Service Announcement:
....Please continue with our Feature Story here: -
At 10:00 hrs on Tuesday, 14 December 2004, the bar beers in Asoke Plaza -located at the Asoke intersection- were descended upon by an officer of Legal Enforcement Division, the Thonglor police and wrecking crews. The officer from Legal Enforcement served a warrant to the land lessee, and advised her that she had but brief minutes to notify her bar beer sub-lessees to remove their items of personal property before the wrecking crews began the destruction and dismantling of the structures.
Frantic telephone calls went out all over Bangkok - trying to locate bar beer owners or managers, calling them back to Asoke Plaza so that they could evacuate their goods. Other calls were made to newspapers, and to the Thonglor police station in an attempt to thwart the destruction of the bar beers - to no avail. The wrecking crews, numbering approximately 100 persons in all, arriving in three large trucks and other smaller vehicles, entered through the Asoke Corner area to the rear of Asoke Plaza from the previously closed-off Soi 23 entrance (please see our map), and set up large metal frame rectangular tents to be used as temporary storage areas for the bar beers to keep their moveable property.
By noon of that day, 14 December, the disassembly and destruction had begun, crews often not waiting for bar beer owners to come to claim their property. While several of the bar beers were able to get most of their moveable property out to the tents, and to other adjacent areas within the rear Asoke Corner area, many were not able to get there in time. Often neighboring bar beers lent helping hands to those bar beers who were unable to get there to move their property out, however most of the time, the wrecking crews either stacked the property in large piles without regard for safekeeping, or just destroyed it in place.
Immediately, even before the wrecking crews had completed the destruction of the bar beers, the cries went up that the raid by the police, wrecking crews and the Legal Enforcement Officer were in fact not legal, and that, even if they had been legal, no prior notification had been given. The bar beer owners and the land lessee were already meeting together to decide on what action would be taken to press for restitution for their sometimes considerable losses. (Note: while the land lessee subleased loc to the bar beer owners, it was the bar beer owners themselves who constructed the bars and installed their own fixtures and equipment. -ed) While the land lessee, Ms Jeerapha's outrage was real enough, her protestations of being surprised by the raid were probably greatly exaggerated. Only days before, her younger brother Kh Tonphat confronted the landowner's construction crews on the grounds of Asoke Plaza. The crews had come to build a fence around the outside of Asoke Plaza (rendering it inaccessible to the public - and effectively putting them out of business). Kh Tonphat sought and received a legal reprieve, and the crews went away without incident.
And on the day preceding the destruction, 13 December 2004, the landowner again showed up, this time with an officer of the Legal Enforcement Division who had documentation in hand, and about 100 able-bodied workers, with the intent of evicting the current tenants and destroying and removing the structures. The land lessee Ms Jeerapha made an immediate appeal to the court and got an injunction, stating that the legal documentation supposedly authorizing the destruction was the old document relating to the rear Asoke Corner area (an area already evacuated months earlier), and not Asoke Plaza. The court scheduled an official investigation into the matter four days hence, on 18 December.
But the source of the problem started even earlier than that. At the end of 2003, the landowner's operating company, J & P Ltd.'s Preecha Wasusophon refused to renew the lease for the coming year (2004). This resulted in Ms Jeerapha and the bar beer lessees forming a group to bring suit against J & P which would hopefully force them to honor the previously agreed upon terms of 5 one-year periods - which had not yet expired. Early in 2004, the land lessee Ms Jeerapha received proper legal notice to abandon the rear property (Asoke Corner), but no such notice was received for the front parcel of land (Asoke Plaza). The rear Asoke Corner was evacuated in stages - as individual bar lessees' contracts expired, the buildings were either demolished or abandoned. (The exception was Spanky's 1, which closed for business, but kept their area for storage for their other bars, Spanky Bar 3 and Mike's Place on Patpong II - in spite of the legal order to evacuate, and as per their individual long-running lease with the land lessee Jeerapha.)
With the issue of Asoke Plaza unresolved between the land lessee and the owner, the litigation and counter-litigation proceeded ever-so-slowly. In early December, Ms Jeerapha, land lessee, went to the group of bar owners and announced that she would need 800,000 baht for 'additional legal fees' if they were to successfully counter new moves by the landowner. Many of the bars couldn't contribute, and many of the bars wouldn't. (One bar, the B-52, saw the handwriting on the wall and sold out - smart move, pity the new owner.) On closer investigation, bar beer owners have confided on assurance of anonymity that as the mid-December deadline for the 800,000 baht drew near, it was becoming more and more apparent that the money wouldn't be raised in time. It was during this period that the landowner became more and more adamant that his land be evacuated, and sent crews down to Asoke Plaza to demonstrate that he 'meant business'. But in fact, the money was not for 'additional legal fees' - it was for a fat, white envelope to the owner as an additional, and incremental bit of 'tea money'. Simple extortion by any other name is "simple extortion". You won't read about this in the Bangkok Post, who, by the way fell flat on their arses and missed this entire story.
At that juncture, when the landowner didn't get his payoff, he decided on the final solution. Not wanting to make it appear as though this were another Chuwit - Sukhumvit Square (Soi 10) job, he decided to enlist the additional support of the Wattana District Chief, Kh. Surakiat Limcharoen in an attempt to give his putsch an air of legitimacy. The District Chief stepped in on queue, on the afternoon of 14 December - the day of Asoke Plaza's destruction. He claimed he ordered the destruction of the bar beers because the bar beer staff were obstructing pedestrian traffic, and generally annoying people in the neighborhood. He claimed that the nearby Surinakharinwirot University had complained about the bars. He also stated that the buildings constructed therein were breaking the law. He also claimed the ownership of the land had changed. Now, how many things can we see wrong with the District Chief's statements of support to the landowner?But back to the present - MIDNITE HOUR having visited the site of the destruction several times this last week to interview and to take photographs, had prepared ourselves for writing the obituary on the entire Asoke Plaza+Asoke Corner area (Cowboy Annex), now that both areas had been evacuated and or destroyed. We couldn't have been more wrong-footed. On 18 December, the court kept it's appointment to come to investigate the problem at the Asoke Corner + Asoke Plaza grounds, along with more than two dozen of Bangkok Metropolitan's Finest in several squad cars. They spent several hours there, resolving that in fact the lessee Ms Jeerapha did at least have the right to stay on the land (her tiny office is there), that the bar owners did have the right -at least for a decent interval- to continue to store their 'evacuated' property in the rear Asoke Corner area, and that they were to be allowed access to their property through the Soi 23 gate. We went in and took a seat at the Spanky's 1, so that we could mingle with the Men In Tan and the bar owners, to see if we could act the fly on the wall, and pick up on what was really going on. To our surprise, Spanky's 1 was serving, so we had a drink and brought ourselves up to date. Far from being able to write the obituary on this Night Entertainment Area, we found that on successive days, most of the bars had reopened on the foundations of demolished bars, or in the bars that had been abandoned in the back Asoke Corner area. They had strung temporary power lines, brought out the big picnic umbrellas and strung up the Christmas light sets and party balloons. Click here < link> to see our new map. No one is quite sure how long any of this will last - as litigation is far from over on this issue, but the bar beer owners -at least most of them- have been pulled from the fires of total ruin for the short-term. It is interesting to note that the recent or ongoing collapse of four of Bangkok's Bar Beer Areas followed identical paths of decay. (They are: Sukhumvit Square, and Clinton Plaza, and Easy Square and Cowboy Annex (Asoke Corner+Asoke Plaza.) In each of these examples, there have been disputes between the land owner, the overall land lessee, and the bar beer lessees - and in each case the disputes were caused by connivance by one or more of the parties. All have ended acrimoniously, with the bar beer owners absorbing the greater part of the losses. Years ago, MIDNITE HOUR gave these bar beer areas an additional descriptor : 'Opportunistic'. Opportunistic, in that they were all built on prime land destined for eventual redevelopment. The short-term 'opportunity' to utilize the lands as bar areas was taken, and the lands were parceled out and leased to the many bar owners, who built their bars on them. That it was to be short-term was lost on no one, and investment in facilities - at least in most instances, was kept to a minimum. In this regard, nothing has changed: the remaining Expat bar beer areas at 13 Night Market and Tobacco Road (Soi Zero) and Queen's Park Plaza will likewise disappear as historical footnotes - probably sooner than later, especially in consideration of the hyperactive construction boom that has insinuated itself onto virtually every remaining parcel of undeveloped land in Bangkok. The situation at Asoke Corner+Asoke Plaza remains volatile, with 'positive' rumors and 'ugly' rumors flying fast and high (See our Rumor Of The Month this month). The only thing for sure is that more changes are in the wind before this Night Entertainment Area finally calls it quits. MIDNITE HOUR will be keeping an eye on any changes as might have an historical impact, and will continue to advise. Our obituary for Cowboy Annex is postponed indefinitely.
 Follies begin here
MIDNITE HOUR presents the NEWS on the Bangkok Night Scene; - the 'history-in-the-making' for all major Night Entertainment Areas - for the month ending 1 JANUARY, 2005 :  MAP 
New Year's Eve on Patpong 1 seemed to have lost it's energy of old, most certainly due in part to the pall that currently hangs over the Kingdom in the aftermath of the tsunami, but we did notice that many of the brick-a-brack stalls in the scuzzy Tent City full of rude vendors which clogs the street every night were closed down. Maybe this doesn't mean that they were just taking New Year's off. Maybe this means that the vendors are giving up, because they can no longer make a living there. Maybe in the near future Patpong will be rid of this eyesore once and for all, and Patpong will return to it's glory days of the early 1980's. And maybe in the near future...
 • PATPONG I • MAP
Some of King's Garden's hostesses were dressed in leftover Halloween witch's costumes to bring in the New Year. Lacking any Old Father Time costumes, they just decided to improvise. How shameless! - does sanuk know no bounds? Celebrations started early and lasted late -that's the spirit!- we wish them all the best in the coming year.
• PATPONG II •
There is a brand-new sign on The Ramp which reads Tik+Ko. It is, of course, the old Tik-Ko Living Room - they just wanted a new sign for New Year - something to change their luck. In that case, we wish them luck.
• PATPONG II •
MAP
The Pretty Lady having served out their time in the penalty box, have hit the Plaza running. We welcome them back to the tar pit. They have at least attempted to make amends for their skimpy clothing of the past, which so outraged the modesty of the benevolent morality police. -This time around they have issued the dancers with abbreviated mini-skirts and mini-tops. They apparently were strapped for cash, though, and were unable to come up with the funds to purchase certain items of undergarment to go with the mini-skirts. The Pretty Lady door-touts have wasted no time in noting this omission to all passing by... Like we said last month, shake it, don't break it, guys - we all know who else is watching...
• NANA PLAZA •
Boss Hogg's is open. Opening just in time for New Year's Eve, Boss Hogg opened in the old Rock Hard / Vixen's digs as Boss Hogg's - and not Bahama Nana. The hostess, bringing me a large plate of New Year's Eve chicken drumsticks, said that the lighting wasn't quite finished, but that they should complete it today (1 Jan). I told her I hope not, I liked the lighting just the way it was. Boss Hogg's, all two floors of it, is done out in natural wood, logs and split logs, and has a great viewing balcony to sit and sip on whatever you might have in your hand. Open sided, and open fronted, it may just be the best place to go if you want to drop out of all the hassle and hustle for a while. This is their fourth Night Venue in the Plaza - welcome to the neon night circus.
• NANA PLAZA •
MAP
We note, now that they have their new neon shingle nailed up, the correct spelling for the very comfortable Pool Bar at the Asoke side of the Soi is spelled, "Kanjana" and not Kanchana, as we had previously assumed. All else status quo ante - keep on keeping on.
• SOI COWBOY •
ASOKE PLAZA + ASOKE CORNER . MAP
Spankys Bar 1, (Asoke Corner) having closed it's doors (figuratively) to customers in August, it kept it's premises for storage for it's other bars - mainly because it still had an active lease with the land lessor, On 14 December, when it's neighbors were chased from their digs in Asoke Plaza by the wrecking crews, they helped out with storage and security. They also plugged their refrigerators back in and started serving beer and soft drinks. Some thanks should also be sent their way for yeoman's service during the crisis. Welcome back to the big uphill.
• COWBOY ANNEX •
MAP
As of New Year's Eve, Livingstone's completed their final scrub-down and took over where the Timbevati Boutique Lodge & Steak House left off. And yes, the Sahara Sports Bar is still in operation at the back, poolside. It remains to be seen whether Fate's tumbling dice will bring them sevens or nines, nevertheless we welcome them to the wolfpack.
• SOI DEAD ARTISTS •
Taking the reins from Noi Health Massage is the Teen Massage. They offer all the usual types of massages, but with the
 A name change for the new year can make you lucky - especially if your name is The Cave. The new moniker Deemonia should do the trick. No change in owner, and soft kink remains the modus operandi. 'Do what you do, do well.'
• SOI DEAD ARTISTS •
The Kongsil Massage has cashed in it's chips and headed for higher ground. They have passed the mantle to the Thoodaw Massage (sounds Burmese?). Both slightly ambiguous massage parlors. We welcome the Thoodaw to the vicissitudes.
• SOI DEAD ARTISTS •
MAP
Hip, an upstairs bar, has rolled out the red carpet and unlocked the liquor cabinet with a vengeance. They are located in the premises vacated by the Hip Hop R&B last March. Break a leg, guys.
• SOI KATOEY •
MAP
The O.B. 1 have closed down - but not for long. In about a week they will be reopening in their newly spruced up digs. In this case, they spruced up using spruce - the place has been done up in the now popular 'natural wood look'. They took good care to preserve the wood from termites, too - they have applied a strong creosote-based stain to all the wood surfaces. It remains to be seen whether the fumes will have dissipated enough to make the place inhabitable any time soon. In their next incarnation, they will be called the 2 Corner (no relation to The Corner, also in this compound.). All things being equal, we will be reporting their successful launch in this space next time.
• QUEEN'S PARK PLAZA •
Oraphin is closed - but they are just playing 'possum - they have given the staff -and themselves- a few days off for good behavior during the New Year holidays. They could be back full-force as early as tomorrow (2 January).
• QUEEN'S PARK PLAZA •
The ritzy looking bar we reported abuilding in the far corner behind The Corner has been completed. But the premises remain empty, and a large sign is advertising "Bar For Sale". This is the first time we have ever seen a bar built on 'spec'. This is a quality construction job - along the lines of an expensive British pub - a multiple million baht project. Any takers?
• QUEEN'S PARK PLAZA •
MAP
The Angel 22 Massage is closed - but look for it to open next week. By all reports, they are just taking a longer than usual New Year's break.
• WASHINGTON SQUARE •
MAP
The Linda Bar - Happy Joint looked darker than a poisoned well when we passed by last night. Nor did we see any signs, or hear any scuttlebutt that they were "just closed for the Holidays". Linda Bar showed up on the scene in February of 1995 - that's almost ten years in the saddle. Before we write it off our rolls completely and finally, we'll take another look and see whether or not they were just AWOL.
• TOBACCO ROAD (SOI ZERO) •
The Dog V Bar Pool has been sucked into the black hole of History after only a brief 6-month run. At first we thought they were still open, but it was only being used by Sexy Night Det 5 to serve free New Year's food and goodies to their patrons across the way. The co-owner was a survivor of the Chuwit-Holocaust on Sukhumvit Square - we hope she lands on her feet.
• TOBACCO ROAD (SOI ZERO) •
Likewise, the Noi Bar Pool didn't make it out for the final curtain call this month. This was her second run at it - after an earlier closure, she reopened again only last August. Greener pastures.
• TOBACCO ROAD (SOI ZERO) •
The last two months' closures at Tobacco Road (Soi Zero) bring the total number of bars down from sixteen bars to twelve - and this is NOT healthy. They had sustained that level (16) for several months, but, as noted in our earlier issues, the place was looking more and more run down - more neon out of order, unused bars being ransacked for materials, etc. Should the Soi sustain any more losses, they will begin to lose "critical mass" and no longer have a 'drawing power' for clientele. Hopefully, the new year will bring them a reversal of fortunes.
• TOBACCO ROAD (SOI ZERO) •
The Sports Bar 2, the first to open at this Plaza, has hung out some brand-new neon. From here on in, call them Beaver's. No change in ownership - and she will continue to run her The Sport Bar at 13 Night Market for the foreseeable.
• SUKHUMVIT 1 PLAZA •
Of the two open-air bar beers under construction in the old parking area out front, one is very near throwing up the shutters and raking in the customers. It has it's signs up, however they are yet to be electrified - it will be called Morning Night II. Yup, it will be the younger sister of the very popular Morning 2 Night street-side bar beer on Sukhumvit Soi 4. It should be open in about two weeks.
• SUKHUMVIT 1 PLAZA •
MAP
MAP
--- Datzit Fernow
William R. Morledge Copyright © 2005, BANGKOK EYES / bangkokeyes.com
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A composite panorama of what remains of the 21 Night Entertainment Venues at Asoke Plaza.
