Big Mango Bar
drink and blog

SIM Thailand

Posted by sideshowBOB | Blog, Reader Submissions | Posted on January 15th, 2007

No. I am not talking about your 1-2 call plan. Talking about SIM games. When my business partner and I first came to Thailand we had no idea what to do but we did not want jump back into tech, we did not want to try to compete with Thai businesses(good call) but we also did not want to just hang out and over party. So we fell into the nightlife business – for better or for worse we continue to survive and expand. We have been able to create a life in Thailand, create businesses and enjoy the ride. Good stuff. We started the blog for a very different reason than some might suspect though. We figured not too many Americans run bars in Bangkok and an even smaller percentage would try to run one in Nana Plaza – I think we are the only Americans at this point in Nana. So we had the idea of blogging just to document the madness, the pains, the fun stuff and all the gory details of trying to survive in Thailand and Nana Plaza. The weird thing is most of what I want to say I am afraid too given the current government climate, the lack of friendliness from other bar owners, and the general Farang eat Farang attitude that permeates Thailand.

So the blog continues and along with it so do the ups and downs of surviving and trying to run businesses in Thailand. I continually think of other things I might like to do with my time and at one point I had the brainy idea of trying to make a SIM game called Sim Go Go. Not too many businesses in the world are like running go gos or beer bars. They have special issues that have no comparisons to other lines of work. As a teenager I wanted to go to a gaming university that was in Canada. It was partially funded by Nintendo back in the Nintendo glory days. I still wish I had gone but anyway – I just thought some simple online version of SIM Go Go might be kind of fun. The premise would be easy enough in that u had to run a go go in Nana Plaza competing with other go gos and dealing with all the internal/external forces that would effect your go go. Customers, go go girls, mamasans, partners, girlfriends, police, mafia, maintenance guys, landlords, VAT officers and yes – the government.

As I thought about this more and more I realized that SIM Go Go is not looking as exciting as day to day life in Thailand with the current political and economic climate. With SIM Go Go one would have to build a gaming engine with real life or made up influences that constantly updated the flow of the game but in Thailand the normal occurrences are almost better than made up ones. Thailand is like one big game with very little rules, rules that change with the wind – sometimes normal life here can be more exciting than a game.

My friend sent me this link and it opened up my thinking a little bit to what is going on around here. The title, Thailand Hoists a Protectionist Flag, sums it all up quite well. Thailand always has been and is striving to be a deeply sovereign nation to the extent that they are willing to forgoe and discourage deep foreign investment in order to create a protectionist stance for the own incumbent players. The rich Thai/Chinese who make plenty of money providing the normal Thai folk their daily goods and services and also run the largest of the domestic export companies. I have always felt that the elite in Thailand don’t want too large a middle class because it might erase the lower class that cooks, cleans and works in some of the less glamorous industries.

My friend hit the nail on the head though when he described Thailand as a xenophobic country that does a terrible job of hiding their phobia. He mentioned Japan has a country with the same attitude but does very well to hide it or sugar coat it. Thailand has no such dexterity given their latest economic and political gaffes. Many of them are outlined quite well on these pages.

Thailand has every right to decide what kind of country it wants to be but it would be nice if they could create a game plan for the rest of us to understand – otherwise working and living in Thailand is something more akin to playing a SIM game but with real life consequences. I continue to enjoy being in Thailand and I enjoy some of the uncertainty providing I am not in danger but that is not always the case these days given the bombs. I know doing business here is a calculated risk and as I have stated many times the uncertainty is part of the reason Thailand has all the fun things it currently has on offer. Many of which I would never want Thailand to lose. I will just continue pondering all this and whether or not I should make SIM Go Go while I stare at some hotties next time I go to a Go Go since it is research anyway.