The soft start we now hope end of the month ;-)

Right: Our businesscard as we finally approved it and are now starting to use. With a handsome little map so we can be found more easily ;-)

Nextdoor

The addition of nextdoor of The Backstage, which has to become a great advantage to make our place work, has trown things same time also a little back in our planning. Not surprising though ;-)
To choose style, do we want to change things in the building or keep everything as much as it is, do we go for new furniture or more for the 'old', more cozy/homy look (at least try to).

We decided to only change the terreraceroof of nextdoor, make it same as the rest of The Backstage and 'unify' outdoors as much as we can without standing out too much in the soi we are in ;-)
Indoors we'll decided only to paint the walls in a light orange color, which should look nice with the (old)wood furniture we plan to use over time inside. We cleared lots of stuff from upstairs.

Today we bought an old receptiondesk we plan to use as bar, a glas cabinet, some mirrors, two small round tables, two very high but also small part glass kabinets, etc. We also bought, as a try-out, two different purple color cloth to use as (fake)curtains to hang on the walls...and more of that kind of stuff.... in the hope that this maybe somewhat weird combination might just bring that atmosphere that would make people feel at home.


Left: The old receptiondesk we plan to use as (part of) our bar. Gong is sitting behind it, checking out its contents ;-)


We can only hope we can achieve that on that location.
But we can only really achieve it if we ofcourse get the customers to come to us to enjoy it. ;-)

Also some delay because of religious and natural causes

Monday & tuesday were very special Bhudda days and lots of people got free from their work. Result: also our contractor had to delay start from monday, as agreed, to wensday....LOL, it seems a strange disease that most THais seem to forget when a national holliday comes up... most of them only start to think about it the evening before of the morning itself, when they discover they have to go to Temple.

We also had a period of pretty big rainfall here, and these last days it was so bad that really nothing could be done. Gong and I had to stop driving on our way to Phuket Twon to do most of the planned buying of the stuff mentioned earlier and we simply could not go on! Simply too heavy rain, too strong winds. We had to get to a dry place and had to wait several hours there before we could turn around and drive back over the mountain into Patong.....ofocurse these rains also efected the work on the outside as wel ;-)

Right: The clouds decent on Patong ... normally the hills behind Kik & my house are lush green and much higher.. now they are covered in clouds and the first drops were falling when I made this picture ;-)


We as farang are slowly used to these causes for all kinds of delays.
Also reason why the 'side-show' as they call the name of The Backstage which will go up on the outsite so it can be seen at nights from the mainstreet, has been somewhat delayed.

Ergo, the whole real start of The Backstage shifts somewhat because of all the above.

Sadly, but some things can't be helped ... but we are counting on the fact that we wil be able to create a relative comfi home away from home for all our friends, guests, and ofcourse ourselfs ;-)

Try-outs start definitly wensday/thursday (21st/22d of July 2010) for several weeks/months. Adding next door to Backstage as well!

Left: Next door to Backstage, looks a tiny little bit like J&B Bar... today we decided to add this place to The Backstage!

Today, the 17th of July, we decided to add nextdoor to The Backstage... we want to use this place as a big, wind and rainfree terrace for The Backstage, as well as a place were our customers can get something to eat at certain times of the day.
Same time we hope it will our visitors a nice view on our neighbours Go-go & karaoke bar Superboys and ofcourse whatever else happens in the street/soi!
We will combine it with Backstage and service will take place from one venue to both ;-)
Though The Backstage is now looking very decent indeed, this "next door", which I like to call "The Table" as a workingname for the time being,

How this new addition will function will partly also be decided by our visitors/customers... we like it to become also a part of your home away from home.
All idears are ofcourse more then welcome, and we will keep you all posted on the developments around it !

Help us to create your favorite "home away from home", help us create a true purple meeting point!


Right: Believe it or not, but this is how one of the staff rooms upstairs looks like at present, and its one of the more decent 'rooms'... something we wil have to change!! brrr

Surprised I was when I saw to rooms upstairs, knowing that the staff of Big Boom Boys go go & karaoke bar, which was operating opposite Superboys, stayed and looked like. Ofocurse the place has been empty now, well, what you call empty, for a few months now ... but still...
The pic show one of the more decent looking rooms, cubicles upstairs.... somethng we wil have to do much better because otherwise I would not be prepared to go upstairs anytime soon again, haha
Nope, definitly something which needs heavy improvement ;-)

Try-outs starting 21/22 of July!!

The Backstage will start operating this wensday or latest thursday, the 21st or 22d of July. We wil keep it relative quite, no big attention seeking yet.. we will want to get a good hang of the place first!
BUT we will start bringing the coffee facilities over to The Backstage, and all other stuff we will need to open up somewhat succesfully.
And all who intend to pay us a visit, please let us know your constructive idears, if you have them ofocurse.
BUT also realise, that we are in a try-out period and as such everything can change again if so required and reasonable.
After all we like to be flexible.... as long as everything stays within reason.

O by the way, we do appologize if some of the english writing is incorrect...after all we are no originally english speaking/writing people here ;-)

Now you all take very good care and hope to see you!!

In one or two weeks time we finally wil be able to start seriously!

Left: Kik as "Man One woman" with Rob, from the biggest to the smallest stage of Patong... just an example of what may happen at The Backstage in the futur

The final hurdle seems to have been taken, getting the basic staff to open up The Backstage.
It will be a mix of old and new and from there we expect to slowly grow the number of staff in a way thats pleasant for our futur customers as well as The Backstage.

Opening hours will in principal be from 4 pm till 2 am, though in the beginning we might decide to change this to every other day, till we have enough qualified staff to be open every day from 4pm tillll 2 am.
So, in theory this means that say on 1,3, 5, etc of the month The Backstage will open around 7/8 pm and on every even day, 2, 4, 6 etc it will open at 4 pm!

Also we seriously consider to rent the next door venue and create with that a big 'outdoor' terace protected agains rain and sun for The Backstage. ALso we consider to have a smalll simple kitchen there where food can be surfed. Not a lot to choose from though... we intend to surfe only one kind of meal a day.
By doing this we can keep our prices low and quality up/high (I/we hope ofcourse).

Kik and I are considering moving as close as we can to The Backstage, so we can be quickly present if we happen not to be around ;-)

We recommend everybody to try as much as possible to become "follower" of The Backstage by simply folow the instructions of the weblog for this. You willl receive automatic email with every new entry and as such you will be kept in tough of 'everything' that happens in and around The Backstage!

The times are not at all good for the tourism industry. Lot of tourist decide to spend their hollidays this year closer to home then before. We do understand this!

Same time we realise we also have to prepare for a difficult start as a result of that...... And we do not make it easier by opening The Backstage outside Paradise ... but at least it will be handsomely situated between the beachroad and paradise complex and easy to find, we hope (next to Superboys, Patong oldest go-go boys & karaoke bar) slowly to recreate a little bit of the oldest gay street of Patong Phuket, where it all started ;-)!

We will also try to focus on long time stayers and/or expats who live in and around Patong/Phuket.

All in all we hope to create a pleasant situation in which all will feel home away from home.
A place to relax and have possibilies of good conversation and or other distractions, if so desired.

Right now we have been busy with 'little' details like business cards, hehe, and with the new menu of coffees, tea, and drinks.
We use the old J&B pricelist as a starting point and willl do our best not to become more expensive and if possible even cheaper.


Above: The last draft of the new business card of The Backstage, but it gives you an example how its looking now, because we slowly start to use the new cards now ;-)


Also after beach hours we hope to make our shower available for those in need of one when returning from the beach and wanting to enjoy after beach drinks and maybe some food..... but we will let you know more about that!

Please, when you have the chance to visit us, not only do, BUT also feel free to give us your comments so in futur we can try/do our best to use your comments to our advantage and that of our other visitors.

We will try to become a truly purple meeting point, purple being the collour of the gays, transgenders and lesbians here in Thailand and as such we hope with our way of work not only to attrackt and make that home away from home for the foreigners/farang but also for the Thais, of whom most live far away from home as well when in Patong/Phuket.

The futur will only be able to tell if we succeed or not, but we believe in our simple concept of creating a fun creative place for everyone AND we start small... and take it from there!

Last remark: Gayromeo

Those who also kept in contact via gayromeo, sadly due to a misunderstanding about which any communication seems to be absolute impossible with gayromeo, we, Rob and Backstage Thailand Club, have been permanently deleted from gayromeo. A customer friendly attitude seems to be a difficult thing to do for gayromeo and because of that we willl stop recommending using gayromeo as a main way of keeping in contact with eachother... simple because to our surprise it fails gayromoe not only to clearly communicate when the need arrises, but also have now shown repeatedly lack of any customer friendly attitude and, even worse, behaves like a monopolist.
A disagreement alone is by far no reason for us to say all this, its the way in which communication about issues is taking place, attitude and such when a problem is brought forward by a cusotmer or if one tries to get a clarification on a statement by gayromeo directed at a customer.

So, feel free, if you are one of our former gayromeo followers/clubmembers, not only to become a follower here but also pass on the word and the information to those you may be in contact with.
So we can enjoy the feedbacks again of all or most of you!

BUT more important, we will have a chance to meet up with you again!!

Take good care
and stay healthy!

On behalf of the Backstage Team,
Rob