Program for celebrating 2 years 

of 

BACKSTAGE !

Intro 

It has been more then a year since I / we took the trouble of writing and/or reporting here on our weblog, but that's what you get if one really starts to use facebook I am afraid ;-)
BUT the preparation of our 2 years Backstage made us realise that we also have the weblog to announce our  so called BBA's or Backstage Birthday Activities.

August 2010 was the month, now 2 years ago, when we tried out in Soi Yaiyui the basic concept of Backstage.
In September 2010 we introduced ourselfs in the gayscene here in Patong as the first regular cafe/bar outside Paradise Complex for a very long time.

Picture right: Backstage a couple of days before its official start with the Introduction into Patongs Gayscene Party

Though we enjoyed our stay in Soi Yaiyui, in November 2011 we took the drastic descision to change location and to let go of our wish to be outsite Paradise (and its so-called politics) due to announced developments in our street and an opportunity which presented itself same time: the availability of our present location.

Backstage stayed largely the same, only our Karaoke we had to quit. Ironically though shortly after our move we discovered we were elected by the readers of OUT Magazine as their favorite (Gay) Karaoke Bar here in Patong and since then we regular had to dissapoint guests for not having that fascility anymore... BUT instead we tried and keep trying to come up with fresh (?), new ideas, new approaches, etcetera, at least for Paradise Complex here in Patong, were we are now happily located.

September 2012 Backstage will enter its 3d year!
If there will be more years after this 3d one, well, we not know yet... for now that is as much a "?" for us as it might be for you.
BUT it wil not stop us to celebrate the end of our 2d year and the beginning of our 3d year, with enthousiasm and fun!
Maybe during this 3d year we finally manage to get our concept totally right, though we hope never perfect, because perfect makes boring and the last thing we want to become is boring ;-)

One of our customers, and friend told us some time ago that we should not talk about ourselfs as "home away from home", though as true as it might be for many who come to Backstage, he said we were also and way more "The bar that dares to be different.",
We liked the sound of that, so much so that since then we use this statement as our other, second slogan to describe our Backstage.
Same time it also stimulates us to do things differently, to experiment with ideas, and to enter into activities or cooperations not tried before here in Paradise Complex (as far as memory goes that is).
We also discovered we liked the teasing undercurrent of it and as such we hope we make you all happy by trying also to live by it.......
Sometimes even the friend who came up with the idea of our "The bar that dares to be different.", says we are nuts doing certain things!
As long as we believe we do, as long as YOU, our customers believe and show up, we continue.... and are convinced we will become one of Patongs favorite gay hangouts, if we are not there yet already!

THE COMING EVENTS

Of the bar that dares to be different!

Picture Left: The Orange Cruise 31st of january 2011 in celebration of the birthday of the Queen of the Netherlands followed by our 1st big Orange Party, on request we still organise a special (gay)cruise!

RSVP please!

All events are open for all to take part BUT we ask you, if possible in any way please let us know if you intend to come and take part in or more of our events so we can make sure we can make you feel welcome and well taken care off ;-)

Short term announcements.

Via Facebook we will make all our special events specially known as well, and your reaction on Facebook, if you have and use a facebook-account, is much appreciated as well of course!

Later this month we wil announce 2 more special events in September to mark our 2d Anniversay, but sadly(?) we're still busy negotiating these events but hope to be able to announce them soon.

Now, what will be up:

Saturday 11th of August:

4 pm - 10 pm : Mothersday BBQ Pool Party in cooperation with Phuket Gay Homestay in Kathu.

11.30 pm till?: Celebrating Motherday AND Queens Birthday,
                          with special celebrating performances by   Backstage staff!

Sunday 12th of August:

Closed 

on occasion of Birthday HM the Queen of Thailand & Mothersday

Monday 13th of August:

11 pm - ??: Birthday of Mos, with us since the beginning of Backstage in 2010!

Wensday 15th of August:

6 pm - 11 pm : OPEN BAR NIGHT!

You pay 500 baht and have FREE drinking from our special  Open Bar with local drinks, like beer, vodka, gin, wiskey, rum, softdrinks, etc. from 6 pm till exactly 11 pm!

Saturday 18th of August:

4 pm - 10 pm : Mens only BBQ Pool Party in cooperation with Phuket Gay Homestay in Kathu.

Sunday 25th of August:

6 pm : Due to Provincial Elections we will be closed till .... Monday!

Sunday 26th of August:

CLOSED due to Provincial Elections

Saturday 1st of September:

6 pm : Due to Local Elections for Mayor of Patong we will be closed till .... Monday, BUT


Backstage kicks of the 2d Anniversary Month with:

4 pm - 10(?)pm : Mens Only Election Special BBQ Pool Party in cooperation with Phuket Gay Homestay in Kathu..... On this special night we (organisers and guests) will elect our favorites in, among others: "Coolest Swimwear"&  "BBQ Pool Party  Personality"! 

Note:
According to the election law no alcohol restrictions will be in place in Kathu,!

Thursday 11th OR 13th of September:

Backstages Anniversary & Charity Dinner Extravaganza at Royale Nam Tok! 

< Subject to confirmation from Malaysia! >

A Unique Charity Dinner Experience, prepared by 3 (!)  excellent Master Chef Cooks: 

From Malaysia - Chef Zam,  know from television in SE Asia, and cooking (televisionshows, classes, demo's, and just dinners) all over the western world, founder and MD of Silverspoon International College, etcetera.

From Thailand - Nattee Pahramgeaw, Master Chef Cook, former Master Chef Cook of Baan Yan Tree, Laguna, etcetera.

From Belgium, Flanders (same same like Holland BUT different) - Chef Mark, Master Chef Cook who, after having cooked on the highest level for many years succesfully in Antwerp, now cooks in his own restaurant at Royale Nam Tok here in Kathu and is a specialist in the French AND Dutch kitchen.

Backstages Charity Dinner Extravaganza will also know some entertainment ofcourse, which will be made known at a later date!

Note:

Limited access only, so reserve or claim your seats at the tables.

Price: wil be made known latest 1st of September (if all goes well that is!)

The proceeds will be donated to HIV/Aids Charity here in Phuket, the community in which we live! (Proceeds = income minus our basic costs, not included: wages, travelexpenses, hotel, location, etc for our 3 cooks, which will be covered by Backstage or will/are donated by sponsors. More exspenses can get excluded if we manage to find sponsors for those, in which case we will be proud to announce that ALL proceeds can go to Charity!

Wensdays 5th + 12th + 19th +  26th of September:  

EVERY WENSDAY : BACKSTAGES CRAZY OPEN BAR NIGHT!

6 pm - 11 pm 
You pay 500 baht and have FREE drinking from our special  Open Bar with local drinks, like beer, vodka, gin, wiskey, rum, softdrinks, etc. from 6 pm till exactly 11 pm!

Picture right: Our first experimental Open Bar Night early July 2012, which was an outright succes, at leats for us ;-)



Saturdays 8th + 15th + 22th + 29th of September:

EVERY SATURDAY!

4 pm - 10 pm : MENS ONLY BBQ POOL PARTY  in cooperation with Phuket Gay Homestay in Kathu. 

ONE of these 4 Saturdays we will make a Special and will offer a Gay Night Out in Phuket Town after the Pool Party

Thursday 27th of September:

Backstage 2d Birthday Celebration !

Details will be made known before (!) mid September ;-) !

Picture above: Orange Party january 2012...and we know how to make a real Party AND have the customers/friends join in with enthousiasm .... here they wait in anticipatioon on the first of 4 shows that night! ;-)

Tik's birthday & cool local kindergarten teachers and friends......

.... at a rainy but beautifull friday evening here in Patong at Backstage!

Last week, yea yea, I know I run somewhat behind, but with good reasons (but thats a story for another day) Tik celebrated her first birthday (20 years!) at our Backstage. After Achiia's birthday a couple of days before we decided to make it a more modest affair. Also Tik is much shorter here with us at Backstage.

Tik is, what they call here a kathoey, or in english, a ladyboy, but with a pleasant caracter and as such she fits in beautifull in the Backstage-staff!
At first I had my doubts if she would fit in, but luckily I now feel different and am happy we have her on board:-)




Left: Tik with part of our staff after she received her birthday cake (and yes, also for her it was her first one!).
from left to right: Beng, Clarck (one of 'our' teachers, Tik, Max, Ole (our cook), Achiia and Mos.



Left: Our teacher-friends Clarck and Kim, enjoying our karaoke fascilities with their Australian friends, 3 sisters!
It was touching to see how these 3 cared about eachother and fussed about that one of them would get back to the hetel safe when she felt she needed to go back to her room!




Right: It was a world upside down! Normally its the Thais who sit inside singing their hearts out with our karaoke but now it were our farangs ;-) BUT the Thai enjoyed for a change a quiet chat around one of our round tables (I enjoy round tables more then those square ones) ...but they enjoyed, as in allmost every circumstance, a photo opportunity, specially for ones birthday. Here Tik with staff members of Backstage and Superboys, our neighbours here in Soi Yaiyui.



Right: Of course, they enjoy to celebrate, and thats what they did, till late I have to say.... here you see Max, Tik & Achiia enjoy some karaoke

14th July Potter Night + Double birthday Party at Backstage

Nothing more to add, the poster says it all (click on it for a closer look) ;-)
also more info on our FB Page www.facebook.com/BackstageVIP

Come and join us this upcoming 14th of July!!

hugssss ;-)

A shock & crossdressing by staf !

SHOCK

The other day I got a SHOCK while checking our weblog again...I discovered I had last written an entry to report the Queens Night celebrations at Backstage.
I admit, thats bad ..... not that a lot exciting things happened since then BUT even then I should have kept all of you updated nonetheless. An excuse may have been that on our FACEBOOK page though I reported regularly and commented on all kinds of different things..... FB is getting distracting when it comes to updating our Weblog, so I appologise for that ;-)

I can recommend though to follow us on Facebook (FB) for the short and quick reports, reactions and mentioning of worthwhile things as we (or I) see it because often they are not suited for the weblog set-up ;-)

A Cross dress fun adventure at Backstage by our Staf

Now everybody who knows me, knows I like men, uhum or haha ... but most of you who know Kik, knows he likes dressing up as a woman, as do most of our staf.
Its part of what one can say is "being gay in Thailand". Butch men who are openly gay here are hard to find...but like in our own world(s), they are there sure enough but sadly more hidden then the more feminine guys.
Some butch guys teached themself to develop some feminine behaviour so they can get accepted by their surroundings as being gay.
So, all of you who have been wondering howcome you see so few butch gay men here, thats one of the reasons... Thai society has a hard time accepting butch gay men, or as one sometimes also say masculine ;-)

Now, one recent night Kik organised our staf to dress up like women with some stricking results I have to admit.. and we had a ball I can assure you!!

I had a hard time selecting one picture of every staf member and the one we made as a group... here they follow:
By the way, the pictures were taken by my iPhone and as such has no 'red eye' protection device so that may at times explain why some of us might look somewhat strange with their eyes but we did our best to affoid them ;-)



Right: The exception on the rule, Schia, as a guy ... he never has dressed up as a woman and I (or we) wonder if ever he may do so ;-)




Left: And well, Max showing like a stage diva ;-)








Right: The big surprise when doing the transformation was our Beng, who I called spontaniously the Thai Ophra Winfrey !



Left: Yes, even our Sit, or as I stubornly call him Cid, after El Cid the famous warrior from the fight in Spain against Muslim kingdoms of that period (and wonderfully portayed by Charles Heston in the movie classic El Cid , didn't escape the make over adventure ;-)



Right: Tom wouldn't be Tom not to participate BUT clearly with a wink, because he;s the man in the house and he like to joke and make fun as well !



Left: And well, who can resist our Lady Mos, in whatever outfit (s)he might show him-/herself in ;-)



Right: The first time he showed himself transformed, and what a wonderfull surprise he gave us all: Ton!












Above: The Backstage group together with yours truly in the middle and Kik behind the camera/iPhone (sorry, this is the best we could produce with all in the picture ;-)
As one can see, Cid and Ton changed back to 'normal' and with Shia and me brought balance back, at least for the picture here that is, haha.
From left to right: Max, Cid, Ton (below), Rob, Tom (below), Bneg, Schia and Mos!

KoninginneNach or QueensNight at Backstage.

29th of April, every year the Dutch start to celebrate their Queens official birthday this evening, culminating in a true people's party on the 30th of April, our Queen official birthday.
Comming from the region in Holand where we have a strong tradition of a real Queensnight, an evening you can easily compare with New Years Eve, only more or less the good weather is guaranteed, one can imagine how we Dutch sometimes can get real crazy celebrating....But happy to say, practically allways in a more then good atmosphere and with lots of fun and joy plus traditions.

Now, being far away from home, we Dutch tend to go on celebrating this typical Dutch national holliday...and so, now being in Thailand, we tried to celebrate at The Backstage as well...in a somewhat Thai way .... with cabaret, but also Dutch snacks (bitterballen en frikandellen) and our national anthem and a toast to the Dutch Queen at midnight...followed by a toast on the King of Thailand and on this special 29th of April, also on the newlyweds WIlliam and Kate (which was much appreciated by our Britisch and commonwealth friends here)!


Above: The Backstage is starting to get ready for its first celebration of Queensnight/KoninginneNach.

,

Right: The hosts of Koninginnnach or Queensday, Rob (right) en Kik (left), with our longstanding friend and customer, Egbert otherwise known as Peter in the middle!

By the way, it felt somewhat strange to me, to be wearing my original weddingsuit for the 1st time again since our weddingday in Holland on 08-10-08. But surprisingly it felt better eand less 'tight' to wear hahaha then on that O so special day. The shirt was made by WiWat Wis, the designer here in Patong with a more then excellent repetoir. We can easily recommend all of you who come to Patong to pay him a visit and see if he has made something of your liking. Most likely you will yourself succesfull;-)
But wearing our weddingsuits, though different from our weddingday, also felt good...it somehow felt appropriate for the festive occasion and by wearing ithese pink suits expressing our wish that we sincerily hope that our Queen will have a long and above all healthy live!



Left: Yourstruly together with Chris from The Dutch Inn.

The Dutch Inn is the Dutch bar/cafe off Bangla Road, with whom we have excellent contact. We were pleasantly surprised that he was able to make time to join us to celebrate Koninginnenach with us for at least a part of the evening/night. The next day we found him busy behind the BBQ at his own bar, when we paid him a return visit to celebrate Queensday or Koninginnedag at his location (by the way, that was and is the extra reason to celebrate Queensnight, so everybody who likes to celebrate doesn't have to choose between our places but can simply enjoy both parties!



Left: Kim enjoyed doing a pleasing dance and song number, and for the occasion was dressed up in Orange with even Orange feathers to go with his costume...a picture we wouldn't like you to miss out on.

In dayly life Kim works in the venue next to ours, Superboys.
Thats also the fun of our Backstage Cabaret... we discover more and more that friends of our bar, guests, like to join our cabaret when they have the chance to. And we are allways enthousiastic if they want to do one or more numbers because thats what Backstage is for as well...its a bar for ALL our customers and friends, to enjoy and use...so if we can we try to accomodate and sofar without any regrets! ;-)
O well,



Right: Bil performing a dramatic Thai song.

To the joy of our Thai friends and customers, as well as of us 'farang' or non-Thai, our Bil performed a dramatic Thai song in a most expresive way so that even we could understand and get why our Thai friends were so enthousiastic;-)! We discover that Bil is quite the actor when on stage... when he transforms from the modest/relative quiet guy when working in the Backstage into an outgoing, expressive personality.



Right: Rang also took the opportunity to get more stage experience.

During our 2d try-out he took part for the first time, and we then happily agreed to have him also in our Queensnight performance. His enthousiasm was wonderfull and he had fun to expres himself to all our enjoyement.


All in all our KoninginneNach or QueensNight went more then wonderfull. Not all the performers of the Backstage Cabaret have been mentioned above.... But all of them have been mentioned in earlier reports here on the weblog ;-)
We also discovered that our Schia enjoys to play the thecnician, taking care of the music...which went pretty well... we can expect him to do more of that! ;-)

To all mentioned above and the ones not mentioned, but without whose efforts the evening wouldn't have gone as well as it has been, we like to express our warm felt thanks for having given us a most memorable KoninginneNach/QueensNight!

Friday 29th of April: QueensNight or "KoninginneNach"

When, if the reports are correct one third of the world, or 2 biljon people, are watching the William & Kate show from London, UK, the Dutch are preparing for or starting to celebrate The Dutch Queens official birthday on the 30th of April.
In the area in Holland were yours truly comes from though we have a tradition to celebrate elaboratly the night before...which has become 'worldfamous' in Holland as KoninginneNach, translated in english: QueensNIght.
Being from that region I introduced the QueensNight celebration for the first time on the 29th of April 2009. Then we celebrated it at our J&B Bar in Paradise. In 2010 we were still looking for a new location ergo no opportunity for a true celebration. But now we can celebrate again, at our Backstage!

Above: HM Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands.



THE BACKSTAGE
Presents
29th April “KoninginneNach”, or QueensNight !
celebrating the official birthday of Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands
with
The Backstage Cabaret,
& guest performances
From 10 pm till 2 am/late..
with 1st show starting around 10.30 pm
A toast on the Queen at midnight, followed by 2d show
We also will serve typical Dutch snacks!

Picture impression of Rin's birthdayparty at Backstage, 15/16 th of April 2011

This picture impression of Rin's birthday looks somewhat less then normally but they were made not only late at night but with iPhone ;-)
The order in which they are placed here is more or less backwards, lol.
It was truly a fun little cozy birthday party where our Backstage friends were free to be themselfs and one gets the honest impression that they indeed enjoyed.
Ofcourse, if one serfs onwards to our facebook page then one can see all the pictures......BUT for now and for a change I let the pictures talk for themselfs.
(and if you look for me, well I was holding the iPhone, so you do not waste your time to look for me;-) hehe)






The extra fun for our guests was in the fact that they were allowed to use our costumes which we collected over the time to be able to start our own little cabaret.... and mor eoften we allow our customers to do that...it enhances their fun, thats for sure ;-)

We hope Rin enjoyed his personal start of his New year and that we will be able and fortunate to enjoy his company for long time to come in good spirits and health! ;-)