Can anyone give me any info on what was the Mango Karaoke Bar opposite the Thai Lao Riverside Hotel?

I'm interested in what kind of clientele it had (if any) and is it too far from other similar establishments etc.

I'm already in the Bar business on Koh Tao, but TW and myself have had it with living on a 21sq KM island and all the local Thai mafia crap involved here.

Anything constructive or informative will be gratefully received.

Is this the place just past the Thai Laos Riverside Hotel, on the other side of the road? If so, firstly I have to say I have never been in there. I thought it was a live music place, frequented by Thais... I have only ever seen Thai people outside.

The Thai Laos hotel you refer to has the Riverside live music pub, and also the Banana Disco. They are a little way out of the town centre, but the Thai Laos Riverside place gets packed, particularly at weekends.

Hi Arjay,

No, I think the live music place is the Meter Music bar, it's a little further up the road.

The place we are interested in is/was called Mango Karaoke and was Farang/Thai owned, I am told by the Estate Agent that it's been closed since January this year. It's directly opposite the Thai Lao Riverside Hotel and not that easy to notice as there is no large sign or light box outside.

I presume that this is the place you're referring to Skwint:

http://udonrealestate.com/30067.asp

I could have sworn it was open a few weeks back, may be wrong, but the doors definately looked open.

It is pretty much dead opposite the Thai Laos Hotel, and was just a karaoke bar as far as I'm aware.

I was in there once with my brother in law a little over a year ago, from memory it was pretty full, and was 95% thai (me being the 5% not thai) inside. Mainly 20-30 odd year old males in groups with a bottle of sang som and soda water.
I think there was around 4 or 5 girls taking the orders for drinks/food etc.

No idea who the owners were, whether farang/thai or not.

Yes Butcher, this is the place and it was a Karaoke bar.

The estate agent informed me by email that it's been closed since Feb', and that it was a farang and Thai girlfriend or wife who owned and ran it.

Yes, sorry it wasn't the place I was thinking of. Sorry if I misled you Skwint.

This is a very small place as you say almost exactly opposite the hotel.

I have no knowledge of it, other than to repeat that it is small, a little way out of the town centre, but opposite the hotel which has a busy nightlife.

Skwint wrote:Yes Butcher, this is the place and it was a Karaoke bar.

The estate agent informed me by email that it's been closed since Feb', and that it was a farang and Thai girlfriend or wife who owned and ran it.

There have been a few falangs attempt a go at it there and they all failed.Each time it turned into there own watering hole with a drinking buddy around once in awhile.None of them ever got off the ground as far as business was concerned!It doesn't attract Thais or tourist falangs and there is just not enough local falangs to go around.A couple of the ''investors''put some money into making it attractive.One had 3-4 fairly attractive girls hanging around and still couldn't attract any action!

I have been in Nongkhai for 3 years and the place you are talking about only ever had at max is one or two tables of Thais, usually inebriated trying to sing, and that was only after the Disco bananas had shut. So if you fancy taking it on be prepared to get your first customers about 2.00am.

Thanks for that Colin,

We don't intend to be open that late as we've been doing that for too long here on Koh Tao, I want to start to see early mornings because I've just woken up, not because I haven't got to bed yet. The current problems worlwide, and especially here in LOS at the moment are not going to help us to sell our bar and move to NK very quickly. But, when we do open our new place we want small (our current place is 320sqm), and different to the way the Mango was, and our current place is. No girls, no karaoke, trying to go far the smarter (but not too smart tho'), quiet and relaxed, maybe some light meals and snacks, free wifi, newspapers, and more early morning to late evening. I hope that gives an idea of what we're aiming to do.