This is a tribute to the Coctails and Dreams ladyboy cabaret
and bar in Patong Beach, Phuket. The bar does not exist any
more, since the whole block, where it was located, has been
demolished in June 2017. The bar with the cabaret has been
operating on these premises almost ten years. I was a regular
visitor of the bar and took many videos of the cabaret
performances. I uploaded them all to YouTube, but it is quite
difficult to search within my channel and the play lists, I
decided to create this tribute to the now defunct bar with
cabaret. It should allow you to navigate more easily between
different videos.
Jimbo, one of the owners of Coctails and Dreams, remembers his
days in Patong in the following text.
Circa 2000, Nick Jackson and his partner Ningnong ran a
guesthouse/restaurant: The Place to Stay. Nick was an
accomplished cook and Ningnong delighted in entertaining the
guests, along with some friends, to a colourful cabaret
accompaniment to their dining experience. They decided that
there was more money to be made by selling drinks at a bar,
rather than the 24/7 duties of running the guesthouse, and
sold the business and opened Cocktails & Dreams in the
Tiger complex on soi Bangla, circa 2004. However the Tiger
management were decidedly homophobic and continually made life
difficult, forcing a change of venue, to soi Happy as it was
known.
My first visit to C & Ds was in May 2005, just 6 months
after the awful Tsunami disaster. Patong had more or less
recovered and the island of Phuket was resurging. The bar at
that time was owned by Nick & Ningnong, and was sited in a
popular sub-soi of Soi Bangla Soi Happy. The Master
leaseholder was the famous Simon Cabaret. I was instantly
taken by the beauty of the ladyboys doing their nightly
cabarets and the welcoming nature of Nick & Ningnong. I
decided to move to Thailand, and in October 2006, just after
yet another of Thailand's infamous coups, made the transition
to my new home in Patong. I had a strong inkling that Nick
wanted to sell his 50% share and move on to other
things. Negotiations followed, legal documents drawn up,
business visa and work permit arranged, and on Jan 1st 2007 I
became a 50% partner with Ningnong.
Both of us had a clear understanding of our separate roles:
mine to take care of the PR, the cash inflows and expenditure,
and customer relations. Hers to organise the cabarets, hiring
and (where necessary) firings of staff, and the licences. This
arrangement worked incredibly well throughout our entire
10½ years as a partnership, with never a cross word
between us.
The bar had limited space, and when a larger unit became
available next door, we made the move. It had a custom made
stage ideal for the cabaret shows. But I'll hold my hand up
to making a fundamental mistake at this point: I thought the
bar would benefit from air-conditioning and installed the
necessary units together with a sliding door entrance. Not
only did the aircon add considerably to the overheads, but the
door restricted access. Nevertheless we pressed on, with some
degree of success for a period of 18 months. But when
another, triple unit, became available across the soi in late
2008, we moved yet again, and remained there until the entire
soi was torn down in June 2017. It had, not only a readymade
stage, but entrances at both ends, one of which faced the very
popular Tiger complex. We were an instant success. Not only
was our online presence paying off, but we were gaining a
reputation as a go-to tourist attraction.
Everything was going swimmingly…until it wasn't !
Following the 2006 coup, political tensions had been rising,
with 2 factions: the "yellow shirt" loyalists and the "red
shirt" pro Thaksinites had festered, culminating in protests,
at first peaceful, became bloody in the streets of Bangkok in
2010. Tourism took a dive, and the bar struggled along with
rather meagre income. Just as we were recovering, a
devastating fire in the Tiger complex in July 2012 reduced it
to ashes. The resultant mess made the approach to C & Ds
very unpleasant and our turnover dwindled to a trickle, until
by the Spring of 2013 we were on the brink of closure. Only
the generosity of a handful of valued customers saved us from
folding. Again, as we recovered, and repaid our debts, there
was yet another military coup in May 2014 ! Once more, our
revenue took a dive. Finally, as Ningnong departed for a new
life in Sweden in April 2017, leaving me in sole control over
the business, the landowner set an absurd rate for Simon
Cabaret to renew their Master lease and they gave up control,
leaving us to the mercies of the landowner who decided in his
wisdom to bulldoze the whole soi. My C & D adventure
collapsed in a pile of rubble on June 18th. One thing is
certain about Thailand - nothing is certain!
