Business is bad for the owner and his not-too-bright brother of the Gay Conspiracy Internet Cafe. What can be wrong with their business concept? This place has it all:
An owner with a serious BO problem.
A hostile brother who gives me nasty looks.
Worn out chairs.
Old computers full of malware.
Insufficient air condition.
Foul smell from the bathroom.
Dust.
Slow Internet.
Unreliable staff.
Faulty keyboards.
Yet despite this the place was often full as recently as a few months ago.
The big plus with the Gay Conspiracy Internet Cafe was the gay boys. The boys were great. Most were working-class lads or from the nearby slum. But the boys are not there anymore. I don’t know where they have gone. Maybe they are at one of the new Internet cafes. I see some of them at the Straight No Conspiracy Internet cafe, but not all of them. Maybe the cops came down on the gay but not-too-bright brother’s pimping hobby?
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Meanwhile, the competition is doing well. The family of the ladyboy-in-training are installing ever more computers in their Internet cafe.
I don’t see grandpa so often anymore. But the ladyboy-in-training is always there, working on his Ph.D in Warcraft, presumably.
The family will do things the brothers across the soi would never lower themselves to do, such as cleaning the keyboards. They are even polite.
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I think Internet cafes are here to stay. Thais are too social to sit at home alone playing games or using the net. They want to go somewhere and make a crowd. I like to crowd with them.