Soi Twilight closing....what?

[Jez1980]

I missed something big I think. I saw that Dicks Cafe has not found a new home as Soi Twilight in Bangkok is closing. Is that true? What are the details, when, bars moving to? Thanks...

[Gaybutton]

I apologize for touting my board here, but I believe you'll find the information you seek at this link:

 

http://www.gaybuttonthai.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8885

[ggobkk]

Thanks, gaybutton for the link and thanks Jez1980 for asking what's going on.

 

I only have hearsay so that's not worth much...and that indicates that a new hotel or condo complex will edge into Twilight.  There's talk that no leases are being renewed...that doesn't mean businesses wont keep operating until the last minute. 

 

A forum member with his feet on the ground PM'd me that some owners are checking out sites on the other side of Surawong.  

 

Walking around the area last November, it was apparent that gentrification was hitting the area.  Two much new construction was taking place.

 

Then again, Divine Madman and I went to dinner at the Dusit Thani to salute the hotel before it closed...guess what?  Closure postponed, project delayed.

 

My guess is that real estate prices will close Twilight at some point in the near future.  So enjoy it before it's a memory.

[vinapu]

bottom line is, at the moment not much is known for sure but it rather looks that day of soi Twilight are numerated.

 

I wonder what is posters take on it's incoming extermination. Shrug, sadness or joy?

 

I , for one have mixture of hope, sense of loss and curiosity.

 

 Hope that it will turn just hoax and things will stay as they are , but I don't believe it  myself.

 

Sense of loss as no day of my stay in Bangkok went without me strolling along the soi few times at various hours including obligatory late night foray though completely deserted and darkened soi  after landing in BKK at 1.30 a. m. I will be missing  not only bars  but both massage places and restaurants where I had favorite  boys and favorite dishes. People watching , meeting forum friends and all those eye candies heading to work or departing with customers to hotels- all seems hard to replace. 

 

Even if over years I offed probably more boys from Arena than from all soi's  bars combined it was comforting to know that there's choice of boys ,  bars and shows. No , I never complained about prices there being too high even if low they were not but it was worth expense as far as I could see.

 

But  there's also curiosity how it will turn out, do bars , restaurants and massages find  new places and where ? Will that work out ?

Generally those moves in the past were not very successful but both Banana Club and Jupiter  in recent years seem to do well in their new homes so there's hope.

And where Dean of the soi, paulsf will be sitting next year ?  

[Boy69]

The glory days of soi Twilight were gone long time ago ,maybe moving of some of the gay venues there to other location nearby will improve the gay scene in Silom-Suriwong.

[TMax]

So it looks like the gay bar scene is going to become very splintered, I can't see them finding a new soi to all relocate to and set up soi twilight 2. More than likely they will eventually scatter around a fair bit, really only had two attractions for me which are Bonny and Bangkok massage and Bonny had lost some of its lustre for me of late. 

[paulsf]

For me it will be a sad day. I very much enjoy sitting and people watching in a dedicated area. Great place to meet up with friends.

I’ve met so many forum members there. Great starting point for the evening.

 

This past week has been pretty busy. Good to see full houses and boys making money.

I know some will spend more time in Pattaya. I’m not a fan so depending on how things turn out, my Thailand trips may be very short lived.

 

The owner of Hot Male has bought Boy66 (old Jupiter). He is renovating and hopes to be open early March. He is going to call it Hot Boys. Plan is little format change. Cross between Twilight gogo’s and New Jupiter.

 

Boys all seem to know about it, but it doesn’t seem to have hit them yet. Many have short attention spans and I don’t think it will hit them till a couple of weeks out of losing their jobs.

 

Those that know me, know I have a good connection with the Vietnamese boys. Many of them have decided not to come back this year after New Years . Some have been in Bangkok 5 years or more. They say police issues making it more difficult, but they are now realizing with closure, getting new jobs will be difficult. A few have already moved to Screwboys and Jupiter.

This situation will hit the Cambodian and Laos boys the same way. You put upwards of 1000 people out of work in the same neighborhood, jobs will be tough to come by.

 

Lots of moving parts to this story. So much of it rumor. Will there be a short reprieve? Nobody knows, but in the end I guess closure it is inevitable.

[Gaybutton]

Within the posts on my board about it, the ones I would pay most attention to are the posts from Trongpai.  He lives in Bangkok and he is excellent at finding out what's going on.

 

For those of you who are "Soi Twilight-o-philes," don't despair just yet.  Who knows - maybe something even better than Soi Twilight ever was will be the eventual outcome.  I really can't picture all the bar owners closing down their businesses forever without trying to relocate somewhere.

[reader]

The rumors about Twilight have been coming fast and furious and some are based on good sources.  The ones having half of the soi closest to Rama 4 closing appear most likely to come first.  As Vinapu noted, any delay on the remainder will likely be just that. 

 

Paulsf is on the ground now and he talks regularly with the managers and the boys so you can put good stock in what he reports. He's widely respected and has great coin on the street.

 

Guess the bottom line comes down to this: if you can make it there before the wrecking ball falls, it may be your one last chance. If you can't, the value of your memories goes up. But in any case, it's not over until the last ladyboy sings.

[TotallyOz]

Paul told me about this over a week ago and it was good intel. I did not post about it as I did not think it was my place and I rarely go to this area (about 2 times per year or 20 if I am horny). But, there are rumors and something is in the works.  If you look at the area and see the value of another fucking mall or some stupid shit like that, you will see that the owners can get a lot more money from those things. The area is a ripe for anything new. It just saddens me a bit as this was the first Soi I ever visited in Thailand and took a boy off. 

[vinapu]

 

For those of you who are "Soi Twilight-o-philes," don't despair just yet.  Who knows - maybe something even better than Soi Twilight ever was will be the eventual outcome.  I really can't picture all the bar owners closing down their businesses forever without trying to relocate somewhere.

that's the hope I have, bars will be resurrected somewhere  but resurrecting soi  as a whole will be harder task and this is part I miss the most, whole decorum and liturgy, bar here , restaurant there and flirty massage boys across. Even way of escape at other end - thing missing in soi 4 for example.

[reader]

Agree that the vibe on Twilight is unique in the city and--given the trends in tastes and social media--make it unlikely that it can be recreated. Even if the push for new condos and apartments was absent, business was in a steady decline because too many go-go's were competing for declining numbers. Until fairly recently, Dream Boy experienced phenomenal success (despite the prices), mainly because of the constant flow of Chinese visitors.  But when the Chinese walked down the stairs they didn't stop at the bars or restaurants on their way out. These were the domain of mostly gay farang visitors and ex-pats. But there just aren't enough of us anymore to support so many venues.

 

Over on Soi 4, there's a different atmosphere but a more successful business model, fed primarily by strong foot traffic. The restaurants are good and the crowd is much more diversified.  And it's that diversification that assures it's success. A gay presence still anchors the place and there are some flirty massage boys, although most congregate at the mouth of the soi.

 

The same thing has occurred in major cities across the US over the years. The number of gay bars and strip clubs have declined precipitously in LA, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Boston and most Florida destinations.  The decline started in the Aids crisis of the 80's and never recovered. By the time it was over, gays had migrated to the Internet. There's still a gay scene is these locations but it's different now. Hope it doesn't go to that extent in LOS.  Even if it did, I'd still visit because that's where they guys I like tend to be.

[bucknaway]

I'm interested in seeing what comes next. I am grateful to have experienced the past but I'm on pins and needles anticipating what tomorrow brings.

 

Will this bring back true competition in the bar scene? Will nature boy and golden cock use this opportunity to grow and evolve?

 

Will struggling straight bars turn gay?

 

Will a new gayborhood pop up along the sky train line?

 

These are exciting times in Bangkok!

[Boy69]

I am not sad at all becuse I remembered what Soi Twilight used to be years ago in its glory days:professional shows,many attractive boys eager to please and reasonable prices.at the last years I visited there the quality of the

shows declined radically , Most of the boys are not attractive as used to be and the prices are outrageous. Pattaya and Phuket are much better options for me now where I can combine more relaxed vacation with beaches nearby and reasonably prices for boys and bars.

[reader]

 Most of the boys are not attractive as used to be....

 

They can say the same about us.

 

.... I remembered what Soi Twilight used to be years ago in its glory days:professional shows,many attractive boys eager to please and reasonable prices....

 

Years ago I could buy a new car for $5000 and  a good streak could be had at my favorite restaurant for $5. Back then I was also making a third of what I do now. 

 

Maybe it's all relative, no?

[vinapu]

 

 

Maybe it's all relative, no?

it is, our assessment of prices / high depends on our earning power at home as well as exchange rate - quite a mitigating  factor in my case. So depending  where we are coming from we may call prices outrageous or just bit higher.

 

As for boys attractiveness this is very subjective. As time passes,  past tends to be more rosy tinted and nowadays's water more dry than one in the past. Even for regular visitors attractive boy last trip turns out to be quite ordinary next one or other way around.

 

But three things seems to be sure changes in comparison to the past : there were more bars then , most of them offered , now gone , acrobatic ( some may call it professional, not my word ) f***k shows and boys indeed paid more attention to their clients due to absence of smartphones.

 

But even those changes are hard to qualify, not everybody was fan of those shows as after seeing few some were bored although I miss them since they featured 100 % naked performers.

Having choice is good but up to a point - on 2 weeks vacation one can off only so many boys, say 14,  and whether favorite bar had 25 or 150 of them becomes irrelevant.

As for smartphones while being ignored may be hurting, benefit is one can survey boys unmolested while in the days of old we were followed with piercing eyes of hopeful boys. I actually like when boy lifts his eyes from the screen , notices me and smiles.

[reader]

A post on GB board mentions that a Twilight bar owner has been exploring move to Patpong 2 where Screw Boy is located. I walk that soi daily when in town and don't recall any vacancies but I really wasn't looking for one.

 

Nevertheless, if there are indeed some, or if new ones become available, I can see the possibilities.  In  addition to being a convenient passage between Silom and Surawong, it's the home to a few good restaurants and Foodland supermarket. Lots of foot traffic from early to late. It would certainly have a lot of curb appeal potential.

[fedssocr]

these sorts of changes are happening all over the world. Gay bars are disappearing everywhere for a variety of reasons. Technology marches on. And certainly that is some prime real estate. It'll probably get turned into another luxury mall and condo complex

[Londoner]

I share other posters' pessimism but there is one example of  an expanding gay  presence in Thailand; the Jomtien Complex. I appreciate that the situation in Thailand's capital is entirely different in terms of costs and clientele  but Is the Jomtien's Complex's success founded entirely on cheap rents? or are there business models there that could be applicable to Bangkok and Pattaya's Boyztown and Sunee ?

[hanan]

but Is the Jomtien's Complex's success founded entirely on cheap rents? or are there business models there that could be applicable to Bangkok and Pattaya's Boyztown and Sunee ?

Are you sure it really is a success and that rents are cheap? I heard from one staff in one of the bars some months ago they have a rent at 50 000/month and were struggeling to be profitable. I actually would doubt many of the bars there are economic success.

[PeterRS]

In Bangkok Silom Soi 4 seems to be thriving.

[Dalewood]

I have not been there lately, but couldn't some of these places move over by the Super A?

[Guest DThump]

Unless they are highly profitable my guess most will just call it a day... A few will most likely relocate to Pattaya no shortage of vacancies there.

[TotallyOz]

Unless they are highly profitable my guess most will just call it a day... A few will most likely relocate to Pattaya no shortage of vacancies there.

 

Why would a business that is successful in Bangkok move to Pattaya and think it would be successful?  I am genuinely curious.  Many hate Pattaya (I'm not one of them) but I don't see this as a possible action.  Too many of these bars are successful because they are in Bangkok.  Would you go see a Dream Boys show in Pattaya at 500 baht a drink? On a regular basis?

[Guest DThump]

Why would a business that is successful in Bangkok move to Pattaya and think it would be successful? I am genuinely curious. Many hate Pattaya (I'm not one of them) but I don't see this as a possible action. Too many of these bars are successful because they are in Bangkok. Would you go see a Dream Boys show in Pattaya at 500 baht a drink? On a regular basis?

You assume the BKK bars in Soi Twilight are making money! When the Soi is forced to close wait and see how many "successful" bars actually relocate in BKK..... Pattaya will have a lower overhead and if they relocate there the drink prices would need to be competitive with other bars in Pattaya.

The current business model that appears to work is the new Jupiter.....make it a gay freak show to be on the must see list for Chinese tourists.