Long Weekend starts tonight Wednesday December 9th throughout Thailand.,

[PeterRS]

I have never been to a girlie bar. I have never been attracted to go to one. I cannot see the point of a girl being naked and showing merely a crop of hair whereas a boy showing a penis and scrotum is very different and more interesting. At least there is quite a lot to see! I suppose some straight guys might equate boobs with dicks. In that case, if the girls are topless, let the boys go bottomless.

[firecat69]

5 hours ago, z909 said:

That's probably because you haven't looked, which is understandable.  I took over a decade to investigate, but after spending years participating in discussions just like this one, I decided  it was time to see how the other side operate.  So earlier this year, i decided to make my first ever visit to some girlie gogo bars.   So I'm now qualified to comment.

Go down the alley opposite the school and first on the right, you will find The Dollhouse, which has a mixture of 50% fully nude and the remainder wearing skirts so high that nothing is covered.   A beer is about 110 baht. 

In a nearby street is Windmill,where most wear skirts so high that nothing is covered and others wear nothing.   Beer 80 baht.   

There are at least a couple of other bars nearby with similar offers.   Customers were all western or oriental.   ie no Arabs & Indians. 

So there is a big difference in "presentation" between gay bars and girlie bars.   Anyone visiting Toy Boys recently would apparently have been fobbed off with boys in jeans for their 200 baht drink. 

 

 

 

So I think it is about 7 years since I visited some of those Bars with a Straight Friend and apparently nothing has changed . Amazing when you have a volume of customers , it becomes much easier to charge less and still pay tea money. Gay Bars will never be so lucky!

[Gaybutton]

6 hours ago, vinapu said:

Look at bright side, because of age  some us us may not even see complete collapse  because we will be either gone or too old to travel that far anyways  

That's the bright side . . . ?

 

 

6 hours ago, z909 said:

The Dollhouse, which has a mixture of 50% fully nude and the remainder wearing skirts so high that nothing is covered.

As for going to The Dollhouse, I'll have to take your word for it.   Maybe they get away with it if certain members of the constabulary are somehow getting something more than just a mere pittance of tea money . . .

[Guest]

8 hours ago, PeterRS said:

I have never been to a girlie bar. I have never been attracted to go to one. I cannot see the point of a girl being naked and showing merely a crop of hair whereas a boy showing a penis and scrotum is very different and more interesting. At least there is quite a lot to see! I suppose some straight guys might equate boobs with dicks. In that case, if the girls are topless, let the boys go bottomless.

The girls were topless, bottomless and without exception, had most or all of the hair removed.  So that solves the problem.

So after years of hearing that nudity is banned in gogo bars, I ventured to a girlie gogo bar and discovered they permit full nudity.   With beer in the 80-110 baht range.  Unsurprisingly, they get more customers.   Note: I did spend 10 minutes on google shortlisting where to go, so have no idea if this dress code is widespread, but there are certainly several bars with all on show.

Recently, we're hearing that Toy Boys briefly opened with boys in jeans.   Unsurprisingly, no one is going to pay 200-250 baht for a drink to see boys in jeans, when they may well see boys in shorts in a host bar for a 90 baht drink.  The gay gogo bars need to wake up.  

The unspoken contract is we pay between 500 and 6000% of the true cost of the drink in return for some erotic entertainment.  I've never moaned about drink prices in gogo bars, as we're paying for the entertainment.  The bars need to fulfil their side of the bargain and provide the entertainment !

 

 

[vinapu]

3 hours ago, firecat69 said:

 Amazing when you have a volume of customers , it becomes much easier to charge less and still pay tea money. Gay Bars will never be so lucky!

market economy at it's best, unfortunately gays are niche market so we need to bear cost of that

[vinapu]

53 minutes ago, z909 said:

 

The unspoken contract is we pay between 500 and 6000% of the true cost of the drink in return for some erotic entertainment.  I've never moaned about drink prices in gogo bars, as we're paying for the entertainment.  The bars need to fulfil their side of the bargain and provide the entertainment !

 

while I agree with you entirely , I must add that quite often I find guys in tightly fitting jeans highly erotic. Still I agree that it's not what we should pay for in bars as the same can be seen for free on the street

[spoon]

I wonder if we do go to toyboy now and ask the mamasan to have the boys in underwear, will they resist? My gut feeling is they would be happy to do that for a potential customer/off. 

[Guest]

5 hours ago, firecat69 said:

So I think it is about 7 years since I visited some of those Bars with a Straight Friend and apparently nothing has changed . Amazing when you have a volume of customers , it becomes much easier to charge less and still pay tea money. Gay Bars will never be so lucky!

Whilst what you are saying is along the right lines, I don't fully understand the volume thing.

OK, so perhaps gays are just 5% of the population.  

However, last time I counted, Pattaya had 9 gay gogo bars and it may well be less once covid has finished. Plus a handful of host bars.

There are girlie bars all over the place  -many parts of Pattaya, several parts of Bangkok, loads in Hua Hin, some in Ao Nang, Udon Thani etc etc.  

We ought to be able to sustain something of a scene in Bangok and Pattaya.    Even if outnumbered 20:1, I would still expect more than have, which is a handful of fairly empty gogo bars.  

What I would suggest is that the gay bars need to raise their game - offer more on stage.

Of course, what I don't know is whether the straight bar scene has suffered from trade moving on line, as the gay bar scene has. 

However, what is obvious to any visitor to Pattaya, is the  hundreds of women plying their trade along the beach in the evening. So the straight customers don't HAVE to go into the bars.  Perhaps they find the bars are doing enough to attract them in ? 

19 minutes ago, spoon said:

I wonder if we do go to toyboy now and ask the mamasan to have the boys in underwear, will they resist? My gut feeling is they would be happy to do that for a potential customer/off.

If I walked into Toy Boys and saw the staff in jeans, I would leave and attempt to tell the doorman precisely why I'm leaving.  

If they charge gogo bar prices, they need to offer gogo bar entertainment in return. 

No one would go to expensive restaurant & accept the offer of a ready meal from a 7-Eleven.  

[Boy69]

I agree with most said above by others but we have to understand that the number of gays visiting Thailand dropped sharply over the years .I remember when I had been there between 2000-2006 were much more gay venues with lot of customers in Pattaya,Chiang Mai,Patong and Bangkok .With not enough customers no surprise nowadays it's only a shadow to what it used to be.

[vinapu]

1 hour ago, Boy69 said:

I agree with most said above by others but we have to understand that the number of gays visiting Thailand dropped sharply over the years .I remember when I had been there between 2000-2006 were much more gay venues with lot of customers in Pattaya,Chiang Mai,Patong and Bangkok .With not enough customers no surprise nowadays it's only a shadow to what it used to be.

this may have something to do with better acceptance of gay lifestyles in their countries. With that need to travel that far to feel yourself  is kind of reduced. And unfortunately This gays are doing OK in their own venues without need of frequenting those visited by farangs.

[firecat69]

I still remember US Naval ships coming into Pattaya and depositing 1000 + young sailors at a time. I would guess a small % are gay . The rest can't wait to get in Lady Bars where beer is cheap and company reasonable especially after being at sea for months.

No way a Gay Bar can compete with that . Also many have fond memories of Sunee Plaza having lots of Bars but not to many of us ( I Hope) were happy with a very busy underage trade that was the reason for some Bars existence.  

Some Gay Bars in Pattaya in the last few years have needed to rely on women customers as well as men ,at which of course many of the boys were quite happy with that change.

Nothing stays the same and I am actually amazed at how many Gay Bars actually moved from Soi Twilight across the street and are surviving while they wait for customers to return.

I'm pretty sure the various Apps hurt Pattaya more than Bangkok since the travel time for the Boys in most cases is considerably less than travel in BKK which of course can be quite lengthy and aggravating when the Boy does not show because of traffic etc.

Hopefully in 6 months the posts will return  from members once again enjoying Gay Bars even if the number is reduced. I would guess some member will have saved up quite a bit of money to once again enjoy Thailand.

[reader]

1 hour ago, firecat69 said:

Nothing stays the same and I am actually amazed at how many Gay Bars actually moved from Soi Twilight across the street and are surviving while they wait for customers to return.

It's one of the more encouraging signs of our time. I'm confident that Lucky Boys will reopen this spring after the effects of the vaccines begin to be felt and foreign tourists find their way back. Given its size and staff requirements, it can't sustain itself without a good volume coming through the doors.  And to match the the usual 35-50 guys on stage on a typical night, it badly needs the Cambodian, Myanmar and Vietnamese to round out the selection.

[vinapu]

8 hours ago, firecat69 said:

 

Hopefully in 6 months the posts will return  from members once again enjoying Gay Bars even if the number is reduced.

it this will materialize you will be counted among great Prophets. I hope too but must say I'm less optimistic now than in beginning of whole debacle 

[Travellerdave]

18 hours ago, z909 said:

The girls were topless, bottomless and without exception, had most or all of the hair removed.  So that solves the problem.

So after years of hearing that nudity is banned in gogo bars, I ventured to a girlie gogo bar and discovered they permit full nudity.   With beer in the 80-110 baht range.  Unsurprisingly, they get more customers.   Note: I did spend 10 minutes on google shortlisting where to go, so have no idea if this dress code is widespread, but there are certainly several bars with all on show.

Recently, we're hearing that Toy Boys briefly opened with boys in jeans.   Unsurprisingly, no one is going to pay 200-250 baht for a drink to see boys in jeans, when they may well see boys in shorts in a host bar for a 90 baht drink.  The gay gogo bars need to wake up.  

The unspoken contract is we pay between 500 and 6000% of the true cost of the drink in return for some erotic entertainment.  I've never moaned about drink prices in gogo bars, as we're paying for the entertainment.  The bars need to fulfil their side of the bargain and provide the entertainment !

 

 

I have vague memories of visiting a girlie Gogo maybe 15 years ago but more recently I went with a str guy who I chatted to at the Ambience where he was a fellow guest. The subject was soccer as the World Cup was in progress. He proposed we go to a sports bar to watch a match. This was very busy of course not just with customers but with a range of girls anywhere from 18 to 40 years old. There was a happy atmosphere with much soccer talk and with banter between the customers and the bar girls, promoted by the manager. The bar was well fitted out with a number of large screens and the drinks were at a relatively low price. The girls were sexily clothed and had made a big effort with their appearance which no doubt paid dividends when the customers thoughts turned from sport to sex.

later I proposed that he accompanied me to BT where he rather reluctantly agreed to visit a Gogo (Cupidol where I had offed a boy two nights previously and wanted to do so again). Having a final drink back at the Ambience with me and my boy he commented about the lack of enthusiasm of the boy dancers and the high drink prices compared with str gogos and also he found the atmosphere rather subdued compared with the sports bar. He agreed with me that the boys could be better presented wearing more variety than white underwear. He liked his girlfriends in fetish gear and asked why the boys did not wear  that stuff on stage. Perhaps gay Gogo proprietors should get some ideas from the str ones.

[Boy69]

2 hours ago, Travellerdave said:

Having a final drink back at the Ambience with me and my boy he commented about the lack of enthusiasm of the boy dancers and the high drink prices compared with str gogos and also he found the atmosphere rather subdued compared with the sports bar.

Yes that is correct .the lack of enthusiasm and  the subdued atmosphere is I assume because most of the go go boys are straight and find their work repulsive ,and the high drink prices are because there are not enough customers as at girlie bars .

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Travellerdave said:

 Perhaps gay Gogo proprietors should get some ideas from the str ones.

Copying the best ideas is good business practice.   I would suggest the gay gogo bars should try to make things more lively, put more on show, not less and make sure the pricing is reasonable.   

Some don't even do the basics.   Whilst Winner boys is a good bar to visit when it's going well,  I showed up about 9:30 pm on evening in January and the stage was empty for most of the next hour.  Despite there being over 10 boys on the premises, they were effectively taking one long break and there was no bar management to rectify the situation. 

 

1 hour ago, Boy69 said:

Yes that is correct .the lack of enthusiasm and  the subdued atmosphere is I assume because most of the go go boys are straight and find their work repulsive ,and the high drink prices are because there are not enough customers as at girlie bars .

I doubt the girls in the gogo bars find the time spent with their elderly customers to be much fun either.  

Also, demand is sensitive to both price and the quality of the product offering.   If a dull bar puts prices up, they get fewer customers, so there's a good chance that revenue goes down.   Then, as well as selling fewer drinks, the boys in the bar get fewer tips, so presumably staff retention becomes an issue.