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macaroni21

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Posts posted by macaroni21

  1. 46 minutes ago, Patanawet said:

    or NO TOUCH. NO TIP!

    Some members here would be breaking such a rule each time they step into a gogo bar. Based on their reports, and my own observations every now and then when I am nursing a drink in a bar, some customers readily give out tips just because a boy looks handsome.

    I have always thought that that is a kind of cancer. It has damaged the work ethic when, from the boys' perspective, earnings are not dependent on having to work for the money. 

    Mamasans expect to be tipped despite having been a nuisance; "models" get garlands for just standing around. There was one bar doorman who expected to be tipped because he saw me walk by. Thankfully he was no longer there a few months later.

     

  2. I have tasted a version of "chicken in cashewnuts" (note the variation in the name of the dish) in Phnom Penh, where they were no crunchy nuts either. However, the chicken was bathed in a creamy sauce, and I could detect that what probably went into the cooking process was a long cooking time during the which the cashew nuts (which might have been pre-crushed into tiny bits) softened so much, they became the thickener in the sauce. I could taste the cashew in the sauce, which had the consistency of thick cream. 

  3. 1 hour ago, macaroni21 said:

    My recent visit to 9teen turned out well, with a pretty good massage.

    Oops, sorry. I was momentarily confused. I was somehow thinking of S'sense, but that place is in Suan Plu. The massage at 9teen was OK but not one I would consider worthy of a repeat.

  4. 7 hours ago, spoon said:

    There are several poor experiences reported on 19teen, but again, with any massage parlour, those experiences are largely related to specific masseurs. 

    I sometimes went to suriwong side and go to green massage for more legitimate massage. 

    Spoon is onto something. Based on 4-5 sessions with Silom 6 shops over the past 5 years, I'd say they are more rub-and-tug than any decent massage, with one exception. My recent visit to 9teen turned out well, with a pretty good massage.

    On the Surawong side ( Green, new Aravin) you're more likely to get a decent massage. The extras have always been available  as well.

  5. 4 hours ago, Boy69 said:

    2.5 billions Baht for 300000 visitors is about USD 245 per visitor. Very reasonable estimation.  

    There was one year when I happened to visit the city during one of these big events. The vast majority of the visitors at the event were Thais. I reckon they were either living in the Chonburi area or from Bangkok. I can't imagine them needing to spend an average of 8,333 baht per head. Even if that figure included hotel costs for 1 or 2 nights, they are almost all family groups, and so would have shared rooms.

  6. Wait.... who is this new bus service supposed to serve?  If it is tourists arriving at Chiang Mai airport, then whoever planned or approved this is unfit for his or her job.  Arriving tourists want to get to their hotels, not to trudge their luggage immediately to "well-known tourist destinations such as One Nimman, Chang Phueak Gate, Tha Phae Gate, Flower Market, Chiang Mai Gate".

    I magnified the map, and Chiangmai Boutique Lodge is the only stop with a name resembling that of lodgings. I don't see any other hotel listed amng the stops. Instead, we have totally irresistible places of interest 🤪 such as Suriwong Book Center, Mae Ping Post Office, Yupparaj School, Faculty of Pharmacy, and Computer City. To be fair, perhaps there are hotels near these bus stops, but if so, the least the map can do is to mark the hotels and indicate which stop is nearest which one. In the absence of such markings, hardly any arriving tourist is going to see any use for the service.

    It also seems to be a one-way route, going clockwise from the airport. Even if you're brave or impecunious enough to put your trust in this service, should your hotel be towards the end of the circular route, then you'd have to endure a very long ride  - - and Chiang Mai's traffic can't have improved from "terrible" since I was last there 5 - 6 years ago) - - to your hotel.

    Look at how the Koreans do it. They have a number of express airport buses from Incheon airport to Seoul. Click their links and you see how they have a clear timetable, information about major hotels served and an app for real-time information.  https://airportkobus.com/seoul-incheon-airport-bus/    https://airportkobus.com/the-incheon-airport-bus-6001-route-to-seoul/

     

  7. 45 minutes ago, jason1975 said:

    I haven't been to Apollo. I want to ask do the guys go naked from the beginning or only midway during the massage?

    Only been there once, though good enough that I'd repeat when there's an opportunity. In that one time, my guy was nude from the start, and transitioned to body-to-body midway. That said, I don't know if that is just the guy I hired (whose face is no longer among the pictures that Apollo sends out, so I guess he has quit), or if it is house policy. 
     
    In the Saphan Khwai places for example, I have yet to discern any house policy, for example. Technique and service standard vary from one guy to the next, and it's likely because the boys are freelancers.

    Frankly, this is something that the client can indicate, if the place is more brothel than massage. Since the boy is anyway going to remove his shorts midway, I doubt that he'd be offended if, at the very start, the client made some hand gestures that signal him to dispense with textile right away. He should only be delighted at the assurances of "special service required"  and tip that are implied.

    I just glanced up at the pic of Baller again, and now I think he's more Iranian or Indian. Perhaps he is from the localised Indian community of Thailand (which may explain his speaking Thai).

  8. Oh no, you've got me wrong. I think their business model is fine, and I totally understand the obviously regular stream of clients they get (mostly local, I would think). As a group, the Saphan Khwai cluster is doing better than the massage/brothels of other districts. All business models comes with risks. The important thing to do is to identify them and take mitigative action.

    What I am saying it that individually, no shop has optimised its marketing communications to get ahead over its competitors in the same area, or improved its facilities enough to gain an edge. Yeah, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to getting bsuiness right.

    That said, marcomms-wise, the massage businesses are way ahead of the gogo bars who have either absent social media presence or poorly-aimed ones highlghting ladyboys dressed in excessive finery. Pricing-wise, the massage parlours/brothels are also a lot smarter. Facilities-wise, look at some of the gogo bars' toilets - how do they even compare with the massage parlour facilities?

  9. 27 minutes ago, TotallyOz said:

    But, the in call is different. I personally like incalls at Jey Spa. Very clean and private baths.

    Then you may want to give 365River a try. New building, ensuite showers. Very clean as well. Quiet neighbourhood; easy access from Bang Pho MRT station (in fact right under the station platform).

    Note of caution: my one and only experience was that the service sucked, though it's the luck of the draw with the boys.

     

  10. I'm usually happy enough to have 12 to choose from. In any case, as I have said a few times, looks are no predictor of performance.

    A brothel whose business model is built on offering >25 guys, especially if they are freelancers also listed by other, nearby businesses, takes on a number of risks: 

    - there's a higher chance a boy may not be available when clients pick him, because when a sexworker is only one out of so many on your listing, the chance of being picked is lower, and after a while, he prioritises other means of getting work, and then "not available" leads to customer dissatisfaction;

    - it's impossible to maintain any kind of service quality;

    Brothels that list freelancers listed by many other businesses, also need to rethink why a client would choose them over the other businesses. What is their competitive edge when the same boy is available elsewhere? It can't be quality of the boys or their performance, it can't even be the expected tips, since the brothel can hardly control that.  It has to be the quality of the premises (and its value proposition) and the ease of access - the elements the businesses can control. Yet, these brothels do not strive to go beyond the basics in terms of premises, and do not communicate why clients should prefer their facility over others. Nor do they even go beyond the most rudimentary instructions as to their location.

  11. The photo is not the clearest, but good enough to make out that Apollo Massage now lists a guy of African ancestry. What is interesting though is that the requested tips are 3,000 baht for 1 hour and 3,500 baht for 1.5 hours, (I presume in-house).

    Not only are Apollo guys generally asking for higher tips than the Saphan Khwai places, as seen from their Line app sample, Dre is asking for twice higher.

    image.png.c5686b68ae0d9172178ced0652257f5b.png

    (Explanation: He is said to be 1.80m tall, weigh 78 kg and fits a condom of size 56, and he is top)

    Most boys advertised by Apollo offer three tip levels, e.g. "15/17/25" where the third figure indicates an outcall rate, but not this guy. Maybe no ID, so too risky to enter hotels?

    You can see my November 2023 review of Apollo here: https://shamelessmacktwo.travel.blog/2023/12/10/easy-come/

  12. 7 hours ago, srvhakko said:

    I'm very excited to be there on Sunday evening. I have already made a reservation for 3 people( Me, my friend from Myanmar and my new favorite handsome Cambodian). I will share the latest observations and information when I arrive at Moonlight bar🙂

    A report will be nice. Looking forward to it. But what made you think a reservation was necessary? (I'm assuming here that it was a table reservation, not reserving one or more of the models)

  13. 3 hours ago, floridarob said:

    Even better, a business plan idea for him 😉

    Oh yeah, I forgot. He was wanting to run a bar in Pattaya. Well, all the more we need answers to my thought experiment (and not just from old daddy) to know how much sales revenue the idea will generate, and therefore whether it will be viable as a business model.

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