hank75

Very good to hear your phone was returned by honest Bolt driver, and good of you too to ensure he did not leave empty handed.

I thought the same 😅

Don’t think it is a “side hustle” but rather he is looking for sugar daddy to subsidize his lifestyle. Working in a bank, he must have appearances to keep up in front of his peers: stylish clothing, haircut, dinners out and going to clubs or bars. Maybe he wants cash for domestic tourism or branded items. The question is how many boyfriends aka sugar daddies does he actually have

Sadly the bar that started it all, Moonlight, is now a pale shadow of what it once was. The social media that is. I remember when they used to do nightly live streams of the model parade and made Babe a star.

Clearly I need to expand my range of bars lol. I guess I’m a creature of habit I usually gravitate towards familiar places and faces during the limited time I have. Also I’m truly sorry spoon had to experience losing his phone. I can’t imagine anything more stressful especially when trying to enjoy vacation time. I hope there is a happy ending during the next chapter (well multiple happy endings)

They do occasionally use old reels but just few days old and not more than a week. It is still a fairly good indicator which boys are still active and working in the bar. I offed a boy once for 2-3 days in a row and we were amused to see him appear in the daily FB videos parading down the catwalk despite not having been at work. On the second day we spotted that they had actually used two videos taken in the same evening but posted on different days. But more often than not the videos are actually up to date. If the Tai Yai guys have Thai documents they are fine. But although the attention is on Cambodians at the moment, Myanmar guys too are finding it harder to get their visas due to huge influx of Myanmar workers into Thailand from the political instability. The boys I’ve spoken to hope the situation will improve after the upcoming (sham) elections in late January. In the latest video I counted 3 Cambodians but the numbers have been dropping steadily for the past few years.

Haha ok this makes sense to me now. My mistake. I have a friend who enjoys chatting to MBs on Facebook and has successfully arranged offs and “dates” with them for his trips. Of course he can meet them at their bars too but it gives him something to do while he’s not in Thailand and builds a nice sense of anticipation of having a new boy waiting for him.

A cliffhanger ending indeed… Another explanation could be that he has the chance to meet you in person at the bar and negotiate the off face to face, which inspired confidence in agreeing to long time? Going to the bar in person, “investing” in the cover, off fee, mamasan tip probably indicated you were a serious customer as opposed to a random on FB that he has never met before. And he probably liked what he saw as well. Think there are very few boys who would agree to long time just based on first FB or Grindr chat.

I’ve been there years ago and can’t say I’m keen to go back. It was a very nice restaurant though the food didn’t leave much of an impression. Felt more suitable for tourists, rather than dining with a local guy or two. I remember bringing a guy there and from the look on his face I could tell he thought it was overpriced, food cooked for farang tastes, and he just wasn’t comfortable with the more formal setting. Also 7-8 years ago there was a real shortage of decent Thai restaurants in the area especially around the Surawong side if you didn’t feel like having Japanese or Burger King or beer bar food. Now there are quite a few good casual restaurants near Soi 4 and Park Silom so I’m not surprised business has fallen off.

I thought it was the chicken and cashew nuts

Speak for yourself. I still have the body of yesteryears. Just two of them now.

I did not understand this at all. “You are not popular / did not make us any money tonight, therefore please don’t come to work tomorrow” ??

Jupiter fines 100 baht and the boys make a real effort to get there on time. Vs earning 200 baht to arrive early. Seems to prove a stick is more effective than a carrot. At least where boys are concerned.

No complaints about the boy drink, that was very good value🫡 If you read my post, my point was when I visited, second drink, third drink were all 500 baht not just the first which included price of admission. But jason1975’s menu shows a different pricing structure so I don’t know if they have a different high season menu, my eyesight is failing or some other reason. My friend and I didn’t split bills and his second drink was 500. Unless we got gently scammed.

The guy I mentioned wasn’t hustling customers before work. He just woke up late, went to gym, took a long shower, did his hair carefully, had a meal then showed up for work at the latest possible time. It wasn’t just one occasion where he had been out late or hungover, this was his routine. Or as you express it “me time” 😆 He fancied himself one of the bar stars (it’s true he was sexy and charming) and during dry spells would send me messages “no money”. Yet after investigating, I found out he still wasn’t making an effort to secure the 200 baht early reward. Even for those of us with more means, we would never turn up our noses at 200 baht because that could mean breakfast, an expensive cup of coffee as a treat, or something else taken care of for the day.

Apologies for whom this is old news, but I only just discovered this past week there is a SuperRich Turtle kiosk inside Sala Daeng BTS. Exit the connecting walkway from Silom Complex, make a left and it’s there (along the walking path headed towards Dusit Central Park). Google AI notes that rates might be slightly different from the main SuperRich so do compare rates online as well, but I’ve always found all Super Rich operators fairly consistent. There is also a SuperRich Orange inside Dusit Central Park. Convenient if you are on the Sala Daeng side, instead of walking all the way to X-One or Silom Plaza.

I used to have a guy from a different bar that had the same policy but for a slightly later time, I think it was 8 or 8.30. I honestly don’t remember which bar anymore. Well this boy was never on time for work. I remember having lengthy debates with him that he could wake up an hour earlier or finish his gym time earlier, and earn that extra 200 baht per day. With 200 baht, his basic daily meals would be covered and then he only had rent to worry about. He just never saw it as money being taken out of his own pocket. Without sounding harsh, I eventually realized it was sheer laziness and also arrogance of assuming he would always make 2000-3000 (or more) each day, would always have soft hearted punters like me on the hook, and 200 baht was insignificant. I dropped him soon after that, for various reasons but also because I did not admire his personality.

I had to read this line twice

Or those who are Pattaya veterans, get a facelift and show up in Bangkok as a “new boy”. There is one offender in Jupiter who was already long in the tooth at BBB, when I last visited some 3 years ago. As I mentioned in Dreamboys review, one “boy” was visibly on the wrong side of 50, greying, balding and not trying to hide it. I wonder if this is the direction 80% of the Moonlight model line up is heading in. Some of these boys can remember customers they haven’t seen in 7-8 years. Remind me which one is Alex? The muscular Burmese who was ex Jupiter? Oud I remember as apart from not being the usual cookie cutter hunk of pre Covid Jupiter, he was the only one who smiled. I had complicated feelings when I saw Mekhin return to bar work. On one hand I was happy he survived his accident without severe paralysis or brain damage. On the other he is prime example of boys who should retire gracefully as he’s well into his 40s, has lost his looks and body, but not his heavy drinking habit.

Talking of bar owners from years past, what happened to farang who owned Dreamboys? I was reminded of this when I saw a 28 year anniversary poster. I turned to my boy and said hey you could have started working here at 5 years old. He was not amused as he is passing for 26.

He has actually told them he’s not working anymore. They just dont want him to stop working. Recently he gets calls every Friday when they see a spike in customers asking him to come back to work since he hasn’t moved to another bar. There is boy logic and then there is bar logic. Neither of which I entirely understand.

Nothing so complicated. He has an arrangement with a customer (not me) and has mostly stopped working. Just to be sure I sent him a Line message. He said he had last been on stage almost two months ago and only for one day, but the boss still considers him on their roster since he hasn’t started working in another bar. So if he shows up with a customer, the rules still apply to him. Surely 7.30 is too early considering they seem to wake up at 4 or 5 pm! Jupiter’s official start time is 9 pm and there’s a 100 baht fine for latecomers. I don’t know how strictly it’s enforced.

If you want a show bar, try Moonlight. I ran into Mekhin who said he was back working at Tawan but he no longer has the body of yesteryears.

A Jupiter boy I know has stopped working regularly at the bar. I invited him to come drink with me at Jupiter one evening and he declined, saying that he would be asked to pay his own off fee to the bar and he didn’t want me to pay cover or off fee for him. We agreed the 500 baht was best spent on a nice meal for him next time. Jupiter boss conducts spot checks and if they are caught not coming into work but found outside with a customer, they are still asked to pay the bar 500 baht. When they are ill or hungover they send photos of themselves lying pathetically in bed to prove they’re not moonlighting. I used to think asking the boy to meet outside the bar was a clever way of avoiding the off fee but it turns out the boy will pay it anyway out of his tip.

I seem to recall I was shown a red bordered menu with only 500 baht drinks but my eyesight in dim lighting isn’t what it once was. I clearly remember being told it was a 500 baht for a Coca Cola (which is all I wanted - ended having a beer though to feel some semblance of value)