Enchanted_Elixir

GASS GASS is very much a late-night venue. You don’t really start your evening here, you end up here, usually after Silom has already worked you over a bit. Tucked into a more intimate space, above white rabbit bar, it feels immediately different from the larger, more chaotic clubs. Lower ceilings, tighter floor, bodies closer together. There’s a sense that the night has narrowed its focus. Less wandering, more intention. The crowd skews 20s to 30s, well put together, slightly sharper than average. Not necessarily the biggest bodies, but definitely curated, good hair, good outfits, people who’ve chosen where they are and why. There’s a quiet confidence to it. What sets GASS apart is the presence of specially invited go-go dancers. These aren’t freelancers circulating the room. They’re part of the venue’s identity, in the corners, in the light, part of the choreography of the space. You watch them, they perform, but there’s a clear line. It keeps the atmosphere focused, almost theatrical at moments, without tipping into anything transactional. Crowds are invited to participate and touch. Music leans deeper into late-night territory. Less pop, more rhythm. Something you feel in your chest rather than sing along to. The kind of sound that makes conversations shorter and eye contact longer. And that’s really the point of GASS. It’s not sprawling. It doesn’t try to be everything. It compresses the night into something more intense but still fun. You dance closer. You notice more. You stay longer than you planned.

Back from Songkran and, honestly, still slightly dazed. If you’ve done Bangkok before, you think you know what’s coming. You don’t. This year felt… bigger. Denser. As if the city inhaled and then forgot to exhale. Silom, in particular, tipped over into something close to myth. One day had to be shut down entirely because the crowds simply became unmanageable. Not “busy”, not “packed”, properly overrun. Water, bodies, music, whistles, foam, heat. It stopped being a street and became a current you were carried along in. And the boys. OMG. Silom was thick with gleaming circuit party types, bronzed, oiled, and very aware of it. The sort of crowd that makes you stand up a little straighter, or at least consider doing a push-up later. Everywhere you looked: mesh tops, tiny shorts, water guns held like accessories rather than weapons. It felt curated, but not artificial. More like everyone had quietly agreed to bring their best game. Queues into the mainstays were, predictably, biblical. DJ Station and GOD had lines snaking well into the street, damp, impatient, but oddly cheerful. No one really minded. That’s part of the ritual. You queue, you flirt, you get splashed by strangers, you make temporary alliances. By the time you get inside, you already feel like you’ve been out all night. What’s changed, and what surprised me, is how much the scene has expanded. There are new venues now, not covered by the trip reports on this forum. Here are a few: Cake (bear bar) CAKE is one of those places you don’t quite notice at first… and then suddenly realise you’ve spent half the night there. Positioned as a bear bar, it fills a gap Silom didn’t quite have before. Not in the old-school, slightly tired sense, but in a way that feels deliberately warmer, more social, and a bit less performative than the usual circuit-heavy scene outside. Inside, the set-up is fairly straightforward. Compact, a bit dark, music at a level where you can still talk without shouting. The lighting is forgiving in the best possible way. It invites you in rather than putting you on display. You order a drink, you linger, you end up talking to someone. The crowd is exactly what you’d hope for: Bears, cubs, and plenty of admirers A fair number of 30s and 40s guys who look like they’ve outgrown the need to impress. Some younger visitors drifting in, curious, often staying longer than they planned. A sprinkling of circuit boys who, after a few nights of posing, seem quietly relieved to relax a bit. There’s a noticeable shift in tone compared to the rest of Silom. Less peacocking. More eye contact. People actually introduce themselves. Conversations last longer than one drink. It feels… human. During Songkran, CAKE leaned into its identity rather than competing with the madness outside. The pool party on the 13th of April was, by all accounts, exactly what you’d imagine and then a bit better. Not polished, not overly curated. Just a proper gathering. Think bodies of all shapes in the water, laughter cutting through the music, beers in hand, someone dancing a bit too enthusiastically, someone else cheering them on. Less about spectacle, more about participation. You could feel the contrast with the main Silom strip. Outside: hyper-toned, high-gloss, slightly intimidating. Inside CAKE: softer edges, easier smiles, a bit of mischief, a bit of flirtation that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s also one of the few places where you see generations mixing without tension. A guy in his early 30s chatting comfortably with someone in his late 40s. No hierarchy. No obvious social sorting. Just people… being there. Boy Camp This one deserves a proper mention because it signals where Silom is heading, not where it’s been. Boy Camp sits right in the middle of the action on Soi 2, but it doesn’t feel like a legacy venue. It feels new. Slightly more curated. Slightly more aware of itself. And very much built for the current generation of Asian gay nightlife. Physically, it’s a multi-level party bar with a compact but high-energy layout. Think three floors stacked vertically, each getting progressively more intense as you go up. Downstairs is more social, transitional space. Middle level starts to pulse. Upstairs is where it tips into full party mode. Music leans heavily into K-pop, Asian pop, and circuit-adjacent beats, which gives it a distinct flavour compared to the more Western-heavy playlists at DJ Station. The crowd reflects that shift. You get a lot of: Younger Asian guys, particularly Thai, Korean, Taiwanese Well-groomed, fashion-aware, slightly softer aesthetic than the classic circuit muscle crowd Groups of friends rather than lone cruisers A noticeable social-media polish… but still playful, not overly cold There’s a kind of “idol energy” to the place. Not intimidating, but very visually tuned. People here know how they look under lighting. What’s interesting is that Boy Camp isn’t primarily about cruising or even heavy drinking. It’s about energy, movement, and group dynamics. People dance in clusters. They flirt in waves rather than one-on-one. There’s a sense of collective rhythm rather than individual hunting. Compared to older Silom venues: Less chaotic than GOD Less chaotic but more curated than DJ Station Less transactional than the go-go style places historically tied to the Patpong area During Songkran, it becomes something else entirely. The street spills into the venue and the venue spills back into the street. You get soaked boys coming in, drying off, then going straight back out again. Water guns abandoned at the entrance. Shirts half-buttoned or gone entirely. The lighting hits wet skin in a way that feels almost staged. And because the crowd skews slightly younger and more Asian, the aesthetic shifts from “circuit brute” to something more sleek, agile, almost choreographed. Less about size, more about lines. Less about dominance, more about presence. If DJ Station is the institution and GOD is the pressure cooker, then Boy Camp is the new language Silom is learning. And judging by the queues forming outside it this Songkran, it’s a language people are very keen to speak. By the end of it, Silom felt less like a party and more like an event that briefly took over the city, something between a festival and a fever dream. Would I do it again? Absolutely.

I believe you. In fact I would expect you to find him lovely and charming. That has never been Maurice’s or my point. It is not how he treats his peers, but those in vulnerable positions. As regards to his blog there is a recurrent pseudo-anthropological tone in it. He likes presenting himself as the man who sees the system clearly and refuses euphemism. But that “clarity” often just means he speaks about vulnerable young men in the idiom of selection, yield, and market sorting. Add to this a fixation on small price differentials, and a dislike of whatever constrains his ability to select.

It is especially prevalent in Cambodia as you say. I notice that on Grindr, boys have lifted the pics of Myanmar MBs presumably because fewer would know them and report them as a fake profile. This is a greater problem, I believe, on Hornet because it is easier to register again once banned.

Try Aqua Spa, you can choose your masseur from the iPad at the premises. https://maps.app.goo.gl/c8aW7sCM6yeL1FpY9 You can also see some of their therapists here: https://aquaspaformen.com/trang-chu

First and only post, no introduction of himself, just a one liner and no subsequent follow-up posts…

Offing boys from bars is a niche activity, and will be more difficult to sustain without a predictable supply of boys from neighbouring countries. Asian tourists, and locals, often prefer the massage experience, as evidenced by the large and highly segmented number of massage shops in Bangkok and the fierce competition between them. If the Chinese like a venue they will promote it on RedNote and they will often pose together with their favourite masseur.

You’re circling something real here, but I think the frame needs tightening. What you’re reading as “weird pricing” is less about Singha leaving money on the table, and more about how different shops in Bangkok deliberately position themselves within a very segmented market. Ssense is not trying to be everything to everyone. It sits in that middle lane, and quite intentionally so. Ssense caters to both a local Thai clientele and a steady foreign crowd. Younger Chinese book Singha or Knott and take photos with them, and they all end up as a review on RedNote. This composition matters. Local regulars anchor the business. They expect consistency, discretion, and predictable pricing. It is also gay-owned and operated, and you can feel that in how the place is run. There is a fairly strict sense of quality control, both in terms of who they hire and how services are structured. Supplementary services are not a free-for-all. Prices are set by the shop, and that removes the whole negotiation dynamic you see elsewhere. No haggling, no awkward calibration mid-session. You either accept the menu or you don’t. For many clients, that clarity is part of the appeal. No H services are provided officially by the shop. So yes, could Singha charge 2–3k in a different setting? Probably. But at Ssense, the pricing is not his to float. It follows a standardised band that aligns with similar shops in that category. It is set by the shop and therapists are not allowed to diverge. That’s the trade-off. Stability, volume, and a controlled environment over maximising individual upside per client. In terms of positioning, I wouldn’t call Ssense “upscale” if you’re comparing it to places like Titan or Prestige. Those lean harder into a curated, almost boutique experience, with pricing to match. But Ssense is noticeably fresher and better managed than older venues like Chaichana or Green. It feels current. Clean lines, younger roster, tighter operations. Where your comparison with History of Massage is useful is in highlighting the contrast in business models. History runs a much looser system. No mandated central tip level, and the guys can present options directly. That opens the door for higher earnings per session, but also introduces variability. The massage itself is often not the headline product there. Let’s be honest. You’re paying for physique, for presentation, for the aesthetic labour that goes into those gym-built bodies. It’s a different value proposition. Ssense, by contrast, sits closer to what places like The Signature Massage aim for. More structured. More service-led. Less transactional improvisation. Stepping back, Bangkok’s gay massage scene is highly stratified. You’ve got budget walk-in shops, mid-tier hybrids like Ssense, physique-driven venues like History, and then the more premium, almost spa-like environments. Each comes with its own pricing logic, client expectations, and internal rules. So the question isn’t really whether Singha could earn more elsewhere. It’s what ecosystem he prefers to operate in. Some guys optimise for margins. Others for consistency, volume, and a workplace they’re comfortable in. In that sense, the market is working exactly as designed. Pick the segment that suits you, and the pricing starts to make a lot more sense.

You can test already the travel function or simply the browse function in Grindr for the city of Khon Kaen.

I think the difference in pricing is sometimes overstated. If you disregard what the newbie tourist would pay. The difference in pricing reflects the market segment you’re operating in, as the opening poster was not clear about. You go out of CBD and you pay less, but you may sacrifice convenience and accessibility. Thais who go to zoo spa in Sukhumvit pay 3000 Baht in tip for a masseur with model like appearance and report the same low level of service and dissatisfaction. They go to Jey spa and pay the same and the reviews are glowing. There might be a price difference in regards to women clients: Here is an excerpt about straight men: «Among workers in various types of sex venues, men working in host bars claim to receive more female clients than gay men. The fact that they attract more female clients than their colleagues engaged in other types of male sex work makes them proud and bolsters their masculine, heterosexual identities. Some of them claim to provide services to women for free, or at a lower rate than they charge gay male clients.”» https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14672715.2023.2221679#d1e137

This thread is fascinating.

Have you been this pompous in all your 15 years on the forum?

You invited him in 🤷‍♂️

Quite so. It turns out even in the most transactional environments, not everything comes with a price list. A small mercy, perhaps.

Be careful or I might start to write you angry DMs 😉