macaroni21

Monster is one of the sub-busnesses of Material Group (www.mate-real.com). Check out the other businesses, each of which is highly specialised. Monster is for those who go gaga over big appendages, never mind what body or face they are attached too. Non-Binary offers fem boy escorts exactly as the name implies. GMPD offers heavy bodies - not in any muscular way. Freestyle offers escorts who are prepared to travel to meet clients (at least that's how I am interpreting the information on the page). Men's Healing Place is for massage with only "close contact" or "hand massage", i.e. no hard sex. Boyish: I found this one a bit confusing. At first I thought it meant a slate of barely legal boys, but it seems to have mostly girls with short hair, plus a fair number of FTMs. (Wasn't there a discussion recently where a member said his 2026 resolution was to conquer FTMs, his last frontier? Bro -- hot foot it to Japan!) The real disappointment is the sub-business Dumbbell, supposedly specialising in muscular and athletic men, but scrolling through the pictures, they are mostly lean athletic, very few body builder types. Trust the Japanese to create such specific specialisations for different market niches. However, the same boy can be offered through different stores. For example, Daisuke belongs to Monster but is also advertised by Dumbbell. It's self-description at the bottom of the main page is refreshingly blunt: "The Materials Group One of the largest in Tokyo It is a group of prostitution stores." How many similar businesses in any other country would call itself a "prostitution store"!

Yet another Singapore sponsor? Good heavens, what's wrong with these sponsors??? Alternatively, I had better find one myself.

I have a write-up on Shamelessmack at https://shamelessmacktwo.travel.blog/2025/02/12/onnut-is-not-that-fafa-on-the-bts-sukhumvit-line/ The visit was about 13 months ago and Fafa was rather new then. I wrote that, located where they were, they'd need aggressive marketing to succeed. I'm glad they're doing that. As for quality of services, there's not much I can say since I have only made that one visit - hardly a representative sample! Do note the shop does not have ensuite showers, as my post makes clear.

Two other possible reasons for the sharp drop in Chinese visitors: a downturn in the Chinese economy the past few years since the pandemic, and bad reports from those who have gone to the Philippines previously (which I can totally understand). Having been to the Philippines a few times over the past 30 years, I think the traffic and transport situation has become impossible. In Manila, anytime you're on the road even in a Grabcar, it's gridlock all the way to 12 midnight. From the airport, just getting to your hotel is already a nigthmare. The city has no easy-to-understand public transport system except for a few metro lines that are decrepit, terribly crowded, and seldom go where you want to go. Hotels are overpriced. Food offerings are also mediocre. Whereas in many other Southeast Asian countries, there are plenty of cheap and midpriced places that serve tasty, good food, in the Philippines, the food quality is much poorer -- I think the local cultural expectations of what "food" should be are not demanding enough. Most important of all, for folks like us, Agreed. There are "massage" shops but again, the subpar standard of facilities, the often lackdaisical service quality, and the pain of getting through the traffic to reach the shops.... they're not worth the trouble. Indeed, there are nice places outside of Manila, but most of them are beach places. Unless you're a beach person, the Philippines doesn't have much to offer. As the video also says, you'd have to go back to Ninoy Aquino Airport (never something to look forward to) and catch a domestic flight to whichever domestic destination you want to go to. Or you could take an overnight ferry and risk drowning. Furthermore, the gay industry hardly exists outside Manila.

At first, I didn't want to open a new thread, preferring to post this video into an existing one about Silom Soi 2. A search however revealed that we hardly ever have threads about Soi 2. The few that I found were mostly from 3 to 8 years ago (didn't bother going deeper into history), and ultimately there wasn't any existing thread that I could comfortably fit this video into. The closest to a usable thread was this one Fire at DJ Station which is a relevant angle to any discussion about Soi 2. Anyway, this video is three months old, and in fact there is a brief shot of something saying "Golden Week" which likely means the first week of October, and which therefore suggests that many of the club patrons we see in the video could be from China or Taiwan. Does anybody here have any first-hand, on-the-ground reports of visits to this soi and its bars?

Can you be more specific? Are you making a distinction between the previous format when it had go-go boys on stage + shows? Do you mean to say the stage is now empty until showtime? Has the format of the shows also changed? It used to be B-Boys and big cock. Has it gone cabaret with drag queens?

I can write a long post about the value propositions (or lack thereof) of gogo bars in Thailand, and an even longer compare-and-contrast with the booming massage industry. However, whether a gogo bar still offers value despite rising prices will depend on an individual's wants and priorities. However, this statement does not end the discussion either, because as prices rise but the product offer remains the same, the remaining number of customers who still consider it value will decline; and at some point, the business or industry becomes unsustainable. The more specific issue arising from @spoon's incident, however, is, at heart, not even a price/value question. It is more accurately seen as a penalty charge which the bar wanted to impose for a customer choosing a lower-priced option, which hitherto, has long been a legitimate option. The bar was not even trying to trade. It wasn't saying, we're charging you more because we're giving you more value. It was trying to punish a customer for taking the lower-price option. Kind of like, if we booked an economy-class ticket rather than a business class one, the airline gets miffed that it is losing revenue and then suddenly says, oh, you have to pay a $XXXX surcharge if you're not flying business class.

It's been close to two years since I last stayed at Raya. The breakfast is good value in my opinion but as always, what's value for one is not value for another. My recollection is that it is essentially comprised of Asian dishes, more Chinese than any other kind of Asian. You didn't say if your friends are farang or any other nationality. I don't remember bacon, ham, sausages, cheese, yogurt or the kinds of things that westerners expect, though there was the ultra-processed food also known as "cereal" (unhealthy stuff, if you ask me). If your friends are OK with noodles and stir-fry dishes, then fine. If they're looking for a western or (God Forbid!) american pancakes, then they'll not be so happy. Even among Asians there can be problem if they're Muslim. I recall distinctly my recent stay in a 3-star Hanoi hotel which served quite a comprehensive spread for breakfast. There was a Muslim Malaysian couple who couldn't find anything to eat except bread and jam. Not even the scrambled eggs because the hotel added bacon bits to the eggs (it was delicious, by the way). Anything with meat they couldn't take (not just pork) because the animal had not been slaughtered with Muslim rites, and that kind of thing.

One thought occurred to me, on noticing that the wix website has a photo of a shop signboard. Maybe Tin Tin really does exist, but as a different shop (and competitor) further down the same Ratchada Soi 7. Someone then tries to snatch customers from Brother Massage by inserting a link to their own website into the Google Search result for Brother. Dastardly, but possible.

@zazzu Is Brother Massage a walk-in type of shop or do you have to book in advance via Line? I have their Line ID, but they don't seem to be sending photos the way other massage parlours do. I think the Line is only for enquiries, but you probably know more. @jimmie50 I wouldn't give much credence to websites. Owners and managers of lower-tier massage parlours are not known for their digital or branding skills. Within five minutes I noticed that - Brother's Facebook address (facebook.com/brothermassage) returns no content - the website link to Tin Tin only shows up on the panel beside a Google Search for Brother Massage. Could be someone added it by mistake, the way people drop pins all over Google Maps with no care for accuracy. - the address on the Google Search result is "544/3 Ratchadaphisek 7", but on the Tin Tin wix website, it is different: "554/3 Ratchada Soi 7". Brother's Line message gives no address, only says Ratchada Soi 7. - if you click "See directions" from the wix website, you get taken to a place haflway around the world. - Brother's phone number is 061-091-2110's but the wix website gives 061-696-9392.

Thanks! This definitely interests me, I love Japanese gardens. The only thing about gardens is that one has to plan the trip for the right season. I'm sure I'll love the Kurashiki warehouse district too, these places have a unique charm. I don't know about the denim though... Not my style, though if there are old factories converted to museums, that will be interesting. I love learning about industrial processes.

You realize, I hope, that the original post was from 2013.

What's there in Okayama? Other than dead fish, that is. 😅 A quick websearch reveals a castle, an old quarter and some nearby ski resorts. Would you recommend a visit?

I don't know why I am even replying to this thread since I don't see myself doing "nights on the town" anymore. I don't do this in my home city -- never been much of a nightbird -- but in line with the OP's framing, I shall speak only of Bangkok. I'm not much of a drinker, and if possible I try to get dinner before 7pm. If I have to eat after that (e.g. if my massage session ends at 7:30 or 8pm), then it will be a small meal (e.g. Thai-portioned meal, at Foodland). Most of the time, the massage would have been satisfying and I would see no point in heading to the bars after that. If I do go to the bars, it's mainly to update myself about changes, which means I have no urge to visit a bar more than once in a trip. I won't be looking for an off, though I've been know to make exceptions. In any case, unlike some others on this board, I don't do long-time offs, so there's no need to go hunting in the bars, when a late afternoon or evening massage is far more pleasant than dealing with mamasans and constant pressure for tips by any number of staff in the bars. Prices are also getting ridiculous (see my recent reply to @spoon at https://www.gayguides.com/topic/78207-bangkok-trip-report-10-days-of-bliss/page/7/https://www.gayguides.com/topic/78207-bangkok-trip-report-10-days-of-bliss/page/7/

@spoon I appreciate this kind of detail in your reporting. It's useful information for many others on this board, I'm sure. And I totally agree with you: pricing is getting ridiculous and customers like us should start asking about value.

That's what I thought it, but that means that the number of garotos with visibly Japanese ancestry must be miniscule, since they are a tiny fraction of Brazil's total population, even if there is a large-ish community in the Sao Paulo area. I hope @garygx isn't going to be misled into thinking it's easy to find Asian rentboys in Sao Paulo. In other Brazilian cities, the chance would be vanishingly small.

But how many of the garotos in Sao Paulo saunas are of Japanese descent? Aren't those boys mostly from other parts of Brazil?

Has anybody else actually been to Fafa and used their services?

Just heard from Fafa management. It's just a backup Line account. No additional shop.

What we need is a bar/restaurant that offers "no hands chicken with cashew nuts". I wonder how many here know what a "no hands" restaurant is? Idon't know if they still exist, but about 20 - 30 years ago, it was all the rage in Thailand and Vietnam, though only in the hetero market. It's a restaurant, dimly lit of course, in which the customer does not use his hands to eat (nor even hold any utensils). A half naked waitress could sit beside him, sometimes two half-naked waitresses, one on each side, feeding him mouthful and mouthful of whatever food he's ordered. Meanwhile, the customer's hands are free to caress the waitress(es). Alternatively, one waitress on one side does the feeding, while the waitress on the other side leans over, unzips the customer and tastes his ice-cream popsicle. How do I know this: First-hand experience. I was never more terrified! What we need is a gay bar where lovely lads dressed a la Adam feed us Chicken with cashew nuts, while our un-needed hands go exploring as we chew and swallow. For a premium price, get two boys, one on each side.

We may have to accept that the days of print are over. They are costly endeavours, anyway. However, as many have noted, too many gay businesses (not just Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam too) do a bad job of digital advertising. At least maintain a profile on the popular social media platforms, and make sure there are regular posts. The times I have seen Facebook pages with a post dating 12 months back! Viewers might think you've gone out of business since. Because social media pages are public and searchable, there should only be general information, e.g. location, opening times, and no more than a subtle hint of the erotic, for which the word should be "exotic" (coded langauge). A general social media presence should be supplemented by more detailed advertising on selected, exclusively gay channels. The massage parlours use them with effect, sending out blast after blast of boy pics on their subscriber Line. To reach international gay communities (who might visit Thailand) a bar or massage shop could ask a forum like this one for permission to post perhaps twice a month. Say something about an upcoming special event, new additions to staff, promotions, or even a more general post*. All it takes is a small contribution to the running cost of this board. As pointed out, other countries in the region have local language gay digital platforms, and with a bit of effort, a bar owner can reach out to them all. * I recall that Adam's Apple Chiang Mai tried on this board but have since gone silent. ** Toolbox in Phnom Penh is celebrating its 7th anniversary tonight (see https://www.facebook.com/ToolboxBarPP) but not a squeak here.

You've both made very valid points, and indeed we shouldn't homogenise the various tourist attractions. They're on a cline with the great majority of these attractions close to one end, where they are not sensitive to social disapproval -- in fact likely to add to one's social status if one can boast of having been there -- whilst at the other end, they are extremely sensitive to social disapproval (we know what these places are). Our conversation can get confused if we do not make clear what types of venues we're referring to. Restaurants, boat trips, ferris wheels... these aren't sensitive, and it probably does not matter if visitors are shown on the business' social media, or on other people's social media. Mildly sensitive might be a tiffany show or a dance club with shows featuring scantily clad cabaret performers (e.g. White Party). People go there for a fun night; they don't take things further (at least not in the venue itself) and so there's not much to feel guilty about. However, if you're a school teacher or a preacher, maybe even these places are sensitive. In such places, perhaps pictures and videos should avoid patrons' faces; bald spots might do. Then of course, there are "our kind" of places, and I agree it is sensitive except to the most hardcore "so what if I'm a punter?" Here, the problem is not only social media, it is the way the gogo bars hope to sustain themselves by tapping on the hetero crowd for their explicit shows. I have long argued that having gawkers in the room actually hurts the core off-ing business. Social media exposure would be even worse. This probably explains the drift of clientele to massage parlours where there is a lot of discretion. In fact, some of the massage places even take care (like in Japan) to ensure that customers do not cross each other's path. Nine Massage off Sukhumvit comes to mind. It's appointment only, and appointment times are carefully spaced out. The business problem does not go away, however. All businesses need enough customer volume to be viable and profitable. If there is no advertising at all, how does one attract customers? One cannot totally rely on existing clients coming back -- though, in my opinion, thailand's gogo bars even make a hash of that by exorbitant charging and lack of quality control over boys' services. One has to continually bring in new customers as old ones drift away or quite literally die. Word of mouth alone isn't enough. So, advertising cannot be avoided; the question is how to do it right. And this is where niche businesses (e.g. gay sex) have to learn to use niche channels and/or communicate in code. It's a delicate art.

I liked Sri Lanka; been there three times of which two were longish trips of about two weeks. Transport infrastructure however was (and probably still is) ramshackle in terms of vehicles, routes and punctuality, even chaotic, but fortunately, enough people speak some English that one can ask around. I personally think the best sights are in the north of the country though most visitors stick to the southern beaches. As far as the erotic goes, it's available (mostly in the south) but it takes effort, and much depends on chance, e.g. street cruising, and perhaps nowadays on the apps (I don't know too much about that) There's nothing like the shops one gets, so conveniently, in Thailand or Indochina. However, as a massage enthusiast, I do like the aryuveda treatments though, even if they tend to leave me covered in oil. However, as an example of how basic Sri Lanka can be, there are aryuveda shops with no shower facilities, or if they have, the shower room is rudimentary, and then there are days when they say, "sorry, today water cut off" -- after you're covered in oil. ---- Oh, this should really be in the Sri Lanka thread, not the Thailand thread. If only we have a way to tag our posts with multiple tags.

I just thought of the massage parlours along Silom Road under the Saladaeng Station. Nowadays, their staff are getting on in age; some may well be in their 40s. By the way, I noticed that you've asked questions in the past about Hong Kong, Taipei and Bangkook (Klover Massage, etc) in preparation for your trips, but we have yet to see any trip report. I encourage you to do so, otherwise in future, people may become less likely to respond to your future questions. "Social goodwill" goes a long way even if it is subliminal, and it has to be earned.