macaroni21

@abidismaili, it depends on which part of Bangkok. @JZenLyfe referred to 15M massage which is in Saphan Khwai area. Loads of twinks in that area quote 1000 baht for 1 hour. In the Silom area, that won't be the going rate.

Whoa... How is it that I have not heard of Super Boy?

For some businesses, it can make sense to collect a cover charge at the door. Much depends on how many "take a peek" people come by. If too many peek and leave, then they would want to discourage that. Other business which are confident that peeking leads strongly to staying would be fine with post-visit payment. That said, to make such decisions, a business has to collect data and analyse them. Most small businesses don't do that; they simply follow the market leader.

Whilst I have always pre-booked a boy before arriving, I can report that when I arrived at the shops for my appointments, most times I saw no more than 2 - 3 other boys hanging around the place (sometimes none). I have no idea whether they were available for spot booking, or they were waiting for their clients to arrive - in which case they wouldn't be available. I will have a story soon on ShamelessMack about the evening when, although I had made a prior booking, the boy was a no show. The manager was deeply apologetic but said he had two other boys available in the house. They were presented to me in person; they looked almost like clones of each other, so for all practical purposes, I had no real choice re physique or looks. The only choice I had was black shirt or white shirt. And then the manager said that black shirt (or was it white shirt?) was actually waiting for his prebooked customer to arrive in an hour's time. In that case, this clone might do a rush job if I took him, and so I was left with just the other clone. However, these boys have lodgings in the general vicinity, and my guess (never tested) is that the manager will be able to show you photos from his phone or tablet and you can choose from there. He will then have to make calls to see if the boy can come over, and how soon. You may need to wait up to half an hour, I reckon, for them to freshen up and arrive.

I've thought about it but didn't do it. Hated the idea of walking in the sun and alongside horrible traffic. That was also when there were messy roadworks and motosai often drove onto the kerb -- and there were long stretches with no pedestrian kerbs. Like @Londoner , I have done a long Jomtien beach walk though, from Jomtien Complex all the way south till it joined Sukhumvit Road. From Google Maps, it's about 5 km. It was nice in late afternoon. I'd do it again.

I agree. Our tastes and expectations differ greatly. For example, @sydneyboy1 was disappointed with the numbertag guys he saw in The One, describing them as "overweight, heavily tattooed". I didn't think they were noticeably different from what they were in Tawan in the time before the sudden closure, nor what they were for years before that (except getting older and losing some hair). Possibly the guys working the bar the night I went were a different lot from the boys working the bar the night sydneyboy1 went, but not likely. More likely is that, to my eyes, they were hunk enough for me (in fact, many of them too heavy for me -** don't crush me, please!! **) whereas sydneyboy1 might have been looking for a different standard?

Ah, @vinapu beat me to it. Yes, it was a good crowd when I visited. I did wonder though whether it was a fluke, something to do with Pride Month.... But I guess only time will tell.

Sorry for going off topic, but just so I am not misleading anyone, there remains a little bit of variability in Japanese pricing. While not within my personal experience, I have heard of or come across shops that have different tiers of pricing depending on whether the client wants to top the boy, engage in S&M, etc (including one place that offers a scat option). So, when I said "all-inclusive pricing", you still need to be careful which tier of pricing you're signing up for. The best way to avoid misunderstanding is to be clear when emailing the shop to say what exactly you want to do and ask if the shortlisted boys do those things. No need to be bashful in your email. Lay it all out. Then ask, for such-and-such, what is the price? However, remember to use the simplest of English sentences. Almost always, they will use Google Translate to see what you're saying and Google Translate can't be relied upon to handle multi-part complicated sentences, abbreviations or idioms.

I had a similar experience in Beijing. I had an extra suitcase heavy with product manuals. No anger, but the bellboy, gently and in clear enough English, said "no, thank you, sir. This is my job. I do it with pride. This is my satisfaction." I think management taught all employees to say that. It made me feel like I would be demeaning him to insist on giving a tip. And like @Keithambrose said, I thought it was beyond absurd when I saw the payment screen of a take-out doughnut shop in New York state give me the option of 15, 20 or 25% tip. I had to look high and low around the screen to find the tiny "no tip" option.

Good point. Likewise, no tipping in Japan or Korea. The massage shops in Japan and Korea quote all-inclusive rates. No extra compensation expected.

Exactly my observation too, as I mentioned in the thread Bangkok Trip Report June 2024, page 3. The Chinese girls seldom take the boys, the heterosexual Chinese boys are only in the bars in order to please their girlfriends and anyway wouldn't know what to do with a gogo boy's dick even if they had one in the hand, and as for the gay Chinese men - they see the gogo boys as poor value compared to the massage boys. Maybe they all remember (or have heard from one another) that his chap is a poor tipper?

I am looking forward to those two trip reports too.

My reading of the situation is similar to @vinapu's. There is a minority of Chinese tourists - as often heterosexual couples or all-girl groups, as gay men - who throw money around ostentatiously. My reading is that they are part of the new nouveau-riche class in their society. They are first generation of Chinese to have wealth, and there's an urge to show off. They will not admit it, but the thinking goes like this: what's the point of being rich unless I can show everyone else that I am rich? Less obvious to us, because they don't make a spectacle of themselves, are the gay Chinese tourists who have scrimped and saved to travel abroad. They are more numerous but far more low-key. These are the ones @vinapu may be referring to as the customers of the massage parlours in Silom Soi 6. They focus their spending on the sex services (thus, gay) rather than the showy bars, whereas those who need to show off splurge in highly visible ways in the bars but don't much buy sex. The latter is an activity behind closed doors, so not easy to let others see and envy. I'm not sure that is happening. I think it is the Western tourist that is driving up prices in the Silom-Surawong area, and the rich local Thais in places like Jey Spa or Aurora. Meanwhile there's a price war breaking out among the Saphan Khwai shops. You should see the number of special discounts and promotions being offered on their Line advertising. First, the shops discount the prices of the rooms, but lately, I noticed a few boys discounting their expected tips. GooGuy started off advertising boys expecting 3,000 to 4,000 baht in tips. Lately those boys have disappeared, and now the current crop expect tips in the range of 1,500 baht for one hour.

@davide3311- were you referring to the two bars, Bali Joe and Mixwell, in Seminyak? If so, I agree with your observation though I didn't think it was bizarre. Indeed, the atmosphere was more of a local corner bar where people were friendly enough with no outwardly gay behaviour. I think partly it was because the crowd was more heterosexual than gay, on the nights I was there at least. There were a lot of mixed-gender couples, and the outnumbered gay couples instinctively became more reserved in such an environment. (This is what happens when gay men make their gay subculture "hip" and "trendy". The heterosexuals want to come! ) Partly too - among the Indonesians in the bars - it may have to do with Indonesian culture which places much weight on public decorum. I also observed that some of the Indonesians present were moneyboys, possibly straight, and it would be unnatural for them to act "gay".

Good time would be between 2pm and 10pm. As for walk-in versus prior booking, general rule, though exceptions* apply: Massage parlours in the Silom-Surawong area handle walk-ins well. Massage parlours outside Silom-Surawong (what a mouthful, can we simply shorten it to Sodom? 🤣) generally work better with prior booking. * in the Silom-Surawong area, Prime Massage is so busy, prior booking is almost a must. Magic Touch, per recent reports, also sounds unready to deal with walk-ins. * outside of this area, VCK, Prince are more geared to walk-ins than prior bookings.

I have never had anything stolen in my many offs in Thailand either, though I try not to tempt fate. I use the room safe and seldom have overnights anyway - mostly because I find it hard to fall asleep with a stranger in my bed. In the 1990s, I did have a watch stolen by a Filipino boy. I was sure I left the watch (worth maybe $100) on the bedside table, but it was gone when I looked 5 minutes after he left. In those days, even very ordinary watches had flea market resale value. I doubt if that's the case now. @JZenLyfe there is map of the area that Vinapu described at Map of Silom-Surawong area, December 2023.

I am happy to hear that Magic Touch is open again. I've been there once, and not been there at the same time. Sort of like a Schrödinger’s Cat, but I wrote about the mix-up in 2019: The full gay works, in a girlie shop

And while we're on this topic, watch this clip too: https://www.facebook.com/reel/2248513278820513

@jason1975 Your report prompted me to take a look at Banana Room Club's (to use its full name) Facebook page. And I saw this short clip which surprised me in that the customers were dancing. Was that the scene that greeted you when you visited? https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=800443231802912

Yes but MSense's 3050 (which includes 200 baht tip) won't buy you the stamp collection that Senso's 2990 buys you.

Yes, I am a city boy too. I have had a similar experience when in some kind of rustic resort. The night was too dark and the surroundings too quiet. It took me a long time to fall asleep.

I haven't been back to Manila in years, and I don't have first-hand information to answer your question, but Club Bath has a website (https://www.clubbath.com.ph/) and if you go to their FAQ page, it's very prominently stated their requirement for a vaccination certificate. It could be out of date (website not updated) but there's no knowing that unless someone has personally visited. That said, I have never held high opinions of Filipino facilities (main reason why I haven't been back recently). Perhaps I have been spoilt by what's available in Thailand, but the FIlipino places are usually basic and in need of upkeep. Club Bath, for example, does not even have a bath - neither pool nor jacuzzi.

Phew! Senso is more like it. When @bkkmfj2648 said @vinapu went to Msense, I thought somebody must have won the lottery. Have you seen the prices at Msense? Take a look: https://www.gowabi.com/en/provider/msense-spa-thailand#services

Exactly. That's why we need to make repeat visits to these places. But as always: so many places, so little time (or cash)! Ganymede Spa?

From the excerpts posted by @TotallyOz, a good number of twitter posts promote TCS Spa (for which I have a recent visit report at https://shamelessmacktwo.travel.blog/2024/06/15/in-faraway-bang-kho-laem/) What I find curious is that the posts in Massage Insider seem to show the TCS boys lifting their shirts or shirtless, as if indicating that bodies are available for exploration and erotic endings are on offer. However, my visit had the guy observing the strictest and most formal of protocols. He remained fully clothed, complete with long pants, throughout. I didn't make any move, nor did he. In such situations where the guy is so fully dressed, I find it awkward to make the transition to playtime. So my question to @bkkmfj2648 and others subscribing to Massage Insider is this: From those reports about TCS Spa, would "more than massage" be available? What about other places that Massage Insider has posts on, and also look high end, such as WabiSabi, MGallery, MSense Therapist, The Posh Massage, Mandel Spa, MenSpa X?