macaroni21

Assuming it's the same boss (Arthur?), we should give this guy credit for persistence. Interesting too that a different business model appears to be on the way. I never quite liked the logo featuring a mutant, aggressive, over-steroided feline anyway 😂

@jay3w Love the granularity in your report. Also glad for you that you're having a good time. @Ian here Beware the insufferable day temperatures in July. Day maxima reach 36 or 37 degrees with nearly 100% humidity. After sundown, it's better but still doesn't fall below 29 or 30 degrees until maybe 9pm.

There's a difference between recommended tip and minimum tip. Arena tells you the recommended tip, which includes sexual activity. TCS and other upmarket places advise on minimum tip -- which does NOT include sexual activity (or, at most a handjob with the masseur remaining fully dressed). TCS will not discuss sexual activity with you; it has to be privately negotiated in the room with the service provider himself.

I notice you're not even mentioning USA carriers. 🤣

@emiel1981 I've been staring at your photo of chicken & cashewnuts. I can hardly see any chicken 😆

I agree with @Moses. There are no massage shops in Pattaya, not even Paradise, where you can reliably expect a high standard of massage complemented by extra service. There may be a few places, e.g. in Terminal 21, where trained therapists work, but (a) the shop will have a strict policy against anything erotic and (b) you're almost surely going to get a woman servicing you. For the latter reason, I have never bothered to try.

He probably said "body to body". As @Enchanted_Elixir said, 900 baht is the going rate for B2B. That's usually as far as S'Sense boys would go.

😒 Always good to have these first hand reports. Crowd-sourced info with multiple data points always useful. You said "two of us". Why was the other party disappointed?

Thanks for the mention. Here's the review from a year ago: https://shamelessmacktwo.travel.blog/2025/05/18/down-in-the-crypt/ in case others are interested. Once inside the massage room, the night market feels very far away. There was no noise at all. Was that your observation too?

@Tomontheroad Consider Prestige -- another place where you're likely to get a good massage plus some non-penetrative fun. I say "likely" because my understanding is that Prestige does not have an in-house trainer (at least not on a regular basis) and the boys I've met had received their training elsewhere before joining Prestige, so it can happen that a few of them are not as good as one would expect. The places on Silom Soi 6 (see exceptions further down) are also good bets; I have generally been satisfied with the standard of massage, and as far as I can recall, all my visits to the these places had extras added on. However, it always involves in-room negotiation re the rates. Some members here dislike having to negotiate. However, there are two exceptions with Silom Soi 6. One is Prime - no chance of extras. The other is 9-teen. In my one and only visit, extras were offered but I declined. The massage was not great either.

Could you tell us something about the traffic situation around your hotel in Petchaburi Road? Few members of this forum stay there and so we have very little information in this regard. The one time I went to a hotel in the area (perhaps 20 years ago) was to meet a friend for dinner; he was staying there. And I found the traffic to be very frustrating. I often stay in hotels along the Sukhumvit stretch, and the traffic is intolerable too. Grab drivers don't want to be around this area, so it's a bummer. Fortunately, there is the BTS line running the length of Sukhumvit Road and there is the interchange with the MRT line at Asok/Sukhumvit. However. the Petchaburi Road area has no rail transport (unless you're close enough to Makkasan and Petchaburi stations). Has it been a problem getting from your hotel to the fun places?

Sounds like you're having a great time. But initial advice toyourself -- pace yourself-- should not be forgotten. You have seven weeks and you don't want to be jaded too soon. Are you planning some excursions out of Bangkok? I find it a good way to recharge my batteries after about a week in the city.

Which branch of TCS are you booking with? Anyway, sounds like you're having a great time.

Thank you for assuring me that I am not very old.... 🤣

You must have either read wrongly or remembered wrongly. It's 3,500 baht for 1.5 hours, all-in.

There's this on Facebook "New Guy Bar" https://www.facebook.com/NewGuyBar but the header also says "bar and massage". The Facebook page is active, with the most recent posts January 1, January 4 and February 15. However, the pics appear to be taken from their CCTV feed which some gay customers might not like due to its indiscirminate nature; also they show quite a lot of women in the bar.

I think it's been said before that the Atlas location rent was too high. You are right that the location on Patpong 1 is not intuitive, but for now, it is what it is. One might also say that when (eons ago) the original Tawan and original Jupiter began (Jupiter was where the current Telephone bar is, I believe), they were in really odd locations too. But over time, people got to know where they were, with a bit of help from Spartacus Guide. Even now, Thantawan and Moonlight put barkers at the mouths of their alleys to try to get a few new customers every night. I think White Cat will need more than a doorman at the bottom of their stairs. They need this guy to walk up and down Patpong 2 (where the gay folks stroll) handing out fliers with a little map of their location on the next soi. Flier can also serve as a discount coupon: "show this flier and get 100 baht off your first drink".

He did have staff, a handful at least. They must have walked out on him when after a couple of weeks they realised that there weren’t enough customers to provide them with income. Launching a new business is horrendously difficult. I’ve been trying to help businesses step up a notch, and even then, one notch is helluva difficult, especially when the business owner (a) has had no business education and (b) started it as a personal hobby. Many things must come together, synchronously, to launch a business successfully. In the case of a gogo bar, the lease and outfitting the space, getting staff, building up a head of excited customers waiting for opening day, advertising campaigns, and most important of all, a business plan to fight for market share and create a brand identity. One needs deep pockets. Rent has to be paid (including up-front deposits). Contractors and suppliers have to be paid. Staff have to be paid. Palms have to be greased. More than that, just to fight for market share will likely involve price promotions, loss-leader offers and so on... for several months or even a year before one breaks even. I have no details about the finances at White Cat, but he must have lost a lot of money on Atlas and probably does not now have the cash buffer (the working capital) needed to launch White Cat properly. That he can’t even afford to get a signboard made is symptomatic. I have seen too many people start businesses the way they would pitch up at a farmer’s market in the village square -- park yourself there and customers will come. Well, if you’re selling your home-grown water melons, if you don’t hire staff but expend your own time, if you don’t have to pay for the space in the village square, and if the human traffic is already in the square, maybe.... except that you still need to be prepared for the other stall to undercut you price-wise and your melons go unsold. A gogo bar is nothing like that. Every little component of the business plan and set-up costs money. Most important of all, the human traffic is not waiting for you at the village square. Your potential customers are dispersed all around the world. How do you get them to know about your water-melon stall? How do you get them to make their way to your door? And mind you, they have to make their way to your door in enough numbers within a week or two of opening day so that you start with a bang, and that momentum is what will hopefully create the further word of mouth to carry you further. Of course, you need staff at hand to create the bang too, you need a DJ, a bartender, you need stock for your bar.... so as I said, a million things need to come together synchronously to launch a business successfully. I don’t see that White Cat was doing any of these things right. Instead I see a copycat idea (thus no unique branding) poorly, pennilessly executed with no realistic plan. I'm not trying to diss his attempt, and I for one would love to see an addition to Bangkok's gay scene, but I also appreciate how difficult it is in business.

Was just catching up on this thread... Do I understand you correctly? The boss himself performed a full monty on stage? Just for you only or were there other customers in the bar? Or do you mean he got one of his boys to do the show/monty?

Yes. It is in the short alley that connects Soi 13/5 to 13/4. Its front door is sort of opposite BoyzBoyzBoyz's front door. Classic Boys is classic fem twinks territory.

@a-447 the name Narcissus rings a bell, but for the life of me, I can't recall where it was or what its outside or inside looked like. I keep mixing it up with Nautilus, formerly at Pattaya Soi 2. Remind me please about Narcissus?

The opposite of X-boys. Whereas the show at X-boys near Boystown has virtually no clothes, that at the Best Bar in Jomtien Complex features layers of clothing: chiffon, fake fur, sequins....

Really live? Too much gin and gin?

I have never been to the Sukhumvit branch of Prestige Massage -- it's some distance away in Onnut, I think -- but although I too was interested to check it out, a boy at the Chong Nonsi branch told me that the rooms in the Sukhumvit branch did not have ensuite bathrooms. This made me hesitate. Would it be worth the trouble to make the trip?

But, all said and done, I'd rather have a room with no mirrors. The problem is that when one is entwined with the boy du jour, any reflected image of boy likely includes reflected image of self -- which tends to be ego-destroying. If there is any market niche for AI, it should be for AI mirrors that know when and how to "edit" the reflection.