Patpong comings and goings

[jason1975]

On 12/7/2025 at 1:56 PM, hank75 said:

I take your point, but my issue is with pricing structure of Dreamboys. 500 baht entry and first drink, sure. But 500 for every subsequent drink even if a simple beer or Coca Cola feels overpriced and illogical for a bar that hopes to be profitable as punters will limit themselves to a single drink, and perhaps one for boy. 
 

I seem to recall the usual pricing for bars was 500 (or whatever) for admittance to bar, show and access to boys galore, plus first drink. Subsequent drink for punter at a cheaper price (150 or 200?) and a slightly more elevated boy drink price / mamasan who manages to squeeze a drink from you . Or am I getting old?

I happened to take a photo of Dreamboys drinks menu last week.

Prices in menu seem to be for low season!

[jason1975]

It's now December so prices adjusted for high season.

At Jupiter, it was reported by another forum member that entry price has increased from 500 to 600 baht.

[vinapu]

49 minutes ago, jason1975 said:

 

At Jupiter, it was reported by another forum member that entry price has increased from 500 to 600 baht.

I got a word that if you want to off guy without going inside , off fee increases from 500 to 700.

Not that I'm surprised considering that in Jun they tried to charge me off fee for  boy to brought with me from another bar to watch the show at his insistence .

Sounds like they try to saw off branch on which they are sitting unless they know something we don't know 

[jason1975]

Bars want to make as much money as possible during high season.

I believe during low season, they will close one eye to such special arrangements.

[hank75]

7 hours ago, jason1975 said:

I happened to take a photo of Dreamboys drinks menu last week.

Prices in menu seem to be for low season!

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) 

[hank75]

7 hours ago, vinapu said:

I got a word that if you want to off guy without going inside , off fee increases from 500 to 700.

Not that I'm surprised considering that in Jun they tried to charge me off fee for  boy to brought with me from another bar to watch the show at his insistence .

Sounds like they try to saw off branch on which they are sitting unless they know something we don't know 

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. 

[jason1975]

1 hour ago, hank75 said:

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. 

It's strange. If your guy is no longer working at Jupiter, why does he have to pay off fee when he appears there again with customer?

This was also experienced by @vinapu in his most recent trip.

Management seems to believe that their models are exclusive to them! 🤣

It was considerate of your guy to ask you to save your money.

Personally speaking, I feel that the working conditions for Jupiter models are much better than other bars. They only work from 10pm to 1am.

Freshboys working hours are 7.30pm to 1am. Good Boys working hours are 8.30pm to 2am.

[mauRICE]

2 hours ago, jason1975 said:

It's strange. If your guy is no longer working at Jupiter, why does he have to pay off fee when he appears there again with customer?

This is what the ex-Jupiter guy said. Perhaps he had left under a cloud and didn't have his employment properly terminated. He might have unpaid debts to the bar for eg for work related penalties or any advances that he might have received. There are always two sides of the story. We haven't heard the bar's side.

[hank75]

1 hour ago, mauRICE said:

This is what the ex-Jupiter guy said. Perhaps he had left under a cloud and didn't have his employment properly terminated. He might have unpaid debts to the bar for eg for work related penalties or any advances that he might have received. There are always two sides of the story. We haven't heard the bar's side.

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. 

3 hours ago, jason1975 said:

Personally speaking, I feel that the working conditions for Jupiter models are much better than other bars. They only work from 10pm to 1am.

Freshboys working hours are 7.30pm to 1am. Good Boys working hours are 8.30pm to 2am.

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.

[vinapu]

2 hours ago, mauRICE said:

This is what the ex-Jupiter guy said. Perhaps he had left under a cloud and didn't have his employment properly terminated. He might have unpaid debts to the bar for eg for work related penalties or any advances that he might have received. There are always two sides of the story. We haven't heard the bar's side.

That's between bar and boy .Why  I as customer should pay off fee for boy I brought there from another bar , at boys insistence to boost so obviously he was not hesitant to go there is not clear for me. Big time not clear.

 

4 hours ago, jason1975 said:

I feel that the working conditions for Jupiter models are much better than other bars. They only work from 10pm to 1am.

 

  that is for boys themselves to assess. Not that you are wrong as from few boys I heard that they like to work there but also  know one who flatly refused to move when they moved to soi 4 and another one who after working there for few days hastily returned to his previous bar. But this is pretty universal in any workplace, withe bosses and co-workers  - some like it and some not.

Anyways since we have plenty of choices is for one to accept bar policy as it is or move somewhere else but it looks that warning of not going to Jupiter with boy who worked there in last 25 years is sound advice.

[vinapu]

1 hour ago, hank75 said:

the boss still considers him on their roster since he hasn’t started working in another bar.

my guy worked and still they wanted to charge me

[mauRICE]

1 hour ago, hank75 said:

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.

I painted two possible scenarios and it's not complicated at all. And we still have only one side of the story. It seems that the Jupiter guy hasn't quit permanently (this would fall under employment not terminated scenario as I mentioned above) but has gone on leave or taken time off. This is not unusual at all and is called พักแทรก. The working guys go on leave for all sorts of reasons for eg health, to go home and visit the family, to get married or, as in this case, to spend an extended period of time with a customer. It could be for a fixed period of time after which the guy will return to the bar or he is adopting a wait-and-see approach with the customer before deciding to quit the bar permanently. Either way the bar probably still sees him as under their employment and feels entitled to charge an "off" fee for him until he permanently quits. In any event, without hearing the bar's side of the story, we can't say for sure what's going on.

[mauRICE]

2 hours ago, vinapu said:

Anyways since we have plenty of choices is for one to accept bar policy as it is or move somewhere else but it looks that warning of not going to Jupiter with boy who worked there in last 25 years is sound advice.

🤣 Good one, vinapu, and believe it or not, having seen their daily catwalk on social media recently, quite a few of the guys in their line-up are, shall we say, a little long in the tooth, and have worked all over Thailand for a decade or so. They looked a bit tired to me and in my view can't hold a candle to the hunks in the Thai bars. 

That said, this story reminds me of a bar where the staff, once in the bar's employment, are bound to it like in a traditional Catholic marriage. Old hands of "gay Thailand" might remember My War bar in Patong, Phuket. It was the biggest gay go go bar along the strip and the owner, a Phuket native also owned a few smaller bars and other businesses in the area. By many accounts he was a nasty character with connections to the Phuket underworld (or so it was claimed). He had a system where, if a staff member, especially a popular one, wanted to quit before the end of their "contract", they had to pay him compensation and he had no qualms in enforcing this "contract" through his goons. One staff member had escaped to Chiang Rai with his new farang boyfriend and the My War bar owner sent his goons after them and made the farang pay 100,000 baht to "release" his Thai guy from his "contract". Sadly, Phuket has an unsavoury reputation for scams be it for jet skis, overpriced taxis or bar shenanigans.

[khaolakguy]

Ah Khun Bon. There are many stories. Acted like a dominatrix but he could turn on the charm when he wanted. 

Last time we were in Patong, where I have been many times, he gave us such a low humble wai on the street that he was practically on his knees. It was scary! A bit like a gangsters kiss to mark you as a target! 

[macaroni21]

Was it My War bar or My Way?

 

[mauRICE]

26 minutes ago, khaolakguy said:

Ah Khun Bon. There are many stories. Acted like a dominatrix but he could turn on the charm when he wanted. 

That's right, Bon! I had forgotten his name. Any idea what happened to him and Tangmo, who was the other major player on the strip?

[khaolakguy]

Khun Bon still has businesses in Paradise, or did when I was last there two or three years ago. The busiest run by his very handsome and charming boyfriend. Not so sure about Tangmo, who was always reputed to be harsh on his staff.

[vinapu]

3 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

Was it My War bar or My Way?

 

My Way

[vinapu]

4 hours ago, mauRICE said:

 having seen their daily catwalk on social media recently, quite a few of the guys in their line-up are, shall we say, a little long in the tooth, and have worked all over Thailand for a decade or so. They looked a bit tired to me and in my view can't hold a candle to the hunks in the Thai bars. 

 

that brings us to another set of issue - boy who overstay their welcome. In some bars there are guys who are veterans of almost forgotten soi Twilight and one I saw on my last visit in Atlas I considered too old when he was in Classic Boys at end of soi. 

It's quite possible that still have their loyal clients or bars are keeping them as performers in more progressive parts of shows, even simple let them be out of sense of loyalty to devoted employees. Again , it's for bars to decide.

Needs to be said it's two way street. When I visit bars sometimes I say to myself "oh, no, he is still there ? " , specially when boy is kind of pushy and tends to take ownership of their old customer right away . On another hand there are those I'm happy to see back after long absence or would be happy if they actually showed on the stage again. Alex from Moonlight or Oud from Jupiter transplanted there from Tawan are in my mind now 

Some of boys age very , very well and stay in shape well past their prime age, others not so with booze and smoke usually being a reason.

Bottom line of all that is that again there are no  hard rules in all that bar liturgy. Some veterans are chasing me away by their sight entering the bar but there are those I'd get through a lot of trouble to see them again, even if only to get a hug and handshake

[hank75]

6 hours ago, vinapu said:

my guy worked and still they wanted to charge me

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. 

[hank75]

4 hours ago, mauRICE said:

That's right, Bon! I had forgotten his name. Any idea what happened to him and Tangmo, who was the other major player on the strip?

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.

[hank75]

33 minutes ago, vinapu said:

that brings us to another set of issue - boy who overstay their welcome. In some bars there are guys who are veterans of almost forgotten soi Twilight

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. 

39 minutes ago, vinapu said:

Needs to be said it's two way street. When I visit bars sometimes I say to myself "oh, no, he is still there ? " , specially when boy is kind of pushy and tends to take ownership of their old customer right away . On another hand there are those I'm happy to see back after long absence or would be happy if they actually showed on the stage again. Alex from Moonlight or Oud from Jupiter transplanted there from Tawan are in my mind now 

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. 

[jason1975]

53 minutes ago, hank75 said:

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. 

Here's my attempt to explain bar logic.

Jupiter's models are famous because they are recorded on video when they do catwalk on stage and the videos are uploaded on Jupiter's social media. Perhaps your guy had some fans who noticed he's not in videos nowadays and they asked for him back?

Having more models available also projects a better image for the bar. Management probably wants as many models as possible for weekends to make up the numbers. Maybe it aims for at least 20 models to project image of a healthy business.

Last reason could be that your guy is one of those rare guys who can hold his drink. Jupiter has many high end customers who go just to drink with models. Not easy to find guys who can drink whisky night after night.

[jason1975]

1 hour ago, vinapu said:

It's quite possible that ... bars are keeping them as performers in more progressive parts of shows, even simple let them be out of sense of loyalty to devoted employees. Again , it's for bars to decide.

I applaud these bars who show loyalty to such long-serving employees! It's true that such employees will always have a place in the shows.

[jason1975]

8 hours ago, hank75 said:

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.

Freshboys management wants guys to be available on stage for customers when bar opens doors at 8pm hence it mandates 7.30pm reporting time. Guys who do so receive 200 baht. Those who report after 7.30pm receive no money and have to depend on boy drinks, tips and offs.