The Ideal GoGo Bar. What Would Be Your Recipe For Success?

[jason1975]

3 minutes ago, vinapu said:

here comes part when friends don't need always to agree . I need better glasses I suppose

It's not the ideal bar for me but Freshboys is the bar I go to because my regular guy is there and I also know many of the other guys working there.

[vinapu]

9 hours ago, colmx said:

Unfortunately in this case it is the bar over inflating the price so they can fool unsuspecting or newbie Middle Eastern, Chinese and Indian customers into paying higher than the prevailing rate.

 

 

that's nothing unfortunate, it's how market economy works. They are not fooling those customers, they bare letting them know what rate at that bar is.

Newcomers to every market always pay more than prevailing rate as they won't know what  it is until some exploration of alleys will be done

[vinapu]

5 hours ago, reader said:

That’s a tough knot but here’s my composite:

45% of the best shops in Silom, Surawong and Soi 6.

25% of Phoenix Spa

15% of I5M Massage 

10% of remaining shops in Saphan Kwai

5% of 365 The River

 

 

topped up with cream or ketchup ?

[vinapu]

9 minutes ago, jason1975 said:

It's not the ideal bar for me but Freshboys is the bar I go to because my regular guy is there and I also know many of the other guys working there.

although I visit every trip at least once , just like every other bar,  for me Freshboys is only bar where , as I'm unknown there bar one recent addition, I'm left undisturbed with only random smile going my way from the stage

[reader]

1 hour ago, vinapu said:

topped up with cream or ketchup ?

Cream, oh always cream, please!

[Marc308]

Gosh coming up a composite for the ideal go-go bar is a challenge indeed. My first reaction is to say the ideal composite is the OPPOSITE of (most?) of today's offerings:

1. Comfortable: Seating, lighting, music levels, cleanliness, no smoke.

2. FUN: I think the current bars have lost track of this essential ingredient. FUN to me means a welcoming attitude of mamasans, staff, waiters, owners; maybe a fun show means something with creativity, "surprises", a fun-loving atmosphere which does not focus only on sitting and drinking too much. Maybe offer interesting drinks beside the usual "well" drinks.

3. Sweet After-taste (pun intended?): When you leave the bar do you say to yourself gosh "that was a good time and I look forward to coming back again!"? The rule that seems to be overlooked by way too many bars today is the notion that cultivating return patronage is good business. 

For me, there is not a single bar which I look forward to going to. I used to like to go to BBB but then the women took it over. I used to like to go to Jupiter until the atmosphere turned surly. I liked going to Babylon, until it unexpectedly closed alas. Now I'm perfectly happy to rely on the apps, chance encounters, repeats from special guys.

'

[jason1975]

6 hours ago, vinapu said:

although I visit every trip at least once , just like every other bar,  for me Freshboys is only bar where , as I'm unknown there bar one recent addition, I'm left undisturbed with only random smile going my way from the stage

It's easy to change from unknown to known in one night! 

[vinapu]

8 hours ago, Marc308 said:

 

I used to like to go to BBB but then the women took it over. I used to like to go to Jupiter until the atmosphere turned surly. I liked going to Babylon, until it unexpectedly closed alas. Now I'm perfectly happy to rely on the apps, chance encounters, repeats from special guys.

'

sometimes I wonder if we changed more than those bars and what was fun for us 5 years ago now we find boring and other way around.

Your comment about Jupiter made me to realize that for me  nothing changer in Jupiter atmosphere since my first visit years ago and still  on my scale  bar moved from ' I don't like it there" to "must go to" simply because quite a few offs from there turned out very well. I used to be massage  fan , now most of my encounters are from bars. Used to start every trip with visit to Arena, now it's "  OMG I'm leaving tonight and did not check on Arena yet , let's go now"  and again , I don't think anything changed there and certainly not for the worse. And for the hell of me I can't figure out how and why I switched from Singha to Chang which I used to hate

[Raposa]

3 hours ago, vinapu said:

And for the hell of me I can't figure out how and why I switched from Singha to Chang which I used to hate

You changed to Chang because it is the beer of choice for the working class.

[vinapu]

1 hour ago, Raposa said:

You changed to Chang because it is the beer of choice for the working class.

true, that's the official line  but still it looks that my tolerance for bitter taste increased , I used to hate Chang  because of that , now I need court order to drink Singha

[reader]

On 4/28/2025 at 9:50 AM, floridarob said:

A friend that sold cars told me, there's an ass for every seat. People actually bought AMC Pacer's 🤷‍♂️

When my car broke down in the early 90, I borrowed a co-worker's car for the day and used it to check out some car dealers. It was an '88 Yugo and when I parked it outside a showroom, the sales staff would gather by the window and laugh. Can't really blame them.

[Marc308]

12 hours ago, vinapu said:

sometimes I wonder if we changed more than those bars and what was fun for us 5 years ago now we find boring and other way around.

Your comment about Jupiter made me to realize that for me  nothing changer in Jupiter atmosphere since my first visit years ago and still  on my scale  bar moved from ' I don't like it there" to "must go to" simply because quite a few offs from there turned out very well.

V, I think you are pointing out an interesting phenomenon -- yes, we are likely to be easily "conditioned" based on whether a previous visit ultimately went well. And yes you are right I am sure my/our attitudes have changed over the years. Perhaps now I demand too much of the bars, as they were once an essential meeting place, before the apps and massage places were dominant. Looking back, I don't think I really enjoyed going there (not much of a drinker, definitely not a smoker) and I definitely resented paying the wholesaler mafia, money which would more appropriately have been given to the provider of service. But back then they were a necessary marketplace... that's not the case anymore.

[bkkmfj2648]

6 hours ago, reader said:

It was an '88 Yugo and when I parked it outside a showroom, the sales staff would gather by the window and laugh.

Wow lucky you.  I was always fascinated by the ability of the ex-Yugoslavia to market and export their cars to us in the USA.

I believe that the motto was:

Yugo = Nogo 

[vinapu]

7 hours ago, reader said:

When my car broke down in the early 90, I borrowed a co-worker's car for the day and used it to check out some car dealers. It was an '88 Yugo and when I parked it outside a showroom, the sales staff would gather by the window and laugh. Can't really blame them.

I can. I know people for whom that car was dream come true.  They had son known to the world as vinapu