bao-bao
October 14th, 2009, 21:37
Tourism will hopefully pick up for the businesses so many on the forum here are concerned about, but it was SLOW on the evening of the 9th as I sat at Maxis around 8:00 and had a very pleasant dinner, watching the guys make their way to work in the clubs. Yes, it was before things usually pick up there (no pun intended) and high season had yet to kick in a month ago, but this was REALLY dead, it seemed to me.
Things were so slow at Bangkok Massage that the guy stepping down in the photo below (the name escapes me and I intentionally blurred the faces in the picture, anyway) actually wandered across the soi to my table and plunked himself down to visit a little. I asked him "Aren't you supposed to be over there, pulling people into the shop?" and he admitted he was but that there just weren't any folks coming down the soi. Most of them sat as they are in the picture, heads turned to the entrance of the soi, watching for any possible business. In fact, he said things were so slow at the massage shop that he and a few others switched "costumes" and appeared onstage next door at X-Boys around 8:30, which he says is owned by the same management.
He was pleasant enough to talk with so I didn't mind the uninvited visit while I finished my meal, and the most he did to encourage business was to ask if I'd stop by the club later and buy him a drink if I didn't have other plans. I didn't, so I stopped in at 8:30 on my way back to the hotel for an early evening in and found the guys all cleaning up the place after an "all hands" round of group labor making flower garlands that were to be sold to some wholesaler, if I understood him correctly.
There were enough leftover petals and stems still strewn about to fill three or four 30-gallon trash bags, and the mamasan who was pulling me along through this leftover floral chaos had to ask me to wait while she swept petals off of the bench seat she was leading me to. It looked a little bit like a memorial service had exploded, actually.
The "show" for the next 20 minutes or so consisted of the guys sweeping off the stage and floors (to clear it for the next four-plus hours of standing and posing) under the direction of the manager and a couple of mamasans. It was more activity than one usually sees from the guys, so I didn't complain. :cheers:
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z56/khunbaobao/W-BangkokBoysMassage0909.jpg
The entrance to X-Boys, before opening time, while I had dinner and visited with the guy from Bangkok Massage next door. Nothing special about the image other than I liked the way it came out.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z56/khunbaobao/W-X-Boys090909.jpg
Things were so slow at Bangkok Massage that the guy stepping down in the photo below (the name escapes me and I intentionally blurred the faces in the picture, anyway) actually wandered across the soi to my table and plunked himself down to visit a little. I asked him "Aren't you supposed to be over there, pulling people into the shop?" and he admitted he was but that there just weren't any folks coming down the soi. Most of them sat as they are in the picture, heads turned to the entrance of the soi, watching for any possible business. In fact, he said things were so slow at the massage shop that he and a few others switched "costumes" and appeared onstage next door at X-Boys around 8:30, which he says is owned by the same management.
He was pleasant enough to talk with so I didn't mind the uninvited visit while I finished my meal, and the most he did to encourage business was to ask if I'd stop by the club later and buy him a drink if I didn't have other plans. I didn't, so I stopped in at 8:30 on my way back to the hotel for an early evening in and found the guys all cleaning up the place after an "all hands" round of group labor making flower garlands that were to be sold to some wholesaler, if I understood him correctly.
There were enough leftover petals and stems still strewn about to fill three or four 30-gallon trash bags, and the mamasan who was pulling me along through this leftover floral chaos had to ask me to wait while she swept petals off of the bench seat she was leading me to. It looked a little bit like a memorial service had exploded, actually.
The "show" for the next 20 minutes or so consisted of the guys sweeping off the stage and floors (to clear it for the next four-plus hours of standing and posing) under the direction of the manager and a couple of mamasans. It was more activity than one usually sees from the guys, so I didn't complain. :cheers:
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z56/khunbaobao/W-BangkokBoysMassage0909.jpg
The entrance to X-Boys, before opening time, while I had dinner and visited with the guy from Bangkok Massage next door. Nothing special about the image other than I liked the way it came out.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z56/khunbaobao/W-X-Boys090909.jpg