The fluctuating cost of beer in Bangkok Bars

[bucknaway]

I be back in Thailand in April. I'm wondering if the drink prices have gone up or gone down? Did the price hike turn out to be the cash boon that bar owners hoped it would be? Or did the high prices cost them in bottom line yearly profits?

When I first came to Thailand the cost of a drink about about 250 baht. The cost of a beer here in the USA at a popular dance club in the city where I live was $4 USD. Now the cost of a drink in Bangkok is 300 to 400 baht. The cost of a beer here in the USA at a popular dance club in the city where I live is $3.

When I first started coming to Thailand, I visited many bars each night to see the shows or just to flirt with the guys, but that was when drinks were 220 to 250 baht. Now that beers start at 300 baht... I don't bar hop as I once use to. Now I will pick one or two bars I want to visit. I don't invite gogo guys over anymore. I just go and look and to see the show. Still I may tip from time to time but I don't off them. If I want to buy fun for the night I will buy i online and wait for the guy to show up at my room. Kinda like what is going on here in the USA with retail stores. We go to the retail stores to get a look at what we are interested in but we don't buy it from the store. We go home and buy it online to save a few bucks. I do the same thing in Thailand only because I don't want to reward the bars for their over aggressive price hikes.

So I am wondering. Has the bars in Sui Twilight become more or less wallet friendly?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Bangkok_Soi_Pratuchai.JPG/300px-Bangkok_Soi_Pratuchai.JPG

[lego]

When I first came to Thailand the cost of a drink about about 250 baht. The cost of a beer here in the USA at a popular dance club in the city where I live was $4 USD. Now the cost of a drink in Bangkok is 300 to 400 baht. The cost of a beer here in the USA at a popular dance club in the city where I live is $3.
Aren't you mixing up two different things, "dance clubs" and "gogo bars"? If you went to any regular night club here in Bangkok, you'd find prices much closer to the US prices you've mentioned.

[scottish-guy]

To my mind, Bucky's entire post is "mixed up"!

Is this a serious suggestion - that you spend time and money going round couple of Gogo bars, finally finding a boy you find attractive, and instead of taking him off, you ought instead to go back to your hotel room, fire up your laptop, and search on GR for another boy altogether who (if his photo turns out to be accurate) looks something like the one you saw (and desired) in the first place, simply to "save a few bucks" ???

Jesus H - if that's your idea of having a good time .............

[MiniMee]

When I first came to Thailand the cost of a drink about about 250 baht. The cost of a beer here in the USA at a popular dance club in the city where I live was $4 USD. Now the cost of a drink in Bangkok is 300 to 400 baht. The cost of a beer here in the USA at a popular dance club in the city where I live is $3.

Bucky, has the price of a beer in a bar your part of the world really dropped 25% over this period of time? (10~15 years?) What has been the driver for this? Has there been some change in taxation or other legislation? Or is it driven by market forces? Is this price reduction typical across the USA or just in your state or city?

It would be hard to compare prices to just about anywhere else in the world in this case as prices will almost certainly have risen to some extent everywhere in that time period.

If that is really true (and applies to USA in general) I can understand why americans have such a hard time accepting the price of drinking in any sort of bar in Asia.

But as Lego points out, GoGo Bars are a very different situation and the price we pay has little or nothing to do with the cost of beer.

[bucknaway]

Okay... Washington, D.C. Gogo bars... The price for beer is $5 as was the mixed drink I had.
If memory serves me right, I was paying about the same price back in the 80's at other gogo bars in DC

[MiniMee]

Wow, you Yanks sure have it easy!

But have prices really dropped 25% in the last 10-15 years?

You won't find a beer for $5 in any sort of bar in in Singapore, Shanghai or Sydney or anywhere in between these days.

But "back in the 80s"...that's at least 25 years ago. Surely you weren't old enough to by a beer in those days?

[bucknaway]

Just a side note... I do what I want when I want when it comes to my social life. Nothing is written in stone and nothing is as obvious as a post reader may think. Life, moods and budget is ever changing as well are those that we come in contact with. What may be true for today, may not be true for tomorrow. We humans are always changing and evolving and adapting to new situations.

As life happens, so will I.... (I like that....)

[bucknaway]

Wow, you Yanks sure have it easy!

But have prices really dropped 25% in the last 10-15 years?

You won't find a beer for $5 in any sort of bar in in Singapore, Shanghai or Sydney or anywhere in between these days.

But "back in the 80s"...that's at least 25 years ago. Surely you weren't old enough to by a beer in those days?

I turn 50 this year.... I have been sneaking into bars back in the early 80's before I was of legal age to get in with proper ID :)

[corky]

I rarely go to Soi Twilight any more for a drink since the prices are extortionate. 300-400 Baht for a beer is absurd even if there is a show.

Go to Silom Soi 4 - prices for the same beer vary around the 80 to 120 Baht range and then go to Silom Soi 2 and pay 150 Baht to end off the night.

[lonelywombat]

Bucknaway you have been a member of this forum since 2005 getting on to 9 years.Sure the price of beer may change but think about your US exchange rate and do not blame the traders. The number of yanks who come here now is down substantially not because the price of beer, but the exchange rate, flights,hotels,drinks and boys.

But will you tell me the bars where you go in the US that have cock shows, jackoffs and maybe even fucking for your $3 ,let me know

I certainly did not see any my last two trips, the price was much higher with no shows.

BTW I am still in a stage of shock after having 3 beers at the public airport lounge at Singapore. I asked the cost and it was $17 Did not understand they were $17 each. That was expensive beer bar sitting in a lounge with no show.

[bucknaway]

There is one place I go for the weekends that charge 30 dollars. They give you free beer all weekend till the dance club closes and no I won't tell you the name of the place but they can be found in pinsilvania.

[lonelywombat]

Now be honest They give you free beer for $30 . Tell us about the floor show. naked boys, boys jacking off, boys fucking boys and their partners walking around for tips.

EXCITING but it is not a go go boy bar.

[lego]

Okay... Washington, D.C. Gogo bars... The price for beer is $5 as was the mixed drink I had.
If memory serves me right, I was paying about the same price back in the 80's at other gogo bars in DC
Well, if that's the case, they either have a different business model or clientele than the gogo bars in Bangkok. It's pretty clear that the high price for a drink in a Bangkok gogo bar is meant as a "cover charge" or "entrance fee" to watch the show and/or ogle at the stable of boys. With an understanding that most patrons will have just one drink during their stay. It's a good question what would actually happen if they charged much less. Would people stay longer, drink more and also buy more drinks for the boys, ultimately leading to more money for the bar? Or would the stingy patrons who nurse one drink and then disappear without offing a boy have the upper hand? Hard to say, but I'd guess the bars fear the latter.

[lonelywombat]

With an understanding that most patrons will have just one drink during their stay. It's a good question what would actually happen if they charged much less. Would people stay longer, drink more and also buy more drinks for the boys, ultimately leading to more money for the bar? Or would the stingy patrons who nurse one drink and then disappear without offing a boy have the upper hand? Hard to say, but I'd guess the bars fear the latter.

This seems to me someone who wants to look at the goods on offer and pay one drink. Does not want to pay for an off and wants to search for a boy on line.
Absolute rubbish. you must be going broke or losing your marbles.

[christianpfc]

Bucky, did anything in Thailand or the US become cheaper over the years? (Rhethorical question, priced do not fluctuate, they rise.)

If you don't want to pay 300 Baht for a drink (and I'm with you in this aspect), wait for specials (200 Baht drink, 300 Baht off-fee) in X-Size, or go to Soi 6 or Saphan Kwai bar where drinks cost about 150 Baht or go to Pattaya.

Recent overview of drink prices on my blog: http://christianpfc.blogspot.de/2014/03 ... -bars.html (http://christianpfc.blogspot.de/2014/03/prices-in-bangkok-gogo-bars.html)
(would be grateful for others to fill the gaps).

When I go to a bar (rarely in Bangkok, regularly in Pattaya) and find a boy I like, then I take him off. Firstly, I don't want to wait until he finishes work and secondly, it's not fair to them, to let them be at their workplace (idle with no customer) and then come after work to get them to work. Leave those boys their spare time and off them! Thirdly, I want them now and here, that's why I go to bars for moneyboys, on gayromeo I look mainly for non-moneyboys.

[bucknaway]

I've adapted to the soi twilight pricing. In past visits I use to spend about 3000 baht a night bar hopping. The prices shot up and now I spend an average of 1000 baht bar hopping.

The price increase saved me money haha

[topforthai]

Buckaway is right about the price of beer in the USA. It was about $5.00 in the 80's at the bars in DC and the last time I was there you could still get a beer for about $5.00 in the gogo bars. The price of food is about the same as in Thailand for Western type fare. Electricity is about half or less in cost than in Thailand. I can cool a 2500 Sq. ft. house for under $150 a month in the middle of summer and we never turn off the AC like they do in Thailand. The air and heat stay on all day even when we are not at home. The only thing cheaper in Thailand for the most part is labor.

[rtu55]

I still haven┬┤t understood why logically a beer in the boybars need to cost 350-400 baht, when a beer in the girlie gogo-bars just across the soi cost a 80-200 baht maximum...

[scottish-guy]

Oh for Christ's sake rtu55 - don't tell them that!

You'll have some of our esteemed members crossing the Soi now to look at fanny with their beer instead of cock, so they can save 200B

:ymparty:

[dinagam]

Just outside the Showbars & Boybars in soi Twilight are Beerbars(Kiosks) that sell beer cheaply, but you don't get to see guys in underwear parading on stage. :p

[lonelywombat]

I have been told that Banana Bar at the entrance was very popular. I think this is the place mentioned with Viet boys. No boys in jockeys ,but all the boys coming and going go past all the time

[christianpfc]

The Vietnamese boys are (were?) in Scorpion at the end of the Soi (actually the last bar on the right side).

Girl bars have a different pricing scheme, drinks are cheaper, but off fees (600 - 800 Baht) and short time tips (3000 Baht) higher (from reading stickmanweekly).

But Soi 6 bars have boys dancing in underwear and drink prices around 150 Baht!

[bucknaway]

One other change I noticed with myself. Before when the drink costs were under 300, I visited my favorite bars almost every night. Now I may only visit those bars once a trip. Dreamboys use to be my favorite stop. I would go to their first show and often end up back there just before closing. Now I go there once, buy one drink, watch the show and beat feet out of there.

[paulg]

One other change I noticed with myself. Before when the drink costs were under 300, I visited my favorite bars almost every night. Now I may only visit those bars once a trip. Dreamboys use to be my favorite stop. I would go to their first show and often end up back there just before closing. Now I go there once, buy one drink, watch the show and beat feet out of there.


Yes it is called old age. Before I turned 70 I used to go into the bars,pay big cash to look at naked and near naked boys, invite them over for a drink a feel ,make them an offer. But as you get older you tend to think of the cost and cannot remember why you do it.
But next night I saw WTF and return and try again.
Bucky if you are on a holiday, forget the cost, just do it.

[bucknaway]

I can never forget the cost. I'm employed as a cost saving buyer. It's in my blood.
When I'm in Pattaya, the money flows more freely. :D