What is a Gogo bar?

[arsenal]

I've asked this question before and never actually received an answer. What is it that makes a gogo bar a gogo bar and thus liable to the tea money charges. Is it the underwear, is it the closed frontage or is it something else. Does anyone know.

[francois]

Being a go go bar and being liable for tea money are separate issues.
Typically a go go bar has danseurs on stage moving their bodies in some way in tune with the music. Obviously in Thailand the danseurs are trying to attract the customers for some sort of liaison of a sexual nature somewhere normally off the premises.
However there surely are some go-go bars that have very little dancing but lots of on-premise physical contact between the danseurs and the clients. Such as kissing, groping, fondling but somewhat short of full fledged sex.

Go-go bar is a somewhat outdated term since very little actual dancing so more like a sex club/stripper/erotic venue would be more descriptive.

[scottish-guy]

I would have thought that to be bribing the cops you'd have to be doing something illegal which you want them to turn a blind eye to, so -

Is it illegal to work in your underwear? I'd say not, because anybody working on the beach might fall into that category.

Is it illegal to have a closed frontage to your bar? I wouldn't have thought so. Why would a bar be different to a hairdressers for example - they have closed frontages and as far as I'm aware do not find it necessary to pay bribes

So that leaves me with the one thing that goes on in GoGo bars and which (almost) definitely IS illegal.

Forget the Bar Owners familar wails of "Oh as far as I know the customer is taking the boy to the ice cream parlour, it's nothing to do with me what they get up to" WE all know what's going on and so do the cops:

PROSTITUTION

But do the beer bars and massage parlours which offer similar "services" pay bribes? Forgive my ignorance but if they don't then that's my theory fucked.

If they do (perhaps at a lower rate) then it might suggest that as Francois has implied that it 's the "overtness" of the prostitution thats the issue.

But as we know - This Is Thailand, so who knows anything for sure;)

[arsenal]

Scottish: As I understand it the beer bars do pay the police but it's a nominal amount compared to the gogo bars and often takes the form of buying tickets for a function or some such nonsense.
Francois: I don't think that being a gogo bar and liable for tea money are separate issues. That's why so many gogo bars convert to open beer bars. It's because the monthly outgoings drop considerably when they do.

[lukylok]

I would have thought that to be bribing the cops you'd have to be doing something illegal which you want them to turn a blind eye to, so -


I am surprised that an old hand like you think you are "bribing" the cops.
It's the other way round : any activity is subject to the racket, bar, guest houses, food carts....That of course on top of the usual lottery, Farewell party, the imagination has no limit.

[goji]

any activity is subject to the racket, bar, guest houses, food carts....T

Well guest house owners usually tell me their business is completely legal, so they never have to make donations to the police.

[scottish-guy]

Luckylok, whether is "bribery" or a "racket" - the fact is that money flows from the bar takings into the policeman's pocket - the rest is semantics.

As Shakespeare might have written: "A turd by any other name would smell just as rank"

[fountainhall]

do the beer bars and massage parlours which offer similar "services" pay bribes? Forgive my ignorance but if they don't then that's my theory fucked.

If they do (perhaps at a lower rate) then it might suggest that as Francois has implied that it 's the "overtness" of the prostitution thats the issue.
Sorry Scottish - you're half f--ked!! At least as far as Bangkok is concerned. The beer bars on Soi Twilight pay somewhere around a quarter of that paid by the indoor venues - but I have no idea about massage parlours.

But the essence of your argument is correct. Like most other countries, prostitution is illegal in Thailand. And go-go bars have always been places where skimpily clad guys and gals are on offer. The dancing (has anyone actually seen a go-go boy dance in recent years??), the suggestion they are entertainment venues, the shows, the washing of hands re what happens after a dancer is offed, the lack of fixed fees for services about to be rendered . . . all are merely a cover for outright prostitution.

[a447]

has anyone actually seen a go-go boy dance in recent years??

Well, yes. K in Adam's Apple "dances" quite enthusiastically, as do the gay go-go guys in BBB. But, of course, they are exceptions.

[scottish-guy]

Well, yes. K in Adam's Apple "dances" quite enthusiastically, as do the gay go-go guys in BBB. But, of course, they are exceptions.

Of course there are exceptions - in BBB for example you can't expect their over 40yo go-go boys to be as spry as those who are only in their 30's.

:p

[francois]

The dancing (has anyone actually seen a go-go boy dance in recent years??),.....

Does the dance with no pants count?

[fountainhall]

No, definitely doesn't count. When dancing in the nude the jewels swing around too much!!!! Reminds me of a quote from the famous - and gay - Australian ballet dancer, Sir Robert Helpmann. At a time when some European company was premiering a nude contemporary dance, he said he disapproved "because when the music stops, a part of the male anatomy does not."

Talking of dancing with no pants, are there any go-go bars in BKK or Pattaya where one can see regular nude "dancing"?

[neddy3]

Talking of dancing with no pants, are there any go-go bars in BKK or Pattaya where one can see regular nude "dancing"?

Something else we have lost!

My, back in the year, there was a lot of nude 'dancing' in Twilight Bar.

[arsenal]

Fountainhall: Robert Helpmann played The Child Catcher in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. A few of the bars have nude dancing in their show for example BBB and X-boys. The boys in the bars in Sunni will usually strip and dance for you if you ask them to.

[fountainhall]

There's a host of nice anecdotes about Helpmann. He was once walking on the way to perform at the Met in New York. Crossing one of the wide avenues, he happened to drop his umbrella. A cop on duty noticed it and shouted with obvious disdain, "Hey, Fairy! You dropped your wand!" Whereupon Helpmann turned, picked up the umbrella, waved it in front of the cop and shouted back, "Vanish!"

As for nude dancing, I have been to Eros but would not call an impromptu flourish in front of punters nude dancing as on the stages of the more regular gogo bars. Don't know about the other two, but do the boys actually strip and then dance in the nude for a reasonable period of time - i.e. as in the "old days" and not erect and certainly not with parts tied off?

[goji]

Don't know about the other two, but do the boys actually strip and then dance in the nude for a reasonable period of time - i.e. as in the "old days" and not erect and certainly not with parts tied off?
Ad hoc nudity is the best I've seen, or more likely some item of clothing arranged so it's not protecting anyone's modesty.

What I would like to see is some straightforward nude dancing. All the boys, no clothes & the lights full on.

[christianpfc]

My definition for gogo bar: boys in underwear (or swimwear or boxers) on stage.

I object to paying gogo prices to see boys in jeans on stage, as is now custom in some bars (Thai boys in underwear, foreign boys in jeans), I will point this out to staff and leave without ordering.

Justification for extraordinary bribes for gogo bars is that it can be added to the drink price, and there will still be enough customers who will pay such outrageous drink prices to keep the business alive. With hotel, barber, petrol station this would not work.

I'm not aware of a law banning nude dancing in closed venues (public nudity, yes), so even that should not be a problem as long as you can't see it from the main road and conceive a membership scheme. (Compare gay sauna in Singapore where I had to sign up for membership on my first visit.)

Wikipedia has some explanation on gogo bars, including where the name comes from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_go_bar