The legend that Thailand is the place to go if you are a sex tourist is, as they say, not what it was. Isn't that one reason it's a legend? Like 1920s Berlin? The shows in the bars in the 1980s and 90s - even in the late 70s - created that legend, as anyone who enjoyed watching the fun time (most of) the boys were having can attest. The shows would almost always end up with one or more pairs of guys fucking and at the very least seeming to enjoy it more than just a little. My impression was that a great many more were gay than is the case nowadays. At weekends bars were packed with both locals and farang, and everyone ended up having a really enjoyable evening at a relatively modest price.Originally Posted by Old git
Since the first Social Order Campaign introduced by Thaksin's first government in the early 2000s, things have never been the same in the bars. There's been plenty of speculation on other threads as to why this should be the case and no need to go into this again. Apart, perhaps, from highlighting the fall off in attendances due in part to the rise of social networking, far more straight boys working now, and the tea money to the BIB having risen pretty dramatically. The mamasan at Scorpion Bar told me about 2 years ago that the 'fee' for a gogo bar in Soi Twilght was then Bt. 160,000 and for an outdoor beer bar Bt. 40,000 - monthly. How true that was, I have no way of knowing.
On the few days I have been in Soi Twilight in recent months there has been only a fraction of the punters I'd usually see coming in. The non-Thai Asian market is far more in evidence especially on holidays in places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea. These tend to come more in pairs and groups and are there much more to look rather than take guys off. The economics of the business has changed considerably - sadly for the worse.
Incidentally, back in the 'old' days, I never recall any of the boys requiring artificial aids to keep hard, unlike today when all the straight guys need to have their appendages tied off to avoid an embarrassing deflation. Does any other poster remember?