This is Part 3 of a 4 part post.
11 Bar Lover
22 Bar Lover May2006.jpg
The Bar Lover, located on the left side of the soi, immediately after Hot Male, was not one of Soi Twilight’s great success stories. It popped-up somewhere around 2004 and closed in November 2006, with the property then becoming Hot Male 2.
12 Hot Male
Hot Male opened in 2004, with its owners taking-over the original Twilight Bar. Note that it retained the phone numbers for the old Twilight, showing the continuity. Remaining in Twilight’s location, it also featured a street-level bar beer that was popular for people watching. In March 2008, Hot Male expanded into the next door premises that had been the Bar Lover, creating Hot Male 2. The Hot Male 2 sign would appear and disappear several times over the years ahead. Not that it really mattered because everyone only ever referred to the bar as Hot Male. Pictured below in 2009 with its original signage.
23 Hot Male Nov 2009.jpg
Hot Male’s line-up of boys was usually middle-of-the-road and it never came close to being the dominant bar on the soi, with the new owners toning-down the sleaze for which Twilight was famous. Of course that didn’t prevent it from promising punters their One Night in Bangkok experience
24 Hot Male Jan 2009.jpg
Nonetheless, it continued to do well enough to remain in business until the closure of Soi Twilight, being the last bar to leave the soi in May 2019. It has continued to thrive in its new location on Patpong 2, with a much stronger stable and having recently established the street-level Midnight bar beer below the main bar. Including its antecedents as Twilight, Hot Male has now been in operation for 55 years. Pictured below with its new signage in 2014.
25 Hot Male Dec 2014.jpg
26 Hotmale Nov 2017.jpg
An interesting shot of Hot Male’s signage after they put-up their new awning.
13 Dream Boy
Dream Boy arrived on Soi Twilight in 2004 and quickly became the alpha bar on the street. It occupied the first floor site that had previously been Blue Star, absorbing their stable of boys. With its “more than 100 boys”, including some of the best-lookers in the business, and its army of barkers outside, this place kept reeling them in. That it did so despite the highest prices on Soi Twilight - the cover charge with first drink price had reached 550 baht in its final years on the soi - was testament to its enduring lure. No other bar in Bangkok offered that combination of quantity and quality. Fittingly, it also had the most prominent signage on the soi, seen below in November 2007.
27 Dream Boy November 2007.jpg
Dream Boy moved to Soi Twilight from its previous digs on Thaniya 2, occupying what had previously been the Barbiery boy bar and, before that, the original site of the Twilight Bar. What gave the bar its unique character was its strict “only Thai boys” policy and the fact that it was farang owned and run. That old German understood what foreign customers wanted and that they were willing to pay for it. There were periods when the excitement shifted elsewhere, but Dream Boy always eventually came back. Still going strong at its new location in Patpong 2.
28 Dream Boy Sep 2017.jpg
Above, the entrance to Dream Boy. For some, the stairway to heaven.
14 Fresh Beach Boy
Fresh Beach Boy was one of the bars that opened during the 2004 – 2005 period as the number of venues on the street began to grow.
29 Fresh Beach May 2006.jpg
Personally, I always thought that they should have stuck with plain “Beach Boys” and a proper tiki theme. Instead, in early 2012, they dropped the “Beach” and segued into being Fresh Boys, putting-up a new sign to that effect. Their tale therefore carries-on under “Fresh Boys”.
30 Fresh Beachboy Feb 2012.jpg
Pictured above during Chinese New Year 2012, just before the change of name.
15 Fresh Boys
Fresh Boys has the slipperiest history of any bar on Soi Twilight and it needs to be read alongside Fresh Beach Boy and Screw Boy. The original Fresh Boy opened c.2005, occupying the ground floor space immediately after Dream Boy, deep on the left-hand side of the soi, (below the later X-Size bar venue). The early Fresh Boy was never one of the major bars on the soi and its signage was not particularly impressive either
31 Fresh Boy 2006 - Original Sign.jpg
In May 2007, it disappeared and the venue was taken-over by Screw Boy, which lasted for less than a month before moving back to Patpong. Fresh Boy then returned to the site as New Fresh Boy, as per the signage below.
32 Fresh Boy New August 2007.jpg
There was nothing new or fresh about it though and it never really ignited. At the end of 2007, it became the Fresh Boy X before going over the cliff and vanishing in July of 2008. The site was then taken-over by the Siam Angel Boys.
33 Fresh Boys X - Dec 2007.jpg
Of course, in the Twilight Zone, dead doesn’t really have to mean dead, just like “I do everything” doesn’t really have to mean “I do everything”. As noted above, in 2012, Fresh Beach Boy assumed the Fresh Boys name and it is as Fresh Boys that it carries-on. Note, though, that the original bar was Fresh Boy, but it carried-on as Fresh Boys from 2012.
Fresh Boys.jpg
The bar would update their façade in early 2017, but by that point they must have already seen the writing on the wall as far as the future of Soi Twilight went. In 2018, they opened an outpost on Patpong 2 which carries-on today and following the closure of Soi Twilight in 2019, the rump Fresh Boys would move to Soi 4 as Banana Boys.
16 X-Boys
Another one of the X Group bars, this one had its moments as the hot bar on the soi.
34 Xboys May 2006.jpg
Opening c.2005, X-Boys usually had a decent stable of about 50 boys of different types and their shows were often quite original. Shows were usually shared with its sister bar, X-Size further down the soi once that bar opened.
35 Xboys March 2011.jpg
It occupied the site near the beginning of the soi, just after the Banana Bar, which had previously been occupied by the Boys of Bangkok.
36 Xboys May 2014.jpg
Pictured above with its changing facades and signage in 2006, 2011 and 2014. With the end of Soi Twilight, it merged with Classic Boys to form the new Lucky Boys on Patpong 2.
17 Bunny Massage (Bonny Massage)
Located above Dick’s Café, the long-running Bunny Massage (Bonny Massage if you want to be Thai about it) popped-up on the soi circa 2005 during what was a quite rapid build-up of venues on the soi around that time. Its initial signage was unimpressive.
37 Bunny Massage May 2006.jpg
In April of 2009, though, it debuted its classic neon, which was a definite improvement for the venue and for the soi.
38 Bunny Massage May 2009.jpg
18 Screw Boy
Screw Boy had initially opened in the Soi Twilight area but quickly moved to the site in Patpong II that it still occupies today. In January 2007, however, Screw Boy moved back to Soi Twilight, opening as New Screw Boy at the back of the soi in the Five Star building, opposite Balls. Alongside Screw Boy, they also opened the late-night $BM Discotheque (Black Market Disco). The Five Star site was not a great success and they closed less than two months later, in February 2007. Pic below.
39 Screw Boys New April 2007.jpg
In May 2007, it re-opened as New Screw Boy X in the old Fresh Boys location, next door to Dream Boy.
40 Screw Boy X June 2007.jpg
They lasted here less than a month before moving back to their old location in Patpong II, where they are still to be found today. As noted earlier, following Screw Boys’ departure, Fresh Boys then re-opened in its old location as New Fresh Boy.
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