History of Soi Twilight

[Armando]

For a description of the bars on Soi Twilight in 2011, the year it attained its peak

Sorry I cannot agree that 2011 was when Twilight attained its peak. Yes, perhaps it had more bars that year (although I actually doubt it) but then many had opened and closed in between 2000 and 2010. Sitting in Dick's Cafe, some will remember a bar diagonally opposite with some sort of technology theme. Can't remember the name but it did not last long. I only remember it because one of the boys always outside was aggressively cute and as I later found out completely hairless apart from on his head and lower down. What a turn on! It became a billiards bar.

Then there was the short lived X-treme Bar. This was run by a white haired Englishman who I believe had worked in some position for the Church of England. He tried a different theme. He did have some regular gogo dancers but the main 'act' was a group of 8 or so young professional dancers or dance students who put on a different dance show every week. There was never nudity but these boys were great dancers and the shows were really fun. They would also mingle with customers after the shows. When the bar closed - probably around 2003 - the boys moved over to the German owner's bar across the soi. But even he found the act did not bring in the customers and so they migrated once again to the old Rome Club in Soi 4, then called Roxy. Again I think they did not last long.

We really have to remember that nightlife definitely changed after the Thaksin government's Social Order campaigns in 2001 and the new rules they laid down. One result was that many of the Thai customers who had been quite frequent bar hoppers in the 1980s and 90s began to disappear. By the turn of the millennium, gay saunas and massage establishments had been operating for well over a decade and they also tended to take customers away from the traditional gogo bars. In 2006 an article in The New York Times mentioned Bangkok's dwindling number of night spots. It also highlighted the increased number of raids on nightlife establishments. These were always accompanied by a media scrum. Who can forget the raid on Babylon led by some senior Minister who was photographed outside gingerly holding a condom and pronouncing that this was evidence of illegal sexual activity? The fact that another branch of government had been actively promoting the use of condoms for years as an anti-HIV measure seems not to have occurred to him!

The NYT article even quoted Kurt Wachtveitl, the legendary manager of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, who that year spoke out against the social order rules, especially those that mandated the closure of bars and clubs at 1:00 am. "If Bangkok continues to be the kind of city that begins to look sleepy after midnight, it will be wasting all its advantages to the upscale foreign visitors. They'll go to Beijing, Shanghai and now Singapore," he lamented.

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/t...m-bangkok.html

[JayToff]

Hi Christian,

Additions and corrections to anything posted are certainly welcome, particularly since even the shortest pencil is longer than the best memory.

For purposes of tracking the decline of Soi Twilight, however, February 2015 would probably be the correct date for the demise of Zeus. Shows at Zeus stopped at some point shortly before they began internal renovations in January 2015 ( Your visit on December 28th 2014 makes clear that the shows had ended by late December rather than in early January). By February, however, they had abandoned the internal renovations and Zeus never re-opened, nor did anything else take its place.

Your additional details on the site of Mario are also welcome and re-affirm that 2015 marked the turning-point for Soi Twilight. After Mario's closure, the site was utilised as an adjunct to an ongoing operation of the X-Group, rather than anyone investing in setting-up anything new. It certainly wasn’t obvious in 2015 that Soi Twilight was about to begin contracting but, looking back, 2015 was the turning-point.

[JayToff]

The one that started it all...

Adverts for the original Twilight Bar from the 1989 issues of My Way magazine. The main advert and two following pictures are from the third issue of My Way from 1989.The other pictures are from the adverts that appeared in the two earlier editions for 1989, which are, essentially, similar.

With Twilight having been founded circa 1966, 1989 would be almost exactly half-way through its existence under that name c.1966 - 2004.

Twilight MW3.jpg
Twilight MW3 a.jpg
Twilight MW3 b.jpg
Twilight MW3 c.jpg

The following ones are from the two earlier issues:
Twilight MW2 a.jpg
Twilight MW2 b.jpg
Twilight MW1 b.jpg
Twilight MW1 a.jpg

Anyone keen on viewing the actual magazines can access them through the link to the rainbow archive that Colmx posted earlier in this thread.

[Oliver2]

Thank you ....and I bet they actually danced in those days! Sic transit gloria.

[Armando]

Thank you ....and I bet they actually danced in those days! Sic transit gloria.

Actually dancing in Twilight was not the norm in the 1980s. The bar had probably 60 - 80 boys with 40 or more on duty on a weekday evening and almost all at the weekends. The stage behind the bar was tiny and I never recall more than four being up there at any one time. Most boys knew they were there for one thing - to be offed or at least to get a drink or two, and so the nearest they came to dancing was an occasional soft shoe shuffle. Some were shy at being naked on stage and would cover their assets with their crunched up underwear. That is until one of the two mamasans would bark an order whereupon all was slowly revealed. Once they had done their bit on stage and on the mirrored pillar in the centre of the bar, they became far more friendly. Inviting one or more to have a drink, all their inhibitions disappeared.

The next four boys waiting to go on stage would be hunched down behind the bar desperately trying to work up even a mini erection. They always seemed to be laughing and enjoying themselves. But once on stage, quite a few just seemed to be embarrassed. This was so different from the much smaller Apollo Bar in Soi 4 where in the mid-1980s all the dancers did do a bit of dancing on the catwalk even when nude and all seemed to be having fun.

The only bar with real dancing was My Way off Rama 4. These boys were great, constantly smiling and almost all aggressively cute. The stage had two or three poles and most of the boys would use them to enhance their dancing feats. Barbiery was somewhat similar in terms of dancing, although in that bar it was the shows which were the main draw. Barbiery had nearly 100 boys at the weekends when the place would always be packed with as many seats as possible crammed in. The shows featured nudity and the boys always seemed to be having fun. I don't recall any of the boys revealing all in My Way.

[Nirish guy]

Jesus when you look at those lovely guys compared to some of the guys we're presented with now.......really does show you how things are changed and not for the better :-(

[cdnmatt]

Jesus when you look at those lovely guys compared to some of the guys we're presented with now.......really does show you how things are changed and not for the better :-(

I'm assuming the photos are showing more twink type guys who are thinner and less tatoos than their modern counterparts?

I blame McDonalds and KFC.

[Nirish guy]

I'm assuming the photos are showing more twink type guys who are thinner and less tatoos than their modern counterparts? I blame McDonalds and KFC.

You are correct about the twink part etc - the difference being in the pics above out of nice guys pictured I'd happily take any one ( or more) of the nine without question, whereas lately in a go go bar if there were nice guys I'd be lucky to be ABLE to pick one or maybe two from the bunch - and yes KFC and to much beer and whiskey has a lot to do with that - and I KNOW that works two ways of course, but when the boys start paying ME then I'll start thinking about how they'd like me to look perhaps, but until then my requirements win.

[Brad the Impala]

I'm assuming the photos are showing more twink type guys who are thinner and less tatoos than their modern counterparts?

I blame McDonalds and KFC.

Those types were the norm at the time. Guys next door types. Who had heard of body building then?! Tattoos were really unusual at that time.

[goji]

Agreed. That lot look superb compared with the fat scruffy tattoo covered types seen at certain bars in recent years.
However there is still some quality to be found in select places. Fresh Boys and Winner Boys, for instance, before covid intervened. Also, there are a small number of the apps. Often from Cambodia of Laos.