History of Soi Twilight

[neddy3]

Where was this?

[Blueskytoday]

I believe it was the only bar on Soi Twilight....at the time...so damn long ago....late 70's...

[Brad the Impala]

I think that the only bar in Soi Twilight in the 70's would be Twilight, if even it had had already moved there(of course it was the first in that soi).

I didn't go often(methinks she doth protest too much) but the things I remember do not include fish nets. Although I never knowingly went there, I wonder if the Sea Hag, in Silom, might have had fishnets to go with the sea theme(or the hags).

[Armando]

I think that the only bar in Soi Twilight in the 70's would be Twilight, if even it had had already moved there(of course it was the first in that soi).

I didn't go often(methinks she doth protest too much) but the things I remember do not include fish nets. Although I never knowingly went there, I wonder if the Sea Hag, in Silom, might have had fishnets to go with the sea theme(or the hags).

Twilight definitely did not have fish nets.

[Blueskytoday]

OK SEA HAG......anyway I recall fishnets all over the ceiling haha thanks...

[JayToff]

The use of nets in the Sea Hag sounds logical, except that the Sea Hag closed in 1969, so it can’t be the same bar that you visited in the late 70’s. The timeline for the Sea Hag is given in the 11th post in this thread.

The Twilight Bar is the only boy bar recorded in Soi Twilight / Soi Pratuchai even as late as 1990. As per the map attached below, the 1991 edition of Spartacus still shows only Twilight on that Soi. Spartacus is hardly the first and last word on anything though, so any information to the contrary is certainly welcome. As far as I know,though, Chardonay was the second bar to open there and that was in the 90’s.

Originally Posted by Brad the Impala
I think that the only bar in Soi Twilight in the 70s would be Twilight, if even it had had already moved there(of course it was the first in that soi).

On the matter of where the original Twilight Bar was located at different points in time, the information on its early movements that we have pieced together from Midnite Hour, Bobby de Crozier of Bobby’s Arms, the Banana Bar guy and the post by the owner of the Sea Hag on ThaiVisa, is that it started-out on New Road as early as 1966, then moved to Soi Thaniya 2 around the start of the 70s where it occupied the location that became Barbiery later-on, or the shop right next door. It then moved to Soi Pratuchai in the early 1970s. So, if Blueskytoday visited in the late 70s, Twilight would already have been there and was almost certainly the only boy bar on that soi.

I am attaching the Spartacus map from 1991 here , which I have shamelessly stolen from one of RonanTheBarbarian’s old posts.
SpartacusBangkok91.jpg

I am also uploading a 1999 map of the Silom / Suriwongse area from Thai Guys magazine, just for contrast.
Map of Silom Oct 1999.jpg

As for where the fishing nets were, or might have been, I will leave it to those of you who where there in the 70s to debate...

On a tangential note, BRAD, I am aware that you have been in Thailand for longer than almost anyone else on any of the fora, but when, exactly, did you first arrive?

[Brad the Impala]

On a tangential note, BRAD, I am aware that you have been in Thailand for longer than almost anyone else on any of the fora, but when, exactly, did you first arrive?

I first came in 1971 for a long beach holiday in the unspoilt village of Pattaya. Rented a traditional wooden bungalow with a huge balcony that was on the beach, in the position where the Siam Bayshore swimming pool would later be found. I had a ball, although there were no gay bars there at that time. Great eight or nine piece band played at the Fantasy Club, which had a large terrace out over the sea. I was there most nights for the music and became friends with some of the band. Good times.

Moved to Thailand the following year and lived in Bangkok for most of the next eight years.

[goji]

So are Tawan and Super-A the only surviving Gogo bars, in the location from the 1991 map ?
Plus from 1999 map, Screwboys ?

(Question based on map observations, since I didn't visit Thailand until about 15 years ago)

[Armando]

If I recall correctly, Super A was originally a larger bar on the ground floor on other side of that little soi. Screwboys also in its present location.

[StevieWonders]

If I recall correctly, Super A was originally a larger bar on the ground floor on other side of that little soi.

Yes, with a bare concrete floor. A friend of mine used to refer to it as “the garage sale room” so basic was it. Like many of the Soi 6 bars past and present it catered to those who prefer the younger look.