Bar Reports

[Jun]

And when it is excessively loud, my question remains - WHY? Who is that music for?

I've no idea whether they have no clue about the farang market, or are targeting other types of customer. The latter appearing to be non-existent.

That extremely loud music is one of the reasons it is rare to find me in a bar these days.

To be fair, I think most Pattaya bars have reasonable music levels. Winner Boys is quieter than some coffee shops. Toy Boys and Classic Boys were reasonable.
The only area in Jomtien that's regularly a problem is the lower part of the main street and early in the evening, even that is usually OK.
Of course, there may be some random loud party, but moving around the corner fixes that.
I just think that the volume should always be low enough to not pollute immediately adjacent bars.

I also haven't encountered the other traditional bar problem of mamasans or pushy waiters.
Winner doesn't have them, as the boys serve the drinks. The waiters in Toy Boys and Classic Boys served my drink and didn't harass me.

Admittedly on one other forum, there are reports of nuisance waiters allegedly putting drinks on customers check bins at one bar. Totally irrelevant for me, as I'm not going there anyway.

I've also been billed correctly and promptly at every bar, except for Sunee Intimate Bar, where the change was short on one visit and had to be sent back for a recount. No more visits there for the remainder of this trip.

Smoking hasn't been a major issue either. I haven't encountered it at the indoor bars and the open fronted ones have fans.

Pricing has usually been fair. Gogos ranging from 100 baht a drink at Winner to 280 at Toy Boys. The latter is fine when the selection on stage is good enough.

[Gaybutton]

or are targeting other types of customer. The latter appearing to be non-existent.

If music that loud is targeting other types of customers, I wonder who they're trying to attract. As you correctly point out, if that is what they're trying to do, it isn't working. Thank goodness.

I would have thought they would want to attract the types of customers who usually are the ones to frequent those bars. That would be the 50+ farang crowd.

Is there anyone reading this who actually is attracted by that blaring loud music?

[gerefan]

I would have thought they would want to attract they types of customers who usually are the ones to frequent those bars. That would be the 50+ farang crowd.

We frequently read that that the majority of Jomtien customers are usually Farangs in groups who don’t take boys off and just go to socialise.

This being the case they require:
A. A quiet bar where they can chat without being deafened.
B. A bar with comfortable seating suitable for groups. No long bench type seats.
C. A bar with toilet facilities. So not a kiosk type bar.
D. A bar with air conditioning. There are only 4 or 5 that I know of in Jomtien with A/C.

So I suggest a perfect example would be converting somewhere luxurious like Dragon Music Lounge which has decent bogs, good A/C., very comfortable seating suitable for groups, and music which could be turned down.

It would take very little to convert it into a typical welcoming English Country style pub. There would be an endless stream of Farang groups and those wishing to purely socialise.

Customers seeking Boys could go to the other numerous Boy Bars in Jomtien.

[aussie]

There was a birthday party at the Best Bar last night. We sat at the Club Lounge opposite Best Bar and it was even too noisy sitting at Club Lounge when the Best Bar show started. It was interesting to see how many customers walked past and refused to go into Best Bar because of the noise. The staff and boys working at Best Bar will surely suffer issues with their hearing. With the high rent and running costs involved and the lack of customers I doubt the bar will be around much longer but the damage because of the unsafe noise levels will already be done.

[Jun]

Aussie has raised a good point.

If a bar plays music far too loud, they will damage the hearing of their employees.
Any country that cared about health and safety would enforce laws to protect employees.

However, all we can do is take our money to bars that are more considerate. I don't visit the loud bars on principle, not even before they turn the noise up to 11.

[Jun]

Dream Boys.
Approx 9:30 pm. Again I approached the door and realized no boys were on stage. I dislike the curse of being the only customer, so I swiftly turned around and left. Is 9:30 pm too early?

Classic Boys.
Approx 9:31 pm. If anything, I should have arrived earlier. They had two boys on stage, about 4 boys sat with customers and 1 off stage as part of the rotation. However, both of the boys on stage were very attractive. After about 10 minutes, these two were also invited to sit with customers.

This is another reason why I rarely off boys from gogo bars these days. If I set out to off a boy from Classic Boys and a customer has already taken the two that I like, my only option would be to rush around the corner to Toy Boys, to see if their cute lads are still on stage. After that, I probably need to look beyond the gogo bar scene.

[Jun]

Post trip summary, part 1: Gogo bars

Good: Toy Boys & Classic boys
Disappointing: Winner Boys. Perhaps it's difficult to find cute Thai staff willing to work in a gogo these days?
Didn't have boys on stage when I looked in: Dream Boys


Also, if I categorize the in bar behaviour of gogo boys as follows, from disengaged to pushy:

1 Very Disengaged: Not making eye contact with any customer (rare)
2 Disinterested/scared: Makes brief eye contact with the customer, but quickly looks away
3 Optimum: Is aware of customer interest and will smile at interested customers. Will usually join customer if signalled to do so with a nod (the optimum bar doesn't have mamasans interfering in the process)
4 Pushy: Is aware of customer interest and is persistently staring at customer & waving, or other such tactics to try and get business. Possibly including when standing directly in front of the customer.
5 Very Pushy: Sits with customer without being invited to do so (rare)

Fortunately, in all the years of me visiting Thailand, the two extremes were very rare.
It's normally one of the middle options.

The delightful young lad I offed from Toy Boys understood exactly how to behave on stage.

A couple of the lads in Classic Boys were very handsome, but I'd class them as clearly "Pushy" on the above scale. Not ideal.

At least a couple of others in Toy Boys were close to a "Pushy" rating, but it didn't significantly detract from the experience.

To be honest, I'm glad that Pattaya still has 2~3 gogo bars worth visiting, for cute twinks. If you like a different type of boy, other bars may be OK too.
Enjoy it while it lasts.

[Gaybutton]

To be honest, I'm glad that Pattaya still has 2~3 gogo bars worth visiting, for cute twinks.

"Post trip summary" - Does that mean your Thai holiday is over and now you are headed back to the UK? If so, I hope it won't be too long before you return to Thailand. And let's hope your favorite bars will still be in operation.

[Jun]

"Post trip summary" - Does that mean your Thai holiday is over and now you are headed back to the UK?

Yes. I expect to be back later in the year.

Another comment on gogo bars.
I gather Nice Boys recently told one customer that the reason their boys are in jeans is because it's difficult to get boys to stand on stage in underwear.
I doubt that explanation.

All the gogo bars I actually visited still have boys in underwear.
In the case of Winner Boys, when the young lady turns up selling fruit, they all have no problem at all in walking out into the street in underwear and buying off her.
I also saw several of the Winner Boys running around the block in their underwear one evening. I guess there was a prize for the winner.

Several of the bars in Jomtien seem to have shows or even informal entertainment which at least partly have lads in trunks or something equivalent to underwear.

Also, we hear of bars that might one day have lads in jeans and the next day they are in underwear. Has the lads willingness to undress changed from day to day ? That does not seem logical.

I suspect it's more down to negotiations with the local mafia organisation. The one with brown uniforms & an office on beach road.

[Rocket]

Yeah, I had a pushy boy at Toy Boys in December. He kept waving at me, in your face the whole time. He even did obscene gestures mimicking oral sex. He was a cute twink so I offed him and negotiated a lower price for return visits.
However he was always asking for things. Even saying he didn’t receive anything for his birthday months prior. He had a hearing impediment. Maybe you saw him. Anyways he is 35 and that’s too old for me with all the young ones out there.