The water may be high in Thailand, but Soi Twilight, Bangkok’s largest area of gay gogo bars, is definitely not flooded with customers. The start of high season has been postponed. Hopefully not due to the drastic state of the world’s economy, but rather because touri are staying away in droves fearful of getting caught up in the floods. Whatever the reason, it’s little consolation for those who work the bars. Showtime on a rain-free Saturday night, and the hordes of customers are a no show. “Show now! Show now!” still echoes down the soi, there’s just no one around to be enticed by the call.

Dream Boy remains the most popular bar on the soi, the only bar that managed to even come close to filling with customers for the first show of the night. Punters who complain about high drink prices on the soi should take note that Dream Boy charges 300 baht for your first drink, the highest on the soi, and still does more business than its neighbors. But all is not rosy for Dream Boy either.

Ever since biz dried up a year or two ago the owner combined the Dream Boy show with its downstairs sister bar Boys Bangkok. Customers were invited to watch the show upstairs first, and then head downstairs for the second show. Now, though the red neon lights are still lit up, Boys Bangkok’s doors are shut tight. Whether that is a temporary measure due to low visitor numbers thanks to the flooding, or a sign of the times remains to be seen.

Dream Boy’s gaggle of touts used to be joined by a smattering of noisy barkers from Ocean Boy and X-Size, the resulting cacophony an in your face welcome that could easily be heard at the mouth of the soi. Like the customer count, the barker count has dwindled too. Ocean Boy has a single, and quite demure barker out front and the rep for X Size makes but a cursory appearance, occasionally stepping out of the bar to see if there are any potential customers worth performing for. Those fronting the bars closer to Suriwong have always been more about grabbing than yelling and while their numbers have remained strong, their friendly grab as you walk by has become more like a glue-like attachment of desperation.

But with the exception of Boys Bangkok, all the usual suspects are still in business, still putting on their shows. At the Suriwong corner, Banana which went dark at the beginning of the year, is open again. And Hot Male took over the groundfloor space immediately adjacent to its entrance next to Maxis, opening yet another beer bar, this time named Hot Male 2. It seems another beer bar has also opened to the backside of Ocean Boy, though maybe there was always two beer bars there? Hard to remember, it’s always been a dead stretch and if one of the bars is new it offers nothing new or unusual. Why anyone would open a beer bar on the Soi Twilight is beyond me. But then so is how any other than the two opposite of each other at the mouth of the soi can stay in business. The sports bar, at the end of the soi, has been in business for a few years now and still never seems to have any customers.

Dick’s Cafe was pretty dead too. 10:00 on a Saturday night and there were more open tables on its patio than filled. But then part of the reason to hang at Dick’s is to watch the passing parade. No parade, no good reason to pay Dick’s inflated prices or put up with their snooty staff.

When business is slow the usual Thai answer to dwindling profits is to raise prices. Possibly Soi Twilight bar owners realize there is a limit to what they can get away with charging. The average drink price is still 250 baht. Dream Boys starts at 300 baht but drops to 260 baht after your first drink. Off fees seem to have not risen either, most of the bars along the soi charge 400 baht.

As far as the bars and the boys they have to offer, nothing there has changed either. The same type of guys are still up for sale at each bar, the mix between fem, boy next door, and muscle stud remains. (For a more detailed description of each bar and the type of guys they offer please refer to my original State of the State post here.)

Even the crowd over at Tawan was smaller than normal. Which means the number of muscle studs available is larger. The guys are looking pretty good having just finished off a round of competitive body building, and with business being slow they all are quick to flash a smile.

Unfortunately, the week long series of Silver Jubilee events Tawan had planned for next week has been postponed until the end of November due to the floods (which for the record, have had no effect water-wise on the Patpong area). Tawan has opened a small massage place next door, which for some reason is populated with little twink guys out front. They are running a promotion to encourage customers to try out the massage parlor: buy 2 drinks (260 baht each) at Tawan and get a free massage next door. That’d be one without a happy ending. Business may be slow, but you won’t be getting your rocks off for free in Bangkok.

10/29/11: Quick Update
Thanks to the threat of floods, Soi Twilight is still on the slow side. But Boys Bangkok’s doors are again open and they once again share a show with their sister bar, Dream Boy.

Over at Tawan, a lot of guys headed home to deal with the rising water so the normal stable was a bit lacking. And mostly of the B roster. As much as Tawan manages to reel in the muscle hunks, they also rely on filler, the only requirement seeming to be ‘large’. Unfortunately that can also mean fat and ugly. This was the first time I’ve visited Tawan in over 20 years that I didn’t find at least one guy suitable for offing. So I tried out their new massage service next door.

I went with a foot massage, it was well done and relaxing. As I mentioned before though, why they are staffing their massage shop with twinks when their customer draw is those who hit Tawan for muscles is beyond me. But then if you are looking for a real massage and not a happy ending, the twinks they hired seem to know what they are doing.