INTRO
like many mongers, i've been to bangkok quite a few times over the years but don't always report on the trips as i'm usually in btwn the "primary" trip (phuket, pattaya, vietnam, etc...). i do comment here and there as others report on the city. i consider myself slightly above novice category when it comes to knowing bkk. i've been there alot but haven't explored much and haven't hit that many places often enough to say i really know them. obviously i've done nana and soi cowboy (but this most recent trip was the first time i made multiple visits to soi cowboy). been to a couple places on soi 33 (pulled from christies in the past). used to hang on soi 11 (stayed at grand president) when i first ventured to bkk in 2001 but i prefer soi 22 now. visited the thermae a couple times but never pulled from there. have pulled a few times from the beer garden on soi 7. i stopped in there this last trip and it didn't look good. went to some soapy's long ago but no stops recently. never been to eden club or any of the daytime massage joints (angels, tulip or whatever the name is for the one near the thonglor BTS station that gets some commentary on this site).

in march 08, i spent a couple weeks at the president park but i spent the whole time with a freelancer (friend of my buddy's gf). paid her 2,000thb/day (this one was a three holer). in late july/early august, i spent a couple weeks at president park with a gal i met in phuket and she came in from korat via bus. paid her 1,500thb/day. hotel cost was approx. 2,200thb/day. even these longer stays were semi recovery and that is why i opted for the "cheaper" option of hiring a long term gal. no bar fine, no lady drink, not too many drinks for me, and did ZERO shopping for the girl(s). one girl ate street food outside the hotel. the other loved mcdonalds (walking distance although i never went there). some room service but very reasonable prices (say 140thb for a regular thai dish, cost less than 100thb if you eat in restaurant downstairs).

i mention this as i see a recent report with some comments about how it can get a bit expensive to really enjoy bkk to its fullest. (and i agree with that). let's assume i spent 1,000thb/day on other stuff (dvd, my food/beer, etc...). we'll split the baby on the money paid to the girls, call it 1,800. room at 2,200 (no brkfst but free internet and nice fitness place). so that is 5,000/day. or about $150/day. for this i had a girl full time and lived in a nice place. no major bar bills as i'd done my drinking before arrival and expected to do more drinking at my next destination. i think it is hard to go below that price per day and maintain the same hotel standard with full time lady.

now you are probably wondering what the hell is this. a report on bangkok or a preschool level math class. just be patient as i'm trying to get the cost piece in here as well as the go go commentary.

HOTEL
i had another chance to stop in bkk btwn trips again. this time i paid a monthly rate and stayed all of september. president park again, 50,000thb, roughly $50 day. i stepped up a notch on the room, could have had my 2,200thb room from before for $40/day but thought i'd try to next level up since i was on the monthly/lower rate. not worth it. should have stuck to the lower priced rooms. the main difference was/is (i) no couch in the more expensive room and (ii) the less expensive rooms are in the bldg across the street from the lobby and feel more like your own place.

GO GO'S
this time i told myself no freelancers so i was going to be paying bar fines, lady drinks and drinks for myself (not the cheap way to go in bkk). i focused on soi cowboy and barfined girls from shark club, baccara, tilac, and dollhouse (more on those later). i went to nana a half dozen times and didn't really see much. angelwitch, which used to get alot of mention on this board was a huge zero. i'd barfined some gals from hollywood before but it was no good this trip. checked various rainbow bars and either totally empty with dogs or way too crowded. maybe i was there the wrong nights but it was so bad i didn't go back after the first 10 days. i was closer to soi cowboy so that was best. oh, and i had never barfined a gal from soi cowboy on a previous trip. went there a few times but never bar fined.

shark club - this place was packed with talent. i never had more than half my beer down before i made my selection. once i did, i had one or two more on the patio out front and checked the street scene. felt much nicer than hanging down in the middle of nana. i repeated with several girls out of shark. bf 600, s/t 2000, l/t 3,000-3,500.

tilac - i didn't see much talent in this place but it was a good spot to hang and have a few beers. shark and dollhouse are "classic go go set ups" whereas tilac and baccara have a more "updated set up". one of my shark girls had a friend here and i took both of them a few times (i'd take one s/t and one l/t, limited girl/girl action). plus, i took each of them solo a few times as well. bf 600, s/t 2000, l/t 3000.

dollhouse - i took four girls from this place. two dancers and two waitresses. one dancer and one waitress were quite large in the chest area and quite thin in the waist area. and these were real tits. really enjoyed that. i didn't like the place on my first visit but after i wore out shark, i needed another spot so i went in again and it was much better. pricing same as tilac. repeated one time each with the dancers. had waitresses at very end so no chance to repeat.

baccara - only took one gal from here. sometimes the place was way too crowded. seemed like people were just dug in for hours in this place. not there to make a selection and move on (which was my program). i preferred the upstairs area and walked out if it was too crowded up there. pricing 600 and 3000 (didn't do short time assume 2000).

i stopped in a few other places on soi cowboy but didn't see anything else that was nice. long gun was probably the worst place i've been in a long time. even some of the shitty bars in AC seemed better than long gun.

what i liked most about soi cowboy is i could go over there at 8pm, get a girl, and sip a few 70thb beers (happy hour until 8:30 some places until 9:30. believe at all times if sitting outside). the girls never really hassled me for lady drinks although i usually bought one to three (if 3 drinks there were two girls involved). believe the lady drinks were 125thb. so typically, my bar fine plus drinks was 1,000 -1,200.

i mention opening time and lady drinks as i didn't like the late start times for the go gos in pattaya and phuket. i can wait until 10 or 11 when the go gos really get going in these two places if i have to. and i can pay 170 for the lady drink and north of 100 for my beer. not a huge problem. but, if i can get the girl at 8pm and pay less for the drinks. that is my preference. of course you have the beer bars that open earlier with cheaper drinks but this is gogo to gogo comparison (at least as far as pattaya goes, no go go's in patong, even the beer bars don't get going until at least 10).

MY SCHEDULE/COST:
i didn't do much in bkk except ladies, some fitness, and watch the stock market tank on CNBC. now comes the math lesson again. i can't remember exactly but let's assume the following. i barfined four times a week. with doubles, that is six ladies. so 3,600 for barfines in a week. then let's say the bar bill was 2,400 (600/nt x 4). so bfs and booze for a week was 6,000. for the six girls, two s/t and four l/t (2x2000, 2x3000, and 2x3500). that is 17,000/wk. so now we are at 23,000/wk or 92,000/mo. add the room, 50,000.

so here we are at 142,000 for the month. say 4,200usd. my bank accts reflect closer to 5,000usd for sept but i bought a $200 plane ticket and i've left out my food and other misc. so add another $600, $4,800/mo and this doesn't include airfare to/from bkk. i recall reading a post on the board a few years back that said you needed $5,000/mo if you wanted to live in bkk and have a decent standard of living (which i think i did). and if you noticed, this $4,800/mo works out to $160/day versus the $150/day program i described in the intro. i was surprised by this as i thought i would blow by $150/day by visiting the go gos and bar fining several times a week. but no, not a big difference, the lower rate on the hotel via a monthly rate helped somewhat (about $20/day).

i spent $5,000 in one month in patong beach - where the room and the girls were about half the cost in bkk. the problem ? my bar bill, including my drinks and lady drinks. when the action doesn't start until 10 or 11, you end up drinking. then you are too drunk to be smart and avoid buying the lady drinks. plus, you don't get back to the room until 1am (or later) so you barely have any time with the ladies before you are passed out. in bkk, i've had two or more sessions by 1am and am happily asleep.

CONCLUSION
i really enjoyed my hotel and the ladies in bkk. as one member noted in my patong beach report, the girls in bkk are definitely higher grade stock than patong. you pay more for the girls in bkk but you can get more time with them if you pick them off early. forget calling the patong girls for an early session. most can't even get out of bed before 6-7pm. i was through fucking in bkk at 7pm several times as i had girls stop at my place on their way to work. i didn't have any runners and the girls i had didn't seem to be saying money, money, money all the time.

THANK YOU! For a newbie planning his first trip this winter, this is a very valuable lesson on TODAY'S prices.

Helps me to set up my budget for the trip, (which I intend to blow). Also, nice to know what the going rate is for girls. I intend to hold the line & not just throw BHAT at every cute ass I see.

Inflation is a bad thing, no matter the product...

People forget that drinking is actually more expensive than pussy in most mongering destinations...especially if you are puking LD's and partying like a rock star. I spend the most money in Angeles City because there is nothing to do but drink and fuck. I may have to go to 25 bars to find a cutie in AC but will find one in the first bar I go to in Thailand, thus the overall lower cost.

Still think 3,000 baht is overpriced slightly for Soi Cowboy girls LT. Most girls will take 2,500, especially during low season.

Well put Blazers. I do Pattaya and AC regularly and like gogos. I always spend more in AC. It has to do with drinking. On the trip I just got back from, no tr yet, I spent the least during my week in Boracay. This was true even though my hotel, meals and day time non mongering were most expensive there. I had one girl, who lied and told the bar she was visiting the province, I spent my whole Boracay time with, never entered a gogo during that time and didn't drink much. On an AC day I can average two barfines, fifteen drinks between mine and lady drinks, my meals and three ladies meals who scarf when I'm giving away. Blazers is right, but in AC I'm more living like a rockstar. In Pattaya I will average half as many drinks, my hotel and food run about half and I barfine maybe four long time gogo girls and eight or nine short time gogo, Lólita's or Soi Six girls a week and that's cheaper than AC, but I'm not like a rock star.

The 2K/3K LT/ST rate is the going rate. Buick did not overpay. While the girls may accept less, they will generally not tell their coworkers they did so.
Of course, if he wanted to haggle, most girls will accept 1,500 ST--but if they are hardcore in-demand dancers with regular customers they will not budge from 2K short time and may even quote some outrageous 3K ST if they think they can extract it from you.
The days of 1K ST 2K LT at Cowboy are over.
If you're a regular, or if the girl is deperate for cash and it's a rough low season, you can do better--but not by much.
However, regarding hotel/lodging:
If you are going to stay a whole month, it'd be much more economical to rent a serviced apartment for one month: you can get great rooms for roughly 35-45K. You can find totally acceptable, clean serviced rooms for 20-30K. that savings could add up to a lot of barfines!

Well, he paid 3,500 twice so by your definition he did overpay but only slightly. I never had a bgirl flinch at 2,500 baht but it sounds like the OP thinks its a fixed price for LT when it is not. Then again, I speak Thai.

(Message edited by blazers on October 15, 2008)

i paid 3,500 to one girl who i repeated with several times. she asked how much i was going to pay when i suggested we do l/t, i said 3,000 and she countered with 3,500. i was okay with it.

when i visited shark (where this girl worked) after the first session, two girls asked me how much i paid her. i said 3,000 (a lie, imagine that, i lied to a bar girl !!!). that sent shockwaves through the place. supposedly, she does not do l/t for less than 4,000. i believe this girl is #8 at shark (name, pron). i had her in my sights for quite awhile so i remember the number.

there also seemed to be some friction btwn her and another girl i took before her. so it is possible i got a discount in order for her to swoop in on the other girls customer (me). perhaps a payback.
oh the joy of the bar girl politics.

other than that one girl, never had any debates on the prices. i didn't try for a lower rate and the girls didn't ask for a higher rate.

as far as the hotel at 50k/month. i had decided to test out one of the reportedly "nice" rooms. as i noted, it was not worth it. as zuperfly says, there are many places at 35k+/- that will do the job if you are there for a month. i will not pay 50k/mo again (i just hope i get a chance to stay for a full month again !!!).

zuperfly, do have any experience with "house by the pond" off soi 22 ? i meant to go and check it out but never made it over there. their rates look good but the website makes me think it is a limited service place, not a true serviced apartment. i'll be in bangkok for a week or so in november and they have weekly rates for 10k.

i forgot to add one more item. i hung outside of the bars on soi cowboy at least half of my 30 nights. i saw my girls bar fined many times while i was sitting with my girl for that particular night. so i don't think my selections were hurting for business. and i wasn't on the soi past 9pm, sometimes i was gone by 8pm. so my girls were some of the first to go. they had customers pretty much every night they went to work. of course when i bar fined them and asked if they had a customer the previous night, they would say no and use some excuse like "my sister was in town" or "i was sick". but i'd seen them with their customer. that gave me a good laugh.

blazers,
i've read alot of your reports/posts over the years. you like to negotiate/barter and really stand firm with your principles. it is in your blood. i negotiate to make money for work but i leave that at the office when i go on vacation. i don't want to negotiate on vacation so sometimes i pay more than people with a style like yours.

this 3,500 girl is a good example. i view it as a discount since she supposedly gets 4,000 from others. but i'm sure you would have been able to grind her down to 3,000 and make my discount look like an overpayment.

a buddy of mine is jewish and boy does he fit the stereotype. when i vacation with him, i feel like i'm at work because there is constant negotiating going on, the hotel, the cabs, the girls, etc. it is classic as the two of us are total opposites. i end up paying for his shit half the time just to get the talking done so we can move on (i have zero patience).

one super classic was at the dollhouse in bkk back when it was in clinton plaza (i think that was the name). he took some of the drink chits from our drink bin. call it the five finger discount. then, the dumb fool went back. i had left for the US but he had a few more days. the girls were all over his shit right when he walked in. he paid what he owed and was kicked out immediately !!!

Buick: Thanks for the post. Any girl photos to share?

Buick...its about value. When the girl is extremely beautiful, then my negotiations are out the window. I dont haggle with the girls. I have a guideline of what I think the girl is worth and stick by it. If I think the girl is unique then I will relent to her price. I try to have fun with the process and never have them lose face. If the girl is stuck on a high price, I can politely move on to another girl. Plenty of pooying in the pool. I use charm to achieve my goals, not hardcore haggling. Those who know me have seen the charm in action....have to make up for lack of looks.

Lastly, I definately spend more than you because I like the experience of hanging out at the gogo bars and having fun. In addition, I rarely to LT's any more and just do multiple ST's and in Thailand that can be expensive.

Trust me, I get what you are saying. You are there to enjoy yourself so its best just to do what you feel comfortable with.


As for haggling and negotiating. The only time where my fangs come out is with taxi drivers. I hate them, they are the scum of the earth.

sorry guys, i don't do the photo thing. i've never even owned a camera. i did buy a couple disposables on a couple trips to europe many years back. and my picture taking skills are worse than my language skills (which also rank about a zero).

on the topic of taxi drivers, my buddy that i note above had a classic in cambodia just recently. he and i took a taxi from the nagi (sp?) casino up to 104 st. i asked the guy how much in advance and got no answer. i asked again in the car. no answer. so i knew we were fucked on the price.

so we get out and the guy says $5 ($3 was probably the right price). i decided to let my buddy take the lead on the negotiations. we stood in the street for probably 45 minutes. and i'm not kidding. we were surrounded by probably 20 cambo guys, not so much threatening us but trying to diffuse the "situation". finally, i stepped in and i paid $4. 45 minutes to save $1.

i should also clarify the hotel negotiation comment. this happens when we do not have a hotel in advance and the two of us are trying to find a good one. he tries (and has some success) to get discounts for stays of 2 or 3 days. so maybe a $35 room goes down to $32. but, in order to achieve this, one has to carry your bags around to visit 5-7 hotels before returning to the one that provides the best value.

blazers, on the topic of go gos. i was attempting to keep my drinking down in bkk. but, that aside, i also didn't really feel a good atmosphere (for lack of a better word) in the bkk go gos on soi cowboy. i can sit and enjoy for a few hours in several go gos in pattaya (say coyote, living dolls, beach club, club boesche or however that one is spelled). and you have to do it in AC, no real choice. for my last trip in bkk, baccara was a decent place to hang for awhile but it really got too crowded. tilac was probably the best one that i saw for hanging out. shark and dollhouse seemed to be best to just pull out.

>>45 minutes to save $1

Yeah, I can see where your buddy's negotiating would irritate the crap out of me. I'd put up with it for about 45 seconds, not 45 minutes.

A little haggling with Thai girls on price isn't a bad idea - most will give you a price higher than what they really expect. I'd usually counter with the low range of what I know going rates to be, then settle on something in between. Total haggling time usually about 30 seconds, then it's back to drinking and having fun.

I usually have a grab bag of jokes I tell them in Thai to difuse the situation and make the negotiations fun. I always smile and never raise my voice with them when doing this. One of my common jokes is to tell them that I should get a reduced rate because I have a golden cock and if I fuck them, they will shit out gold chains and can take them to the gold stores later for cash. Another fun way to joke with them is to make up some lie that I am a poor farmer and cant afford the higher price because I have to go to the market to buy feed for my carabou. I also ask them if I can make a trade and add in a giant catfish as a tip. Anything to remind them of their home in Issan.

yeah, i let that one play out on purpose. the taxi guy did grab me by the face when i paid him the $4 instead of $5 but i just looked him in the eye and laughed as he held my face. why he didn't grab and beat my buddy instead is strange. i'm not a big guy but my buddy is smaller.

i would say my negotiations last about 15 seconds. and i will try and use some humor next time and see what i might be able to achieve. i have read some good ones on the board (something about a sick water buffalo recently) plus what blazers adds above so i have some examples to use now. although i won't be able to tell them in thai.

Yes, prices are rocketing skyward. I wish guys would 'haggle' more, or simply know the market.
I have NEVER paid 3,500 for LT, 3K is sufficient for 99% of the girls who work gogo bars.
I hope she gave you a pedicure and washed the windows for that price!
Of course, to each his own, I guess if I had lots of cash I'd part with mine more easily. Problem is, this is exactly how the going rate at Cowboy has shot up by roughly 100% since 2005.
The most pretty and mercenary girls won't even think about entertaining a customer who lives here,they want tourists who will pay 6,000 baht (it happens all the time)...from their point of view, it's the right move: screw less strangers, and when you go with a farang, earn as much as the other girls make in 2 or 3 nights.

i didn't get alot of addtl services for my 3.5k. i'm sorry to report. what i did like about this girl beyond the looks/body, was she was ready to leave my room by 8am. i get up early in bkk because i usually don't drink alot the night before (in phuket and pattaya, a whole different ballgame). i'm often awake at 6am. so getting a session in and having my place to myself by 8am was really nice. while i'm not afraid to wake the girls up, session, and boot them out, i prefer it when i don't have to. much more enjoyable when we are on the same schedule w/o alot of extra effort on my part.

but my failure to use charm (aka, negotiate) did end up costing me the extra 500thb several times due to the repeats. as i noted, i'll try and limit myself to 3k on my next visit (i'll be back soon). and if this girl is still around, i'll see if she is a taker at 3k or not. if not, i'll skip her that night but will probably crawl back another and pay the 3.5k. i hope she is still there. it'll be a good report back either way.

help me out a little on this transformation of the pricing at cowboy, if you have the time. as i noted, i'm just above novice status on mongering in bkk. have a history in terms of years but not so much on numerous b/f's and such. haven't the nana girls been on a 2k/3k price for awhile now. i think i paid 3k l/t years ago so maybe i way over paid then. but my main point/question is why would the cowboy girls get less money than the nana girls. it is the same city and the places are very close to each other. if the quality of the girl is the same, why would working at one area versus the other dictate the price ?

i understand that overpaying can lead to an increase in pricing (especially if 6k is happening) but it seems to me that the difference in pricing was some strange anomaly that has now corrected itself.

in that same vein of anomaly, i posted a report on patong not long ago. btwn 1996 and 2002, things were pretty static in girl quality and pricing. now, the pricing is less and the girls are better. it boggles my mind. i think it is the only place on earth that has experience this: pricing down/quality up. i did present some thoughts as to why this is but won't repeat them here. if anyone is interested, they can read the report.

i hope to report back a 3k payment to #8 at shark. i'll charm, negotiate, be steadfast, whatever we want to call it. wish me luck.

im a newbie.. was this in bk or pattaya. can someone tell me the goin rate in pattaya. will be goin in january

this is bangkok. i haven't had much time in pattaya for over year. i believe the go go girls there are cheaper, you can probably find girls for 1,500 s/t and 2,500 l/t. i don't think an attractive go go girl will accept 1,000 s/t or 2,000 l/t. i believe those are the prices that might be accepted by the better looking girls at the outdoor beer bars.

if you are tight on cash and like to bargain, start off low and see what happens.

Pattaya is cheaper than bangkok, pattaya you can get short time for as little as 1000B in a bar, then as Buick say`s it goes up for attractive girls in GOGO`s.for as much as 3000B. kun_mur will flame now for saying 3000B.

Ahh the difficult travel buddy. Despite liking your buddy you can learn some surprising things when you travel with friends. On my virgin trip to Thailand my buddy often got irate at filling out personal info in hotels, immigration forms etc. No that I enjoy it but it's a small price to pay to come to LOS. What's more is his strange taste in women had us traveling up second Road all night before our third buddy and I took girls from Atlantic bar back to Sabai Lodge.

The next night the girls show up and want us to go to a birthday party for their friend. We get to their squalid apartment and there's the birthday girl with slash marks all over her arms from a past suicide attempt. She was not attractive either. MaliMike and I had a great time that night with our chicks doing X-Zyte disco and the karaoke thing all night. Buddy 1 ended up having to take one for the team in a pretty bad way.

Back then it didn't bother me, I was still all ga ga about Thailand. Now though, I wouldn't put up with it for a minute. In fact I'm quite accustomed to people hanging out short time and then parting ways. The goal is to be with a lady by the end of the evening.

That's why I prefer staying at places like Sabai Lodge, back when my trip buddies and I had compatible schedules. You can rendezvous poolside in the daytime and trade stories on last night's activities, walk to soi 6 for an after nooner, or get dinner and then hit walking street. Once you're there, any time is an appropriate time to part ways.

Khun Rot Bat Dang

Why would I flame you over 3,000 baht ? We are in an inflationary time.The price of everything is up why should pussy remain the same ??