It is perhaps price resistance more than anything. Jupiter (drinks 270 baht) was full on both occasions that I looked in, possibly on account of its quality of show.

Dream Boy was nearly full on both the weekday night I was in it and the weekend night I popped in again briefly. First drink 300 baht, second drink 260.

Other bars in the soi aren't doing as well. X-size was OK, filling about 60 percent of capacity, but the others (X-boys, Fresh Beach, Ocean, Hotmale) had pathetic audiences for what should be high season. My guess is that when these bars followed price leader Dream Boys and Jupiter up in pricing, they didn't realise that they also had to deliver the same quality of boys and show. Not having done so, the market is smart enough to go only to the bars that give what they consider value for money.

The solution is obvious. If the bars cannot compete with Dream Boy and Jupiter in show quality, then try harder to get better-looking boys and adopt an aggressive discounting strategy to rebalance the value proposition. But this is Thailand and I won't hold my breath.

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