Well, the old Babs was sleazy and smelt a bit funny (especially the steamroom), but the layout was great and there was action.

The new Babs has beaten its predecessor to smell. It STINKS now BIG TIME. Everywhere including the Barracks. I don't know, maybe they put a bunch of dead rats in the foundation according to some savage custom. Or maybe they store kitchen trash in the air-conditioning system?

The shower maze downstairs is constantly semi-flooded with soapy water. The only time I went there I spotted something very turd-like merrily floating in one of the shower cubicles. I wouldn't bet though that was not a drowned rat or maybe even a chocolate muffin!

Some restaurant manager from Massachusets told me that he was amazed how immaculately clean the new Babs is. One thing I know for sure: you won't see me dead dining out in Massachusets.

The jaccuzzi is hard to find and maybe that's for better. Normally one look is enough to turn one away from jaccuzzi for the rest of his life. To top it off, the water is cold and -- surprise! -- it smells funky. I can very well imagine Babs staff walking with buckets all the way to draw water from to the khlong between South and North Sathorn Roads.

In fact, there are so few hot showers, that you always end up queueing until cum cakes on you. The locker rooms remind of WWII submarines and the lockers themselves are barely big enough to squeeze in a silk fan and a leather purse. Now I understand what kind of crowd is the new Babs' target group. LOL

It's absolutely true: there's always something closed in the new Babs. It feels like a full size maze for gay lab rats. I don't see any rationale behind it except for trying to keep the crowds as close as possible to paid-for drinks and food. Well, dudes, we understand, you have your bills to pay.

I also felt the staff are embittered and crabby, especially in the Barracks (not all of them though) -- the doorboy is particularly obnoxious. They must be severely underpaid and have unlimited working hours per day or SOMETHING.

The hyped up disco events gather crowds of whopping 25-30 funked out dudes -- you know them, the former DJ Station junkies expelled from the premises for good. I was surprised to se them still alive there. They all seem to gather with the sole purpose of socializing with each other, so don't even bother to distract them from their excited chit-chat, they'll beat you into pulp with their fans and fancy purses.

The pretentious eclectic style with Babylonian sphynxes, concrete gargoyles, mismatched antiques, and chains everywhere is good enough to impress undereducated chintz-loving Americans and provincial European bourgeois travelling to Asia on package tours. The money should have rather been invested in some hygienic equipment.

I agree with flyagain's opinion that a bit of re-laying-out and lots of cleaning up would only do the place good. The gym and the pool area are neat and the building itself is bigger than the old Babs. It has the potential, but as of yet it is just mispllaned, mismanaged and miserable.

Chakran is perfect as a kind of country club for lazy weekends, but it's mostly "sticky rice" and the multi-layer cruising area with the underlit stairs is just dangerous.

The moral of the story us: the sad point of all gay establishments around the world is that the management always take their customers for granted.