I had a trip to Thailand recently and wanted to share. BKK on the whole was good and largely as expected. Although the girls in one agogo in Soi Cowboy looked surprised when I asked how much a bar fine was. I pushed it, and in the end I got my answer "we can't be bar-fined". I've met the odd gogo girl who won't be bar-fined but haven't before seen such a blanket policy. Some of the soi cowboy gogo girls are also asking for a coke and an alcohol lady drink at the same time and so your bill is immediately for two lady drinks. Adds up, but not as bad as Phuket.
This was much busier than the last time I visited. Everything reflected that from hotels to girls. It was really expensive. 2000 baht for bar fine in most gogos. But worse, even if you agree to that, they hit you with a surprise minimum lady drinks policy before you take the girl back to hotel.
In one gogo, this was 5 drinks, and I'd already bought 2. So they wanted another 750 baht on top of their 2000 baht bar fine and girl's payment. Changing the deal at the last moment after you've asked to bar fine the girl and got that cost straight, really annoyed me. I passed on the girl.
The next night at another gogo, I tried asking some bar tenders what the bar fine deal was and they didn't let on any extra charge. I patiently waited for a hot dancer who was just my type, bought her some drinks, and started negotiating.
5k she said. Well 2k bar and 3k girl is a stretch but tolerable. No, she said, 5k for her, 2k for the bar. That was too much. But we agreed on 4k for her. When I get the bill though, there's was a whack more - they have a TEN lady drink minimum, so they wanted another 7x 250 for no drinks. All in all, this was just too much even with a hot girl. I think even the girl understood that. So I passed.
All in all it was so busy it was hard to get a moment with a hot girl, there are so many guys. Having double the bar fine to BKK is one thing, but sneaking in an extra secret charge like this after you've decided on the apparent cost, is bad form. I suspect all the Phukets gogos are doing this now.
So Phuket is no longer a go-to punting destination for me