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phiijames
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2 years for locals and 1 year for non-locals seems very strange. Piano next door has it exactly the opposite way round, which seems more logical since non-locals have less opportunity to make use of their membership.
30,000 is fairly typical for a low-end membership at a good members' club of the karoke/drinking/women variety. Exotica and Piano both offer memberships at this level, though I think they also have 50,000 and 100,000 memberships.
I believe there are members' clubs of a more wholesome type, which are more expensive. I've also heard rumors of a members' club along the same lines as Chateau Blanc, Piano or Exotica but more upscale, expensive and exclusive, patronized by Thai politicians and major businessman, where you have to be introduced by a member (called something like M6 though I may well have misremembered). I've only ever heard of one of these.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 1:27 am on May 8, 2003
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Smegma
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P-J,
Yes, the 20k clubs have also 100k deals (at least the ones I know). At these places, imo one doesn't get much more for higher memberships besides better prices on a per bottle basis or a higher % discount on some items. In these cases, I prefer to have the money in my pocket and decide later on to renew or not, rather than pay for a large number of bottles that will take a long time to consume.
However, I think the clubs Sauron mentions would be more in line with what you mention in your last para. where 100k would be the minimum entry membership.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 1:32 am on May 8, 2003
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Sauron
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The Thai business and political elite are about three things:
Exclusivity
Exclusivity and
Exclusivity.
Member clubs go in and out of fashion. They are a form of conspicuous consumption.
The 1 Million baht per year one I am thinking of used to be and maybe still is at the corner of Rama 9 and Ramkhamhaeng and was restricted to present and former Prime Ministers of Thailand.
Expect sumptuous interior decor, and plentiful poontang all dressed to kill. Thai society is a vertical hierarchy just as regimented as the old sakdina feudal system, so why is anyone surprised that the low level 20-60K baht member clubs that are easy for farang to access, represent the top of the member club pyramid rather than the bottom?
Also count on the fact that at some point in the middle, farang will cease to be welcome at any price.
And the proposition that the routine member clubs are "High Society" is an absurdity. Every f_cking surburban Bangkok neighborhood has member clubs abounding with fees in the 10K-50K range, on a par with the Ekamai and Thonglor membership fleshpots.
The class of Thais that I am talking about, the elite, are the ones who drop 100,000 baht a NIGHT in the penthouses of Plaza Entertainment with the owner, who is the head of the Social Order campaign...what is 100,000 a year to them? Or a million? Anyone who is clubbing at a 30K/year member club is surrounded not by tycoons and shakers but by clearks and typists and assistants to personnel directors of 30 man companies. Not a good way to "climb" in Thailand. You won't meet any Bunnags or Soponpanichs or Adireksans or Hetrakuls in there. You'd be better off at the 20 Pub drinking with Chalerm's sons.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 1:46 am on May 8, 2003
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Smegma
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Yes, sadly for farangs (foreigners in general) Sauron is right on the hi-so thing and the clubs.
Though, a couple of times I have seen some seen real hi-so names at some of the 30k membership clubs. But it is the young 20 something sons of the rich -who anyway like to keep a low profile. I also learned long ago not to mention any of those clubs at any upper-class house dinner I am invited to.
I disagree somehow on the farangs never ever being welcomed. Of course it is not a matter of money. Money alone itself will not buy entry into Thai hi-so. But there are cases where spouses (females and males) have managed to make it in here yes, there are few. Well, maybe they are not welcomed, but are just "accepted" by virtue of who they marry. Anyway, real hi-so in any country is always very closed and relies mostly in an old good pedigree helped by money or power, rather than any of the latter.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 2:05 am on May 8, 2003
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Sauron
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This is a microcosm about the general misunderstanding of prostitution in Thailand.
Foreigners think that this is a country of cheap bargirls and massage girls. Because that's what they see.
Newsies and NGOs blather on about the cribs behind barbed wire and the girls chained to the walls. Because that's their agenda, even though they have never SEEN them.
NO ONE is talking about the fantastically expensive world of the Thai courtesans, catering to the super-rich and super-powerful (mostly Thai-Chinese) elite of politics and business. $1200 US call girls, hostesses in ultra-expensive and ultra exclusive member clubs (not the places being FR'd by pinga and friends!) -- it's invisible because that's how the participants want it to be.
Just as rural likay theatre is a mimicry of Khon court drama, the lower rungs of the ladder have their versions of the above, see pinga's FRs.
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 2:11 am on May 8, 2003
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FarangBha
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went out with a girl who goes to 'fitness' the racecource in the middle of town ... 1m m'ship - daddy's in the building industry!
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 2:14 am on May 8, 2003
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Sauron
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Yes, Smegma, non-Thai spouses of Thai elite represent an exception, but it's exceptions like that that prove the rule, so my comments stand.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 2:15 am on May 8, 2003
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Sauron
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Yep, the Royal Turf Club and the Royal Sports Club, application lists for decades to come already piled up, high stakes fees, just more Thai exclusivity and Keeping Up with the Panyarachuns...khun tamadaa struggling to be seen as poo dii...
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 2:22 am on May 8, 2003
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FarangBha
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Sauron's right about the 'hidden' prostitution ... the more time you spend here the more you see it, f_cking amazing ... but I know little....
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 2:23 am on May 8, 2003
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pinga
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Never heard on those ultra expensive Hi So Clubs in Thailand. Long ago, in Japan, I was invited to have some fun at one RYOUTHEI and the place was really fantastic, same thing willt he f_cking bill. Was told that some members of the parliament were regulars in there and that makes my only experience in one of those.
Well, since I am not rich and obviously not that stupid to spend 100K a night and since I feel quite happy with the quality of the girls at CB, MONROE, EXOTICA and PIANO, will keep going those places in the seek of some sanook.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 2:28 am on May 8, 2003
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