What’s new in the new year?

Well dear readers, 2023 is upon us! Despite claims that the sky was falling and the world was coming to an end we have made it. If you are reading this then you are alive. And I hope you are well too. The commercial sex industry has certainly survived. Though it has done better in some places than others.

Rockit Reports went online in 2012. This site has been updated at least once a week ever since. At times it was updated multiple times per week or even daily. This year I plan on continuing the once-a-week publishing schedule. Of course there is also the possibility for a little bit extra in the right circumstances.

Most if not all FKK clubs have reopened in Europe. They may not be exactly as they were before. But that’s not for lack of trying. Belgium has recently decriminalized prostitution. Though things may be going the other way in Spain.

Several escort style agencies accepting or even oriented around foreigners in Japan have closed down under the weight of the global situation. But places like Tokyo Style, Tokyo Hentai Club and Shady Motion continue on. Tokyo Style seems to be operating normally. THC now operates out of a single office but they continued to be well-staffed and busy with some popular providers like Yoshika being regularly booked out.

Several red light districts, the infamous Hooker Hill, and even some ANMA have been decimated or eliminated completely from South Korea. A few popular massage parlors like Jinju have also banned foreigners from their shops in recent years. Still there are many room salons, escorts, kiss rooms, massage parlors and more in Seoul and other cities. And a certain percentage of them welcome non-Korean customers with open arms.

As reported here, the four floors of whores in Singapore is no more. But prostitutes are still working in the Lion City.

Sex workers continue to do their trade even in Burma in the tough conditions they face. The same goes in Indonesia where some prominent sex clubs are back in business. There is no shortage of sex workers in the Philippines either. Even if some once popular adult entertainment venues have gone the way of the dodo bird.

Vietnam and Cambodia are alive as ever. The same goes for the commercial sex industry in both countries. New venues continue to open all the time. Few adult entertainment venues are found shuttered in either of these southeast Asian nations.

Thailand in 2023

For more than ten years I have covered the sex industry around the world. My work has not focused on any one country in particular. In fact I have provided coverage of the industry in 30 countries spanning four continents. Still some have come to view this as a Thailand-centric website.

That is not without merit. Thailand has been covered on this site more than any other country in the world. Part of that is to do with the size of the commercial sex industry there which is indeed very large. Sex workers can be found in practically every city and town in the land of smiles, whether that be big Bangkok or little Ubon Ratchathani.

So what’s new in Thailand this year? Quite a lot. Tourists have returned to Thailand in droves. Though perhaps not at the exact levels seen before the pandemic.

Some bars have closed. Others have opened. Some seem to be stuck in the past. That is certainly the case at Baccara in Pattaya. This bar was once packed to capacity every night of the week. That is no longer the case. Yet the staff don’t seem to have noticed. They are just as pushy as ever, requiring the few patrons in the bar to “buy drink or go”.

Better go go bars like Butterflies and Billboard in Bangkok seem to have recovered quite well. Staff numbers might not be quite as high as they were in 2019. But the atmosphere is still as good as ever.

Generally speaking Bangkok’s Nana Plaza seems to have recovered well. At this point every space in the NEP is occupied by a business. The same cannot be said of the nearby Soi Cowboy or Pattaya’s Walking Street as of yet.

Thai go go bars across the board have raised prices. In keeping with worldwide inflation punters can now expect to pay a little more for their drinks as well as lady drinks. In some places the rate for an LD is now 260 Baht.

Barfines have gone up in many go go bars too. Especially in the more tourist oriented places. Some agogos in Pattaya are currently asking 2500 Baht for a barfine. Several are also playing the old game of “short time” versus “long time” bar fines. When you think about how things used to be – and the fact that bar fines were supposedly meant to replace the drink revenue lost by a bar owner when a lady left for the night – you can’t help but be nostalgic for “the good old days”.

Sure some of these pricing pumps may be canceled out by those carrying the green back or Euro. That’s because 1 USD now buys around 35 Thai Baht. At the end of 2019 it only purchased 30. A single Euro fetches 37 Baht when it bought just 33 at the close of 2019. Still some things are noticeably more expensive than they were just a few years ago. Some of the price increases have even outpaced inflation and exchange rate changes.

Came and went

Lolita’s Pattaya closed down. A new bar called AK Lounge and Bar has been built in its place. It doesn’t seem to offer the same sort of services that were available at Lolita’s.

Could this be the beginning of the end for the old blowjob bar model in Thailand? A few places have been lost over the last couple of years. But there are bright spots. A place called Madame Claude has opened on Bangkok’s Soi Ari with the telling URL bjbarbkk.com.

You may remember that the recently shuttered Lolita’s on Soi Chaiyapoon in Pattaya actually replaced the previous iteration of the bar a few years back. That original Pattaya Lolita’s was located on LK Metro. But it shut down after the owner died.

There was a point where it seemed like Lolita’s could become a sort of BJ bar chain in Thailand. There were Lolita’s shops operating in Bangkok, Pattaya and Hua Hin simultaneously. Alas that was over a decade ago and much has changed since.

Even the Lolita’s in Bangkok has been operating on a reduced schedule ever since the owner of that bar passed on in what was reportedly a suicide.

Speaking of such unpleasant subjects the long time owner of the Eden Club in Bangkok recently died in a shooting in Thailand’s capital city.

Eden Club itself closed during the pandemic. A new bar called Red Fern now stands in its place. It operates more like a regular bar than its predecessor. Though of course the rooms upstairs remain ready for use.

There is a lot more going on in Thailand and indeed the rest of the world. I plan to write about much of it in the weeks and months to come. I hope that you will visit the site and take a look at my reports. Cheers!