Sapphire Club re-opened a few nights ago. It is located on Soi 15.
It is always exciting to see what's new when a major upgrade takes place. And indeed the newly enlarged bar makes a good visual impression. The bar has expanded into 2 next
door units so maybe is about twice as big. The bar is now rectangular as opposed to the more square shape before. there is a long central-ish running lengthways down the bar. It is surrounded by Baccara style sofa seating. And most impressive of all, the
stage was jam packed with dancers.
My visit started with a niggle though, the 65 Baht draft beer displayed so prominently on the welcome boards does not exist. Presumably it's on its way, but why display the signs when it isn't yet available?
Having spent a good packet on the refurbishment why not invest a tiny amount more on correctly priced signs. After all the bottled beer is perfectly reasonably priced and a 75 Baht happy hour beer price would be a perfectly attractive promotion on a
sign.
Sitting down to survey the bar, I started to think that the new design wasn't all that ideal. Bigger does not necessarily mean better for a GoGo bar. The distance to the stage is all important, there is something very sexual about proximity.
Also greater distance can make signals of interest such as smiles, gestures and gaze that little bit harder to pick up. I felt that Sapphire has the bench seating around the sides of the bar just that little bit too far away. This is especially true on
the shorter sides of the bar which have a poor viewing angle on the long thin stage. At the worst seats, one just sees the couple of dancers at the end of the stage.
There is also a Jacuzzi at the back of the bar. It is not located for
general viewing though, so is basically entertainment for those sitting directly at the bath side. Something to try on the next visit.
And then there is the issue of coyote dancers. It seems to be that 2/3rd of the dancers are coyotes wearing
shorts, bras and tops. Admittedly the shorts were about as small as they could possibly be. But I for one find coyote dancing unappealing. Firstly nudity is so much more attractive, and secondly coyote dancers are on average for more likely to be
'unavailable' due to personal choice, sponsorship, price, or just being selective. And of course their barfines are higher for no reason that I can fathom (beyond them being supplied by an agency).
It was also strange how the bar has organised the
shifts. The girls were split into 3 teams and every so often the teams change. This seems a perfectly good idea, but what I couldn't understand, is why two of the teams were entirely made up of coyotes. So for the majority of the time there is no nudity
on display. Wouldn't it be a better idea to distribute the gogo dancers amongst all the teams so that there are always some nude dancers on stage for those that like that sort of thing.
On the positive side, the bar has built up a very good
customer base in a relatively short time and the sheer popularity of Sapphire brings with it a very lively atmosphere. The Thursday parties have traditionally been a great success and I don't suppose minor niggles about coyote dancers will be much of an
issue then.