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Reminiscing on Sauna of the past


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Guest Guest doubt
18 minutes ago, Guest Guest said:

Looking forward to the day when a new sauna will match the standards of the old Towel Club and Absolute.

I doubt a new sauna will open in singapore.

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Guest John
18 hours ago, horhorfun said:

Kb is always crowded every day whether got event,day or night

Nope, I went on a few weekdays around 8pm... It was a ghost town.. maybe only the weekends 

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Guest Tomato
2 hours ago, Guest Guest doubt said:

I doubt a new sauna will open in singapore.

 

From the marketing perspective, the new sauna will need to meet these parameters:

  • market segmentation - this has failed in Hook with the younger crowd
  • pricing - there is a certain price which is acceptable by the local crowd.  If all saunas were to come together and fix a minimum price, likely there can be higher prices which can translate to better facilities (like those in Aussie)
  • business model - if the new sauna can also co-exist as a hotel (previous Babylon).

Fact is, Singapore is a small country with expensive rentals (and overheads), and people are unwilling to pay a more expensive fee for sauna entrance, the sauna landscape will likely remain the same.

 

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1 hour ago, Guest Tomato said:

 

  • business model - if the new sauna can also co-exist as a hotel (previous Babylon).

Fact is, Singapore is a small country with expensive rentals (and overheads), and people are unwilling to pay a more expensive fee for sauna entrance, the sauna landscape will likely remain the same.

 

Not possible in SG,  BK is a well known and well established gay destination but for SG,  STB want to promote it as a family destination suitable for children. Just focus on local patrons is difficult to survive and it get bored when u see the same faces every visit. 

Edited by lonelyglobe
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Guest Guest

Towel Club is the best.

Absolute standards is about 80% of Towel Club.

But sadly, after Absolute closed, no other sauna has been able to match their standards.

Wonder why.

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On 4/28/2024 at 8:50 PM, Guest Guest said:

Towel Club is the best.

Absolute standards is about 80% of Towel Club.

But sadly, after Absolute closed, no other sauna has been able to match their standards.

Wonder why.

It is the vibes and the event that organised.

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On 4/27/2024 at 7:54 PM, LucasTLy said:

I went to Hook today only to find out that it has closed down. I feel really sad, hoping it's just relocation, not closure. Thank you so much, Hook/Cruise, for sticking to your principles and providing a place exclusively for young people all these years.

 

People stopped going to Hook because there is hardly any action in the maze and most customers just stand there for display only.  After a few visits, people gave up and went to KB instead.

Don't read and response to guests' post

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Guest Statue
3 hours ago, LeanMature said:

 

People stopped going to Hook because there is hardly any action in the maze and most customers just stand there for display only.  After a few visits, people gave up and went to KB instead.

KB will be next Hook too.

Starting to have statues at the dark area. 

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1 hour ago, Guest Statue said:

KB will be next Hook too.

Starting to have statues at the dark area. 

Statues are there as when it gets too crowded,people become too choosy that people just stand.

Edited by horhorfun
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On 4/28/2024 at 8:50 PM, Guest Guest said:

Towel Club is the best.

Absolute standards is about 80% of Towel Club.

But sadly, after Absolute closed, no other sauna has been able to match their standards.

Wonder why.

Towel club was the best in aspects of atmosphere, facilities and crowds. Value for money.

 

no other sauna can match till today, in my opinion.
 

 It was one of the pioneers in the early 2000s, it was closed around 2005. 😭

 

 

Edited by Malabird
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On 5/4/2024 at 5:17 PM, Guest Statue said:

KB will be next Hook too.

Starting to have statues at the dark area. 

 

There're usually 3 types:

 

1. Stationary Statues

2. Zooming Zombies

3. Snagging Snackers

 

Category 3 have a Grab and Go mentality and usually get what they want.

 

Category 1 and 2 are like asteroids and planets that every once in a long while experience some impact and fireworks with each other.

 

Category 3 are interstellar spaceships that conduct successful launches that either board each other, land on planets or mine the asteroids.

 

It's a beautiful universe.

 

Edited by PlayersGroup
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3 minutes ago, PlayersGroup said:

 

There're usually 3 types:

 

1. Stationary Statues

2. Zooming Zombies

3. Snagging Snackers

 

Category 3 have a Grab and Go mentality and usually get what they want.

 

Category 1 and 2 are like asteroids and planets that every once in a long while experience some impact and fireworks with each other.

 

Category 3 are interstellar spaceships that conduct successful launches that either board each other, land on planets or mine the asteroids.

 

It's a beautiful universe.

 

Well you explained it in a excellent way.

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Guest Dreamer
4 hours ago, Malabird said:

Towel club was the best in aspects of atmosphere, facilities and crowds. Value for money.

 

no other sauna can match till today, in my opinion.
 

 It was one of the pioneers in the early 2000s, it was closed around 2005. 😭

 

 

So in the end???  Closed!!!

Wake up, dun keep living in the past ! 

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On 5/9/2024 at 12:49 PM, Guest Dreamer said:

So in the end???  Closed!!!

Wake up, dun keep living in the past ! 

Well, waken up, don’t patronise any of these places anymore.


btw, do write with real user name, and be cordial,  why hide under a guest name ? 😄😁😆

 

Edited by Malabird
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3 hours ago, Guest Dreamer said:

So in the end???  Closed!!!

Wake up, dun keep living in the past ! 

 

I think it's ok to live in the past a bit ah. Nostalgia can be therapeutic. 

 

Towel Club may have, thrown in their towel, so to speak. Hook hasn't been let off the hook either. Thankfully, Keybox so far hasn't been boxed up or boxed in yet.

 

I remember all these places fondly, except the sharp pointy flooring at the Hook/Cruiseclub shower area (I do like other areas in Hook).  

 

Hopefully we gay folks will always think out of the box and come up with new innovative places we can hangout so that we are less hung up, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for...oh well.    

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19 hours ago, Malabird said:

Towel club was the best in aspects of atmosphere, facilities and crowds. Value for money.

 

no other sauna can match till today, in my opinion.
 

 It was one of the pioneers in the early 2000s, it was closed around 2005. 😭

 

 

 

IKR....It was such a pity that it closed

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  • 5 months later...
On 5/8/2024 at 7:01 PM, Malabird said:

Towel club was the best in aspects of atmosphere, facilities and crowds. Value for money.

 

no other sauna can match till today, in my opinion.
 

 It was one of the pioneers in the early 2000s, it was closed around 2005. 😭

 

 

 

I agree with your assessment.  It was among the best saunas I have known.  And I have international experience...

 

It closed because it could not renovate the rent at its place.  A pity that the Singapore island is so small...

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On 5/9/2024 at 8:01 AM, Malabird said:

Towel club was the best in aspects of atmosphere, facilities and crowds. Value for money.

 

no other sauna can match till today, in my opinion.
 

 It was one of the pioneers in the early 2000s, it was closed around 2005. 😭

 

 

 

I guess the hype on Towel Club was more due to the fact that there weren't as many suitable or equivalent options during those days... 

and maybe because the people running it put in some efforts on the design.

 

It was a nice concept with the sort of cafe in the center and if I remember correct there was a pool at the centre of it.

The downsides were the steamroom/jacuzzi and the size of the maze area.

 

The early Cruise wasn't bad also. Just the snob attitude of the staff (and the entry prices) sucked.

I never understood in the later years how they were able to maintain the sauna with the low amount of visitors.

 

If you take One Seven, it was a guaranteed find fun place (before the establishment reduced the size and prior to one of the renovations). It also had this cafeteria in the lower floor that enabled chit chatting with other customers (socialising). One Seven was a bit kinkier also than the other places. ha ha.

 

Surely, some inventive guys will one day create some nicer establishments, if you're still fit by then to visit the location.

 

In a place like Singapore things come and go. It's not only on saunas...

 

 

Edited by singalion
corrected as there were plenty other saunas operating but eventually catering to different crowds
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9 hours ago, singalion said:

 

I guess the hype on Towel Club was more due to the fact that there weren't as many options during those days... 

and maybe because the people running it put in some efforts on the design.

 

It was a nice concept with the sort of cafe in the center and if I remember correct there was a pool at the centre of it.

The downsides were the steamroom/jacuzzi and the size of the maze area.

 

The early Cruise wasn't bad also. Just the snob attitude of the staff (and the entry prices) sucked.

I never understood in the later years how they were able to maintain the sauna with the low amount of visitors.

 

If you take One Seven, it was a guaranteed find fun place (before the establishment reduced the size and prior to one of the renovations). It also had this cafeteria in the lower floor that enabled chit chatting with other customers (socialising). One Seven was a bit kinkier also than the other places. ha ha.

 

Surely, some inventive guys will one day create some nicer establishments, if you're still fit by then to visit the location.

 

In a place like Singapore things come and go. It's not only on saunas...

 

 

 

Hopefully what you posted was just a lapsus, and not a fact that your memory is failing. If so, check in the thread "for gays who will be seniors one day" for what to do to reverse your not remembering correctly.

 

Our estimations of Towel Club were not hype.  It was not lack of options.  I had plenty of experience in good saunas before finding Towel Club, and I still think of it to have been among the best gay saunas, period.  If there was a pool there, it must have been hidding when I was there. And the size of the maze was great.  Not too dark, with place to walk around, and plenty of nice visitors who were not just "statues".  Did you really visited it?   But about One Seven you are correct.  It was at the time also a very good sauna.

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1 hour ago, Steve5380 said:

 

Hopefully what you posted was just a lapsus, and not a fact that your memory is failing. If so, check in the thread "for gays who will be seniors one day" for what to do to reverse your not remembering correctly.

 

Our estimations of Towel Club were not hype.  It was not lack of options.  I had plenty of experience in good saunas before finding Towel Club, and I still think of it to have been among the best gay saunas, period.  If there was a pool there, it must have been hidding when I was there. And the size of the maze was great.  Not too dark, with place to walk around, and plenty of nice visitors who were not just "statues".  Did you really visited it?   But about One Seven you are correct.  It was at the time also a very good sauna.

 

As to my memory the pool was in the center behind the table area. 

 

The LGBT encyclopedia of Singapore says it has a pool also. 

 

Doesn't matter, it's history. 

 

You might have felt the maze was ok, but I felt it was a bit cramped. 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, singalion said:

 

As to my memory the pool was in the center behind the table area. 

 

The LGBT encyclopedia of Singapore says it has a pool also. 

 

Doesn't matter, it's history. 

 

You might have felt the maze was ok, but I felt it was a bit cramped. 

 

 

It says that it had a "hydrojet cool pool, jacuzzi",  not a real pool like One Seven had / has?.

 

Yes, it is history, like what this whole thread is about.

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16 hours ago, singalion said:

 

I guess the hype on Towel Club was more due to the fact that there weren't as many options during those days... 

and maybe because the people running it put in some efforts on the design.

 

 

I need to correct you. There were at least 9 saunas (in Red) that was operating during Towel Clubs (in Blue) period bewteen 2005 to 2007.
 

Sauna Opened Closed
Spartacus 1997 2000
Stroke 2000 2003
V-Club Mid-2000 2004
Sphere 2004 11 Mar 2007
Rairua 2002 25 Apr 2005
Papillon 2005 2006
The Box/Shogun Spa 2001 2003
Towel Club @ Sg 2005 Dec 2007
RAW 2003 2008
Diamond Health Spa 2005 2009
Y Club 2006 2010
Blue Heaven 2000 2008
Queens Resort 2008 May 2014
Absolute 2005 1 Jul 2014
Club One Seven 13 Apr 2001 Jan 2014
Keybox 15 Jul 2009 22 Jun 2014
Hercules Club 2009 Jul 2017
Cruise Club 8 Dec 2011 28 Oct 2019
Hook Club Jan 2020 31 Mar 2024
Shogun Spa Jan 2003 Present day
Keybox 15 Jul 2014 Present day
Ten Mens Club Jun 2007

Present day

 

Extracted from :

 

Edited by GachiMuchi
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7 hours ago, GachiMuchi said:

 

I need to correct you. There were at least 9 saunas (in Red) that was operating during Towel Clubs (in Blue) period bewteen 2005 to 2007.
 

Sauna Opened Closed
Spartacus 1997 2000
Stroke 2000 2003
V-Club Mid-2000 2004
Sphere 2004 11 Mar 2007
Rairua 2002 25 Apr 2005
Papillon 2005 2006
The Box/Shogun Spa 2001 2003
Towel Club @ Sg 2005 Dec 2007
RAW 2003 2008
Diamond Health Spa 2005 2009
Y Club 2006 2010
Blue Heaven 2000 2008
Queens Resort 2008 May 2014
Absolute 2005 1 Jul 2014
Club One Seven 13 Apr 2001 Jan 2014
Keybox 15 Jul 2009 22 Jun 2014
Hercules Club 2009 Jul 2017
Cruise Club 8 Dec 2011 28 Oct 2019
Hook Club Jan 2020 31 Mar 2024
Shogun Spa Jan 2003 Present day
Keybox 15 Jul 2014 Present day
Ten Mens Club Jun 2007

Present day

 

Extracted from :

 

 

Thanks for the correction.

 

Some of them such as Sphere, Papilion, Y club I had never heard of . ha ha

Diamond Health Club was used to be known or marketed itself as a (straight) massage parlour with massage services but attached steam room, sauna facilities. I never visited that place because of the marketing as a massage place. The website indicated massage services, which didn't appeal to me.

 

I amended my initial sentence in my earlier post.

 

But considering the more "fashionable", "looks wary" crowd surely not all of the 9 saunas running in the same time as Towel were catering the same type of guys.

Raw for sure was a sort of its own. (ha ha).

Blue Heaven in the last years had issues with the facilities, the infamous huge steam room was plenty of times off and out of operation, which was the real thrill of the place. Not sure whether during the Towel Club times Blue Heaven was already located at a different place outside of Kampong Glam. I guess so.

 

I didn't know Absolute was already running at the same time as Towel Club, because there were always rumours that some of the Towel club owners were involved in Absolute. Seems rumours only. ha ha

 

I admit, from the ones I visited I can't remember every detail of any of the gay saunas in Singapore.

 

Even if there were 9 other saunas, if you take the a certain crowd of gay guys, options weren't as much, so it was Towel Club at that time - also considering the hype of their full moon parties, catering to a certain party club crowd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, singalion said:

I didn't know Absolute was already running at the same time as Towel Club, because there were always rumours that some of the Towel club owners were involved in Absolute. Seems rumours only. ha ha

 

Towel Club closed around Oct 2007 and Absolute opened around Jul 2008.

Edited by hermit
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Early 2000s was the best time for sauna,  those were the days when phone are not so smart and u don't have all these apps for hook up,  the only place is a physical sauna. Not sure if sauna will suffer the same fate as our book stores, one by one exit the market. 

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5 hours ago, lonelyglobe said:

Early 2000s was the best time for sauna,  those were the days when phone are not so smart and u don't have all these apps for hook up,  the only place is a physical sauna. Not sure if sauna will suffer the same fate as our book stores, one by one exit the market. 

 

But most guys on the apps don't have a place to host. I think as long as gay guys don't have their own flat the saunas here will still thrive. 

 

 

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10 hours ago, hermit said:

 

Towel Club closed around Oct 2007 and Absolute opened around Jul 2008.

 

I have the same recollection.  I remember that after Towel Club closed, there was the expectation that it would reopen elsewhere, and when Absolute came around it appeared that it was this "reborn Towel Club",  and it nearly was,  judging by the quality of its patrons.  I recognized among the Absolute staff one of the former staff of Towel Club.

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In fact during the initial period majority of Absolute staff were from Towel Club, including the manager. Absolute also adopted TC's biz model. So it was hard to convince patrons that they were totally unrelated.

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On 10/24/2024 at 4:57 AM, GachiMuchi said:

 

I need to correct you. There were at least 9 saunas (in Red) that was operating during Towel Clubs (in Blue) period bewteen 2005 to 2007.
 

Sauna Opened Closed
Spartacus 1997 2000
Stroke 2000 2003
V-Club Mid-2000 2004
Sphere 2004 11 Mar 2007
Rairua 2002 25 Apr 2005
Papillon 2005 2006
The Box/Shogun Spa 2001 2003
Towel Club @ Sg 2005 Dec 2007
RAW 2003 2008
Diamond Health Spa 2005 2009
Y Club 2006 2010
Blue Heaven 2000 2008
Queens Resort 2008 May 2014
Absolute 2005 1 Jul 2014
Club One Seven 13 Apr 2001 Jan 2014
Keybox 15 Jul 2009 22 Jun 2014
Hercules Club 2009 Jul 2017
Cruise Club 8 Dec 2011 28 Oct 2019
Hook Club Jan 2020 31 Mar 2024
Shogun Spa Jan 2003 Present day
Keybox 15 Jul 2014 Present day
Ten Mens Club Jun 2007

Present day

 

Extracted from :

 

 

I loved V-Club because it had a powerful jacuzzi and I could soak in it and massage my body after hours of badminton on Saturday evening. After that could overnight and be woken up at 7 a.m. by the friendly uncle in charge.

 

Loved Blue Heaven too for the cheap $5 entrance fee (before 5 p.m.) and for the large and powerful steam room. After 9 p.m. the Malaysian worker there always grabbed and dragged me into a cubicle to fuck me.

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I remember going to Blue Heaven several times during the year 2010 at its location near Sim Lim Tower. The above table shows Blue Heaven closed in 2008 could be wrong or referring to the one operated near Bugis.

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On 10/24/2024 at 4:57 AM, GachiMuchi said:

 

I need to correct you. There were at least 9 saunas (in Red) that was operating during Towel Clubs (in Blue) period bewteen 2005 to 2007.
 

Sauna Opened Closed
Spartacus 1997 2000
Stroke 2000 2003
V-Club Mid-2000 2004
Sphere 2004 11 Mar 2007
Rairua 2002 25 Apr 2005
Papillon 2005 2006
The Box/Shogun Spa 2001 2003
Towel Club @ Sg 2005 Dec 2007
RAW 2003 2008
Diamond Health Spa 2005 2009
Y Club 2006 2010
Blue Heaven 2000 2008
Queens Resort 2008 May 2014
Absolute 2005 1 Jul 2014
Club One Seven 13 Apr 2001 Jan 2014
Keybox 15 Jul 2009 22 Jun 2014
Hercules Club 2009 Jul 2017
Cruise Club 8 Dec 2011 28 Oct 2019
Hook Club Jan 2020 31 Mar 2024
Shogun Spa Jan 2003 Present day
Keybox 15 Jul 2014 Present day
Ten Mens Club Jun 2007

Present day

 

 

 

If I remember correctly, Y Club was in Chinatown, and was quite run down.  The entrance fee was quite low though.

 

I spent a night in Queens Resort once.  Back then, you could book a room there, and it was like a cheap hotel.  The room was basic, but it was good enough to allow me to get some sleep.

 

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6 hours ago, thatsamore said:

Rairua had shower boys on certain days - they will soap and rinse you in the shower. The current saunas don't provide this service but when I was in KB last weekend someone just randomly showered me, it was kind and nice. Reminded me of Rairua 😁   

 

Don't remember this on Rairua.

Rairua was a lovely place because it had this sort of reading room/ sofa room at one of the floors facing the main street, where you were easily able to socialise with other people and also had free drinks such as green tee, black teas, coffee etc on that resting place.

The first Ten Men had this extra services of showering people by the staff from the sauna on certain days at the very first location.

Not sure whether it was continued at the new locations later on.

 

 

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2 hours ago, hermit said:

Miss the foam parties at Absolute...

 

Some of my friends had breathing problems during the foam party event. They said the soapy foam smell was too strong and it was difficult to roam around for shorter guys.

I never attended one. So it is just what others told me on these events.

 

 

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6 hours ago, hermit said:

Miss the foam parties at Absolute...

 

I miss them too!  :(

 

I remember them in the later days of Absolute, where a chute on the terrace spilled the heavy foam.  There was also a line of guys exiting the party, waiting to have the foam on their bodies washed off by an attendant in the little bathrom on the same floor.  So much fun!

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4 hours ago, singalion said:

 

Some of my friends had breathing problems during the foam party event. They said the soapy foam smell was too strong and it was difficult to roam around for shorter guys.

I never attended one. So it is just what others told me on these events.

 

 

How could you have missed the foam parties?   I never heard about these breathing problems, but at times one had to be careful to keep the head above the foam. :lol:

 

I have been in several places where the foam was produced by a chute, and filled up the place to a certain level.  This was the case at Babylon too. But the best parties I enjoyed when the foam fell from the ceiling and covered the nude gays, which made it so nice to slide one against the others.  This was the case at Kakiku in Kuala Lumpur. 

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