hey bros, just back from Yangon and thought of reporting about my experience: maybe it could be useful to others. It was my second biz trip in the city but, once again, a very busy and very short one so I had only night free to look around. This time I decided to go Pioneer. Online it is still reported as one of the best discos/nightclubs in Yangon where 90% of girls were supposed to be FL. I was hoping to "score early, score often" :P but things did not go as expected. Maybe most reports I found are outdated. Anyway, keep reading if you are curious
First, entrance fee for regular guy (no VIP) is not 10k kyat as stated around the web but it is now 15k. Once in, one big thing I did not expect: I could not actually see the dance floor!! The whole area in fact is covered with tables that you need to book to access and pay aminimum of 100k, or much more, according to drink package you order.
Let me explain what I think happened recently: the owners must have realized that the dance floor always got packed and, essentially, people just stood still "dancing" by jumping on the spot they were so had the bright idea to monetize more aggressively the dance floor as well by turning it into a drinking area without chairs where every spot (aka table) needs to be booked like a VIP table in the mezzanine!
This may make sense from a biz perspective but makes things more difficult for single guys looking for fun: if you are a normal customer like I was, you can't really go join a table and are relegated at the bar counter. Also, people at tables are "fixed" too: they drink at at the table and dance next to it. Nobody really moves which may also be problematic for FLs who may likely need to butterfly around to look for people like me.
This brings us to the important part: did I get anything? NO!! I could not find a single FL at all! There were a few very hot girls but they were all in groups with their boyfriends and they all stayed at their respective tables. Impossible to approach.
Then I finally spotted a single, average looking, girl. Decide to try my luck and looked at her. She reciprocated with a half smile so I approached her and.... well, we started a nice conversation but she was waiting for her boyfriend who arrived in 5 minutes so I just had to give up. Damn, even average looking girls are not FL and go there with their boyfriends!
Around midnight, disappointed but with still some willingness to look around and be disappointed, I decided to check out the spa at the International Hotel, hoping at least in some good massage and a HJ. Msg prices were good but I was told I had to wait more than 45 minutes since all room were taken already!
As I was leaving, I was approached by some taxi drivers offering to take me to some ladies. I did not go though: even if I know Yangon is relatively safe, I still did not like the idea of going with a stranger in a city I don't know at all, and to do something that is supposed to be illegal.
In the end, Pioneer now seems like a disco aimed at groups of friends who go in booking a full table, not for the lonely guy who seeks some excitement