Intro to Thermae, and my experience

Since it seems this place hasn't been reviewed before, I'm going to take it upon myself to take a stab at it and see if I can do this place justice.

Evidently, it's had a long history of multiple decades and in its current incarnation is located in the basement of a hotel in the middle of Sukhumvit. There is a doorman, but he's really there mostly to check IDs of the women (more on that later). For the men, he's basically controlling traffic volume in the club so it doesn't get too packed all at once. There's no cover charge. Once you enter, buy a drink from the bar right by the staircase. They're relatively cheap and typical for the area at 200-250 baht ($6-$8 USD).

Here's where things get interesting. Technically, it's not a strip club as there's very little dancing here, and no one is taking off any clothes. It's a Freelancer (FL) bar. That means it's simply a bar that encourages women to show up to meet with interested men. The FLs don't work for the bar, they don't pay a fee to be there, the bar doesn't choose who shows up (more on that later). The women will all buy drinks for themselves, but they are completely independent entities.