Alaina

Alaina is a soapy house with a long memory. One recent reviewer calls a visit a trip down memory lane; another says it is fighting to survive and winning. It sits on Ratchadaphisek Road between Huai Khwang and the Thailand Cultural Centre.

The prices on record come from a directory: 90 minutes graded by therapist, from ฿1,900 to ฿3,900. Reviewers say they've paid more. It suits someone who wants the classic Ratchada soapy format, a big room with a bath, and doesn't mind a few rough edges. Skip it if you want a published card, a lot of choice, or a shop on the way up: its rating is 3.9, and one reviewer says the lineup is thinning.

Google files Alaina under อาบ อบ นวด, the Thai term for a bath-and-massage house, and its listing lists bath and soapy services. There is no website and no published text about the rooms or the format.

Reviews fill in some of it. A couple describe a clean shop, and several mention friendly, polite staff and owner. One mentions karaoke upstairs; another says two people were found a VIP room. One reviewer counted about 20 therapists, another about ten. A two-star reviewer says some staff speak Japanese, but that the number of therapists is falling and that the tipping tactics are annoying.

Alaina publishes no prices. Another directory, swanpass.com, lists six grades, each for 90 minutes, and these may be out of date:

• Full Service: therapist A 90 min: ฿1,900
• Full Service: therapist B 90 min: ฿2,200
• Full Service: therapist V 90 min: ฿2,600
• Full Service: therapist S 90 min: ฿2,900
• Full Service: therapist M 90 min: ฿3,500
• Full Service: therapist L 90 min: ฿3,900

Reviewers report paying more. One gives a range of ฿2,000 to ฿7,500, another ฿1,500 to ฿8,000, and a third says they paid ฿4,500 and found it expensive. Treat the directory figures with caution. Ask what each grade costs on the night, and whether any room or tip is added, before you choose. The cheap list covers shops whose own cards start lower.

The address is 141 Ratchadaphisek Road, Din Daeng. MRT Huai Khwang is 710 m away and MRT Thailand Cultural Centre 760 m, both about 12 minutes on foot. MRT Phra Ram 9 is half an hour's walk.

One recent reviewer had trouble finding the entrance by map and ended up on the wrong side of the road, so check which side you're on before you get out of the taxi. Hours are noon to midnight, every day. The Ratchada district page covers the other houses on the strip.

Someone who has heard about Ratchada's soapy houses and wants to see one, with a budget that can stretch past the directory's figures. Pairs looking for a shared VIP room. It suits less well a visitor who wants every price written down, or who's staying on Sukhumvit and wants to walk home: for them, the Sukhumvit volume is nearer.

Alaina holds a 3.9 Google rating from 89 reviews, and they read like a shop in a long late chapter.

On the positive side, several Google reviewers mention friendly, polite staff and a relaxed setting; one praises the owner for finding a VIP room for two and says nobody rushed them. Another enjoyed the karaoke.

Price is the common complaint. A couple of reviewers call it expensive or say the value isn't there, with one paying ฿4,500 for an average experience. A two-star reviewer says the number of therapists is falling and that the tipping tactics grate. Other complaints are one-offs: someone being sick outside the window, and a reviewer who couldn't find the entrance by map.