Vessey
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56 minutes ago, sydneyboy1 said:A bit depressing. How I loved the Thailand of old.
Unlike some previous posters I am definitely of the 'glass half full' persuasion.
I was in Pattaya for New Year and again last week. I have to tell you that the City is already more 'open for business' now than it was in January.
Inevitably on this forum we look at the gay night life of Pattaya from the point of view of farang, but we are a tiny part of the sex tourism of the City and arguably not that representative of the whole.
My hotel sits on Soi 6, in January 50% of the bars were open, by the end of last week when I left again, it was near 80%. The more popular bars were rammed with the sound of bells being rung, party balloons out here and there.
Walking Street was almost dead in January, but this trip much more was open, maybe 50% of the agogos for example. The Beer Garden was open again, and even the little bars between it and Beach Road were repopulating.
Soi Bukhow was buzzing, particularly Tree Town with just about every bar open and in full swing - although I agree overall not as busy as in previous years, though some bars certainly were.
Boyztown itself seemed about 50% open, Toy Boys remains closed but according to some of the boys who work there, likely to re-open next month. BBB was busy although the 'sexy shows', still more muted than in the past. Pikky Bar, Castro, etc not exactly full of customers but open with boys about. I suspect BT relies much more heavily on the Chinese market than it does on the farang - but others may disagree.
Just outside BT itself, A-Bomb was discretely open, Dream Boys more openly open. X-Boys remained 'restaurant' only but again with reports that it would re-open inside next month.
In Jomtien Complex, just about every bar that could be open was open, with Home Bar and Sun Bar in particular doing a roaring trade. The Venue had its shows back on and there were a series of 'street party/shows' on most nights, sponsored by one bar or another.
Elsewhere in the town Thai shops and businesses were mostly open, a number of the closed 7/11s had re-opened. Even the McDonalds at the the bottom of Soi 6 had re-opened - although closing at 10pm. Most massage shops were open again, although the ones, down Second Road, opposite Alazar are abandoned and seemingly awaiting demolition.
My advice, for what it is worth, is ignore the doom-merchants and get yourselves back over there; Pattaya is steadily re-opening for business!
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Just back from a couple of weeks in Pattaya over Songkran (or what passed for Songkran yet again).
More open, and for longer than in January, and lots of fun to be had.
Jomtien Complex is the busiest and most visible gay area and regularly patrolled and visited by police to ensure compliance with the current regulations, similarly BoyzTown although less open here.
Sunee is very quiet and the few bars there linger on, but is still my favourite location. Winner Boys is open outside, with six or more of the regular twink boys sitting outside at tables, happy to chat, flirt and go off with you if you want. Nice Boys sits in virtual darkness along a dark stretch of Soi with only boss Beer sitting outside. At first sight you might think it closed, but inside, the straight boys, as many as ten of them on one visit, anxious to do what they do best to 'entertain' you haha. The whole location of Sunee is more discrete and less likely to get police interest.
Aside from that, the Thai night clubs, Dragon (G-Star) and of course Sinlapin Isan, thrive and are open until around 1.30 to 2 am. Sinlapin was packed almost every night I went there. And when that finally closes, the karaoke bars are still open until 3 or 4am or later. Version was generally busy, and at my favourite, Friendly, we were usually fighting to get even the smallest table space, and with twenty or thirty 'host boys' available to be called down.
So yes, go, go, go! There is plenty of fun and boys to be found in Pattaya; you will have a great time!
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32 minutes ago, z909 said:
What are they waiting for ?
The entry restrictions don't even move the needle in terms of the overall covid incidence rate, so are a waste of time.
Other policies could make a far bigger difference to outcomes, so concentrate on those.
More political than public health I would think; 'playing to the gallery' in terms of being seen to bash farang?
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Thanks, all that is helpful,
The early results from your arrival PCR was interesting and leaves me wondering if such an arrangement can be made with most of the quarantine hotels?
The activity you report from BT, Sunee and JC mirrors what I have heard from elsewhere. Although I would say 9pm is early for Sunee and it does get a little better a little later, but the place seems to hang on by its fingernails as ever.
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An interesting thread and one in which I could probably contribute when I can give it a little more thought as I have a number of 'regulars' who I have known over the years.
Obviously they mostly tell us what they want us to hear, at least when they are sober. However I do wonder if, say, two of us knew the same boy, if his story would be the same? Many boys are smart enough and experienced enough to quickly work out which particular heartstrings to pull haha.
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Maybe there is a potential upside to this sort of 'training'? Haha
I got to know a particularly beautiful, but straight, young waiter at StoneHouse on Walking Street, and finally persuaded him to visit my hotel room. He was desperately shy, and we only managed HJs (both) and BJ (me to him), but I paid him well.
Then he got conscripted.
Two years later, he looks just as good and is now back living in Pattaya, but is now sending me messages about how he wants to meet up with me as soon as I get back over there and suggesting that he will make it worth my while to do so!
Two years of such army 'training' and perhaps I will now find him less shy and a lot more 'open' to my 'advances'? 😂
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I am booked for January, but this is an obvious concern and although my initial reaction was to cancel everything, have an immediate nervous breakdown and then join a monastery, I try and look at it like this:
We are stuck with this pandemic/endemic - its not going to go away any time soon, if ever, and mutations will come and go, some being of more concern than others.
So I either join that monastery and commit to an ongoing life of perpetual celibacy, or else I proceed with my trip, and maybe subsequent ones next year, and accept the fact that everything is fluid and subject to possible change until I am on the flight itself, and then just hope that I can enjoy my stay and return home without interruptions.
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A question please guys, with apologies if I have missed the answer.
How soon can you apply for a Thailand Pass for your holiday?
So for example if I book a flight later this month for a holiday in early January say, and given that I then put in place all the other things I have to complete, such as insurance etc., how soon am I allowed to apply for the pass?
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Good news about the quarantine (and presumably the Sandboxes),
But entry requirements, curfew, etc etc. ? I didn't read any definite pledge to resume alcohol sales in December, just an ambition,
Maybe there we be more detail to follow?
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Well contrary to some of you I have found most of my Thai friends still heavily use FaceBook, and I also find their FaceBook Messenger good for 1:1 chats, either just talking or, if we are both feeling horny then ......
TikTok is harmless fun, although some of those guys have accumulated many millions of 'likes'.
And I do find Twitter great for porn, and even though there is 2.20min max on clips, their 'benefits' accrue haha. But I also find their porn more spontaneous and 'real' than those of the established porn sites, especially if it is a boy I have already met, or a Pattaya boy that I want to meet! 😂
They also use Line and Instagram a lot, although those are lost on me.
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Sadly closed now, but for many years I had used a little mother and daughter laundry on Soi 6, always reliable, and also able to undertake basic repairs and alterations to my clothes as required for very small sums.
I would suspect there are on many others similarly capable and willing to do the same?
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4 hours ago, reader said:"When the new law is in place, a body even larger than the CCSA may be established if needed, so it doesn't really matter if the CCSA is dissolved or not," he said.
Typical of most governments who all normally seem unwilling to break-up any part of their bureaucracy and instead replace/rename it with something even bigger 🤣
But also any unpopular government, facing street protests, will also seek all means to extend state control.
So nothing surprising in any of this; disappointing yes, but surprising no!
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18 hours ago, Gaybutton said:
The problem is not what you or I imagine. The problem is what Thailand's powers-that-be imagine. Considering how so much has been knee-jerk reactions imposed by people who really are not my idea of competent to do so, hardly anything they come up with surprises me anymore. And to me, the more absurd the restrictions, the less I'm surprised.
A case of setting off with your 'eyes wide open' rather than your 'flies wide open' perhaps ? 🤣
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Sex workers in places like Pattaya have a shelf-life, and 33 is on the older side anyway. Past 30 and it becomes harder to compete with the pretty 18 and 19 year olds arriving in Pattaya 'off the bus'. It becomes harder to get the same flow of customers; instead they have to rely more on their 'regulars' and hopes of, at least a level of, sponsorship. Some will find other work in Pattaya, others will return home. The sensible ones will have built up savings; and/or maybe already invested in land or a house back in the village while others, living more hand to mouth, go back home with very little.
The other observation that I would make is that many of the boys already had other part-time day jobs. For example, one lad from Cupidol I know, worked daytime shifts as a (junior) chef in a local hotel kitchen, but would be at his bar by 8pm, scrubbed-up and down to his tighty-whiteys. Others at Sunnee had regular daytime jobs in factories and construction, and their bar work had always been essentially freelance, but potentially offering welcome supplements to their income. Low season, also saw many others getting part-time jobs, etc etc. Only the most successful were ever only full time stage performers and/or sex workers. Many boys have also always regularly returned home for protracted periods during low season.
So I think the 'case-study' presented above risks painting a very simplistic picture of the complexity of a sex-workers life in Pattaya for example. They are already pretty resilient to the vagaries of their 'working lives', although the pandemic closures and restrictions will have hit them far harder than they had perhaps hitherto experienced.
The question for me is how many will eventually decide to return to the bright lights of their bars and partying, and how many see the pandemic as the catalyst to move on with their lives.
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9 hours ago, Londoner said:
Perhaps the vaccination programme is intensified. Perhaps gay travellers return in decent numbers to Thailand in January. The bars are open, the apps are once more flourishing, the guys have returned. But how many visitors will return to their previous life-styles of frequent sex with different partners? and if so, will they require evidence of vaccination? or even the wearing of masks? I saw one such encounter on a porn site recently.
Mask porn? haha
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Now, I have not read this book, so my few observations are only based on what I have read on this thread.
In Pattaya I think the bars can 'de facto' create loose 'family groups' around the bar, where boys talk and support one another (aside from any physical liaisons that take place). Similarly groups of bars, JC, Sunee, Boyztown etc, can extend those groups. The boys all seem to know each other and talk to each other and often support and help each other in straightened times.
Secondly I think social media, FB groups, Line groups etc. can also provide some discrete sense of gay community. The number of Thai orientated gay FB groups are increasing, with boys posting to get the validation or encouragement from other boys for their looks, sexuality, etc. There are often many thousands in each group; some boys members of several groups. As a farang joining such groups I am a mere observer, just vicariously enjoying the provocative pictures (well as provocative as FB allows that is) the boys put up. They create the same sense of 'community' as we do ourselves as members of this (and other) gay Thailand forums; perhaps more so.
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Should I visit Pattaya?
in Gay Thailand
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I meant that pre-covid, we were only a minority of the sex tourists, and certainly in terms of overall tourism.
Perhaps 'tiny bit' was an exaggeration, but certainly a minority.
They publish, or used to publish, annual figures on where their tourists had travelled from. I recall Indian and SEA formed the bulk of their numbers?