BiggusDikkus

OK, that photo has me convinced. Didn't there used to be a Thai company through which you could directly book this VIP service, rather than go through Klook?

I show up later this month, which is usually the beginning of high season. I chose "high season" because: -I have not had a vacation in almost three years and am really eager for one. -I can be relatively certain the monsoon rains will subside right before I arrive. -I'm hoping to sneak in before another covid outbreak hits like one did sometime last December. Of course, I hope there are no more covid outbreaks but we all know there will be and they seem to come at certain times of the year. -I like the crowds. Silom Soi 4 and Silom Soi 2 are so much more exciting when there are a lot of people enjoying themselves. This even holds true for the Patpong bars, which not only have more customers drinking and having fun but more go-go boys on stage than they do in the low season, at least in my experience. But this is not my favorite time of year to visit Bangkok. I love the city when it's throwing big parties during Songkran and New Year's that gay men from all over Asia show up for. These weeks draw even more tourists than at any other time during "high season." But I love Bangkok when Thais, some of the world's greatest hedonists, really let loose. And judging from the crowds of imported hedonists, I'm not the only one with this preference. Maybe I'll come again in April for the SK and S2O parties. I have been to Thailand during low season as well. I hate it. It feels desolate. I miss the parties. I miss the excitement. I get that hotels and flights are cheaper, but I have so few vacation days I'm not going to waste them being a tightwad and not enjoying myself.

Because of the Itaewon tragedy on Saturday night, it looks like one of Bangkok's gayest sois will receive some extra protection from municipal authorities tonight, according to the middle tweet in this thread.

Is your friend into third-wave coffee? Bangkok has a lot of specialty coffee roasters that only use beans grown in Thailand. They make world-class coffee, and sell bags of beans that make fantastic souvenirs. I go to a different one every morning when I'm in Bangkok. It's how I start my day. There are also a few bean-to-bar specialty chocolate makers that only use cacao grown in Thailand. Again, world-class stuff. Just do a Google search for "specialty coffee roasters near me," or "bean to bar chocolate makers." Is he into fashion? Siam Center still has some Thai designer boutiques on the third floor that sell really hip fashions. The attire is every bit as fantastic as the stuff Western labels put out but at a fraction of the cost. And these clothes get a lot of compliments when you back home, go out on weekends. Are you staying at a luxe hotel? Sitting around the pool sipping cocktails and nibbling on Thai appetizers served up at poolside bars can be an excellent way to spend a vacation day in Bangkok. Grasshopper tours gives bicycle tours of Bangkok. Super cool experience. Also, please read BK Magazine. They put out a new issue every week that's loaded with fantastic tips of what to do in Bangkok. Into wine? My favorite restaurant in Bangkok is called Som Tam and Chardonnay. There's no better fusion than that. It's in Thonglor, on the ninth floor of a not very popular hotel.

I’d just ask him what he wants to do or where he wants to go. I’m sure he must’ve done his own Googling.

So, um, where are the after-hours clubs?

I wanna find the guy who used to camp out nights in front of the ATM and persuade him to give me a bulk discount.

Not sure if this might be cheaper, but if you can take a budget airline to L.A., San Jose or Honolulu, there's a new long-haul budget carrier called Zipair Tokyo. It flies, as the name implies, to Tokyo. From there, it flies to Seoul, Singapore and Bangkok. It might be worth checking out. Zipair.net. I recently took a flight on this airline. I loved it, and I'm a particularly fussy flyer.

This is a useful thread for me. I live in Japan and thus have always had yen to exchange. The best place has always been a liquor store in Soi Thaniya, close to Silom. There would always be three or four people in the line in front of me, all carrying huge stacks of 10,000-yen notes. The line was always fast, I don't even think they checked passports. Same with the gold and drugstores on the same soi that also exchange currencies. All of these places have really good rates, but the liquor shop is usually fractionally better. But the yen is now the weakest it's been in decades. I had grown used to a 10,000-yen note being worth more than $100, but now one can't even buy $70. So I'm going to bring some strong dollars to exchange. I'll check out the Soi Thaniya dollar rates and compare them to those at Xone and the shops that have "Rich" in their names. As a side note, at night, when all the bars in the area were busy, there used to be a dude camping out in front of an ATM on Surawong, near Soi Thaniya, if I remember correctly. He would offer to exchange currency whenever anyone stepped toward the ATM. He was always happy to see I had yen, gave even better rates than the liquor store and was willing to haggle. So it paid to know what the exchange shops in the area were selling baht for.

Did a bidding war just commence?

70,000 baht. Maybe you will spend that much, maybe you won't. I arrived at that figure because before the pandemic, I would top up my wallet to 7,000 baht every day. That would cover all my spending -- from my morning coffee and mango and sticky rice to fitness center or massage fees to late-night carousing and tipping. I'm not sure 7,000 baht would cover my habits these days, though. Judging from posts on this forum, drinks in go-go bars are almost twice as expensive as they were when I could count on being safe with 7,000 baht in my pocket. Disclaimer: I rarely made it all the way through that much money, although I occasionally had to go back to my hotel room safe for even more cash. Disclaimer 2: I'm not great at economizing while on vacation.

Old? That would be me. My first trip to Bangkok came in January 1996. I well remember arriving at my hotel, La Residence on Surawong ... by taxi ... because there was no train option. I am not so old, however, to have forgotten how excited I was to be in Bangkok. It was close to midnight, and I was wide awake after my journey, anxious to get out on the town. I couldn't wait to experience Silom Soi 4, especially the legendary Rome nightclub, which I had heard so much about. So I showered as fast as I could and started making my way in what I figured was the direction of Soi 4. Culture shock? I guess. I couldn't help but make a couple pit stops along the way. All that street food! And I missed the entrance to Soi 4 on my first pass. And on my second pass. Then when I found it I was redirected by a tout to a far-away go-go bar that was populated by the kind of bronze-skinned late teenage Adonises that "old hands" like me always reminisce about, wishing those days never ended. Inside was a very dark bar. It was difficult to see, but one area had a beam of light. I was seated so I had a vantage point to that beam of light, which the go-go "boys" would walk through, big smiles on their faces and pulling their hard-ons out of their shorts. Culture shock? Hell yeh! I had to be talked into inviting one over to have a drink with me. He had a perfect body. Tight, youthful muscles, the kind of definition some guys are born with and don't have to keep up with visits to the gym. He took my right hand and placed it on the inside of his left thigh, then squeezed his legs together. I could tell this was a practiced move, but he need not have worried. I had no intention of putting my hand back on my own lap. There was of course a language gap. And there was pressure for me to take the Isaan beauty back to my hotel, for a fee. There were other incentives. Some French kissing. Him guiding my hand to various other parts of his fine body. So there were indeed culture shocks that night, but nothing monolingual oafish me couldn't navigate. I was in Bangkok. Train or taxi? Don't sweat it. You're gonna be in Bangkok!

I first tried East Suites, but it's all booked up for my dates at the end of November. The Classroom only had two rooms left (or maybe two types of rooms), and I was able to book one of them after first considering splurging on a room at the nearby Avani Pattaya Resort, a hotel I really love but is just too expensive for me these days. Thank you for your advice, everyone! By the way, gauging from my experience and from what the owner of East Suites said, Pattaya is about to get busy! Can't wait!

Indeed! I really loved reading your post! When you start your Substack column, please let me know. I'll definitely subscribe. These tellings of gay history are hard to come by.

Thanks for setting me straight, so to speak. I've always thought the whole street was Soi 6.

A couple days ago I advised a fellow poster to anticipate where he will want to go before arriving in Thailand, and now I'm having difficulty doing just that. I know that I want to spend at least a few nights in Pattaya when I arrive in Thailand at the end of next month but I can't decide between The Classroom, right next to Boyz Town, or East Suites, in Jomtien. I know Boyz Town has seen better days, but I've actually had luck there before meeting guys to hang out with. I've never had any luck in Jomtien. Does anyone have any recent pros and cons with each of these areas that might help me out?

Um, I'm sure I can go on my own scouting mission when I arrive in Bangkok toward the end of November, but does this mean the Silom end of the soi or the Surawong end?

I was wondering the exact same thing right before reading this parenthetical note.

I guess the message came via Grindr or a similar app?

I went to Ko Phangan once and regretted it. I went there specifically for a Full Moon Party, but every other Westerner there spent the entire night coming up to me asking if I had ecstasy. That's all people did ... spend the entire night looking for an illegal endorphin rush and being disappointed when no one had the necessary chemicals. Not only was no one having fun, the music was awful. The other problem with the island is the beaches aren't that great and full of trash. I wasted a day and a half getting there, a couple days there and a day getting back to Bangkok where I could have fun on Silom Soi 2 and Soi 4. If you are looking for a gay scene, stick to Bangkok and/or Pattaya. If you're looking for a beach holiday, there are better islands. But anticipate what you will want to do -- drink in the gay nightlife or enjoy the sun and beach life -- before arriving so as not to waste precious vacation days.

Sorry but what is King's Castle?

Sounds like fun

Here's what the 2020 White Party looked like

I think today's young gay travelers save their money for big events where they can meet each other and show off to one another, like Taipei's Halloween gay pride weekend and Bangkok's White Party every New Year and the SK parties every Songkran. I've never actually counted, and I don't know how to estimate crowd sizes, but the Bangkok events seemed to be attracting more than 10,000 young Asian gay men before COVID. I've also been to big nightclub events in Taipei that are equally massive and wild. I can't describe how exciting these events are. In a previous post I wrote about a Thai friend who used to go to the SK parties with me. I remember the first one. We were both so in awe of the event hall's luxurious trappings -- it was held on the 31st floor of a building behind Central World. It was a long way from where we met in Sunee Plaza. We were both floored by all the chiseled young bodies in the crowd. We both loved the music, loved dancing to it, loved taking cigarette breaks on a veranda that, well, I wanna say had a beautiful view but the view was actually of a slum. Still, being outside 31 floors up was quite a thrill. For the next six months it was all we could talk about. We couldn't wait for Songkran to roll around again. But these parties are completely different experiences from those on offer around Silom or anywhere in Pattaya. You're not going to have the opportunity to "off" anyone if you go to these events. In fact, there's very little sexual tension. Most of the guys come in groups. Most are in their 20s, and most are there to show off their beautifully chiseled bodies. So much eye candy, but I never see these young gay travelers in Bangkok at any other time of the year.

I believe you can still eat meals at the outside tables of Ambiance and Le Cafe Royale, where you can order off the hotels' restaurant menus. There used to be a place called Amor. If you're looking down the soi at Panorama, Amor was the next shop over to the right. It was run by an old Western man who had retired from the restaurant industry back home, moved to Pattaya and decided to open a dinner spot in Boyztown. The food was usually excellent. And it was definitely part of the Boyztown experience. Some tables had couples, a Western dude and a young Thai man, neither really knowing what to say to the other. Other tables had foursomes, with the two Western guys having their own conversation and their Thai boyfriends having another. Across the soi, right in front of that side of BBB, was a food cart where a lot of the go-go dancers from the various bars would eat their dinner before starting the night. It was quite a contrast. On one side of the street were foreigners spending 500 baht on lavish dinners. A few meters away, the entertainers were spending less than 50 baht for their dinners. A lot of kids would come by trying to sell gum or cigarettes or even offering to shine your shoes. Mahouts would bring elephants by. As the evening progressed and the bars started to open, the street's lights would come one and the guys from BBB would put on a mini pageant to welcome customers. Some of the other bars had similar opening ceremonies. So, yeah, have a meal there. Watch the street come alive. Just make sure you time it right.