hojacat
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Posts posted by hojacat
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1 hour ago, Keithambrose said:
Pleasuredrome, or SBN?
I guess he meant SBN since I said they were giving free Viagra + poppers at the entrance.
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Wasn't it downgraded from 2 to 1 star Michelin in the last publication?
Personally, I found the food there just so-so, nothing exceptional and can see why they lost one star and for example Gaa gained one more and now has 2 stars. Probably the best Indian food I've had, including some famous places in India.
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On 3/9/2024 at 12:50 PM, Firestarter said:
Well being London it's very diverse. Though definitely fit and attractive guys gets to picked up first. I hooked up with a Saudian with a very upper class english accent and a Singaporean guy.
Do you know if it's better/bigger than SweatBox in Soho? I was in London last June during pride week and since staying in Soho, I opted for Sweatbox. Went there twice. On a Thursday (young people's night) and Saturday. Found the sauna not that big and not as many twinks, especially Asian ones, as I was hoping considering it's right next to Chinatown. There was a long line at the entrance though on Saturday at around 11:00PM.
The highlight in London and what I recommend when in there is to go to the SBN&NBN naked party on Sunday afternoons. Not sure if it was because of the pride, but there might have been around 400 guys in there, so you could find any kind of age/body type/race that you wanted. They were even offering free poppers and Viagra at the entrance so pretty much everyone was walking around rock hard😂 It's also close to Waterloo station area.
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On 3/5/2024 at 11:48 AM, vinapu said:
there's retirement home on via Guido Rossa not far from Royal Hammam
Royal Hammam is also the most popular with Asian twinks (Milan has one of the biggest Chinatowns in Europe and actually Hu is the most common last name in Millan) so it's definitely the place I go to when in Milan. Recommend Sunday afternoons.
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On 2/3/2024 at 1:41 AM, vinapu said:
I was there just 2 weeks ago I both Siem Reap and Phnom Penh and can tell with certainty that neither hotel.i was staying made any fuss about visitors.
Even when one arrived on motorbike and requested a kep to the gated parking area they gave it to him without aby question for him or me. Big chain hotels may be stricter but as everywhere else visitors issue largely depends on property and in fact on staff on duty at given moment.
OK Boitique , OK Palace and Saravoan Palace hotels are your sure bets in Phnom Penh with bonus of being close to attractions and all 4 gay bars on existence I know of.
Thanks @vinapu So guests don't really need to check-in at any given time? How easy is get a GRAB in PP?
Also, any sauna you recommend? A thai friend of mine said there is a good one. I'll have to ask him for the name of it.
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On 1/30/2024 at 10:27 AM, Lucky said:
@PeterRS is off the hook! The breakfast at the Courtyard was tops. In Bangkok, Le Meridien still has the best breakfast. I stayed at the Sukhothai a few nights and found their buffet breakfast to be good but not Le Meridien good.
Did you go to any gay venue in Taipei? How did you like it compared to Bangkok?
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My last and only visit to Cambodia (PP and Siam Reap) dates back to 2009, while I was still in college.
In Phnom Penh, I remember staying at this small hotel at an area with lots of embassies around. As apps were still not available I ended up not meeting anyone.
Since I'll go back to Thailand for around 2 weeks during Songran's season, I'm thinking of stopping to PP for 4-5 days. Just wondering what' guest policy do hotels have in there?
Is it pretty lax (so no check-in required, guest can come over anytime of the day and night) like they do in Thailand or is it much stricter (check-in required, no guests after a certain hour) like they do in Vietnam?
If so do you guys recommend an Airbnb (like I definitely do for Vietnam)? Any difference between a small hotel or a bigger one from an international chain?
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On 2/14/2019 at 10:32 AM, rand32 said:
It is already discussed"http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/topic/11734-craigslist-removed-personal-ads-from-their-sites/"]CL personal ads closing, this thread on old domain[/URL], I was curious to ask you (those who used) after almost 1 year of closing, what are your alternatives (if you find anything close to CL for finding partners.)
I will start, combined I am using :
1) Various hookup sites 2) Pure and Tinder apps and 3) few forums like for example Kik Sexting forum.
So I would like to hear what you tried after closing CL personals and what gives you some results? Also, you can share sites/services/forums/whatever that are just wasting a time.
CL was my main resource for sex during my college years in the late 2000s. it was CL and Adam4Adam. Even with the advent of apps CL remained the best and easier place to look for or set up any 3+/groups action. Most apps, especially Grindr make it almost impossible to have a multi-people conversation. They even took out their Group Chat capability lately. Luckily, at least in the US, sniffies.com has come to be very useful for that kind of activity.
I tried using CL on my first trip to Southeast Asia in 2009. I guess I didn't do my homework to find out which were actually the best options online for that region. The place I got any lucky with it was Singapore. Still remember meeting this cute Malay Singaporean I contacted on CL. Had to take both mrt and bus to get to his place. Quite the endeavor at a time when I didn't have Google Maps on my phone. Sex was good but he kinda freaked out when offering me poppers. I didn't know their legal status in Singapore and just had heard how strict are they about drugs. His answer to the question if poppers are legal in Singapore: Who cares?!\
The only other place in Asia I got a considerable activity through CL was Seoul the year after my trip SEA. Remember there pretty much no posts on CL in Taipei in the same period.
- Phoenixblue and vinapu
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19 hours ago, PeterRS said:
Never visited Cruise and with a few exceptions basically gave up the SIngapore sauna scene after Rairua closed. Keybox is definitely the most popular now with all nationalities. There are memberships but only for Singaporeans. Visitors must pay the S$22 entry every time. Shogun sauna iis cheaper but the age range of patrons seems generally much higher.
Out of curiosity went to the Singapore forum to check if anyone had reviewed any sauna there. The only one I can find dates 2012 and mentions a certain Queen Resort sauna, which looks like closed around 2014. Definitely Singapore's gay saunas have short shell life. @KeithambroseDon't be surprised if Keybox is not there when you get to Singapore😂, but if you manage to go please write a review on this site. I'll do the same if I get to visit. This site lacks reviews for saunas that are not located in Thailand, maybe with the exception of Taipei since a few us have visited Soi13 and have written about.
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On 12/9/2023 at 7:03 AM, PeterRS said:
I had a favourite sauna in Singapore named Rairua. It opened in 2002 and was out of the city centre. Like Babylon, it was very well decorated and laid out. It introduced SIngapore's first nude nights. These became so popular that other Singapore saunas had adopted the theme within a year. The clients tended to be better off, cute young Singaporeans - very few foreigners like me! Then virutally without warning it closed its doors in 2006. Now that building happens to be the Singapore branch of the gay Pulse Clinic which started in Bangkok!
Singapore saunas though have the tendency to close a bit abruptly, even when they are popular. I used to go to Singapore every 2-3 years and the popular sauna they recommended you to go to would change every time. Haven't been there in 7 years. Remembered that last time the place to go to was called "Cruise" sauna. You actually had to register to get in and get a pass with your ID number in it. I think I still have it somewhere. Saturdays used to fully packed and if I'm not mistaken it was naked night. Not sure if any of you guys went there. Looks like it closed around 2019-2020. Planning to go again in a few months and now the most popular one seems to be Keybox. Anyone has been there? Anyway, maybe I should post this under the Singapore thread so as not to go off-topic.
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Here are mine. Taken in September (very cold-adverse person in here).
- Ruthrieston, traveller123, PeterRS and 3 others
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2 hours ago, PeterRS said:
I could bore readers with endless photos of from China visits. Let me just say that Chengdu is a great city for gay visitors. Apart from its obvious sights, including the amazing huge panda reserve just outside the city and the Giant Buddha at Leshan, it has a few gay bars. When I was there the apps were absolutely humming. In fact, I couldn't keep up. One cute guy just would not give up and I had to squeee him in (or I squeezed into him 😵) on my last morning before I had to check out at midday. Not one wanted even transport money. Perhaps one reason is Chengdu is the 5th largest city in China with the metropolitan area having nearly 10 million citizens and a catchment area of around 14 million. It also has well over 20 major universities - that's a lot of sexy, hungry, cute young guys!
Chengdu is actually known in China as a very gay city, much more than other cities of similar size. Plus, there is a joke among Chinese that everyone coming from Chengdu has to be a bottom.
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23 minutes ago, PeterRS said:
Isn't prostitution in one or other of its forms one of the reasons many gay guys visit Thailand? We all know that tips for offing from bars aren't tips; they are just fees for prostitution! Was Sunee's reputation for prostitution any different from Soi Twilight's?
My point was that Pattaya being known JUST as a place for prostitution and old people going there to consume it made it much less appealing to a younger crowd who would much more go to Bangkok, Phuket, Pangan, Samui, Chiang Mai then there. This in turn made it much more difficult for the bars to attract new customers.
I guess we all agree that go-go bars in Pattaya overextended during their golden years and didn't adapt to the new realities of the gay scene and the tourism in Thailand. Hence, the unavoidable decline.
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2 hours ago, macaroni21 said:
Good point. While I doubt if the regulars of Sunnee, being in the main of a certain generation, might adopt technology quite so easily, it is possible that the newer generation of twink-lovers did. So, as Sunnee's reputation went down the toilet, they stayed on the apps rather than travel all the way to Sunnee. This may have contributed to the non-renewal of the Sunnee scene.
Good question. If I may speculate:
1. The association with paedophilia caused reputational damage to Sunnee unlike other places.
2. The "product offer" of Sunnee was unusually narrow (fem twinks) and held little attraction to the newer generation of western tourists and Asian clients.
3. As Asian traffic rose, Bangkok had an advantage. Asian tourists tend to make shorter trips, so staying in Bangkok made more sense compared to going all the way to Pattaya (which is also why Pattaya's Boyztown has also seen considerable decline).
Something related to pint 1 and 3. I think the late 2000s and early 2010s were also the time when Pattaya became a bit unappealing to the young Western crowd, as it developed a reputation as just a place for prostitution. That's how I knew it even before my first trip to Thailand in 2009, while still in college.
Also, isn't that the same period when Russians became the number one tourist group in Pattaya? I might be mistaken but I think Russians are not really into go-go bars. Maybe because of linguistic barriers, the desire to be discreet, etc but if they pay they even their hotel or going to massage places, which I've heard are actually quite popular with Russians.
So I don't know how were things in the early 2000s or what the owners were seeing but 16 go-go places in such a small radius is definitely too many, especially since most of the tourists in your city doesn't care about them.
The reason saunas (which I can confirm personally) and places like Soi 2 and 4 are still going very strong in BKK is exactly because their are being patronized by the main tourist group in Bangkok: Asian travelers.
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Yes, especially now that https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-67516777
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7 hours ago, PeterRS said:
why did the customer base that could clearly sustain so many gay bars and go-gos in 2010 all seem to vanish with most closing pre-covid?
Doesn't that coincide with the coming into scene of Grindr and other gay apps? Seems like none of you guys are counting it as a factor into the decline. I mean, it was quite revolutionary. It represents the fastest way to get a guy into your bed, especially if you're willing to pay and you are offered a much larger range of choice that any bar can offer.. I guess some of the customers in those bars where not really interested in the whole shenanigans of the go-go scene, but were there mostly to off guys. If they could do that online much faster and probably cheaper , they stopped frequenting those bars and do something else with the rest of their night and maybe reduction caused that snowball effect that @macaroni21 is mentioning.
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5 hours ago, PeterRS said:
So it is the gay go-go bar model which I believe will eventually die out, and it will be for a mix of commercial pressures (like Sunee Plaza) and pressure from the elites in 'society'. Girlie bars will probably continue but be even further restricted re where they can operate.
You're just discussing it from an offer-side perspective. I think the main question is, will the demand still be there for this kind of entertainment? Will a generation that grew up with internet and with having things instantaneously prefer to pay overpriced drinks so he can just chat and observe a guy and only after off him when if he goes online he can get a guy straight to his bed within 5-10 minutes (paid or not).
I know that for most of the people in here is definitely worth it but taste do change. If the demand stays strong then no matter how expensive rent becomes or how strict the police can be, bars will still operate or new ones will open, same as with gay saunas. If the demand starts to disappear than go-gp bars might just end up like those gay porn video stores. I'm sure some of the old timers in here have probably fond memories and stories of them, but hard to justify their existence nowadays.
- Boy69, vinapu and Marc in Calif
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So I guess none in this forum went to the gay Atlantis cruise last month that started in Singapore and ended up in Pattaya. Was in BKK last month and saw a couple of people with "Atlantis" written on their profile. Kinda regret now not asking any of them how did it go and what the crowd was like. Didn't see anything about it on Twitter, so probably not many onlyfaners ended up going. It's usually the one from Florida in February that uses those big RC ships that attracts the most of them.
Personally I would use cruises for destinations where a ship is the only or the best way to visit it. So my favorites have been the Norwegian fjords, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, Alaska, etc .Personally would never recommend a cruise in the Mediterranean. It's definitely the worse way to explore that region. Even in some of the smallest islands or towns like Valleta, Mykonos, Zadar, etc you would be rushed when visiting it, let alone exploring bigger cities like Marseilles, Palermo, Valencia, Barcelona, etc. It's truly like going on a buffet and just licking the food.
In the non-gay cruises I have been to, I've always have some crew hit me up on Grindr, but they always make it complicated meeting them , so I have never done it. I end up hooking up with 1-2 fellow passengers each time though. The best I had was on a cruise to the Norwegian fjords. I chatted and got invited for drinks by this young Irish couple. Pretty much only interested in one of them, who was pretty twinkish, which luckily was also verse. They said the knew some executives at MSC so they were able to get a suite for a very good price. After having some champagne, we headed to their place. It was great messing around in the open air jacuzzi in their suite with the fresh air and the stars above us. Things got even more interesting the day after as this cute Asian student from Manchester joined me and them. A long but unforgettable night.
- floridarob and fedssocr
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48 minutes ago, macaroni21 said:
I found this site: https://friendlyhotelsguide.com/guest-friendly-hotels-bangkok-thailand/
Someone took a lot of trouble to put the joiner question to numerous hotels. Silom area hotels are below and need scrolling. But that's also when one notices defunct hotels like Om Yin Lodge, Tawana, etc. It's always difficult keeping such information lists up to date.
It would probably be easier and shorter to just list the hotels that are NON-gust friendly, as almost all the hotels in those areas mentioned in the article tend to be very liberal when it comes to having guests in your room. I would also specify when mentioning an hotel, if a key is required for the elevator or not. Pretty much, do you want the guy to come straight to your room or you don't mind pick him down at the lobby.
I would also add Pullman and W Hotel (this one popular especially with Asian gay travelers) in the list of "gay-friendly" hotels, which I guess means an hotel were a good part of the crowd is gay. If so, during NYE or Songran pretty much every hotel in Silom becomes one.
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1 hour ago, PeterRS said:
Sorry I just can’t agree with that. As has been stated several times before in this forum, the main reason is the improved economic opportunities for upcountry boys who used to supply most of the gogo bars as a result of Thailand’s considerable economic gains since the 1997 Asian Economic crisis. No longer do most have to work in the rice paddies or do other low paid work in the villages. Escalating rates of HIV and greater emphasis (no more alas) on health education may also have had something to do with it.
I suspect bar owners would prefer more Thais to foreigners, many of whom are here illegally - but that’s just my guess. Another guess is that if there is a major clampdown on undocumented foreigners working in bars, I can’t see more Thai’s jumping in to take their place, even in the case of an economic recession as @reader has suggested. I reckon the apps will have done their job by then and the boys will prefer telephone dates to nightly parading and offs in bars.
I believe we are saying the same thing. The owners might prefer Thai boys as it means less hassle with the police because of their immigration status, but on the other hand they enjoy the lower price they can pay to this immigrants compared to Thai guys. Yes, the economy has improved, so guys from Issan and other provinces can come to BKK and work in hotels and malls, but offer them 5-6 times that they are making in those places, and a good number will parade for you however you like.
I mean , lots of them are already prostituting themselves online for some extra money. Also, personally witnessing each time I'm in Thailand, the amount of bb sex happening with the under-25 crowd (and I'm talking about free sex) I don't feel there is an STD panic going on right now within the young people in there, much less so worrying about HIV.What I think happened is: there is definitely a contraction in the demand for go-go bars. As the first post of this thread said, go-go bars are not as popular as they used to.
So, owners can't really increase their price, or risk alienating even more customers, especially given the high availability of guys online. The large numbers of Burmese, Laos and Cambodians has really served as safety valve for them. Afterall, most customers in those bars can't even tell the difference if the guy is Thai or not.
So, I still think it has mostly to do with economic reasons and not really because of any big cultural or sociological changes in the mores of Thai society. However other long-time residents of Thailand can chip in with their thoughts.
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8 hours ago, PeterRS said:
So far, they have survived, although now very few Thai boys work in them - very unlike the 1980s and 90s.
Isn't that the same reason you see mostly foreigners working in certain industries like fast food, constructions, etc even in Western countries?! Owners prefer foreign workers with sometimes dubious work permits, so that they can pay them less, offer no benefits and have bigger control. If thy government cracks down on immigrants then those owners will have to offer more to attract the local boys if they want to stay in business. so I think that's because of economical reasons, instead of cultural ones. I'm sure there are plenty of local boys working as freelancers online.
- floridarob, Lucky, reader and 1 other
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7 hours ago, PeterRS said:
We saw the first major attempts to clamp down on the sex trade in the early 2000s with Thaksin's social order campaigns. SInce then the apps have been doing a good job at weaning some sex tourists away from the bars.
Yeah, they tried but even then they weren't able to shut it down. Why? Because there was too much money to be made by that very same elite. so, I don't government intervention as the main factor in the change of BKK's gay scene. It's not like Thai society has become more conservative, actually the opposite is true, especially among young people. Plus, that kind of crackdown would have a much higher global resonance today that they had more than 20 years ago. It would definitely scare lots of people.
I still think that actually "market" forces will drive the change. Even among the gay tourist crowd, westerners represent a much smaller percentage compared to 30-40 years ago. It's the Asian, primarily the Chinese, that make up the majority. so, it's only logical that a lot of venues will cater to their taste and way of doing things.
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7 hours ago, reader said:You fail to acknowledge that they will be replaced by those who are now a decade younger. That’s how it’s been from day one. The faces will change but the beat goes on. The need for sex and affection is not some passing fad.
They say prostitution is the oldest profession right? so, it was the first one and it's going to be the last one in this world. It's definitely not going away anytime soon.
Actually, a higher number and percentage of younger people are visiting Thailand and the countries around, compared to when most of you guys where in the 20s and 30s.
Lots of them are enjoying the free company of Asian guys they find online or through bars. Now imagine the same people going back to the same places in 25-30 years. I'm sure that when they don't get the same rate of success, lots of them wouldn't mind splurging a little bit to relive those happy moments from their youth with an Asian twink body next to them.
That said I'm sure most of that transactional activity will take place online. I'm in my mid 30s, and pretty much through all my life I always found most of sex online, first through internet sites and then came the apps. I imagine it's even more common for people younger than me. However, as online shopping didn't fully eliminate brick and mortar stores, so I think go go boys aren't fully going away. There is some advantage in actually seeing and touching your "merchandise" in person, than just ordering it online.
They might change in form and they way they operate but hasn't that always happened? Were the go-go bars in BKK and Pattaya in the 80s and 90s same as the ones we see today?
Pleasuredome: London Gay Saunas
in European Men and Destinations
Posted
400 guys were at SBN, not Sweatbox. Now, I don't know how many guys go to that party on a normal weekend as it was pride Sunday when I went there and I think that definitely attracts a bigger crowd than usual. I mean even at Sweatbox, I had to wait for around 30 minutes to get in when I went there on Pride Saturday night at around 10:30PM. It's just that I found the crowd to be just so-so, even though they were kinda friendly and as you mention, the cruising area at Sweatbox is definitely too small.
Going again to London this year for pride and just wondering if Pleasuredome would be a better choice on Saturday night.
Because the crowd was quite large in there, you could find from barely legal twinks to guys that were definitely in their early or mid 70s so don't let age be a blocker if you want to go there. I agree though that bringing a younger guy that enjoys performing in front of you would make the experience much better.