hojacat

Thanks for this article @PeterRS. It sheds light into a not-so-distant period but that feels light-years from the Hong Kong I've known (just returned from it two weeks ago). Thanks also for mentioning Leslie Cheung. This year runs the 20th anniversary of his tragic death. I'm planning to watch Happy Together one more time on my long-haul flight this week. Just a question, wouldn't have been better to make 5 posts under the same topic, instead of 5 separate ones? In time might get difficult find the different parts.

There are plenty of options where to spend one week near Thailand. It all depends what are you looking for (more boys or giving yourself a break) , how much you want to spend, if you like city or nature, etc. HCMC has a large selection of guys and gay venues (there is this gay sauna that supposed to be really good), the food is great and it's a pretty affordable, definitely cheaper than BKK.

Hep A and B vaccines are recommended in the US for men who have sex with men. Plus, it's a good idea for anyone traveling to Southeast Asia. If you had it before, the doctor can check your antibody levels to see if you need a booster.

Were that company also the host of utopia-asia.com or it's completely unrelated? I remember they were my main source of information for bars, clubs and saunas when I started my travels in Asia around 2009. In the coming years though the advent of social medias and dating apps changed the game completely. The number of sites regarding gay traveling and venues recommendations also seems to have multiplied in the last 10 years or so.

It was because of a naming issue, about which many people felt it had political undertones. As per Wikipedia: Washington DC just came up as an immediate alternative. While I agree that the most natural choice in Taiwan would have been Taipei, sometimes these events are also used for promoting a city in the eyes of the world and not just reaffirming established gay capitals. I mean Kaohsiung has as many gay venue or even more than Copenhagen has, which even though an amazing, tolerant and livable city, it's not probably in the top 10 gay cities in Europe when it comes to nightlife. It was however selected for the World Pride 2021. To be completely honest, I wanted it to be held in Kaohsiung so that I could feast my eyes and hopefully another part of my body in a sea of Asian twinks. There were a good number of them during Sydney pride, both locals and visitors. Most of the tourists though were more from the richer Asian countries like: Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, etc even though I met a guy from Indonesia and another from the Thailand visiting Sydney just for the pride. In terms of visas, cost and time you would definetly get a bigger gathering in Taiwan. I guess for now there is only Taipei Pride and to a certain degree Songran and NYE party in Bangkok for people looking for a large gathering of young Asian gay guys.

They do have sex toys at Donki's in Ximending, Taipei but I didn't see them at the one in Silom. The music at that one though is really loud.

Glad to hear you had one of the few twinks at the Hans Men sauna Peter. Soi13 is great but maybe competition is needed for it to lower the price, though on a second though it's better when all the twinks have only one place to go to, unlike Hong Kong. Much easier fishing them. I'm surprised you don't really go to Soi13 during your trips to Soi13? Correct me if I'm wrong but I have the impression you know some Mandarin which usually helps a lot approaching the guys you like, even with a big age difference. I also noted that there wasn't much activity on Blued when I was in Taipei in January. There were so many guys on Grindr and to a lesser number in Hornet. Didn't try Jack'd.

Such a shame that Kaohsiung was stripped off the right to host the World Pride in 2025. It's a beautiful city and it would had attracted crowds from all over Asia, much more than Sydney did (even though the crowd was amazing there and I had so much in every way). I have been to the last three editions of the world pride (NYC, Copenhagen and Malmo) but not sure if I want to go to the one in Washington DC in 2025, probably will go the one in Amsterdam one year later. Hopefully they assign it to Bangkok in 2028 as I'm sure the crowd will be great but that it still 5 years away.

I went to the Babylon's foams party for Songran a few years ago. Really crowded. there was a line outside to get in. R3 also had foam parties during the same period and I would say they were equally good. The venue at R3 was smaller so there was not much space to move but that made touching guys way easier. Never been to Chakran. I'll be going to BKK next week and might want to check it out. Any day/time you recommend? How often do they their foam parties. If I remember correctly, Babylon's used to have a monthly cadence. Both people in this forum and the reviews I'm reading online say that's not really farang-friendly. What's your personal experience?

One hour is a bit too short of a timeframe. I forgot to add regarding Hutong sauna some people mentioning that before Covid they used to have something called doorless nights, where all the door's rooms couldn't be closed for 6PM to 9PM. Not sure if they have restarted having them now. their website doesn't mention it.

I'm not that familiar with bars that offer sex shows, but if you just want to see guys doing I would also suggest going to the R3 sauna during their O-party nights. the sauna hires a couple of performs who first put some kind of a sex show for around 20-25 minutes, albeit not that good imo, and then everybody goes up one floor in this big room and performs start doing it with the sauna customers. It's quite the show even if you just want to watch and you don't have to pay extra if any of the performers wants to have sex with you. So from a purely financial perspective, it's probably the best choice. Sauna Mania in Silom does kinda the same thing, as they are both owned by the same guy. However, they didn't put a show during Xmas/NYE but had a foam party instead which lasted almost two hours and the performers were messing around with customers and among themselves this whole time.

yeah, my bad. I used an incorrect term. I guess I wanted to say potato queen. Looks like you can't edit your post in here.

I'll be heading to Hong Kong in two weeks. Have only been there once in 2014, though I stayed for a good amount of time. Quite excited to go back as I really had a great in there. My first time I went to around 5 different saunas, though I remember the name of just three of them. Based on that experience and doing some research on different websites, I'm listing the names ana d a description of some of the numerous (probably one of the highest in Asia) gay saunas in Hong Kong: Central Escalator (HK island) - remembering reading so much about this sauna before heading to HK the first time. It was supposed to be the place where the young rice queens of HK would hang out. However, got pretty disappointed when I visited. It's quite small and it was almost all elder guys, both Westerns and locals. Remembering leaving after only 20-25 minutes. Still see positive reviews about it online but I think I'll skip it this time. Hutong (Kowloon) - this was described as the best sauna of HK where the young and beautiful would go on weekends and it really was. Had a blast both times I went there. The guys were young and hot and would get pretty wild in the dark corners. It had the reputation of refusing entrance to old or out-of-shape guys. However I read in a personal blog that from 2016 or so they stopped doing that as they actually wanted to maximize their profit. Having a more mixed crowd left some of the younger guys unhappy and they started heading to other saunas like Big Top (now closed and My Way Sauna which also offered big discount to younger guys. Looks like the competition made Hutong also match that discount as the price for guys U-27 is only 55HKD and for those U-33 only 99HKD. The reviews say that the crowd is still good on weekends, so I plan to go there at least once. they don't have any theme night. Chaps (HK island) - I remember it was a cute two-floors high sauna mostly frequented by young professionals, so mostly guys in their early 30s. Read that now it's just one floor and continues to attract the same crowd. I think I'll skip this time. My Way (HK Island) - seems to be the favorite sauna for young twinks as guys u-28 pay only 50HKD. They have theme nights every night and seems like naked Sundays are really popular. However, different sites agree that there is a big sticky rice vibe in there even though they don't refuse entrance to foreigners. Planning to go at least once, at least just for the eye candy, though I should be prepared for rejections. Gateway (HK Island) - the reviews praise the level of facilities and its cleanness a lot. Seems to have a very mixed crowd when it comes to age and foreigners are warmly welcomed. No theme nights. Plan to go at least once. Soda (HK Island) - this one has to have the most opposing reviews I have encountered. A lot say it has the biggest dark room in HK and it's clean, others say it's small and describe it as dirty (there were mentions of people getting beaten by bedbugs). Most agree that it attracts a large enough crowd, including young people. There are also a few strange reviews about the behavior of the owner towards white guys. Seems like he is a bit of a rice queen and kind hits on most of the white guys going to the saunas and gets quite unhappy when getting refused. He and his staff then gets quite towards the guy. Same behavior applies also to the Asian guys that meet the white guy and some say he even refuses entrance to locals he knows are into white guys. People say also there are security cameras in the cruising areas. Undecided for now if I will go once or not. Colony, Galaxy and QQ - three saunas that attract mostly older guys. Planning to skip. If anyone of you guys have been to these saunas or have heard about it, feel free to add your review. I plan to write a follow-up post after my trip. @PeterRS @Marc in Calif or others that have been there lately, what app do you recommend using from: Grindr, Blued, Jackd and Hornet?

Glad to hear you enjoyed your time in Taiwan @vaughnAs most of the people in these post said, it's truly an amazing place to visit. Most of the local people go to Soi13 between 6:30-7:30PM as that can get it for only 300NTD and yes Saturday is the busiest night. They apply the same discount from 12:00-1:00 AM, so probably the crowd might bet bigger late at night. Not sure if you have to pay again if you want to enter again later, my local friend said you can go out and get in.I never made it past 11:00PM in there. I get completely drained. I didn't go to the sauna in Taichung but kinda had the same experience as you in the Kaohsiung one. Went on Friday and there were only 15-20 people, mostly old but then on Saturday there were around 40-50 people with many young twinks. ended up messing with three different guys. I'll be in HK in two weeks so will create a post in the coming days about the different saunas in there that I know from my previous visit in there and from doing research online. HK has one of the highest numbers of gay saunas for a city not just in Asia, but probably in the whole word so picking which one to go to can be tricky. I would still encourage you to consider visiting Taipei again during pride. If you thought Soi13 was busy on a normal weekend you would be in awe during that period. There are at least #X more people. It's really incredible. Plus you can treat yourself to so much eye candy just by strolling the streets of Ximen and other areas of Taipei.

I talked to this African guy last year: https://twitter.com/top_stallion?s=20. I asked him if he wanted to join me and one of my Thai fwb in action. I was a bit surprised when he told me he was a mb. I like the videos on his Twitter profile, though I don't think the bottoms are his actual customers, as they are all young twinks who I would say don't have the need to pay. Didn't ask about rates, as I don't really do transactional sex, but if he is your type shoot him a message on line. He replied pretty fast.

Marc, did you also go to any sauna in HK while there? Not sure if they were opened in 2022.

Well, I've only went one night at white party this year and there was no action pretty much. Trying again with the XXO party in May. It's a combination of a circuit party/gay cruise but defintely I'm expecting the same level of public lewdness as in in Atlantis cruise😁

What does GP means? gay saunas? You can find a list here https://www.travelgay.com/gay-saunas-and-cruise-clubs/, though I would say the list is not exhaustive.

you are right. I just saw the copyright and it says 1991. The chapter about Bangkok opened up with a description of Babylon, so I thought it was more recent than that. It definitely has a great historical value as probably describes attitudes, places and customs that are much different from today. I'm sure the book would have felt so exotic in the eyes of the readers of the early 90s when there was no internet and it was difficult to find information about gay life and venues even in a city nearby, let alone around the world.

and that's just the version of Line avaiable outside Asia, but in certain is much more than simple messaging app. It's what is called a SuperApp, similar to WeChat in China. You can use Line to pay for things, to order things online, to watch TV, to play games, etc, etc.

You can add people in Line with just phone number if that's what you are looking for, though most people use the Line ID or the QR code. I definitely prefer Line over Whatsapp, even if just for their endless stickers. I go from time to time to their store in LA (there is always a large number of Asian twinks roaming that place) One thing to keep in mind if you are using Line. It stores the videos and photos other people send you just for two weeks, unless you explicitly save them. Lost a good number of videos from this hot Thai twink and his encounters with farangs in Bangkok, when I first started using Line.

Hopefully not too suddenly as to hurt the boy. These kind of interruptions are such a bone killer for me.

Has anyone read this book? There are two chapters dedicated Bangkok. It's was published more than 10 years ago, before the advent of apps, so the descriptions might sound outdated, but I wonder if it's worth reading it: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1766042.Out_in_the_World

I stayed at a small hotel near Glorietta last year. Some of the guys went through check-in and some didn't. I guess it depended on the hour. Not sure how is the situation at a bigger hotel. Maybe if you go pick them up at the entrance and pass through security together, they don't have to show their ID. In Puerto Princessa, i stayed at Hue Hotel and all the guys went straight to my room. Surprisingly though, none of the Filipino guys complained about. It's mostly in Vietnam where some guys were not happy I was staying at an hotel and that they had to go through reception.

Not really, though it's true that knowing Mandarin might lead sometimes to a higher success rate cause if you start a conversation in local language the guy might be less shy. Overall, It's mostly a game of glances and touches. If there is a match most guys know top or bottom, or you can just use hands to mimic 1(top) or 0(bottom) as these are the terms used in some Asian countries to refer to the sexual position. Sometimes guys starts speaking and explaining themselves in Mandarin when they don't want to go with you, so I guess knowing the language helps learning why you are getting refused 😄