Travellerdave

The decline in the Pattaya gay scene has been documented at length in these pages . So the question is whether it is an enjoyable place for gay men who enjoy the delights of Asian guys to visit for a short vacation or a long stay ? i am nearly at the end of two week stay and have very much enjoyed my visit. The two hotels I have used have been excellent, particularly the Classroom, on the edge of BT, where I stayed for my first week, moving on only because I prefer a resort hotel with a swimming pool in which I like to take exercise. Pattaya is still fantastic value for money, in respect of hotels, meals and of course boys. I’ve enjoyed the unbroken sunshine which has done a lot for my morale after 4 months of the British gloomy wet winter. I have used Grindr to make contact and whilst it has faults It did deliver 4 separate boys, who by and large I enjoyed in my bed. One I kept for two nights and visited with him the gay Dongtan beach plus bars during the day in between. I also offed two (twinks) from The Complex and one from Winner. Another gorgeous guy I met on a Bart bus in transit to Jomtien when he jumped on a short distance from commencement and gave me his telephone number. If I had more time I would certainly have made a side trip to Bangkok, and I expect to do that dusting my next visit later in the year.

The boys from Cambodia and Laos can converse in Thai because their native languages are similar to Thai. The Burmese lad was able to tell me he could not understand Thai as his language is completely different. His bar was 100% Burmese. Talking to another customer we both formed the impression that a proportion of the boys have only recently arrived to work in the bars and are rather unsophisticated as regards to gay sex and it can be difficult to establish their orientation. On my second visit to the Complex I offed a boy from Laos who could speak English and had worked bar 6 months and who was able to tell me he was versatile, which proved to be the case during a LT off (400 to the bar, boys tip 2000).

I’m glad I experienced Pattaya in the period 2002 to 2006, when I was young enough to take full advantage. Now in 2024 I have found Boyztown has only two functioning gogos and Sunee is like a Western ghost town. The busy Jomtien Complex on the other hand is like attending the United Nations with boys (many twinks) from all parts of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, possibly Vietnam but I have not not come across one from there. Expertise using Google Translate is an important skill when trying to communicate especially as many seem to have only recently arrived in Thailand. Last night I could not make much progress when trying to talk to a Burmese boy as there does not seem to be an English - Burmese google facility, but maybe I didn’t look hard enough. Likewise the customers are drawn from virtually all parts of the first world (Europe, Australasia, USA/Canada) and many appear to be taking vacations from their retirement homes. The Dongtan Beach gay section is flourishing despite reports of its death. I have enjoyed over several days the confortable chairs, good food/drinks service, and the wonderful weather. The few older ladies encroaching do not detract from the ambiance, but only one or two customers were accompanied by their young boyfriends.

I never like being the only customer in a gay bar, particularly a Gogo. Of course from the outside you generally can’t check the interior. My thoughts are that no customers signals that the bar is not worth a visit maybe due to unattractive boys, expensive drinks, too loud music etc etc

Gay bars in Pattaya need to make money just now whilst it is busy with drink sales and off fees, which are very reasonable at Winner. So as to tide the business over in the quiet low season.

Why would the coowner buy wine for your boyfriend and get him drunk ? Some sort of connection between them ?. Asian guys are not used to wine and underestimate its potency.

Ladyboys + 4am = big danger

I’ve done sogkran once about 15 years ago in Pattaya and recall it being fun, but I wouldn’t book that period again. When contemplating a trip in March/April I check the songktan dates so as to avoid it.

Macaroni you have nicely described the Dongtan Gay beach as I remember it in my first few years visiting Pattaya (about 2002 to 2005) when many of my afternoons were spent there, enjoying the sun, sea , the ambience and the boys, (especially the boys. ). Sometimes it was difficult to find an unoccupied chair especially when accompanied by other farangs or boyfriends. There were maybe 10 or a dozen obviously gay orientated concessions where few women or hetro couples were to be found and several nearest the toilet block always seemed to be 100% gay. Happy days !

Is there still a recognised gay section ?

Of course if you like the combination of a boy plus sand and sea there is sometimes the option of taking your off or boyfriend to the beach. Whilst staying in the Complex I’ve taken suitable boys for a late morning breakfast and then for an hour or two at what’s left of the gay beach. Once last year I had a boy accompany me into the calm sea where we had some fun swimming and splashing in the warm water. Lovely memory which deserved the promised enhanced tip.

Why is the shortening quaint and colonist ? I can’t work that out.

Coco is definitely the best gym in Pattaya. When in Pats I go most days in the late morning. These days I prefer to use the treadmills after weights rather than do dawn runs.

Still a lot of gays go in the afternoons to Dongtan to socialise but few boys. Unfortunately females have infiltrated in recent years.

Now ? Just down to 3 visits per week to the gym. When in Pattaya I go to Coco on Beach Road.

I’ve come across this problem many times particularly a few years ago when I was into fitness big time. Offed Boys found my desire to leave them in bed for early morning runs incomprehensible and not once did one take up an occasional invitation to try a little exercise, even though most had hard fit young bodies, usually from a previous life of working in the rice fields. Walking from the hotel in the Jomtien Complex to the beach or from Sunee to the Ambience was not at all what they wanted to do. The incentive of a present failed to persuade one boy to walk with me to Soi Buakhow Market from Boyztown.

Boy69>………../ i do agree with a lot of what you say above but would add the following: - the unsavory reputation certainly impacted on me, but maybe you are right that overall perhaps it’s a minor factor - Yes Thailand has become less of a bargain destination but that does not seem to have affected the booming str sex/drinking scene. Estimates of about 40,000 female bar girls/ gogo dancers/ masseuses in Pattaya currently. Plus hundreds of ladyboy prostitutes. How many boys servicing us gays ? Maybe several hundred only. Jomtien Complex 250, Boyztown/Sunee 150, Freelance 100. Total 500. Just guesstimates. - Agreed that Thai guys have many more opportunités for earning a living and I mention the result at the end of my post. I would add that boys from Cambodia/Laos have to an extent replaced the missing Thais in Pattaya.

I first visited Pattaya in 2001 in company with another gay friend. That was just before the internet and websites like this one took off and due to scarce information we had no idea where to stay and where to find the gay scene. However we quickly found our feet one way or the other and enjoyed the exotic (for us ) atmosphere, the amazingly low prices (72 baht = £1), the food and hotels, the bars and gogos (took us a few days to find Sunee) and of course the boys . Especially the boys !. Since then I have visited Thailand numerous times, mainly Pattaya, but also bkk and a few other places. On return home from the first few trips friends and family were very interested in hearing all about my travels (my accounts varied according to the audience). This was before many people became active on the internet and only a few commented about the racy reputation that the country was beginning to acquire. That changed around the mid 2000’s, especially when accounts of under age sex started to appear in the tabloid newspapers and everyone started surfing the internet. I started to play down my visits and even lie occasionally as to where I spent my holidays. The gay friend of my first visit stopped going. Advance a few more years to the 2010’s and the Pattaya gay scene began to thin out, especially in Sunee which previously contained maybe 10 gogos plus a good number of bars. Contrast that with the booming str night life available to non-gays with girlie gogo’s opening all over, adding to the numerous beer bar complex’s. Visitors from non-farang countries, who don’t visit the gay bars greatly increased. The gay scene much reduced compared with the earlier period pre 2005 (the good old days ?) and gay visitors have become an even smaller minority than previously.My theory is that the unsavory reputation as regards sex and drinking has impacted more on the gay communities. There are other factors of course: the decline of the $ £ Eur against the baht and the.perceived less attractiveness of available Asian male prostitutes.

Insurance fraud attempt ?

Yes it would be interesting if there was a list of places attracting gay visitors. Before I discovered Thailand in 2002 I was a regular to the Spanish island of Gran Canaria and the resort of Playa del Ingles . Days posing and flirting on the beach, sex in the sand dunes and the night life made for a great holiday. But no Asian boys (not in those days anyway) unfortunately.

Reading Mack’s well written blog, made me slightly nauseous when getting to the appalling part about the girlie ping pong show. I think if I was str, a visit to such a performance would kill off any sexual desire for a while.

What’s the difference between “coyote dancing” and “dancing” ? I once had two boys doing the latter for me in my hotel room.

Foolish - inefficient aircon at the Tarntawan is not something I have experienced. You have to take these reviews with a degree of skepticism. See Londoner’s post - he’s stayed there many times and no mention of poor aircon.

My trips are normally based in Pattaya for 2 or 3 weeks, but I usually include a side trip to BKK for a couple of nights where my hotel of choice has been the Tarntawan, which was recommended to me as a gay hotel in 2002 when I made my first visit. I’ve never thought of staying anywhere else (bit boring I suppose).