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Hi @emiel1981 welcome back from your usual hibernation. This is not true. There is a general rule as follows: Bangkok's pride parade kicks off their pride festivities before the hinterland cities do in Thailand. Generally, the last Saturday/Sunday of May or the first Saturday/Sunday of June is the pride parade in Bangkok. Pattaya city's pride parade is always after Bangkok's pride parade and is usually the last Saturday of June. The only aberration this year was for Jomtien - as its pride parade and pride night festivities are usually held on the 2nd Saturday of June - but due to funding issues by one of the major sponsors (SWING Pattaya) it was postponed (after SWING Pattaya was able to find funding) to the third Saturday of July - with the actual date being Saturday July 18, 2026. Emiel, if you want to catch up on what Pattaya's gay pride of June 2026 was like, there is a specific thread to all of the events that took place at: Emiel, enjoy World Pride 2026 in Amsterdam with the fabulous Canal Parade on August 1, 2026. Thailand has submitted its request to host the World Pride 2030 in Bangkok - but it is in competition with Barcelona - the host city winner will be announced in January 2027.

Miscellaneous update = I have been told that the formerly vacant shop shown below is now under construction to open as another bar in the Jomtien Complex, aka Supertown. anyone know what it's name will be?

I can confirm that My Favorite Diner in the Jomtien Complex, aka Supertown is now officially open for breakfast: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574355724494 Today, July 8, 2026 - I decided to have my breakfast here (normally I rotate through my other favorite breakfast/lunch places; Cococannelle, Tinnies, O Delices, or SunFlour - 1st 3 are in Supertown and SunFlour is over in Pratamnak). Also, it is anticipated that within the next 2 weeks, the new Schatzi's German restaurant will also open for breakfast. I ordered the Grand Slam Breakfast (Denny's anybody?) and it was an overabundance of yummy breakfast food at only 175 baht. Iced Cappucino and water were extra. The breakfast included hash browns, 2 eggs, biscuits & gravy, bacon (not shown in the below photo), pancakes, jam, butter, syrup and some cookies. Grand Slam Breakfast in Supertown I haven't had biscuits and gravy in perhaps 10 years - so it was nice to taste those again - especially as these included that subtle tangy bite without going over the top. This large breakfast was so filling I just went home to sleep it off. Their breakfast menu selections also include; french toast, pancakes, waffles, steak & eggs and many other traditional American breakfast items. I arrived around 10:15am - (it opens at 9:30am for breakfast service) and there were only 2 tables of customers - as we all know many of us Supertown partiers like to sleep in - so I would imagine that it will take some time for a breakfast following to discover this gem. Recently, the famous local Youtuber, Jason Rupp - posted a Youtube short about his meal in My Favorite Diner:

It depends. With the strong anti-defamation rules in LOS - often the truth about things are either opaque or hidden from us. If you live here full time - it is often refreshing to see a Youtube blogger (who lives outside of Thailand) post something that you know is the truth (that you have experienced by living here) but are not allowed to discuss or dare to write down and share for public consumption - especially if you are a foreigner. Here are some examples: New entries to the PFC (Pattaya Flying Club). The local press will often report on what happened by explicitly avoiding to use the word "jump" - instead, preferring to use the term "fell". These locally written articles only have 1 round - and 90% of the time there is no follow up information. So, if you are curious to learn/know more you need to do it yourself - until you are politely asked to STOP - as we have an image to protect. Over time, this type of societal censorship makes you become a censorship conformist yourself because you don't want to create issues with those you see everyday. What I have learned by living here - if you want information about these awful events you need to do so within the first 48 to 72 hours of said event. Within that time horizon there is a frenzy of gossip (especially amongst the Thais - they are the best sources - especially in person if noone else is around or in their Thai FB posts) until a type of edict and/or mandate goes out that states that what has happened - happened - and we need to protect our image and gossiping or talking about those inconvenient truths is no longer permitted. So, with that learned reality - I have discovered that I need to move fast to gain information that will never be published by the journalists - often I cannot move too fast in the first days because when a PFC event occurs (especially if it is in the building where I live) I am often shell shocked and depressed - thus reducing my ability to make a quick investigation. Events that are criticized by Thai journalists - Recently here in Pattaya - there was a rapidly put together type of gathering (the word protest was interestingly not used) by the local community which occured at the Bali Hai pier area of Pattaya. The name of this "gathering" was labeled as "SAVE PATTAYA". https://www.pattayamail.com/news/pattaya-community-demands-apology-over-mafia-city-claims-556345 As I am not Thai and I cannot understand the Thai language - I missed the Thai TV broadcast where this "mafia town" broadcast was made - the source of the irritation of the local citizens of Pattaya. Once I started investigating what happened (thanks to the availability of translation apps) I found the written source of the comment that sparked this local uproar but I was never able to find the video to the TV show in Bangkok where these remarks were made verbally. I was fascinated to learn more about this popular Thai journalist media personality. https://x.com/sirotek Below is the written representation from July 2, 2026 that gave cause to the "SAVE PATTAYA" gathering on Friday July 3, 2026. In my 4 years of living here I have rarely seen people be named with these types of allegations. The involved bank was intentionally not named - as I would imagine that this would be considered as "going over the top". What I can't understand is why Pattaya has received the "mafia gang" label when the issue of "mule accounts" was deemed a national problem, that the BOT (Central Bank of Thailand) had to intervene last year from August - September 2025, where they froze or suspended around 3 million bank accounts - of which it was discovered that around 177,000 bank accounts were actually core mule accounts - around 6%. I have tried to investigate what percent of those 177,000 bank accounts were linked to Pattaya but I was not successful. So, I can kind of understand the irritation of the local Pattaya citizens - especially when this "mule account" issue was on a national level and not specific to Pattaya. Pattaya is found in Chon Buri - one of 77 individual provinces in Thailand. Lastly, here is the link to the actual arrest video that took place on July 1, 2026 https://x.com/Pancakecy/status/2072279739117572485 which then started the spiral of all of these events. So my point with this 2nd example is that the local journalists (often farangs) cannot or will not provide the in-depth background information that you desire - to help you to understand what is really going on. My understanding is that the 2 primary local farang newspapers do not want to take on unnecessary journalistic risk and will instead provide a superficial type of reporting. It is up to you to follow-up with your own investigations - until you are made to understand that your enthusiastic investigative spirit may not be appreciated - so you learn to self-censorship. But, when you see someone on Youtube who lives outside of Thailand do a deep dive - it is sometimes refreshing to know and/or confirm what you believed all along but are not allowed to express.

Paytaya news sources are reporting a very low season for this year 2026. https://thepattayanews.com/2026/07/02/pattaya-struggles-in-prolonged-low-season-as-tourism-declines-sharply-say-prominent-tourism-associations/ "....local tourism association claims a 20-30% decline in tourists, with some hotels seeing occupancy as low as 15%, though broader industry data from May 2026 indicates rates of 30-40% , well below the typical low-season benchmark of 60-70%."

Perhaps. When I wrote the above, my definition of "original" was from my point of view when I first saw them perform in Boyztown - when the 9pm red carpet BoyzBoyzBoyz parade was still popular. In the B-Boys group that is performing in M2M - someo of those guys are the same guys that I saw years back in Boyztown. As I am fairly new to Pattaya - I do not know which year gave birth to the B-Boys concept. But, of lately, in years 2025 and 2026 there are many B-Boy copy cats - and they just are not as good as the "original" breakdance team. One for sure I can definitely remember - because I had a rejection scar from when I was constantly trying to off him and he had to put me in my place that his answer was always going to be no. Now we politely smile at each other and I don't persist anymore.

For those who are into the sex appeal of the original B-Boy dancers - they will now regularly appear at the M2M cabaret bar in the Jomtien Complex on Wednesday and Saturday nights. There are many other copy-cat types of imitators around - but these are the real deal. In my opinion, many of the imitator breakdance groups are not as good as the original B-Boys.

I would say that it is the quietest low season since covid - from the gay ghetto point of view. There are other members in our forum who recently posted that some areas over in Pattaya City (around Terminal 21) were very busy. Just the other day, the below Twitter (X) user posted this interesting tidbit: https://x.com/iashsethi The biggest spending tourists in Thailand are all from the Middle East. Average length of stay 10-12 days. 52% of Thailand's foreign tourism revenue comes from 8 countries: China, Russia, Malaysia, India, UK, Germany, USA, and South Korea (~$25B out of $48B). I would agree with the above statistics that he posted - especially when you move around to the various parts of Pattaya. In the central and northern parts of Pattaya city you definitely see and feel the presence of Chinese tourists. However, I would say that the Russians are more concentrated in the Phratamnak neighborhood on soi 7 - as the primary language on the signage on that street is in Russian and soi 7 ends at what I believe is the largest Russian night market in Pattaya: This Russian night market is very close to where Guido's G's Pratamnak restaurant will be Many Russians can also be found throughout Jomtien and also in the Sansuk sauna: https://sansukthailand.com/

Yes, I reported on the Asian Circuit Party that took place in Pattaya last month in June during the designated Pride month. See below posting with 2 hot Instagram videos from the event.

I completely agree with your assessment @Vessey Could you elaborate on why its our own fault? Is it because for the gay districts that a renaissance by an entity like the NightWish Group did not take hold in Pattaya? For Sunee Plaza it is already too late in my opinion - and for Boyztown I am not sure if an entity like NightWish Group could save its demise. However, for the Jomtien Complex, aka Supertown - it might not yet be too late for the existing farang entities to band together to create an international marketing campaign. On a voluntary basis, there is a single person (Jim) who runs the Supertown Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/supertowngay and in my opinion he does a good job. There is another web page that was promoting the Jomtien Complex, www.jomtiencomplex.com - but as per the WayBackMachine it has not had an update since 12-Feb-2026 and the last major updates were in May 2025. Neither of these web promotional initiatives are oriented for international marketing of the Jomtien Complex. Therefore, a type of NightWish Group international marketing initiative (a gay equivalent) might be in order - as you reported that they were successful in getting new blood (younger generations) to frequent the heterosexual entertainment districts of Pattaya. Would you agree?

Want to sponsor a team for a good fun cause? The idea is to sponsor a bowling team from one of the many entities (bars) that are in the Jomtien Complex, aka Supertown. The goal is to get us farangs to sponsor up to 12 bowling teams, that are made up of 4 people per team - where at least 50% of the team is made up of the local guys. The cost to sponsor a team is only 2,500 baht (see below for further event details). If you are interested in forming and sponsoring a team, you can contact the organizer of this event, Ron, on his LINE account at: khunron_thailand If you don't know which Jomtien Complex entity to sponsor - then Ron can help you by assigning one of the entities to you. In my case, I was assigned to sponsor the Sunee Bar. I am late to the party - in the sense that I just learned that this initiative has already been taking place for a couple of years - but I only discovered this great initiative now in 2026. The philosophy for this event is for us farangs to give back something to the guys that serve us and to have a fun evening all together over at the nearby The Wave Bowl https://maps.app.goo.gl/SvSxFe5RXVVsU8r69 https://www.facebook.com/thewavebowl/ Based on past events it seems like a lot of fun: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1340184004577770&set=pcb.1340189497910554 Below are the event participation guidelines: I had my first meeting with my new Sunee Bar team and only 1 of the guys has ever held a bowling ball in his hands before. So, we have a lot of work to do between now and Tuesday 28 July 2026. I look forward to this challenge. After this afternoon event concludes there will be a party held for the participants over at the @Home Bar at 7pm. Will you join us?

I totally agree 200% with what you wrote above and is why I continually write (see below related Sunee post) about ways to potentially decrease and/or avoid this phenomena of "short supply so much as tourists like us". I see one big potential event that is on the horizon (2030 World Pride) as a way to re-energize the gay economic centers (Chiang Mai, Phuket, Hua Hin, Hat Yai, Koh Samui, and Pattaya) in Thailand that are in the hinterland outside of Bangkok. As this big event will primarily take place in Bangkok, it would be rather easy for the Bangkok promoters and event sponsors to include information about these hinterland gay economic centers when formulating the marketing campaign and programs for the 2030 World Pride events. Will it save the current demise that is underway for these hinterland gay economic centers? Probably not, but at least it could slow down their decay and if we are lucky, perhaps 1 or 2 would benefit from this publicity on the world stage. This was so evident in this year's Pattaya International Pride Festival for 2026, where there were only 2 gay bars represented in the parade line-up out of 82 entities. That is only a 2.4% participation rate (2 / 82 = .02439). And furthermore, the local Pattaya City elections happen to mysteriously fall on the same date as the already pre-planned parade date, which was announced almost 1 year prior - the date for this year's gay pride event = Saturday June 27, 2026 - thus resulting in the closure of all gay bar businesses and venues that serve alcohol on the most important gay pride day. This may be a phenomena that is unique only to the Pattaya City gay pride event - because over in Jomtien, the Jomtien Complex Pride Night will be more than 50% supported by gay entities and gay venues. So, a 2.4% participation rate in Pattaya City and a more than 50% participation rate over in Jomtien. Interesting? What could be the cause behind this? We will know more after the Jomtien Complex Pride Night will conclude on Saturday July 18, 2026.

It is a discussion group. The leads of this discussion group go to the various massage shops and review the massage that they received from a specific massage shop and the specific guy that they requested and/or were assigned to. Afterwards, they write up these massage shop and masseur reviews that are stored for membership consumption. They also provide the LINE Chat and now Telegram Chat to allow for information to be exchanged between the membership, discussion group leads, and sometimes the massage shops and/or masseurs themselves to have an interchange of information, gossip, news, and entertainment. It is not a network of callboys and it is not a massage shop. It tries to stay independent of being a callboy or massage shop - and that is where I believe the value is. It also organizes occasional membership events - like the one announced above.

For those who will be in Bangkok on 4 July 2026 - there will be the Massage Insider 5th Anniversary Party at the Joy Zone in Silom. https://share.google/QSddUCdxiZrAHOK65 A Final Announcement was issued yesterday in their Massage Insider LINE account: If you are interested in attending at this late in the stage, I would suggest to reach out to the Massage Insider administrator via his Twitter (X) handle at: @massageinside6 I do not know what the pricing is to attend this 5th year anniversary event - as it was only divulged to those who attended any of the many Open Chat sessions. But, I believe if you write the administrator via X that he would divulge this information. If anyone will attend this event - please let us all know how it went.

The Supertown FB administrator updated the Jomtien Complex, aka Supertown map today, 30-Jun-2026. Map updated to include Schatzi's Restaurant and the renaming of "Gus Bar" as "Great Bar". https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10167719473968032&set=gm.1591928359300068&idorvanity=1380111770481729

There was a Cafe John restaurant in that area - see below image from an old Google Maps screen capture. If there was a David's in that area - then that was before I moved here....

Schatzi's has published their menu as of 29-June-2026 I see a new addition in the Thai section of the menu = Chicken & Cashews - which many of our forum members like. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590577088216

That is in less than 1 month from now. I think that anticipated opening date is rather ambitious. Having said that, I truly wish a BIG success to Guido. For us who live here in the Pattaya area, we will soon have 2 choices for schnitzel and German sausages at the new Schatzi's in the Jomtien Complex and also in Guido's new Pratumnak branch.

Now hiring!! Yesterday, while doing my almost daily health walk, I intentionally walked past Guido's new endeavor in Pattaya (Pratumnak neighborhood) and there was this new sign posted where Guido is looking to recruit new staff for his new restaurant. I checked out G's FB page at: G's Bangkok Facebook page and the same information was posted - but back on 19 June 2026. The sign on the physical Pratumanak property is new, as I pass by often to watch and note the progress being made. photo taken 28 June 2026 photo taken 28 June 2026 Shall we make a poll for when it will open? I am not a construction expert - but I would say that there could be a "soft opening" at the end of August and a full opening in September/October - just in time for the beginning of high season.

In 2 short words = Total Disaster It was a chicken noodle franchise business and he traveled around Thailand visiting various Thai festivals where he would purchase the rights to a food booth at said event for the duration of the festival (typically from 8 to 12 days). In any given month, he averaged 2 festivals per month - as they are generally not back-to-back and you need time to disassemble the shop and move it to; either a waiting storage area, or in a rare case (if he was able to find a festival starting within a day or 2 from when the current festival is terminating) he could relocate directly to the next festival site. After selling at 8 distinct festivals, where only 1 made a profit - he had to fold this business idea. He did work his ass off and he did put all of his efforts into it - as he is a very good cook (Thai food - especially Isaan food). The problem, after performing many financial break even spreadsheets for each festival - the average break even point was around 327 noodle boxes per day. Only 1 festival managed to exceed 327 box sales - where at that specific festival many of the 9 days of sales - 500 noodle boxes were sold. Unfortunately at the other 6 to 7 festivals - the average number of product sold per day was between 200 to 250 - thus operating at a loss. The obvious solution was to lower the operating costs - but that was very difficult because: He did not own a car - so the other employee (his best friend) offered his car but it had a loan on it for 10,000 baht per month, Since they were using a car instead of a truck with a secure back storage area - they had to hire a shipping company at the end of each festival to move his store and its possessions to either the franchise owner's house in the outskirts of Bangkok or to my friend's home in Sukhothai. After the beginning of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, fuel costs dramatically increased and consequently this fixed operating cost became more difficult to plan out properly for budgeting purposes. I simulated various financial outcomes where, if he owned a truck with a secure back storage area - he could eliminate some of these fixed costs: no more need to pay the 10k car loan each month, no more need to pay a shipping company to move his store from one festival to a temporary storage holding area (until the next festival starts) and then onto the next festival destination, choosing festivals that had larger flows of people who would attend them - but also in regions of Thailand where the local population has more disposable income, thus resulting in the lowering of the break even from 327 daily products sold down to near 230 daily products sold - thus resulting in creating a profit situation and thus avoiding that the working capital fund gets constantly raided. There is no money to buy a truck with a secure back storage area - so this franchise business had to be sadly abandoned.

My job had sent me on a work mission to Bangkok and Dhaka in 2012. Prior to that trip I never had any interest in Asia. That trip changed me. 1 year later, I discovered this gayguides.com forum as well as the https://sawatdeenetwork.com/ forum and by reading the gazillions of trip reports posted in these 2 forums - I just knew that I needed to change my vacation destinations from Europe to Asia (mainly Thailand). I think by 2014 I had discovered Pattaya and it was on a particular walk on Dongtan beach - specifically towards the northern part after the gay volleyball area where there is a small pathway that straddles the very narrow beach road that ends at Yinyom Beach (where Phratamnak soi 5 begins) - as shown in the below image. That narrow footpath underneath the trees with a stunning view of Koh Larn off in the distant - grabbed me and I knew that when I would retire that I had to live near Dongtan beach in one of the condos that overlook the Gulf of Thailand. So, it wasn't necessarily Pattaya that I desired but more the Dongtan Beach area of Jomtien. Honestly, I don't like Pattaya city very much - but it is necessary to us in Jomtien, as there is no good shopping in Jomtien and the bigger medical facilities are over in Pattaya city. So, nothing exciting like @Londoner story - it was more a draw to that special moment on that narrow pathway that did it for me. So, 8 years later I realized that retirement dream when I moved from Europe to Dongtan Beach in Jomtien.

T.i.T = This is Thailand. Either the gay pride parade planners did not take into account the scheduled timetable for pre-scheduled upcoming Alcohol Bans due to religious holidays and/or elections, Or, the Pattaya City municipal authority that granted the parade permits to the gay pride organizers did not inform them. Or, everyone knew, and said f%#k the gay bars and related gay entertainment businesses. I guess we will never know.

Between 8:30pm and 9pm

It could have been worse. Yesterday was Pattaya City's annual gay pride and Boyztown was darker than Sunee Plaza. Lights off in Boyztown Somebody f&#ked up with the planning of one of Pattaya's most important events for the local gay community.

Happy belated Birthday Jim 🎂🍰