forrestreid

In Jomtien, between the Agate and Zing Hotels, there is the Thai Blind Massage Institute, signposted as the "TBMI". It offers legit massage by blind people who have been trained rigorously in the art of Thai massage. I have never used it myself (i find proper Thai massage a bit sore) , but it has very good reviews on Trip Adviser.

Thanks for reporting that - I was unaware. It was in the window to edit my post, so I have added a note that it may be closed.

Hi Raza. Welcome to the board. You are more likely to get useful help if you tell us a bit about yourself. For instance, most people will assume that you're an older gay guy planning to use the commercial gay scene. But you could be in your twenties or thirties hoping for free encounters. You may be familiar with the Bangkok commercial scene and want just a few hints as to how Pattaya differs. Or you may be a newbie to Thailand and know nothing. Anyway, here are a few basics. I will presume that you are an older guy looking to hire. I will talk about the bar areas rather than meeting guys off the apps, which others have mentioned. There are three gay bar areas in Pattaya: Boyztown, Jomtien Complex, and Sunee Plaza. Jomtien Complex, a few miles south of Pattaya city centre, is the biggest “gay zone”, but it does not have go-go bars. Boyztown and Sunee Plaza are in Pattaya city centre, and are smaller areas (Sunee Plaza is almost dead at this stage). Boyztown and Sunee Plaza have go-go bars, while Jomtien Complex specialises in host bars. Boyztown I won't talk about individual bars. Probably the three most popular ones at the moment are Classic Boys, X-Boys, and Toyboys. If you do a Google Map search for any of them, it will bring you to Boyztown, where they are clustered together. A search for those names in the search bar of this website will bring up reports. In general, the go-go bars in Boyztown charge 250–300 baht for a drink. You basically watch the guys dancing on a stage in their underwear. If you see a boy you like on the stage (identified by a number), you tell the mamasan (bar manager on the floor), who will bring him over to sit with you. Since many boys are from neighboring countries like Myanmar, Laos, or Cambodia, and may not speak English well, the mamasan often acts as translator to discuss what the boy is willing to do ("top/bottom/both") and the price to hire them for Short Time (S/T- an hour or two) or Long Time (L/T - usually overnight). However, having the mamasan involved will often raise the expected price, as the mamasan sometimes gets a commission for suggesting a higher price. If the guy speaks any reasonable level of English at all, I would be inclined to keep the mamasan out of it. Boyztown Costs If you bring the guy out of the bar, you will have to pay a fee to the bar, called the “off fee" (similar to the “bar fine” in straight establishments, if you are familiar with them). My understanding is that the current off fee in most Boyztown places is around 500 baht. You will also have to pay the guy separately for his time. Compensation levels can be a contentious issue on this board, but my understanding is the current expected fee for S/T in Boyztown is 1500–2000 baht. Particularly handsome or muscular guys may expect more. Of course, if you are hiring a guy for L/T that would have a higher expectation as well. Sunee Plaza Sunee Plaza is a bit similar, although they have a tradition of the guys being open to being able to be “touched up”, even to the point of being made to cum, at your seat in exchange for a tip of a few hundred baht, which isn't really a thing in the other places. As this area is pretty moribund at the moment, I would leave it as your last visit. It does tend to be cheaper for than Boyztown for off fees and the payment expectations of the guys, though. The main bars in Sunee Plaza are Winner Bar (recently reported closed?) and Nice Boys Bar. Google Maps will help you find them, but be aware that at this stage, with the decline of gay establishments in the vicinity, visiting them will be more like making a trek to individual bars than being part of a "gay area." Jomtien Complex Jomtien Complex has a different model. The bars there are “host” bars rather than go-go bars – they are focused on bars where you can sit and drink, and fully clothed hosts will sit with you and chat in return for you buying them a drink. It has the biggest selection of bars - you really feel like you are in a “gay zone" in Jomtien Complex. Most of the bars have an outside area, which gives a nice ambience to the streets. You can sit outside and people-watch or sit inside and watch the shows. The shows are not go-go shows, but rather entertainment shows dominated by drag acts, although some shows, such as at M Bar, can get quite raunchy. As with Boyztown, the guys are available to take off from the bar. I believe the current off fee in the complex is a bit cheaper than Boyztown, around 300 baht. The expectations of the guys for S/T or L/T may be a bit lower as well, perhaps more so 1200 or 1500 rather than 2000 for S/T, for example. I see that @jimmie50 provided to a link to a map of the bars in Jomtien in an above post, which is very useful. Massage Another aspect you could usefully search for on this board is gay massage places. Many of them are basically fronts for “sexy massage”, which can range from a hand job at the end of the massage to full sex.

Glad to see the board back too. And could I just say I was pleased to see that the managers of the other main Thai message boards - Moses from Sawatdeeforums and Gaybutton - were offering their solidarity and support (and in the case of Moses, practical assistance) on their boards too while the outage was continuing. Good on them.

Good point, Vinapu. MauRICE can make interesting contributions, but there’s definitely a streak of vitriol running through many of his posts. Part of it seems to come from a kind of self‑righteous mindset that is increasing common online: as long as someone holds the “correct” views on Middle East politics, or the “right” opinion on how much to compensate a service provider, then their tone in their postings apparently doesn’t matter — they can still consider themselves the better person. Combine that with a generally sneering attitude toward older white men, who make up the majority of posters on this board, and it’s hardly a recipe for winning friends or influencing people.

Glad that I could be of assistance Cball. if you do have any adventures with a boxer, please do report back about it on the boards!

Well, I suppose I was comparing it with other Asian destinations, perhaps inappropriately considering the cost of living in HK. The whole package seems noticeably dearer than some recently quoted Japan hires, I think.

So about 54 Euros or 63 US dollars for a HJ And about 163 Euros or 190 US dollars for full service. Not exactly cheap....

I see that the Midnight Hour (Bangkok Eyes) website has started updating its maps of nightlife areas. http://www.bangkokeyes.com/ For March 2026, it has updated the maps for Patpong 1, Patpong 2, and Silom 4 ( which it calls Soi Katoey). They show all the adult entertainment venues, both gay and straight. So not that much of interest for us on Patpong 1 - just Big Boy Bar and Chaichana massage. A few more places of course in Patpong 2, and then all the venues shown for Silom 4 are gay, I think. Might be an interesting peruse if you are planning a trip to Bangkok and have not been there in a while.

Hi @Cball It would probably help members here to assist you if you clarified whether you are seeking to hire paid companions, or are looking for non-commercial encounters. If you are interested in hiring: Several years ago there there was someone with a similar interest in Muay Thai boxers who posted on the boards (I know @bucknaway also has this interest, but I think this encounter involved someone else). He frequented a girly bar complex in Pattaya (between Beach Road and the Pattaya Beer Garden) where they had set up a boxing ring, and retired Muay Thai boxers gave exhibition matches and then mingled for tips. He got the boxers attention by giving them generous tips and buying them drinks. After a night or two of this, he befriended one guy in particular and made an “indecent proposal”. If I recall correctly, the boxer took him up on it, but being straight I think he was unwilling to do much - it was basically a muscle worship session. Obviously this modus operandi was perilous as the boxer might have take the proposal it badly. In any event, I think that bar complex is now closed. Currently, the “Pink Panther” bar on Patpong Lane 2 in Bangkok also features Thai boxing exhibitions. It’s a straight bar, though, so the boxers may not be open to such proposals—caution is advised. You might also check massage parlours whose websites list masseurs’ interests—some mention boxing or other sports. However, the guys that mention boxing seem to be the more the straight guys from memory, so I’m not sure how much they would be into "sweaty rough sex with sweaty rough dudes". If you are into non-commercial contacts: Try scrolling through Grindr in Bangkok and filtering by interests—some users may list boxing or similar activities.

I think your best bet is to maybe buy a pair of Muay Thai shorts in the market, and hire a muscular guy from a bar like Taiwan or whatever the White cat bar is named now,and get him to wear it. I remember the @bucknaway had a similar interest in Thai boxers, ,but I am not sure he ever came up with a strategy for meeting one.

You can do a search for Medellin in the search box, and it comes up.

Interesting site. I joined and there is a good few members in in Dublin and London, it does not seem to have a pay-for-play aspect there though.

Food for thought in the story, and a delightfully naughty bit of (Christian) blasphemy at the end.

Is there no chance that nobody else could buy the place and keep it open? Did the proprietor own the building or rent?

You could email TotallyOz Or try posting from a laptop - that seems to work well for most people. I just copied and pasted the below pic from my wankbank...er sorry pictures folder on my laptop

I am well aware of both facts. I live in Dublin so I am sure I come within the booking area, and as him not being gay, I know that also. However the idea would be to perve over him, not shag him, lol. Just a bit of fantasy….

He really comes across as charming in his instagram bits etc

I think I found the ideal entertainment for my birthday party on the website of sexy Irish Olympian Gold Medalist Rhys McClenaghan. It is option 3 in his Speaking Engagements page... He is apparently on a mission to bring his sexy twinky/twunky body to people (sorry...to show people how "hard work can really get you the success you want") https://www.rhysmcc.com/speaking

Great thread Numazu. Really enjoy the way you integrate the pictures with the story. Cannot wait to read about Saturday!

You provide a good précis there of the conservative civil servant position on the last years of the British rule in Hong Kong. i don’t think either of us has much to add at this stage. However I hope that readers will note that the position elucidated is predicated on the notion that democracy in general, and in particular pressure from below in Hong Kong for more democracy, is being accepted as a bad thing. Not a worldview I can support.

To finally get to your question, of who got the situation right, I would nowadays say Patten. As it happens, that would have not always have been the case. My evolution went from being very positive about Patten early on, to coming around reluctantly to what you might call the Percy Cradock line by 1997. I felt that while Patten was well-intentioned, that a more softly-softly approach may have worked better, and that bringing in more democratic arrangements that the PRC would scrap as soon as they gained control was pointless. In those days I would have been more optimistic ( or naive ) about China as well, swallowing the establishment Foreign affairs line that once they joined the WTO etc they would slowly become more democratic and liberal. However, as I saw the fate of Hong Kong in the 25 years after 1997, I came to understand that Beijing never intended to let even the small spark of democracy survive indefinitely, and would eventually scrap it once it became too troublesome. In retrospect, I realise that Patten did the right thing to try and create a temporary bit of democracy in HK, even if the PRC were going to squash it. He may have not had much experience of China before his appointment, but he had the insight to realise that (to paraphrase Churchill) you cannot negotiate with a tiger. He at least created a memory of a democratic Hong Kong in the Nineties that will endure as a memory of the British period, as Hong Kong slowly loses status and declines from being a major international city to just being another Chinese city.

My point about the difference between your championing of Iranian democracy and lack of interest in it in Hong Kong is that one presumes that if you think democracy is good in one situation one would expect that you would be in favour of it in theory in another, even if there was not a huge clamour for it, I am far from an expert in HK but a brief perusal of Wikipedia informs me that in 1986, a multitude of local groups set up an organisation called the “Joint Committee on the Promotion of Democratic Government” which collected 200,000 signatures in a petition to speed up proper elections, so it was certainly in the air in the 1980’s. Then in 1995, in the elections the Democratic Party swept the board in the geographical seats. I think it is fair to say that the demand for democracy was building in the 1980’s and that Patten’s democratic programme was hugely popular among the actual HK electorate in the 1990’s. Regarding my background in Hong Kong, five days in the city state on holiday is my only practical experience of it. I was in my teens in Ireland in 1989 and I followed the news of Tiananmen and the subsequent debates over Hong Kong with interest in the British and Irish media until 1997. That gives me a particular perspective I guess. I think that those whose views were formed after 1989 tend to foreground the democratic question in Hong Kong more than those whose views were formed earlier. Regarding your comment that Major wanted to sack Patten twice. Well, maybe so, but the fact is that he didn’t, despite the fact that Patten held his job “at Her Majesty’s pleasure”. Presumably Major preferred dealing with the blowback of Patten annoying the Chinese by pushing forward with democratisation rather than having to justify to the UK parliament (and, after 1995, the pro-democracy majority in the HK Legislature) why he was replacing him with a more pro-Beijing figure.

I have just realised that I have not answered the question Peter posed in the opening post. I will reflect on that and post on that later.

I think that’s a bit unfair to Patten — and to John Major, for that matter. The 1984 agreement was mostly put together by the Foreign Office’s old “China hands,” and their main priority was getting Beijing to promise that Hong Kong would stay capitalist after 1997. Democratic reform for Hong Kongers wasn’t something they cared much about. In fact, a lot of them were openly dismissive of the idea of democracy in Hong Kong. Whether that came from old‑school colonial attitudes toward the Chinese or just a general dislike of democracy, who knows — with British colonial officials it could easily have been either. (And honestly, it is a bit surprising to see PeterRS — who was very keen to condemn the US/UK for toppling Mossadegh in neo-colonialist fashion in 1953 — quoting approvingly a colonial official who thought Hong Kong people didn’t deserve democracy in the 1980s…) Then Tiananmen happened in 1989, and suddenly the British public realised that Hong Kong was about to be handed over to an authoritarian regime. Newspapers started criticising the 1984 agreement from a democratic and human rights perspective. That created a political headache in London. So when it came time to appoint a new Governor, John Major decided the last one shouldn’t be another career civil servant. The feeling was that the “China hands” had mishandled things by not securing agreement to bring in more democracy back in 1984. That’s where Patten came in. He was a big political figure, he’d just lost his seat, and he was seen as someone who could push democratic reforms as far as possible before 1997. Sure, there may have been a bit of “jobs for the boys” in the mix — Patten wasn’t as wealthy as most Tories and needed a job — but the decision was political. Major probably didn’t expect him to charge ahead quite as forcefully as he did, but Patten was basically doing what he’d been sent to do. Naturally, the old Foreign Office crowd and parts of the Hong Kong civil service took his appointment as a slap in the face — which, in a way, it was. So they had their knives out for Patten from the start.