Jomtien Complex Memories

[iendo]

Maybe this already has been uploaded before, if yes, well for the people who missed it 🙂 

 

[Travellerdave]

About what year would that Be ?  It obviously features the Complex quite a long time ago showing the Ganymede Spa and Massage which has been the Agate Hotel for some time. Just noticed that one of the bars advertises a Songkran party in 2014 so not that long ago. During 2014 Sunee was still going strong but starting to decline. But of course Boyztown was very much the gay place to be then

[Olddaddy]

Ahhh the pour house owned by the Australian guy and the little baldy American guy😄

[Olddaddy]

2 hours ago, Travellerdave said:

About what year would that Be ?  It obviously features the Complex quite a long time ago showing the Ganymede Spa and Massage which has been the Agate Hotel for some time. Just noticed that one of the bars advertises a Songkran party in 2014 so not that long ago. During 2014 Sunee was still going strong but starting to decline. But of course Boyztown was very much the gay place to be then

Ganymede , Wasn't it Zing resort 

[iendo]

2 hours ago, Travellerdave said:

About what year would that Be ?  

I think it were different years. The earliest I saw was 2011. 

[iendo]

This is end 2014

 

 

[Olddaddy]

Two faces became Cocka2 bar 

I liked Sunee better ..it has or had that less "clinical " feel 

Grotty steam air streets with potholes 

Oh those were the days my friend......🎵🎶🎶

[vinapu]

2 hours ago, Olddaddy said:

 

Oh those were the days my friend......🎵🎶🎶

thinking about future will serve you better

[Londoner]

 It is understandable for those of my generation to treasure memories of the times when bars were full of visitors and  the guys actually danced. I never deny the huge improvements that  have come in the past fifteen years but we know that much has been lost, too. And not just tourists.

[iendo]

Sunnee used to be far less appealing to tourists. Back then, most visitors went through Boys Town to catch a show, while the ones in Sunnee were probably a bit too wild. Jomtien Complex has turned into more of a spectacle, where you can already see plenty just by walking past without even going inside a bar.

The mix of gogo bars and host bars in Sunnee was actually quite nice if you ask me. There were lots of options, yet the area still felt small and personal. It had this little-island vibe where, aside from the occasional Arab walking thrrough, it was mostly regular punters who were there.

JC, on the other hand, promotes itself as the “gay walking street,” which draws in plenty of curious tourists who just want to look around. I’m not sure that’s a good thing even from a cashflow point of view. A big change between JC now and Sunnee back then is the presence of cameras. Everyone films everything, and the bar owners seem fine with it. In the old days, Boys Town already felt less intimate than Sunnee, and JC feels even less so.

Having said that, I am happy that JC is there and I'm sure It will be great fun the coming years. Having the right expectations is what matters. 

[vinapu]

14 hours ago, iendo said:

A big change ....... is the presence of cameras. Everyone films everything, and the bar owners seem fine with it.

you got that right. Occasionally but  not really too often I watch clips from Pattaya, Phnom Penh  (136th street )  and  Silom area on You Tube and on few occasion saw our members sitting there or passing by and one You Tube artist even managed to catch myself on my way to , I presume, Space Hair bar.

[iendo]

4 hours ago, vinapu said:

Phnom Penh  (136th street 

What fresh hell is this. Hahaha, I never heard of that but I just saw a video and they use the term "Walking Street" very loosely. Family after family with little children in tow en chaotic traffic. Interesting nonetheless. 

[PeterRS]

5 hours ago, vinapu said:

one You Tube artist even managed to catch myself on my way to , I presume, Space Hair bar.

Our @vinapu is now a certified STAR!

Perhaps the TAT should create an Avenue of Gay Stars in Bangkok as a tourist attraction. After all, going back a century or so, we have Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward, Jim Thomson, the greatest male ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, Gore Vidal, Marlon Brando, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, British Ambassador Brian Davidson, the murdered editor Daniel Berrigan, Sitthichai Chavanothai founder of HIM publications, gay activist, Natee Teerarojjanapongs, Mithuna Junior which was Thailand's first commerical gay magazine pubished wholly in Thai, Soi Twilight, Telephone Bar . . .

Ideally King Vajiravudh Rama VI, assumed by all to be homosexual, should be included, but I expect lese majeste would prohibit that!

[Londoner]

Quite a cast-list. Are there any histories of gay Thailand predating the Vietnam war and the rise of Patpong? Where did Somerset Maugham  meet his guests? In the Oriental?

i recall seeing a photo of a group of smiling Oriental lobby-boys in their traditional uniforms...and wondered.

[Travellerdave]

The Complex today differs from Sunee of a few years ago in another way and that concerns str tourists. You never saw them in Sunee which was overwhelmingly a ghetto for gay men looking for sex with Asian boys. The Complex on the other hand is mixed particularly in the hotels. I’ve stayed this year twice in the Agate and once in the Zing and in both the guests were a mixture of gays like myself and str families/couples , whereas that was definitely not the case in the one hotel I used intermittently in Sunee. I have been occasionally conscious of stares and glances from strs when in the lobby/lift/restaurent  and round the pools when I have a boy in tow. This does bother me at all, but from the point of view of strs, I wonder if they are misled by  the reports by guests on Booking.com etc where there is hardly a mention of the orientation of the Complex and it’s bars and hotels.

[vinapu]

8 hours ago, iendo said:

What fresh hell is this. Hahaha, I never heard of that but I just saw a video and they use the term "Walking Street" very loosely. Family after family with little children in tow en chaotic traffic. Interesting nonetheless. 

for me it's Phnom Penh most important street as it's where my favorite bar is

[vinapu]

8 hours ago, PeterRS said:

Our @vinapu is now a certified STAR!

Perhaps the TAT should create an Avenue of Gay Stars in Bangkok as a tourist attraction. After all, going back a century or so, we have Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward, Jim Thomson, the greatest male ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, Gore Vidal, Marlon Brando, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, British Ambassador Brian Davidson, the murdered editor Daniel Berrigan, Sitthichai Chavanothai founder of HIM publications, gay activist, Natee Teerarojjanapongs, Mithuna Junior which was Thailand's first commerical gay magazine pubished wholly in Thai, Soi Twilight, Telephone Bar . . .

Ideally King Vajiravudh Rama VI, assumed by all to be homosexual, should be included, but I expect lese majeste would prohibit that!

looks that it was not milk what you had for your breakfast

[vinapu]

5 hours ago, Travellerdave said:

The Complex today differs from Sunee of a few years ago in another way and that concerns str tourists. You never saw them in Sunee which was overwhelmingly a ghetto for gay men looking for sex with Asian boys. The Complex on the other hand is mixed particularly in the hotels. I’ve stayed this year twice in the Agate and once in the Zing and in both the guests were a mixture of gays like myself and str families/couples , whereas that was definitely not the case in the one hotel I used intermittently in Sunee. I have been occasionally conscious of stares and glances from strs when in the lobby/lift/restaurent  and round the pools when I have a boy in tow. This does bother me at all, but from the point of view of strs, I wonder if they are misled by  the reports by guests on Booking.com etc where there is hardly a mention of the orientation of the Complex and it’s bars and hotels.

it's by-product of greater acceptance or at least acknowledgement from straight sector. They are not misled, they simply care less about who their next-room neighbours are and what they are doing.

One I met mid-aged lady in BBB Inn, gay hotel on Rama IV arround the corner from soi Twilight. Since she chatted me up first I asked her " do you know it's gay hotel ? " and she confirmed saying that she travels alone and figured in such a venue she is more secure from harassment

[zoomomancs]

48 minutes ago, vinapu said:

it's by-product of greater acceptance or at least acknowledgement from straight sector. They are not misled, they simply care less about who their next-room neighbours are and what they are doing.

One I met mid-aged lady in BBB Inn, gay hotel on Rama IV arround the corner from soi Twilight. Since she chatted me up first I asked her " do you know it's gay hotel ? " and she confirmed saying that she travels alone and figured in such a venue she is more secure from harassment

She may also have liked the services of the very handsome young men who did massage at BBB Inn. I will never forget the Vietnamese lads who worked there in 2014 before the coup.