June 2026 trip report

[jason1975]

In Bangkok for 2 weeks. Pride Parade this year will travel along Silom Road so I decided to come and experience it.

Arrived yesterday Saturday. Few arrivals. Few people on trains. Few people in Silom in fact.

Staying at airbnb at same condo that I stayed in last December. The unit is different from the one I was in but same owner. Homely and clean.

After settling my luggage in airbnb, I went to meet two forum members at G's for dinner. Soi 4 was surprisingly quiet on a Saturday night not to mention the eve of Pride Parade. Maybe it has something today with Buddha Day public holiday on Sunday.

I had arranged to meet a friend to watch the football Champions League final match at Shennanigan's at 10:15pm so I had time to spare. I followed forum members to Fresh Boy to pass the one hour away. Only 9 customers including us at 9:15pm. 30 boys working. But at 10:00pm, many customers started coming in. Bar was full when I left at 10:10pm. The first show at Fresh Boy begins at 10:15pm.

I met my friend and we went to Shennanigan's. We watched the match until 1:45am then we said goodbye.

This morning I had 84 baht American breakfast set at Foodland then I swam at the condo pool. I went for lunch at Vietnamese Noodles Silom which is the small eatery at the end of soi Patpong 2 towards Silom 2. On way back, I came across an auntie selling rainbow Pride design fans. 50 baht each. I bought one for myself. I am ready for Pride Parade in one hour's time!

[Min]

8 hours ago, jason1975 said:

I went for lunch at Vietnamese Noodles Silom which is the small eatery at the end of soi Patpong 2 towards Silom 2.

I never tried this. Didn't even know it is Vietnamese. How's the food?

[daydreamer]

8 hours ago, Min said:

I never tried this. Didn't even know it is Vietnamese. How's the food?

The food is very good, as are the prices.  The very small restaurant straddles the end of Patpong 2, next to the couple S&M bars.  There is inside seating, and across the narrow soi, there are open air tables.  The restaurant also serves Thai food, shakes, beer, desserts, etc.

Some may remember that for years, this location was an open air luggage shop, with suitcases and various travel bags lining both sides of the soi.

Below are a couple photos from Google.  I added the red boxes to show the location:

 

 

[jason1975]

9 hours ago, Min said:

I never tried this. Didn't even know it is Vietnamese. How's the food?

Mostly Thai food. The only Vietnamese dish is Vietnamese noodles. I have not tried them. My guy hasn't tried them too so he doesn't know whether they are authentic Vietnamese or not. He always eat rice dishes.

[jason1975]

Just 10 minutes before 2:00pm, the skies above Bangkok started pouring. It rained non-stop for the next hour and a half, causing some sois in Silom to be flooded. But thankfully the rain started getting less from half past 3. Pride Parade 2026 started at 4pm, which was 2 hours late, but the rain didn't dampen everyone's mood. I took mostly videos and it's not possible to upload them onto forum so I did a Tiktok video and here's the link below.

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSx7WqvWb/

[jason1975]

Turnout was small - partly due to rain, partly due to long weekend Buddha birthday holiday. But kudos to participants and organisers for waiting out the sudden downpour.

"Don't you dare rain on our parade!" that seemed to be the message.

I wasn't able to check if there was a real rainbow in the sky after the rain but the rainbow of colours on the ground formed by people along Silom Road was colourful and heartwarming indeed.

Some photos below.

[jason1975]

I did not follow the Pride Parade to National Stadiun. I went back to airbnb to take a rest. At 8pm, I met forum member at Foodland for dinner then we went for a drink at Dragon. Because it was Buddha birthday public holiday, most of the bars were closed. Dreamboys, Hot Male, Jupiter, Good Boy were closed. Only Freshboys, Banana Bar and Stranger Bar on Patpong 2 and Soi 4 were open. At Dragon, our beer and wine were poured into paper cups. The waiters were apologetic and explained it was a requirement for today. Forum member and I had the great pleasure of making acquaintance of a lovely Myanmar waiter. He is interested in languages and a quick learner. When forum member taught him a few phrases in German, he could learn and say them properly within minutes. I told him I will teach him Mandarin phrases next time. Forum member and I then went to Banana Bar and watched the show. Fully packed. Show had something for everyone. At midnight, it was time for supper at Foodland then I said goodbye to forum member and I went back to airbnb to sleep.

[bkkmfj2648]

8 hours ago, jason1975 said:

Turnout was small - partly due to rain, partly due to long weekend Buddha birthday holiday. But kudos to participants and organisers for waiting out the sudden downpour.

Today I tried to get the estimated headcount for yesterday's Bangkok Pride Parade and the various media reports were reporting from a low of 50,000 people all the way up to 300,000 people.  I know that this specific Pride event is important to Thailand, as they are competing with Barcelona for the rights to host the 2030 World Pride event - hence the inclusion of the longest Pride rainbow flag ever for Thailand.

The desire to beat out Barcelona for Thailand to host the 2030 World Pride event has gained the endorsement of many politicians and corporate sponsors with deep pockets.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/pr/3264228/siam-piwat-joins-bangkok-pride-2026-backing-the-citys-bid-for-world-pride-2030#google_vignette

If Thailand will win the 2030 World Pride event, I hope that they do not forget to tell the world that gay life in Thailand extends beyond Bangkok - from Chiang Mai, all the way down to Phuket and Koh Samui, and of course here in Pattaya.