A future for Soi Pratuchai?

[TaoR]

Fountainhall, Travel in the days before the internet.... Reading forums I cannot help but think that the internet just might be ruining travel; I mean the searching and guessing and hoping...and then the moment of arrival! I remember the Apollo went there nightly. I sometimes wish I had been a "butterfly" but I am not. I just got lucky when I finally stumbled upon Nirvana being Barbiery and while the numerous boys on stage didn't get my attention a waiter eventually did...

We just clicked...

So every night off we went dancing and partying the night away....

One night he got a group of his buddies together (both guys and girls) and we went to Pizza Hut for pizza and beer. So here I am in Bangkok late at night eating with a bunch of Thai sex workers. One girl we had seen earlier shooting ping pong balls across the stage totally naked. Another guy had his wife with him and he also had the boy with him who he performed with during the big cock fuck show....I mean what a collection and they were all sharing their stories with me....deciding which farang nationality was better and what was wrong with the others...

Americans came out on top because they were the easiest to please, took showers, and paid the most because sex made them feel guilty! I just laughed because here I was talking shop talk with a bunch of sex workers.

Another time we had a couple of his friends over to the hotel and we were drinking beer and my guy tells me that one of his friends had never had sex with a Farang and he wanted to get fucked by a Farang....

I just looked at him and said, "Gee so now you are a mamasan at a bar with Farang boys for Thai customers?" I then asked him what the tip would be for a short time?

I don't know what the future holds for sex in Thailand...but I know that the warnings of its demise are clearly not true...someone is going to figure something out...

[fountainhall]

Fountainhall, Travel in the days before the internet.... Reading forums I cannot help but think that the internet just might be ruining travel; I mean the searching and guessing and hoping...and then the moment of arrival! I remember the Apollo went there nightly. I sometimes wish I had been a "butterfly" but I am not. I just got lucky when I finally stumbled upon Nirvana being Barbiery and while the numerous boys on stage didn't get my attention a waiter eventually did...

I don't know what the future holds for sex in Thailand...but I know that the warnings of its demise are clearly not true...someone is going to figure something out...

I entirely agree about the internet. It has made sex far easier - no question. But is it more fun now? I think not.

We must have at least seen each other in those Apollo days! I was very much the butterfly in my first years - perhaps too much so. But what gorgeous flowers!

As for the future, I agree there will be plenty of sex. I just believe it will not be the in-your-face commercial variety that we have got used to over the last few decades, In addition to the views of other Asians about Thais, as BonTong points out many Thais will steer clear of many other Asians.

[bobsaigon2]

You won't be seeing go-go bars here in Vietnam during your life time. Gay bars, yes. There are already some, discreet, though I imagine even the quiet ones need to satisfy the Vietnamese BIB every month. I could see gay businesses springing up in Cambodia; Philippines seems a bit far afield unless you're coming from the US and at present the boy bars there have not progressed beyond the total rip off business model. If Soi Twilight is demolished for the sake of a new hotel or office block, perhaps some of the bars would relocate to the Golden Cock/Nature Boys street (never can remember the name of that), but unfortunately it does look like the apps are going to replace the bars. However, no app can replace the excitement of walking into a go-go bar for the first time and seeing 20-30 young Adonises on stage.

[fountainhall]

Philippines seems a bit far afield unless you're coming from the US and at present the boy bars there have not progressed beyond the total rip off business model.

I used to visit Manila regularly in the 1980s when it was a fun place for gays - despite the horrors of the murdering Marcos dictatorship. Coco Banana and 690 Retiro Strip were must visit fun places. Although I have been back on only a few occasions since that decade, the commercial scene certainly seems to have gone far into reverse gear.

That said, Nirish recently posted here that he had a whale of a time in Cebu. The boys were falling off trees to have sex with him and not a peso requested. But that is not a commercial sex scene like the topic of this thread.

[TaoR]

I really don't know what the future holds for sex in Thailand...

I do know that I am going back next year and basically going to "finishing" up my visit to Japan (I have been twice before but both times my trips were cut short by business demands). I am going to visit Vietnam, Cambodia, and China which are places I could not experience the first time I was traveling through Asia. Then I will re visit Thailand and the Philippines...

I have changed and the places I am visiting have changed. There is no more staying up all night partying while also have sex three times a day in my future. I also once and for all figure out for myself why I always favored Thailand over the Philippines. I mean I had some really great sex with Filipinos (but that was mostly with guys I was friends with, straight guys, who I worked with in Saudi Arabia (lots of stories there). But the ones at the bars were always really hot looking in the bar and seemed so willing until you got down to business....disappointing is the word...

It just never made sense....but that I would assume would be a whole different thread. Maybe it all has changed now.

Never know for sure unless you go and find out for yourself.

I cannot expect to travel through some time machine and expect Thailand to be as I remembered because in all honesty the concept of "sex" has changed so much even in the United States and it has to have changed in Thailand too...

Not real sure what the business model would be...I mean when the kid who's family lives down the street has a "room" on Chaturbate and his videos pop up on various porn sites I can't help but shake my head in disbelief when he tells me he is not in it for the money but loves the performing and friends he makes! I cannot understand the attraction of having sex with other people via video cameras....

[fountainhall]

I have changed and the places I am visiting have changed

You have hit the nail on the head - at least as far as those in our age range are concerned - "I have changed". We all change over time. I could no more be the sort of sex tourist that I once was than turn into a money boy! I do hanker after the old days in Thailand because they were so exciting and such fun. Whilst I still enjoy seeing cute young Thai guys, I now prefer their company over a drink or two. Besides, I have had the luxury and enormous privilege of spending most of my career in this exciting part of the world. I cannot imagine what life would have been like without being exposed early on to the cultures and societies of so many fascinating countries at a time they were each emerging in their own ways from the rigours of disastrous wars.

Unlike you, I have been based exclusively in various Asian countries which I have got to know well, including sexually. Like you, I have travelled the world for business very regularly but I have rarely had sex anywhere other than in Asia. Only in Sydney did have I had great times - and that's because I was always with Asians! I guess I am just the typical rice-queen!

As regular posters will know, my other Asian favourites - countries as well as their young men - are Japan and Taiwan. I discovered Japan within a few years of arriving in Asia and my first true love here was Japanese. Having since then lived there, returning many times has been a special joy. More recently I feel especially at home in Taiwan to the point where I would happily move to retire in Taipei if I had the funds to do so.

So I now have no personal interest in what happens to Soi Twilight. I am just thrilled I was around when it was starting up and during its long heyday. It sure was fun!

[AsDaRa]

Very nice thread. Love reading about the old days, way before my time.

Also give some more info please. What was the off fee in 1980, what the short time price in 1980?

How did you find out about Thailand as sex paradise without Internet? You happened to cross a newspaper article and reading it thought: "I want to go there"? Now it is common knowledge, but was it already common knowledge in 1972, 1980, 1990?

What more has changed? Go go bars operated the same way as they do now? Immediately being asked for a drink? Lot of pressure to choose boy? Or was it more relaxed? And since in the past more farangs, was there more competition? Did you miss the oppertunity sometimes to off the boy you wanted for a couple of days in a row because you were too late for him?

Please more detail, certainly where the differences are compared to now. Thanks in advance.

[fountainhall]

Love reading about the old days, way before my time . . . please more detail

Although the thread is about Soi Twilight/Duangthawee/Pratuchai (looking back, for years it was called Duangthawee - only recently has it been changed to Pratuchai and I still don't know the reason!) Bangkok also had gay bars elsewhere. In Patpong 2 there used to be a host bar on the upper level. I wonder if anyone else remembers it. Was that Tiffany's? And then for a long time Silom Soi 4 had the famous Rome Club, Bangkok's best mixed disco with hordes of gay guys at the week-ends. For whatever reason, the owner decided that he wanted the gays out and thereafter made it a straight club. It died pretty soon after that to be replaced by Roxy. But it could never find the right formula and it too died.

My Way has been mentioned in other threads - a small bar with twinks just off Rama 4 between Silom and Suriwong. I don't remember there being shows but I reckon the boys were some of the best dancers in the gay go-go bars at that time. Along Sukhumvit off Soi 10 there was and, I believe, still remains Inter Mustache House. Most farang never got above the ground floor where 3 or 4 Thai guys would gyrate as though dancing. The real go-go bar was upstairs and was mostly patronised by Thais. Further along I was 3 or 4 times at another very small host bar just across from one of the entrances to the Ambassador Hotel car park, but I have no recollection of the name.

[Patanawet]

Although the thread is about Soi Twilight/Duangthawee/Pratuchai (looking back, for years it was called Duangthawee - only recently has it been changed to Pratuchai and I still don't know the reason!)

Yes fountainhall. Who on earth refers to soi Duangthawee?
It has been known forever as soi Twilight after the infamous bar on the left hand corner.
Even though it is known as soi Twilight,that bar is long gone and is now Hotmale.

[fountainhall]

Yes fountainhall. Who on earth refers to soi Duangthawee?
It has been known forever as soi Twilight after the infamous bar on the left hand corner.
Even though it is known as soi Twilight,that bar is long gone and is now Hotmale.

I am perfectly well aware of that as per my previous posts and dozens of visits to the old Twilight Bar (far more fun than its replacement IMO). But its official name was Duangthawee and now it is Pratuchai. Hence my question.