newalaan
March 1st, 2012, 16:39
Had a few days in Patong, Phuket on my recent Thailand excursion. A short lazy-style "battery-charging" break before heading around Thailand. Stayed at The Sundowners in Paradise Complex and it was excellent accomodation, would certainly go back there. Nice room with balcony and all the usual room comforts tea/coffee/fridge/safe and two huge extra towels for taking to the beach. At only about Bt725 per night in Feb a real steal. They arranged the pick up to and from airport, so apart from one night's visit to So Far club near the 'old' Galaxy Disco where we used a tuktuk (driver known to the local guys in Paradise) for Bt100, had no need for contact with any of the 'rip-off' tuktuk's.
No mishaps, rip-offs, thefts, attacks, bad attitudes the whole time I was there, only great guys at the beerbars and open bars around Paradise Complex. For some reason the local police were 'flexing muscles' with a show of five black pick ups stopping in the main soi in front of the bars, with a few 'police' wandering around the bars for what seemed no particular reason, and on their way a few minutes later with puzzled looks from the resident bar owners. This was backed up with a 'strict' 2am closure time. However the boss of Chic bar simply pulled down the shutters and invited a few inside and the drinking/pool/music etc..continued until 4am, (well that's when we departed), or later.
So Far, a new club across from the old Galaxy, was small but busy, with a great live band till 2am then DJ. Good mix of clientelle and gay boys aplenty. Did visit My Way, no changes for the better there, other than on the night we went Boss Bon was not in attendance. Tangmo not busy, now really a pale shadow of former years. Still does the boys,boys,boys routine outside which is now their main feature. Yes(?) agogo had good enough show with a few nice guys, didn't venture into Passport or Mamasan agogos. Didn't get to Boat Bar or Kiss either, however both bars seem to attract large (young)crowds outside where they can be 'seen'.
Ok karaoke had some very cute waiters, probably the cutest of all the bars, and very 'keen'. The evening there only had one black mark which i knew would end in controversy at check-bin time, and that was the arrival of a group of four young gay Russians. Noisy, ignorant, borrowing everyone's cigarettes, even the poorly paid waiters ciggs, and at 2am...yes the 'usual' Russian barbill confrontation, they had two rounds of 4 Bacardi Breezers nothing could have been simpler, but it started with money being exchanged back and fore between them as they 'chipped in', then claims of only 6 drinks not 8, then claims of a lower price on the bottles than charged, all complete crap to try and get away with non-payment, fortunately the OK Karaoke staff were having none of it, but it did spoil about 30 mins of karaoke time as they finally were ushered out the door. All the beer/open bars have at least one or two very attractive guys on the staff, and it's very laid back as usual everywhere there. At Sundowners Lounge i just opened a bottle of whisky and used it as a base for visiting the bars around the complex, nice waiters here with very good service, actually the main soi felt like the easy atmosphere of some of the Jomtien complex bars.
Came across NONE of the awful,sickening, dangerous activitey as spouted by Kjun12, but maybe i'm just not the 'type' who attracts trouble or probelms or maybe just not thick enough to stumble into it, as i couldn't find any no matter how hard i tried. Even using a tuktuk on the Club night was straight forward, the tuktuk guy couln't have been more accomodating in taking us, and waiting for us to finally get out of the Club when he came back to collect us and even dropped a couple of the guys slightly out of the way with no fuss or demand for extra baht. He, of course, will be the exception to the kjun12 rule on nastly phuket 'types'.
While not coming into contact with rip-off jet-skii and tuktuk operators but being fully aware they do exist, I would still recommend Patong, Phuket for a short break away from the other Thailand 'scenes' and for me I found it easy on Air Asia at inexpensive cost even with upgraded luggage package to 20kg(which turned out to be 22kg with no complaint),easy online check-in before I even left the UK, good flights from and to Suvarnabhumi and so no real problem to get to from Bkk or Pattaya. The point is that this is gay forum with emphasis on things gay and as far as Patong is concerned the gay area should not suffer because other parts of Phuket have bad reputations, as Da Boss said in another thread..........get your accomodation to arrange transport and on a short break you should have no need to come into contact with any unscrupulous types. If you fancy a longer stay, as i have done previously just hire a car for airport delivery at about Bt1000 per day for a Honda Jazz ideal for getting round the Island and parking in and around Patong.
In general despite the bad press Patong was chock full of (straight)holiday-makers...kjun12's attempt to put off tourists seems to be having the opposite effect, it seems his highlighting of the problems there merely brings it to the attention of even more potential tourists, he is doing a stellar job in halting the 'money flow' in Phuket, from what i could see the place seems to be getting even busier! it was heaving! with heaps of Russians (Pattaya types)there too...now they could be a match for the TukTuk guys! Also plenty of gays around the Paradise Complex with the usual large contingent of young gay farangs there for the diving, water sports etc.. but as with many of the younger crowd either in pairs, or with farang fuck-buddies so not much in the way of 'offs' for the barboys in Patong from them.
Just a personal view as I saw it, with no agenda.
No mishaps, rip-offs, thefts, attacks, bad attitudes the whole time I was there, only great guys at the beerbars and open bars around Paradise Complex. For some reason the local police were 'flexing muscles' with a show of five black pick ups stopping in the main soi in front of the bars, with a few 'police' wandering around the bars for what seemed no particular reason, and on their way a few minutes later with puzzled looks from the resident bar owners. This was backed up with a 'strict' 2am closure time. However the boss of Chic bar simply pulled down the shutters and invited a few inside and the drinking/pool/music etc..continued until 4am, (well that's when we departed), or later.
So Far, a new club across from the old Galaxy, was small but busy, with a great live band till 2am then DJ. Good mix of clientelle and gay boys aplenty. Did visit My Way, no changes for the better there, other than on the night we went Boss Bon was not in attendance. Tangmo not busy, now really a pale shadow of former years. Still does the boys,boys,boys routine outside which is now their main feature. Yes(?) agogo had good enough show with a few nice guys, didn't venture into Passport or Mamasan agogos. Didn't get to Boat Bar or Kiss either, however both bars seem to attract large (young)crowds outside where they can be 'seen'.
Ok karaoke had some very cute waiters, probably the cutest of all the bars, and very 'keen'. The evening there only had one black mark which i knew would end in controversy at check-bin time, and that was the arrival of a group of four young gay Russians. Noisy, ignorant, borrowing everyone's cigarettes, even the poorly paid waiters ciggs, and at 2am...yes the 'usual' Russian barbill confrontation, they had two rounds of 4 Bacardi Breezers nothing could have been simpler, but it started with money being exchanged back and fore between them as they 'chipped in', then claims of only 6 drinks not 8, then claims of a lower price on the bottles than charged, all complete crap to try and get away with non-payment, fortunately the OK Karaoke staff were having none of it, but it did spoil about 30 mins of karaoke time as they finally were ushered out the door. All the beer/open bars have at least one or two very attractive guys on the staff, and it's very laid back as usual everywhere there. At Sundowners Lounge i just opened a bottle of whisky and used it as a base for visiting the bars around the complex, nice waiters here with very good service, actually the main soi felt like the easy atmosphere of some of the Jomtien complex bars.
Came across NONE of the awful,sickening, dangerous activitey as spouted by Kjun12, but maybe i'm just not the 'type' who attracts trouble or probelms or maybe just not thick enough to stumble into it, as i couldn't find any no matter how hard i tried. Even using a tuktuk on the Club night was straight forward, the tuktuk guy couln't have been more accomodating in taking us, and waiting for us to finally get out of the Club when he came back to collect us and even dropped a couple of the guys slightly out of the way with no fuss or demand for extra baht. He, of course, will be the exception to the kjun12 rule on nastly phuket 'types'.
While not coming into contact with rip-off jet-skii and tuktuk operators but being fully aware they do exist, I would still recommend Patong, Phuket for a short break away from the other Thailand 'scenes' and for me I found it easy on Air Asia at inexpensive cost even with upgraded luggage package to 20kg(which turned out to be 22kg with no complaint),easy online check-in before I even left the UK, good flights from and to Suvarnabhumi and so no real problem to get to from Bkk or Pattaya. The point is that this is gay forum with emphasis on things gay and as far as Patong is concerned the gay area should not suffer because other parts of Phuket have bad reputations, as Da Boss said in another thread..........get your accomodation to arrange transport and on a short break you should have no need to come into contact with any unscrupulous types. If you fancy a longer stay, as i have done previously just hire a car for airport delivery at about Bt1000 per day for a Honda Jazz ideal for getting round the Island and parking in and around Patong.
In general despite the bad press Patong was chock full of (straight)holiday-makers...kjun12's attempt to put off tourists seems to be having the opposite effect, it seems his highlighting of the problems there merely brings it to the attention of even more potential tourists, he is doing a stellar job in halting the 'money flow' in Phuket, from what i could see the place seems to be getting even busier! it was heaving! with heaps of Russians (Pattaya types)there too...now they could be a match for the TukTuk guys! Also plenty of gays around the Paradise Complex with the usual large contingent of young gay farangs there for the diving, water sports etc.. but as with many of the younger crowd either in pairs, or with farang fuck-buddies so not much in the way of 'offs' for the barboys in Patong from them.
Just a personal view as I saw it, with no agenda.