Ever let a Tout lead the way?

[bucknaway]

For years I have been ignoring or brushing off the touts in Bangkok. I once ended up back in my hotel room with a tout I met along the way to the Malaysia hotel. For the most part I have always said no or ignored the touts that offered me women, men and bars but this time will be different. I'm going to let a tout take me to an after hours gay bar just to see where we end up. If I am lucky it may turn out to be a great place. If it turns out to be a waste of time, money and effort, it will make for a great post here.

When I first planned to come to Thailand this year. I wanted to take a slow trip from bangkok to Pattaya; stopping at remote towns along the way just to see what was to be seen. Maybe there would be nothing there but a local store and a gas station. Maybe another town would sell something that I always wanted but never knew existed. Sad to say that plans change and I have to adapt. What changed? My vacation to Thailand was moved from 3 weeks in July to 1 week in April... My July trip to Thailand is now going to happen in September. Will I still take the long 2 or 3 day trip from Bangkok to Pattaya? Maybe...

So with this trip being so short, I need a short adventure and a Tout may provide just the thing. And if the bar I am taken to is worth remembering, I will let you all know.

[egel]

I recommend extreme caution.

Just last month I was with two straight friends who insisted on following a tout to a nearby up stairs strip bar on the promise of 100 Bt drinks.

Well the three drinks were 300 Bt but the total bill was 4995 Bt. 300 for the drinks, 1000 to watch the girls, 1000 to watch the show, 1000 for something else etc etc.

After threatening to call the police we left paying the 300 Bt.

Be careful, very careful, Bucky.

[bucknaway]

They tried getting me once with a scam like that. I remember they even had baht glued to the change tray lol

Be careful, very careful, Bucky.Let him die happy.

[lego]

When I first planned to come to Thailand this year. I wanted to take a slow trip from bangkok to Pattaya; stopping at remote towns along the way just to see what was to be seen.
Remote towns between Bangkok and Pattaya? Well I guess it beats getting off at a remote BTS station within Bangkok. =))

[bruce_nyc]

Bangkok to Pattaya is only an hour on the highway.... with no traffic. How can you "take a slow trip"...? Are you going by bicycle? ;-)

When I lived in Jomtien, once I connected with a guy from grindr who was from that area.... about halfway between Bangkok and Pattaya. He borrowed a friend's car to drive all the way to meet me. He turned out to be horribly ugly.... but I didn't have the heart to slam the door on his face..... because he had traveled so far. I invited him in and was honest with him that he wasn't my type. He wasn't surprised at all. I offered him a beer and we had a nice chat while sitting on the terrace overlooking the sea. I learned that he worked in some sort of an industrial complex or factory or something there. He lived in the company dorm. He had a girlfriend but was just now wanting to explore his gay feelings. Anyway, his description of the area, as I recall it, made it sound like someplace you'd probably be very happy to miss.

As for stopping at a random BTS station in Bangkok.... That might be more likely to provide the adventure you're looking for. I've been amazed at what I've discovered around metro Bangkok.... off the beaten path.

Slightly off topic....

By the way, there's one gay massage place call Homme Men Spa ( not to be confused with Home Club - not related ) which is on your way from Don Mueng to the city. It is a large town house tucked away on a residential street, and has no sign. The manager is excellent though. Just call him and hand your phone to the taxi driver. I had an excellent experience there.

Also, my bf has turned me on to many gay massage shops that are not listed on ANY of the english language web sites! Turns out there are MANY gay massage "spas" all over..... which cater almost exclusively to Thai and other Asian clientele. They have nothing against Farang.... in fact, it's rare enough for them to get a Farang customer, they treat you like a vip.... ( even more than normal ).

One such place, which is not on any English language listings online, is called 9massagespa.com My bf took me there. Very good.

[christianpfc]

I am afraid there will be no new after hours gay bar, these touts have their standard places, all of them known to me.

In fact, I once joked that a tout trying to take me to gay bar is like explaining the Bible to the Pope.

But do not let this deter you, go on an report your findings!

Places of interest between Bangkok and Pattaya however, is an endeavor that I fully support and recommend. There are plenty of them. Usually I drive past, last year I had one occasion (trip to Pattaya with jellybean in his car) where we could stop at one temple. There is plenty to see, in fact you could spend days sightseeing on the way between Bangkok and Pattaya (I have a draft in the beginning for a blog post).

Highlights are Erawan Museum, Ancient Siam (both Samut Prakan Province), Chinese Temple in Ang Sila and Wang Saen Suk Buddhist Hell Garden in Bang Saen.

[thaiguest]

I would caution the OP against going upstairs in Patpong with or without a tout for the (100 b) drinks. Against all the advice of my Thai partner we went upstairs (5 yrs ago) and it became a very expensive and nasty experience.
I WOULD recommend that you take the Bangkok train to Pattaya or visa-versa. I took it from Pattaya to Walampoon? station opposite Chinatown and though it was slow I met the most wonderful Thai people many of them very handsome also.

[bruce_nyc]

Very interesting.... And I had no idea there was a train from Bangkok to Pattaya...

[thaiguest]

Very interesting.... And I had no idea there was a train from Bangkok to Pattaya...
I have to say I took the Pattaya to BKK trip only and I assume there's a return journey offered unless that amounts to too much western logic.

The station in Pattaya is on the line over on the dark side near the Country Club.

My train left about 3pm but there's no way to tell exactly as it comes from places like Rayong etc and time is not an issue at all.

It stops at every little station being a local service also.

Market vendors, students, tradesmen, whole families and the entire gamut of Thai society keep getting on and off. As far as I could see it's free for Thais and I paid something like 15 baht. There's no aircon but all the windows are open.

As it gets into the suburbs of BKK about 3 hours later then the eye-candy starts to pile in from the technical schools etc.

In all , the trip takes about 4 hours and you can take MRT from the final station up line towards Lumpini etc.

All-in-all well worth a trip mostly because the people you will meet are charming, friendly but very shy.

[RonanTheBarbarian]

If anybody wants to see what a show in one of the upstairs bars in Patpong are like, Club 66 is reasonably legit.
I went to it and saw a few of the advertised feats (pussy smoke cigarette, ping pong, etc), and the total cost was 300 baht for one drink.
They were hassling me to buy the women drinks, but i just declined. A rather nervous looking Japanese or Korean guy was buying drinks all round, would be dear if you did that.

It was interesting to see, sort of thing you would go to just once.

I wouldnt have thought that anybody would find it a turn on (I certainly wouldnt find the gay equivalent very arousing) , but there was as a youngish farang guy I was sitting near who got a boner looking at it all. He saw me looking at his tented linen shorts (dont think he was wearing any underwear), and got a fit of giggles, which was rather cute. I think he was a bit sozzled. 8-}

(needless to say i would not recommend going there drunk!)

[bruce_nyc]

Correction: The place I mentioned earlier, where I had a great time, and where they have very few Farang customers..... and they are not listed on any english language web site.... and don't even have english on their own web page... is not called "9".... ( I was going by memory ). It's called " 8.5" ( my bf just corrected me ). They are here: http://m.th.88db.com/Health/Spa-Massage/ad-1445254/

The point was.... There are many many gay massage "spas" that are not listed on any english language web sites! At least dozens of them! ......and many of them are excellent! ......far better than the typical Silom places listed on all the tourist directory sites.

Omg. I just now asked my bf how many gay massage spas are like that.... no english language web site or listings...? He said, "Maybe 80% of them.". I asked him, How do Asian customers find out about them? He said, " Word of mouth."

More information he just told me: He gets all his information from this Thai language forum: http://www.tmmsociety.net However, as I quickly discovered, it won't be easy for you to access. First, you must register an account. But in order to do that, you'll have to answer two questions with answers in Thai characters!

The answer to the first question is: р╕Чр╕╡р╣Ар╕нр╣Зр╕бр╣А р╕нр╣Зр╕б

The answer to the second question is: р╕лр╣Йр╕▓

After registering, this thread is where all the info is:

http://www.tmmsociety.net/index.php?board=15.0

Once you're there, it's all in Thai..... so you're still going to need to get your bf or Thai friend to translate it for you.

I think it would be a cool project to get someone Thai to create a database of the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all those places... so an English readable version could be created. Maybe I'll hire my Thai friend to do that project.

[pong]

It has been done already-and keeping up with the facts is a very time-consuming task. Its kept for real connoisseurs. And by loh, not all those shops welcome stinky farang, nor are all boys familiair with them.
Same-same sites are mangosociety.com and gthai.net. But most of the others have been moved to some fb-page. More steady ones advertsie on thaimassageboy.com. Click on pricelist to see basics, subscribe for the pix of the hosts.
How long ago was that 8,5? for a while they had 3 saakaa. But the police raided one and discovered large doses of meth or yaba-and all got closed. Were provided with some air-hosts/stewards.
Homme is opposite the giant Kasert uni-side road from main toll rd toward DMK. It also has a saakaa near Silom, nearly as expensive as Senso or Prince. There are at least 3 other such places nearly under the approach to DMK.
But really, not touts at all will point to such places. Also too far away from the Silom area.

[bruce_nyc]

We went to 8.5 about three weeks ago. All was fine, relaxed, and normal when we went. We had a very good time. They told me they get very busy late at night.... sometimes people are waiting, it gets so busy.

How to know if one doesn't like farang? Just call them on the phone and ask? I suppose they'll tell you.... if they can. Language might be a problem. Some of these places might not have an English speaking person available.

( Sorry, Buck. I didn't mean to hijack your threat with a different topic. )

[christianpfc]

Did the Pattaya to Bangkok trip by train (only on weekdays, one train per day at 14:21; the train from Bangkok to Pattaya is 6:55 am, too early for me).

Details:

http://christianpfc.blogspot.de/2014/02 ... 22014.html (http://christianpfc.blogspot.de/2014/02/pattaya-16-19022014.html) (at the end of the post)
http://christianpfc.blogspot.de/2014/02 ... -trip.html (http://christianpfc.blogspot.de/2014/02/addendum-to-recent-pattaya-trip.html)

[bruce_nyc]

Christian knows everything. ;-)

By the way, my bf took it upon himself to make a spreadsheet and list each gay massage spa listed on TMM, with their name, address, and phone number!

He said he knows all about those other sites, but he prefers the information on TMM. (I don't know why.).

The list was about 20 places. He said there were more, but he listed only the places that he could easily determine the address / location, and that had reviews written about the place.

So I now have that info. I'll share it here as soon as I figure out the easiest way to share it (post it).

It still amazes me that this business (sex massage) is so totally ingrained into Thai culture.... Many Westerners think that Thais have somehow been corrupted and coerced into this business in order to satisfy us Westerners. But the truth is: This is so much an integral part of Thai culture --- Thai sex massage for Thai customers --- that more than half of the shops don't have any Farang customers and don't target or advertise for Farang customers at all. I'm certain that if there were no Farang in this country, there would be just as many sex massage shops here anyway.