Gay Bangkok in the 1980s

[fountainhall]

Since two posters in The Kiss thread have expressed interest in information about Bangkok in the 1980s, here are some of my observations. I first visited in the summer of 1979. IтАЩd moved to live in Hong Kong earlier that year and was returning after a quick business trip to Europe. The cheapest fare had been on Air France. That Air France 747 stopped in Dubai, Delhi and Bangkok before heading on for Hong Kong. So I decided to have a quick 24-hour stop-over in Bangkok. I had heard there was nightlife near Suriwong but not knowing the city I had stupidly taken advice from friends who said I should definitely spend some time seeing the Grand Palace and temples and recommended the Royal Hotel. Big mistake!

I took the Thai International minibus service from the Don Mueang, not realizing that it would stop several times and the Royal was right at the end of the line. After the near 3-hour trip I was so tired I decided to have a quick nap before the Palace tour. 2 hours became 6 before I realised IтАЩd be missing any chance of nightlife. Being a long way from Suriwong, I found a tout who took me in a tuk tuk to a gay bar. This was a dump called Stockholm at the foot of what is now very much upscale Lang Suan. Walking in to a large room with a raised stage area, I found about a dozen guys all in street clothes. I was the only customer! I was offered all sorts of choices. Never having seen a тАШshowтАЩ, I took 2 guys up to a barely furnished room. To a relative newbie to the delight of such Asian activities, the show was amazing with both guys seeming to enjoy themselves. I was later told the bar was a rip-off with high prices, but I had nothing to compare it with. Anyway, I never returned as I could never find it!

My next visit was for a week 8 months later. I stayed at the Rose Hotel off Suriwong тАУ next door to the Montien. Then it was a dump. The first thing I did was go out to get some spray to clear the room of a good 20 cockroaches. The only bar I can recall from that time was Apollo, although I believe there was also one nearby named Tom Boy. Apollo was on Soi 4 where Sphinx is now located. Smallish, it had a bar with a very cute bartender and about a dozen go-go boys who paraded on a catwalk stripping off around 9:00 pm to strutt their stuff in the nude. Unlike today, most of the guys seemed to be enjoying themselves and made an a lot of effort to do more than a soft shoe shuffle. Offs could be taken to rooms upstairs since many of the better hotels did not permit joiners. These guys were really fun to be with.

Thereafter I visited Bangkok around 4 times a year, usually en route to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Europe. I quickly discovered the old Twilight Bar (now Hotmale but a shadow of its former self), BangkokтАЩs original sleaze bar. Much bigger than Apollo, it was dark inside, had a long bar at one end behind which was a small stage on which 4 boys would rotate, all standing without any attempt to dance. Twilight was run by two older ladyboys and usually had lots more working boys than Apollo. Around 10:00pm, the mamasans would bark orders whereupon the boys briefs came off. After four had been on stage and replaced by another four, the original four would come through the тАШaudienceтАЩ and stand around a small pillar. Not sure if touching was permitted, but back then it happened a lot. Chairs would be put in the centre of the space as warranted by demand. Round two sides were padded benches where you could be more intimate with some of the guys in relative darkness.

It was always fun to sit at the left end of the bar to watch the boys trying to get erections before going up on stage. A visit to the toilet would usually result in one or two guys coming in to show their wares. Upstairs were at least a couple of rickety dirty rooms and a cold shower. Most nights thereтАЩd be a show on stage, with a pair of the тАШcoupledтАЩ boys clambering on to the bar. If you bought a drink for a boy, touching and feeling seemed to be the norm. Most weekdays there seemed to be not more than 20 punters in the bar. At week-ends, though, it would be absolutely packed, almost exclusively with Thais.

Around this time I also remember My Way, located in a small soi off Rama 4 between Silom and Suriwong. What made this different was that the boys were really good dancers and did great pole and other routines. I don't think there was nudity, only great dancing. My Way lasted a lot longer than the other original bars, having closed just a few years ago тАУ by then yet another shadow of its former self.

I don't remember any other go-go bars in Soi Twilight at that time. Soon thereafter, though, Barbiery opened on the first floor of a building just across Suriwong. This was much classier, had two stages in the centre and tended to employ a large number of younger twinks тАУ certainly way more than 50 - whereas Apollo and Twilight always seemed to have a wider age range. The shows here were also always fun with a lot of sexual acrobatics and acts you did not see in other bars which made it special. Again it would be packed to the rafters at week-ends and again mostly with Thais. All shows featured nudity тАУ without the need for appendages to be tied off with condoms to keep them erect.

The only other bars I recall starting up in the 1980s were SuperLek and later Super A. Both were in the little subsoi close to where the present Super A is located, just round the corner from the Mango Tree Restaurant. SuperLek at the end of the soi had a large stage with cinema-type curtains, around 20 тАУ 30 go-go boys, shower shows and more full on nudity. It had a bit more class than Twilight but a less hands-on approach.

Sometime in the 1980s Rome Club opened in Soi 4 between what is now Balcony and Sphinx. This was an amazing disco attracting a big mixed crowd but with lots of gays. The shows were lavish and fun and you could usually hook up with some great guys here, many not part of the scene. For some reason, the owner closed it in the early 1990s and turned it into a straight club, Very odd, as the soi was increasingly becoming a gay area with Telephone having opened. Most of Rome Club's various reincarnations have not lasted long.

Saunas started to appear тАУ or at least come on to my radar тАУ in the early 1980s. The owner of Apollo started a modest one in a residential district called GreyтАЩs Athletic Club. Quite difficult to find, it rarely seemed to have many customers but always a lot of money boys. The first western-style sauna was I think Volt, just off Asoke. Soon there was Obelisks, a small ten story sauna that did wonders for your leg muscles (although it did also have a slow lift)! It had quite an active jacuzzi on the roof. The Beach opened further along Sukhumvit, as well as a nice smaller one whose name I have forgotten. This was at the end of a small soi off Ploenchit between the President Hotel and Chidlom.

The revolution in saunas came with the opening of the original Babylon in the building at the top of what is now titled Soi Mozart off Sathorn Soi 1. This was the first to offer a tastefully designed and decorated building, a long rooftop terrace with bar, different shower areas and a small ground floor restaurant. Soon it was massively popular both with Thais and farang, the latter being not much in evidence in the earlier saunas. It would not be unusual to have to queue for up to 30 minutes for entrance at week-ends Around the same time, Heaven opened at the river end of Silom, still in the same premises today.

Not sure when the fashion in gay massage establishments started. The only one I sometimes visited was Volt in Soi Aree (close to Chakran sauna and now part of Chakran itself). Then Volt was extremely popular as it usually had a load of handsome guys working there, some being off-duty models and TV actors.

I donтАЩt know whether it is the rose-tinted spectacle syndrome or memory playing tricks, but a few things stand out for me from these times. The bars certainly seemed to be a lot more enjoyable and the boys themselves seemed to be having much more fun than today. I suspect more were actually gay whereas today a substantial majority are straight. Also the boys were generally less modest than today. Perhaps oddly, Pattaya did not have as many gay bars in the early-mid 1980s. Bangkok was the place to be.

IтАЩm really interested to hear lurkerтАЩs observations (and hope I haven't stolen all his thunder)!

[joe552]

What a great post. Thanks for sharing your memories.

[lurker]

I can see, reading fountainhall's post, that even back then gay Bangkok was much more diverse than I certainly imagined. I first came to Bangkok with more information. The old guy who supplied the fertilizer and other things for my parents' large garden was by the end of the seventies already spending the (Australian) winter months in Bangkok and kept encouraging me to visit. He was a treasure trove of information but had no interest in the commercial scene at all. In these politically correct days his interest in young teenagers would be labelled pedophilia. My other source was a Qantas queen who was a member of my then circle of friends, so when I first came to Bangkok I knew exactly where to stay and where to go. The #1 lesson I brought with me - never wai a Thai (back) if they're a waiter, a child ... any social inferior. If it's a boy, shake hands.

However, like those posters here who spend every holiday only at Jomtien or Boys Town or Sunee, I have nothing of general interest to provide, I'm afraid. Their stories of which bar owner is having a spat with which other bar owner are the ones I skip over, and anything I wrote would have the same general significance. The only other comment I can make is that things in many respects, especially prices, haven't changed as much as you might think. The host bar drink price was 90 baht. A taxi from the airport (no meters, remember) was 200 baht. The price I paid for my boyfriend to do a six-month course in hairdressing in 1992 is exactly the same, down to the last satang, what he has just paid for his cousin to attend a six-month course in hairdressing.

Ta da!

[Up2U]

FH, I really enjoyed your post.

[travelerjim]

Thank you FH...Really enjoyed reading.

Take good care...your contribution is much appreciated.

tj

[Blueskytoday]

I donтАЩt know whether it is the rose-tinted spectacle syndrome or memory playing tricks, but a few things stand out for me from these times. The bars certainly seemed to be a lot more enjoyable and the boys themselves seemed to be having much more fun than today. I suspect more were actually gay whereas today a substantial majority are straight. Also the boys were generally less modest than today. Perhaps oddly, Pattaya did not have as many gay bars in the early-mid 1980s. Bangkok was the place to be.

YOU HIT THIS RIGHT ON THE HEAD.....The bars were Soooo much fun in the 80' and 90's....the boys did have fun...actually dancing all the time
on the stage in white briefs...not like now...either not dancing at all or standing on the stage like a bump on a log.....I really enjoyed the bar
scene in years gone by.

[lego]

Thanks for starting this thread, fountainhall, hopefully others who have been around will share their impressions from back then, too.

[fountainhall]

Re-reading my post, I have noticed a small error. Near the end in the paragraph about massage, I refer to Volt. Volt was the sauna referred to earlier in the post. The massage was at V Club. Some years ago it moved from its own Soi Ari location to the nearby Chakran Sauna Building and is now called V CLub 7!

[Oliver]

A fascinating thread; thanks, fountainhall and the other posters. My first visit to Bangkok was in 1999 and yet a number of the establishments mentioned were still operating in one form or another. And yes, the bars were more fun then.
Come to think of it, so was I.

[Surfcrest]

I remember the Barbiery had a really good body paint dance done in the dark under black lights. You still see some of it at the Koh Phangan full moon party, but it seems to have vanished from the bar shows or fallen out of vogue with black lights. The Barbiery shows and the Midnight Cowboy shows were always my favorites. Midnight Cowboy in the Saphan Khwai had these poles on the stage attached to the roof that the boys would swing from.

Surfcrest

[Marsilius]

Tawan was certainly operating in the 1980s, though it was then on Suriwong rather than in its current location. When I first visited in October or November 1993, they were celebrating their 5th (or maybe 6th) birthday. Each patron that night received a little ceramic horse. I still have mine!

On a soi running north from Silom, heading up towards Mango Tree, was a large club called something like Lionceau, distinguished by masses of fairy lights all over its frontage. It was certainly there in the early 90s and maybe earlier.

[Jellybean]

Oh, I almost missed this thread, having only stumbled on it today. I agree with the comments made by my fellow posters. A very enjoyable and interesting read; thanks for posting Fountainhall and welcome back to the forum.

When I first started reading Sawatdee Gay Thailand I wondered why posters always referred to soi pratuu-chai as тАШSoi TwilightтАЩ and assume from your report the reason is that the present day Hotmale Bar was once caused Twilight Bar, is that correct?

And I do marvel at your terrific memory Fountainhall, I just cannot recall what the bar scene was like during my first visit to Bangkok, which, in comparison, wasnтАЩt really that long ago. Think it may have been in 2003. I am sure there have been some changes since then, but I just canтАЩt pinpoint them. For example, I have a vague memory of visiting a bar opposite Soi Twilight with a long stage. I think you entered the bar by going up a flight of stairs. Moreover, IтАЩm sure there was a small bar close to New Classic Bar where a hairdressers or massage parlour is now located.

Reading your, and other members comments, I get the impression that the forerunners to todayтАЩs bars were more fun, sexier, with the boys removing their briefs and interacting with the customers more than they do today, dancing rather than shuffling and more gay boys and fewer straight boys working in the bars.

It would be interesting to hear from other long term visitors to Thailand with better memories than mine. I hope after reading this thread they will feel encouraged to post their recollections of their earliest experiences of visiting Bangkok gay venues. IтАЩm sure it would make fascinating reading.

[corky]

My first visit to Bangkok was in June 1981. I found out at the end of my trip that a typical tip in those days was about 200-300 Baht.

The first gay place I visited was thanks to a taxi driver and I canтАЩt remember the name or where it was but it was a house in a garden. Inside the house there were about six boys lined up for me and after choosing one we went upstairs and 500 Baht later I came down with a smile on my face. The taxi driver asked for 300 Baht for waiting for me. At that time I was na├пve but that was the first rip off for me.

The next night I had done some research and found Silom Road and I followed a likely looking character down to Convent Road, turned left and then into a shophouse and up some stairs. It was the Tulip Bar, in a place that is now the redeveloped Liberty Square. It was a small bar with a stage at one end containing two boys in underwear and a bar on the right side. I had a beer at the bar; was chatted to by a fully clothed Thai youth; bought him a beer and after a few minutes we decided to go back to the hotel. So I paid the bill, got in a taxi, paid a joiners fee at the hotel and went up for a great time. It wasnтАЩt until he was getting dressed and ready to go that I was asked for a tip. I had offed the boy from the bar and he had done his duty but I did not realize this! So another 500 Baht.

The next day I went on a tour to Wat Arun and during the afternoon was heavily cruised by a young man. Later that night we met up at my hotel and he took me to the Rome Club which was then a two shophouse disco (by the time of my second trip to Bangkok in early 1983 Rome Club had expanded to 4 shophouses). That night was spent away from my hotel with this young man in a wooden house in a Soi off Wireless Road. My first Bangkok freebie!

The next day I went to Pattaya for a few days and remember meeting a young man in a bar at the end of Walking Street that was just beyond the Siam Bayshore Hotel. I canтАЩt remember the barтАЩs name and itтАЩs not been there for many years but it was a built like a large, wooden, garden shed and was circular in design on the inside. Can anyone remember the name of this bar?

On my return to Bangkok for the last two days I remembered that next to the Rome Club there were a couple of bars, so that afternoon I went looking and found Jasmine Bar and the Lonely Boy Bar. The latter was open. Downstairs was a coffee shop run by a European who told me that all the boys were available and I could use the rooms upstairs. I will always be grateful to that European because he was honest and up-front about the price of everything. 30 Baht for a Beer and the same for a hostтАЩs drink; 100 baht for the off fee and 100 Baht for the room for one hour. The tip was to be 200 Baht (no more or the other boys would get jealous). So I picked a handsome lad, went upstairs to a cabin with a single bed against the wall and received тАШoralтАЩ for exactly one hour. After the first тАШcomingтАЩ I was expecting to be told that was it and to get dressed but the boy told me тАШNo, you buy for one hourтАЩ so we started again.

So that was my first Bangkok experience but I gained a lot of very useful knowledge; found a hotel with no joinerтАЩs fees for my next visit and now, 33 years later IтАЩm still enjoying the Bangkok scene although there have been a lot of changes.

One question for Fountainhall. You said that Babylon was in Soi Mozart off Sathorn Soi 1 тАУ I thought it was called Soi Nantha.

[fountainhall]

I wondered why posters always referred to soi pratuu-chai as тАШSoi TwilightтАЩ and assume from your report the reason is that the present day Hotmale Bar was once caused Twilight Bar, is that correct?
Yes, thatтАЩs the reason. I'm sure I ought to get more up-to-date and start using its correct name, but somehow Soi Twlight is just too ingrained in the memory! As corky has said in his post, there were obviously other bars opening up around that time. I tended to stick with Apollo and Twilight, and then later Barbiery. For some reason, I recall the bars and the boys, but not the drink and off prices! But for anyone working in Hong Kong as I was, almost everything then in Bangkok was amazingly cheap


The first gay place I visited was thanks to a taxi driver and I canтАЩt remember the name or where it was but it was a house in a garden. Inside the house there were about six boys lined up for me and after choosing one we went upstairs and 500 Baht later I came down with a smile on my face.
If this was a Thai-style wooden house which the taxi accessed though a kind of driveway with a small garden before the entrance, then I suspect it was also the Stockholm Bar.


One question for Fountainhall. You said that Babylon was in Soi Mozart off Sathorn Soi 1 тАУ I thought it was called Soi Nantha.
It is actually now called both - the name on the street sign says Soi Nantha-Mozart. It was given the name Mozart some years ago in recognition of the fact that the Austrian Embassy is just along Soi 1 and (I think also) because 2006 was the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth. I wonder what that very straight composer would think of his name being attached to a soi with one of the world's most famous gay saunas! Judging by the fun guy he appears to be in the movie "Amadeus", he'd probably have loved it! That area is now quite 'cultural', in that the soi on other side of Soi 1 which goes past the Goethe Institut and on to Ngamduphli has been known as Soi Goethe for many years!

[joe552]

Would most of those who visited in the 1980s be ex-pats working in Asia? Or were there western tourists travelling there then? I'm really enjoying this thread - thanks to all

[wyrleyboy]

Like fountainhall I visited Thailand for the first time in 1979. However this was with a group of work colleagues on an overnight stay. I remember it was during the rainy season and the streets were flooded. I was impressed by the little walls built outside the doors of the hotels and shops to keep the water out.
I didnтАЩt come back again until 1982, this time travelling on business alone. The local agent had booked me a double room at the Montien. I travelled into town from Don Muang, in an old Hilman Minx, and was surprised to see so many other British made cars, including Ford Anglias, Morris Minors and even an Alfa Romeo.

I went exploring and discovered Lonely Boy bar, next to the old Rome Club. He double room booking worked and I spent the night with a pretty young man. The next morning he took me to Central to buy souvenirs to take back home, he gave me a quite large, rice farmer doll as a gift, this is still on the shelf above my computer.

Now I was hooked on Bangkok.

A couple of years later I had my first relationship with Tad, a lad who had left a wealthy home to make his own fortune. I met him in a bar right beside the Ambassador hotel and we spent a week together. He took me to the usual touristy places including Siam Park and Nasa, a large discotheque, which I preferred to Rome Club. Poor lad was crying when I left, and attempts to contact him failed as the bar had closed down. He must be over 50 now.

A more long term relationship was with Nat, he had red hair, so was easy to pick out in a crowd. I was staying at the Rex hotel now and he worked in the Bangkok Garden bar just across the road. He went in the army a few days later, but we got back together when his national service ended. Our time spent together was a bit stormy, perhaps the only thing we had in common was a love of the Calypso Cabaret, in the Washington Theatre. His role model was Imelda Marcos, and there was no way I could satisfy his ambitions. I made some great friend with several of his work mates. I saw him from time to time when he was staying in Amsterdam, I loved it when he took me out and treated me to dinner. Presently Nat is working as a hairdresser with his sister in Phuket.

There were several other bars near Rex hotel, the only other ones I remember were Silver Fox, New Silver Fox, Boss, Inter Moustach, the boy from here tried to steal a credit card, luckily I spotted him behaving suspicious when I came out of the shower. While he was in the shower I retrieved the card from his pants pocket, before doing the business and kicking him out. However I never minded the long walk down Sukhumvit, through Park to Patpong, visiting My Way near the Dusit Thani corner and then moving on to Barbiery, Golden Cock, Telephone, etc.

Some of the bars and clubs that come to mind include: Tawan-each time I visited I had to have my photograph taken with the banker owner, these were on display in the corridor. I ended up with five, before discovering Pattaya and moving my attention there. I also enjoyed the bars in Saphan Qwai, less touristy, particularly Midnight Cowboy ad their sketch with the boy riding naked on broomstick horse, in fact I rode off in the sunset with Nakkon for a week on Koi Samui.
Round about this time you could get a silk suit made for about $35, return fare to London was about $700, rooms were about 415, the standard taxi fare for a 20km journey was about 100baht, based on a travel speed of over 7km per hour, more if it was slower.

Sorry I got a bit carried away, writing this has brought back so many memories, I just wish I could remember the names of the dozens of bars I visited and the hundreds of boys I spent some happy times with.

[Blueskytoday]

I only remember ONE bar,,,it was on Soi Twilight...
I forget the name...inside was dark and had fishnets all over the ceiling..
Anyone recall the name of the bar?

[2lz2p]

corky
The next day I went to Pattaya for a few days and remember meeting a young man in a bar at the end of Walking Street that was just beyond the Siam Bayshore Hotel. I canтАЩt remember the barтАЩs name and itтАЩs not been there for many years but it was a built like a large, wooden, garden shed and was circular in design on the inside. Can anyone remember the name of this bar?

This thread certainly brings back memories. My first visit was in 1985, spending a few days in Bangkok and then a few more in Pattaya. Since it was my first trip, I used a travel agent to book my hotels -Manohra Hotel in Bangkok and Royal Garden in Pattaya (it was later torn down and the current Royal Garden Mall constructed on its location).

The first go-go bar I went to in Pattaya was the only one listed in my gay guide -- it was down walking street around where Corky said he went - it was called Club 69 as I recall. I met a boy there - not one of the dancers, he and another Thai boy came in with an English guy and they sat at the next table - I asked about other gay bars in Pattaya and the boy offered to be my guide - the other Thai guy was the Englishman's bf - the boy was definitely my guide as we were together for my entire stay. There was also a free lancer bar that could be the one Corky remembers if it was not a go-go bar. You passed it on your way to Club 69 - it had a cabaret show on weekends -I think it was called Cafe Paris.

On Pattayaland Soi 1, there was Gentlemen Club and My Way (both very good, usually only 1 to 3 dancers at a time on stage and they did dance - usually smiling and looking like they thoroughly enjoyed it) - at Gentlemen Club, all the boys wore matching loin cloth type outfits -- My Way, I seem to recall it was matching type brief style underwear. Up north was Adam & Eve (boys on stage were in underwear, when they finished dancing, they put back on their street clothes and sat at the foot of the stage unless called over by a customer) and the Homex Inn (gay lodging, swimming pool, & host type bar - no go-go). When I left, my new found friend didn't want a tip, just a gold necklace (the usual tip back then was 300 Baht and as I recall the necklace cost a bit less than what giving him the usual tip for the days we were together would have been). Also, the Royal Garden took his ID, but they did not add a joiners fee.

Bangkok was also wonderful - I went to a few of the bars mentioned, but another on Silom Soi 4 (I think, it was a different Soi than the Rome Club or Telephone), called I believe Charley's - it had a popular cabaret show around midnight. My first few days, I was a kid in a candy store - offing a different boy each night. The first boy I offed, I took him to a short time room at the Surawongse Hotel (entered room from parking garage - basic furnishings and mirrors on all the walls). The next day, I inquired at my hotel about bringing someone back and they said since I had a single room, I would have to pay the double room rate if I did - the next 4 boys (different one each night) I took back to the hotel for the night. I also liked My Way in Bangkok - very lively dancers - a delight to watch - and the boy I offed from there was great (I don't recall the off fee, but it wasn't much - I seem to recall it was 100 Baht and the tip for the boy was 300 Baht -- back then, the Thai Baht was pegged to the US$ at 25 to 1).

[Oliver]

This thread continues to entertain....I hope it keeps going!

Was anyone helped in his early adventures by a gay guide book? My literary companion on my first visits was by a guy named "Nottcut" or something similar. It had a photo of a stunning young Thai on its cover outside (I think) a temple. Many of the venues that posters have mentioned were reviewed, not always favourably. The problem was that, even then , names and locations changed quickly, bars closed and new ones opened. I recall spending long and sticky hours trying to find particular bars, only to discover eventually that they'd been long gone.
But the guide also provided advice about offing and Thai manners and expectations. I had no other sources for learning about this sort of things and so it was invaluable.

There was also "The Men of Thailand" which I found less useful.

[pong]

yes, and that has been named here also quite some times. It was TMOT=The Men Of Thailand (Noom Thai) and had several editions, sometimes split into a main book explaining it all and another, changed more often, to list venues. it also warned about that Stockholm bar where FH started this thread with.
My first time was in the far south of TH and I really did not like it. later on decided to do BKk on a short stopover and was caught by a utter gay Thai working at a travelagency where I incidentally stepped in, who showed me the works. Still see him occasionally when in LOS. Golden Cock, SuperLek and SuperA/Lucky S in that alley were the lucky 1st time venues for me. Tawan was also there-still in the old house on Suriwong proper.

[bkkguy]

That area is now quite 'cultural', in that the soi on other side of Soi 1 which goes past the Goethe Institut and on to Ngamduphli has been known as Soi Goethe for many years!

it used to have a much more "military" tone - for as long as I can remember Sathorn Soi 1 itself was known as Soi JUSMAG because of the US military installation near the corner, and while I could never master the correct Thai pronunciation for "1" all the taxi drivers had no problem understanding JUSMAG when I wanted to get to Babylon!

bkkguy

[corky]

Silom Soi 2 before the advent of DJ Station was an interesting place to visit.

In the space that is now DJ Station was the Bamboo Bar that had a traditional Thai dance and cabaret. You sat on cushions on the floor while drinking and watching the show. It was never very busy.

Opposite there in what is now Espresso Bar was Harries Bar and upstairs from there was the Garden Bar. There was a massage shop above Garden Bar but I forget the name of it. Harries was a pick up joint with lots of boys where they went if they had not been offed from their regular employment during the night and others who freelanced. Drinks were 100 Baht each, no off fees; you just went up to the boys who were dancing around and asked them. It featured a lip-sync show at about 2.00am that was so bad it was funny and compulsive viewing.

At about 3.30am Harries closed but then you went through a door at the back of the bar into another place called Zeros where the party continued until dawn with the same crowd, just a different room. Many weekends I used to be surprised leaving there to find that the sun was already up.

Next to Bamboo Bar in what is now Club Caf├й was CharlieтАЩs Hideaway тАУ a bar with a few boys and a couple of rooms upstairs. CharlieтАЩs was a place with a long bar on the left side and table seating with high back benches on the right side that formed small booths. It kept going past the millennium but was never very busy. CharlieтАЩs great claim to fame was that he had been an extra in the film тАШGood Morning VietnamтАЩ.

Out on Silom Road and turning left was RobinsonтАЩs department store and in the place that is now McDonaldтАЩs was the Dairy Queen which was the afternoon and early evening hangout for lots of available boys. Smoking was allowed inside and the boys managed to make a coke or coffee last for hours while waiting for punters to come along. You could sit in a window seat there and get cruised by boys who would be hanging around at the Silom and Rama4 corner or meet them inside.

Happy Days ;)

[corky]

A final thought. In the 1980тАЩs and early 1990тАЩs there were many more boys available on the streets and in the bars. That was the era before the internet; before everyone had a mobile phone and when people went out to find each other.

It may be much more convenient now to meet someone on line and have him come to your room, but I donтАЩt think it was as much fun and much less spontaneous.

[2lz2p]

Bangkok was also wonderful - I went to a few of the bars mentioned, but another on Silom Soi 4 (I think, it was a different Soi than the Rome Club or Telephone), called I believe Charley's - it had a popular cabaret show around midnight.

Thanks Corky for your follow-up message -- instead of Charley's (Charlie's) I mentioned, it was Harries I was referring to in my earlier comment.

[RonanTheBarbarian]

Although I never went to Thailand until 2004, I have a copy of the Spartacus Guide for 1981. So it would have described the scene in about mid-1980, I am guessing. In those days the editor was a British individual named John Stamford, who was pretty forthright in putting forward his own, sometimes rather idiosyncratic, views of places and venues.

Here is the list of bars in Bangkok, with the comments, etc. (I have left out the famous тАЬcodes and symbolsтАЭ). The way addresses are described seems to have changed a lot since the early 1980тАЩs. I have put a few of my own comments on this in brackets and in italics.

Annexe -135/1 Suriwong Road (nowadays Soi Pratuchai) - 1800-2400, Comments: formerly Twilight Bar. Very Sleazy, Rooms upstairs. Very expensive and the boys get very little.
Apollo - Soi Charuwan 98-100 (now Soi 4, where Sphinx is, according to FountainhallтАЩs post above) 1000-2400, Comments: Restaurant, bar-dancing, massage, show at weekends. On 3 floors. Three Stars.
CiroтАЩs тАУ 8-12 Silom Road (Soi 2 I am guessing) Opposite Swissair Office, between AngelтАЩs House Boutique and Nepal Airlines. 2030-0300, Comments: Same Soi as HarrieтАЩs and Garden Bar and under the same management. Four stars
Garden Bar- 8-9 Silom Road (Soi 2 I am guessing) 2030-0200, Comments: three stars
Harries Bar - 8-10 Silom Road (Soi 2 I am guessing) 2000-0200. Comments: Recently rebuilt, five stars (Very positive тАУ Stamford rarely dished out five stars)
Lonely Boy Bar and Coffee Shop тАУ 102 Soi Charuwan (now Soi 4) 1100-2400 Comments: Recently renovated. Has rooms by the day or the hour. One Star.
The Rome Club - 94-96 Silom Road (now Soi 4 тАУ this was on the same Soi as Apollo, mentioned above it seems, but why was Apollo described as being on тАЬSoi CharuwanтАЭ but this place 94-96 Silom Road тАУ a mystery) 2000-0100 тАУ three stars
Tiffanys Cocktail Lounge - 213 Plaza Building (2nd) Patpong 2, Suriwongse Road - Above Thai Room (long but rather cryptic addressтАжthe Thai Room was a restaurant in the listingsтАж I am guessing this was in one of the Patpong SoiтАЩs тАУwhich one is Patpong 2?) 1400-0200. Four Stars.
Tomboy- 104 Silom Road (any suggestions where this was?) 2000-2400. Naked and near naked go-go boys from 17 to 30 years old. Avoid renting the rooms upstairs as the management is said to have spy-holes in the walls. Two stars (generous after the spy-holes!)

Where to avoid.
He also warned people off the following venues:
New Flora, Stockholm and Black Bar, which according to Stamford, were тАЬvery expensive clip joints and very AYORтАЭ

Restaurants
He recommended one restaurant, with four stars:
The Thai Rooms - 30/37 Patpong 2 Road (underneath TiffanyтАЩs Cocktail Lounge as mentioned above) тАУ Comments: Reasonable prices for good food.

[fountainhall]

New Flora, Stockholm and Black Bar, which according to Stamford, were тАЬvery expensive clip joints and very AYORтАЭ
That's the first time I have ever heard any other mention of the Stockholm bar! I had begun to think the name must have been only in my imagination.

I'm not sure if comments on bars in this millennium are totally appropriate in this thread, but the following may be of interest in providing one reason why there may be differences between 'now' and 'then'.

Any discussion about BangkokтАЩs gay bars between the 1980s/90s and today needs mention of a major event that occurred almost exactly 13 years ago. On 23 July 2001, Dream Boys Bar in Soi Duangthawee (Soi Twilight) was raided by the police. The owner was instructed that in future there was to be no nudity, no big cock show and no sex show. Boys were still permitted to dance in underwear and customers still arranged offs. This was not the first time a Bangkok bar had been raided, but regular pay-offs to the bib meant they were very isolated affairs. Dream Boys was not closed and it was assumed that business would return to normal within a day or two. It did not.

Around this time, the iTV channel aired a series of five investigative reports about the sex shows in gay bars. Thanks to a hidden camera, graphic footage of two young men engaged in anal sex swinging from overhead bars was shown. Very quickly the state-owned Channel 9 jumped on the bandwagon and broadcast its own exposes of gay nightlife. These programmes created a major public scandal throughout the country.

At that time, entertainment venues were supposed to close at 2:00 am but not all did. Just the previous month, the Venue Operators Association had lobbied the Interior Minister, Purachai Plumsombun, to extend closing to 5:00 am. Purachai would hear nothing of it, complaining that visiting Ministers from China had protested after being taken to watch sex-shows whilst visiting Thailand (presumably a pretty spurious excuse)!

Purachai had been given the Interior Minister portfolio by his old friend and former colleague in the Police Academy and later in the business he ran. That friend was the recently elected PM Thaksin Shinawatra. Whilst it seems no-one has been able to point the finger directly at Thaksin, it is assumed that Purachai had at least cleared what was about to happen with his boss. And it can surely be no coincidence that the owner of iTV was none other than the Thaksin family who held a 53% shareholding. For that raid on Dream Boys was to be no isolated event. It was to prove the start of two major moral social order campaigns: one targeted at the nightlife industry in general; the other specifically at gay establishments. All would end up suffering to a certain extent from new regulations and new restrictions.

Purachai was determined to stamp out sex shows and to ensure laws governing entertainment venues would be aggressively enforced. On this moral high ground, Purachai directed the social order campaign. Whether the one against the gay businesses was directly linked to it has again not been proved. Whatever, no-one at the time realised that the raid on Dream Boys was to be the start of a long six-week campaign against the gay entertainment businesses.


At one point six gay bars in the central Suriwong-Patpong area were closed. Sex shows involving nudity ended. Even go-go dancing in briefs stopped at certain bars. In week two all bars, straight and gay, were ordered to close by 2 a.m., and told to bar the entry of any customers under 20. This was the beginning of the very well-publicized "social order" campaign of Interior Minister Purachai Piumsombun, concerned with closing hours, underage patrons and drugs. Beginning in week three, all thirteen small gay host bars in the more distant Saphan Khwai area were closed. By week six, the targeting of the gay bars was over, but PurachaiтАЩs crusade for a new moral "social order," reining in all entertainment venues, continued, publicly endorsed by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra . . .

Purachai said he would erase social ills and create an orderly society for quality people to live in. He said a good country should be one where children stayed at home with their parents at night and only a few people visited the appropriate entertainment venues in designated areas.
Other actions included raids on saunas with Obelisk and Colony thereafter closing for good, a ban on full nudity in the rising number of sex photo magazines that had started to spring up, and all bars had in future to be licensed.

Eventually, some newspapers began to hit out at PurachaiтАЩs campaign. The Nation carried an article under the headline тАЬCrackdown on bars will hurt tourismтАЭ. Some members of ThaksinтАШs Thai Rak Thai party also voiced criticism of the new regulations. But Purachai won out. Although by November many of the bars seemed to be back to normal, no-one was quite sure for how much longer this would continue. Within 2 years, closing time for most of the entertainment venues was reined in again to 1:00 am with police routinely entering bars to enforce the regulation. Soon nighttime entertainment establishments could only operate in certain zones.

What of Purachai? By the end of 2001, polls showed that he scored higher recognition than anyone in the government other than Thaksin. Equally, his social order campaign continued to gain the highest approval ratings. Could this be one reason, I wonder, why the easy-going, freewheeling nature of BangkokтАЩs bars that many of us enjoyed right up to the end of the 1990s changed early in the new millennium?

Much of the above is paraphrased and the quote taken from a long and interesting article тАЬThe Crackdown on Gay Bars in Bangkok: Summer, 2001тАЭ published first in Gais Sans Frontiers on 11 November 2011.
http://archive.globalgayz.com/asia/thai ... reports-4/ (http://archive.globalgayz.com/asia/thailand/gay-thailand-news-and-reports-4/)

[2lz2p]

Restaurants
He recommended one restaurant, with four stars:
The Thai Rooms - 30/37 Patpong 2 Road (underneath TiffanyтАЩs Cocktail Lounge as mentioned above) тАУ Comments: Reasonable prices for good food.

This was a fairly large restaurant on Patpong 2 - I ate there a couple times on my first visit - rather extensive menu including Texas Chili (being from Texas, I passed on giving it a try) - also it was not a fine dining type of place; but was usually busy. When I was researching for a hotel, I had the Rose on my list - but travel agent didn't list - so booked at the Manohra. While eating at the Thai Room, I struck up a conversation with the person at the next table - turned out he was from Dallas and I was from Fort Worth - he said he was staying at the Rose, so I inquired as to any problem with joiners -- his response was no, the elevator is near the reception desk, so if you brought an elephant through the lobby, they would probably just tell you to be careful on the elevator.

In my earlier comments I mentioned using a guide book, but not which one as I couldn't recall -- thanks to later post, I now remember - it was TMOT - The Men of Thailand - it had a wealth of information about Thailand and the gay scene.

[colmx]

the elevator is near the reception desk, so if you brought an elephant through the lobby, they would probably just tell you to be careful on the elevator.

Now we know why the elavator in the rose always seems to stop 6 inches short on the 5th floor! :)) :))

[Brad the Impala]

Answers to some queries arising from Spartacus.

Tomboy was in Soi 4 and was the furthest gay bar away from Silom, just beyond the Lonely Boy Bar. It was owned and run by a policeman who lived above the shop. There were also rooms for rent upstairs but I can't comment on the peepholes except to say that I didn't notice them!

The Lonely Boy was also owned by an ex Police Sergeant, Chaan, who had also been a successful Thai boxer. On special occasions or if any customer expressed interest, he would put his boxing shorts and accoutrements on again and demonstrate the traditional Thai boxing dance. Very interesting, but seeming a little protracted on subsequent viewings.

Chaan's boyfriend was an older American, Howard, who had visited Bangkok and the Lonely Boy on R & R while working in Vietnam as an auxiliary to the US army. He liked it so much that he stayed and I don't think he ever went back to the States again. They were good people and usually had seven or eight guys living with them to entertain the customers. They were never the handsomest selection, I don't think that they ever turned away anyone who wanted to work there, but the guys were always friendly and well mannered. Every now and again they unearthed a jewel who stayed with them a while, before graduating to life as a freelance at the Garden Bar or Harries.

The Garden Bar was the first bar in Soi Two, on the first floor of the end building, and was frequented by gay older teenagers and their admirers. Not everyone there was available but there was a fun atmosphere and the guys used to love dancing together, even the cha cha cha. The bar was opened by Vichai who had a hairdressers on Silom. He then had a share in Harries when that was opened underneath. The other owner, who was always present and who became known as Harry, had been bought his share by his German lover who had literally first found him in a ditch, where he was digging, topless and exposing his impressive physique.

The guys in The Garden Bar which closed around midnight would not go onto Harries unless Vichai told them they were ready or mature enough, or unless they were with a customer. As others have said when Harries closed around 2am, but you could stay on and go through a connecting door to Ciro's, same ownership. It was like having three gay discos in the same street with lots of willing partners.


The Thai Rooms was a restaurant in Patpong Two, which was reasonably priced and good value. For some reason it was a regular haunt of guys with their boyfriends. It wasn't particularly gay friendly, just neutral. It was unusual in that it was run as a cooperative.


Aah history!

[RonanTheBarbarian]

Thanks for the personal remembrances, Brad.

Of course Lonely Boy was where you had that birthday party in the early Seventies, the evocative photo of which has appeared on various "history" threads on SGT down the years.

Dont post it again, good an all as it is, let em search for it!

[dab69]

Thanks for the personal remembrances, Brad.

Of course Lonely Boy was where you had that birthday party in the early Seventies, the evocative photo of which has appeared on various "history" threads on SGT down the years.

Dont post it again, good an all as it is, let em search for it!

Already tried searching with various keywords including "history" to no avail.
Had purchased an addendum to an old TMOT(?) and posted- was going to copy/paste.

[RonanTheBarbarian]

If you search using the keywords "Lonely" and "Boy" and "birthday" (without the quote marks), it is the sixth item that comes up.

[RonanTheBarbarian]

A bit after the 1980's, but not by much.

Here is a map of the Silom area from the Spartacus Guide of 1991:

[attachment=0:23176g3r]Bangkok-91aResize40.jpg[/attachment:23176g3r]

[dab69]

Great job Ronan!!!



If you search using the keywords "Lonely" and "Boy" and "birthday" (without the quote marks), it is the sixth item that comes up.

was looking for the "various history threads"
and using the wrong search "box".
Still, looking under "history",
only this thread comes up

Finally after hand searching all my posts I find:
does-anyone-know-gay-history-t21499-15.html (http://sawatdeenetwork.com/forum/does-anyone-know-gay-history-t21499-15.html)
(should copy/paste here)ANYWAY the Rome Club owner, after having a fallout with his BF, reportedly put up a sign saying to the effect
"No Homosexuals Allowed". The same location under several different managements have all fallen under some "curse" of bad business to this day.



http://www.suite101.com/content/the-rom ... -54-a67728


Silom Soi 4 - P BaseBars come and go many of them unremembered but one erstwhile Bangkok gay club is still fondly remembered by many an ageing bar fly. The Rome Club was one of a kind
Over the years and amongst the cognoscenti there can be no doubt that Silom Soi 4 has acquired the reputation of being one of the worldтАЩs famous "gay" streets. There had been gay bars and pubs in Soi 4 since the mid-1960s but the soi only came to prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The gay bars at this time were no more than shop-houses converted into beer bars, host bars and an ever-changing scene of a go go bars.

Unlike a go go bar-packed "Soi Twilight" on Surriwongse Road, Soi 4 has never been an exclusively gay venue and has always been host to a number of restaurants and bars catering to all and sundry. In its early days Soi 4тАЩs nocturnal entertainment was fairly low-key. Except for one bar which was perhaps the most famous and popular of the early gay venues.

The Rise of the Rome Club
The Rome Club had a number of unsuccessful incarnations before its long run as BangkokтАЩs erstwhile foremost gay/mixed venue; initially occupying a single shop-house it was so popular that it soon quadrupled in size. The club presented a successful mix of extravagantly staged dance shows with a Saturday Night Fever-style disco.

The owners presided over the events and the place did not warm up until the DJ strode across the floor, entered his box and played music that many recall as being the best disco selection in Bangkok. From 11 PM to closing the place was buzzing with bodies gyrating to the sounds of Abba, U2, Culture Club, Michael Jackson, Gloria Gaynor, Duran Duran and other pop greats. For the times it was an unbeatable formula.

Decline and Fall of the Rome Club
The Rome was a kind of Asian Studio 54, attracting a diverse and eclectic global clientele with many of what has been described as BangkokтАЩs "Beautiful People" mixing and mingling with the more ordinary mortals.

For many years the Rome Club dominated the Bangkok gay scene by providing what their public wanted and operating an inclusive door policy: if you were gay or gay friendly, bisexual or some other orientation and above all good looking and trendy you were welcomed to enjoy the bar. But in a strange, sudden and inexplicable reversal of strategy the clubтАЩs owners decided that their gay clientele were no longer welcome heralding the beginning of the end for this particular empire.


It has to be said that many an aging Disco Bunny has fond memories of The Rome Club. That it lives in the memory establishes it a truly iconic symbol of gayness that held its prime position as the place to see and be seen for over 20 years.



Read more at Suite101: Gay History Bangkok's Rome Club: Rome Club Dominated Bangkok's Gay Scene in the late 70s to the 1980s | Suite101.com http://www.suite101.com/content/the-rom ... z1VU2rrWNx
Last edited by dab69 on 19 Aug 2011 16:09, edited 1 time in total.



tmot-1990-supplement-t27581.html (http://sawatdeenetwork.com/forum/tmot-1990-supplement-t27581.html)
Just got a TMOT 1990 Supplement (ebay ~$8 + $4 shipping)
thought I would type out all bar/off listings for each city as listed
(some gay restaurants are listed with an "off")
Grung Thep
SIlomSuriwong Area
Bamboo
Barbiery Corner
Biery Corner
Big Apple Cocktail Lounge-
D.O.K.
Green Carnation
Hawaii Club
Jasmine
Kokaeo
Mr Moo (former location of Super Lex)
Super A
Super Lex
Tangmo Member Club
Twilight
Why Not

Sukumvit
Koom Wang-Tan
City Men Pub
The Male
Moonstruck
Studio 22
Title
Volt Sauna

Phetchaburi
Laksh Man Sauna

Saphan Kwai
Adam
Charming
Seven Night
K-Nude
Paradise
Paradise Cusine

Other - Krung Thep
Jupiter
NASA Spaceadrome

Pattaya City
Adam & Eve
Banana Club
Boys Boys Boys
Cabaret Club/Pub
Cockpit
Cupid
Garden Boys
Gentleman's Club
Golden Town Gay Member Club
Harrod's
Homex
Rendezvous
Seashore Gay Club
Memory
Nautilus
Petite Boys Club

Discos(no off): Palladium Disco Duck

Chiang Mai
Apollo Inn/G.G. Sauna
Coffee Boy
Macho
Siamese Cat


Looking through the MAP of Pattaya I found several listings that
weren't included in the TEXT of the Supplement, so
there may be many more in Bangkok, etc.

Health warning: because of the continued dumping of raw sewage into the bay and the unacceptably high
bacterial counts, it is dangerous to swim in Pattaya Bay or Jomtien Beach

Complaints of lower tourist activity coming to Pattaya 1990

Again this was a SUPPLEMENT to TMOT
some venues didn't even have address-
you were supposed to look up in the original TMOT,
so in no way would I consider this complete

Wish I hadn't thrown out my scanner so I could include
the B/W pics in the book, but also would have to chase down
the models to get them to sign waivers to put them here :)

[dab69]

originally posted by RonanTheHistorian" :
does-anyone-know-gay-history-t21499-15.html (http://sawatdeenetwork.com/forum/does-anyone-know-gay-history-t21499-15.html)

Regarding the history of gay bars in Thailand, there has been no definitive history written yet, alas. Although, going by these commonly read gay boards, there seems to be quite an interest in the gay history of the country, particularly the expat scene.

Here is an extract from an article in on the web about the history of the gay scene in BKK in the mid-twentieth century:

"During the late 50s and early 60s BangkokтАЩs Bangrak area hosted a few тАШmixedтАЩ bars notably the Club 99 opposite what is now the Narai Hotel, Balcony, the one on Charoen Road and one or two bars on Oriental Avenue. The Sea Hag was a seamenтАЩs bar that shifted focus in the mid тАШ60s to become BangkokтАЩs first proper gay bar. Whether or not the Sea Hag was a host bar or an ordinary gay-friendly beer bar is not known; but what is clear is that those that followed were a mixture of both beer and host bars.."

Read the full article here:
http://www.suite101.com/content/history ... ene-a67351


Of course, there is more to gay history than bars.

One of the best known gay westerners in Bangkok in the post-World War II years was Darrell Berrigan. He was one of the founders of the 'Bangkok World' newspaper in 1945, which was up until the 1980s the main competitor of the Bangkok Post. He was quite closeted seemingly, it is only known that he was gay because he was rather sensationally murdered in 1965, by a male sexual partner, and this became something of a celebrity scandal in the press.

Peter Jackson wrote an article about him for a gay academic journal. You can access it here:

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of ... ckson.html.

The article can be hard reading, because as with all academic articles Jackson has to spend the firsts few pages spouting theoretical jargon. I would suggest you read from the paragraph entitled "Expatriate Homosexual men in Postwar Bangkok" From that point on it is fascinating. In the article, as well as giving a lot of information about Berrigans life and times (he was involved with the CIA, American espionage, etc.), Jackson also talks about Jim Thompson. Thompson was almost certainly also gay, although some who have written about him, such as William Warren, have made an attempt to make him out as straight. However Jackson does not accept that argument at all and according to him, we can take it one of the most celebrated farangs of mid-twentieth century Bangkok was gay.

Actually, the way Jackson write about William Warren is quite suggestive in itself, I think, but as Warren is still alive, I won't comment any further than that.

And of course, we will have to wait until Prem Tinsulanond (PM of thailand 1980-1988) dies until we hear the full story of his interaction with the gay history of Bangkok.


But back to more normal mortals.

The foundations of Pattaya gay scene are not too clear.. In the 1970s an Indonesian-Dutch guy called Dolf Riks had a restaurant somewhere in Pattaya that was something of a gay gathering place, i believe. The first gay bars date from that decade as well.There is one book that I am aware of that has info on the history of the Pattaya gay bar scene -one of the owners of a gay bar in Pattaya wrote a history of his life and times a few years ago. His name is Michael Burchall, and the book is called "Boyztwon 1982-2008" . You can see a webpage about it here:

http://www.gayaffairspattaya.com/index/ ... o_2008.htm

Although it is mainly about his own life and times, he has a bit on the general development of gay Pattaya in general and Boyztown in particular. i think it might still be available for sale in Le Cafe Royale.

RonanTheBarbarian

[Dalewood]

Twilight and Super A were the places. Harries and Barbiery too. Barbiery was the first place in Bangkok I went to---probably the fastest erection I ever got as I walked through door upstairs. :D

[PeterUK]

The Western gay interest in Siam (as it then was) seems to have got going in the early 20th century with the arrival of the likes of Somerset Maugham and other 'cultured gentlemen'. There is a curious travel book called Friendly Siam first published in 1928 (and still available reprinted by White Lotus Press) by a Danish writer called Ebbe Kornerup. He spent several months in Siam as the guest of various well-to-do Siamese but also found time to associate with lots of young men from poor backgrounds with whom he seems to have enjoyed very intimate relationships. His book is outwardly a conventional travelogue but there are many hints of Siam's gay appeal which gay readers might have been expected to pick up on. For a review of the book (with examples of the suspiciously high number of male bumshots in the illustrations):

http://www.stickyrice.ws/?view=gayguide20s

[Marsilius]

Barbiery was the first Bangkok bar I visited on my debut trip in 1993. The thing I remember about it was that the seats were arranged as if in a cinema, facing the stage and, I think, fixed to the floor. You put your drink in a wire rack attached to the back of the seat in front of you. Unfortunately, an excessively large farang sat down right in front if me and, in throwing himself back heavily into his chair, jolted my full gin and tonic all over my knees. A memorably embarrassing first visit!

[RonanTheBarbarian]

One more scan..

This is a map of the Sukhumvit area in 1991

[attachment=0:2b8oaym4]BKK-SukhResize35.jpg[/attachment:2b8oaym4]

[dab69]

If I had an original TMOT I would scan/post the whole book.
OK, I'd have to buy another scanner too.

Printer would misfeed on my last scanner/printer, so I tossed it.










OK did anyone else see the
thinly-veiled hint there?
(and not for a new scanner)

[dab69]

OMFG just did an eBay search for Men of Thailand book.
6th edition 1997 TMOT Buy it now $99.95

http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Men-of-Thai ... 35d9141cfb (http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Men-of-Thailand-6th-Edition-Thailands-Culture-/231275240699?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item35d9141cfb)

[RonanTheBarbarian]

By the way, thanks for resurrecting my old post, dab69, which I posted a few years ago after I did a big ferreting out on Google for links with stuff on Thai and Pattaya gay history.

Unfortunately, only one of the three links works now, I should have quoted more of them in my post.

So much for the saying that when something is posted on the internet, it stays for ever!

I will have to look for some more recent webpages, when i get a chance.

Unfortunately, an excessively large farang sat down right in front if me and, in throwing himself back heavily into his chair, jolted my full gin and tonic all over my knees. A memorably embarrassing first visit!Had he turned around and sucked it off, that would have been embarrassing. What you describe is merely annoying. :-s