Gay Pattaya in the 1980s

[joe552]

So what was Pattaya like in those days?

[gregvc]

I stayed at Homex Inn in the early 80's and enjoyed a foam full body massage at Adam and Eve. I didn't realise that the gay scene was quite young then.

[RonanTheBarbarian]

Well, since I did Bangkok in 1980 from Spartacus, I might as well do Pattaya

There was very little on Pattaya in 1980, just thee bars/nightclubs:

Byblos - Beside Orchid Lodge. Comments: no stars.
Tiffanys Bar тАУ South Pattaya Road, near Siam Bayshore Hotel. (what is now Walking Street basically тАУ Ronan) 2000-0100. Comments: Three stars.
TiffanyтАЩs Cabaret тАУ same address as TiffanyтАЩs bar. 2200-0100. Comments: Two stars.

The restaurants mentioned were тАЬCoral Reef Restaurant and Outrigger BarтАЭ, тАЬDolf RiksтАЭ, and тАЬNang NualтАЭ.
All were in South South Pattaya Beach (Walking Street), and were mixed rather than gay. Dolf Riks was a Dutch-Indonesian who was a part of the gay scene in Pattaya in the Eighties.

The hotels mentioned were the Midtown Inn, the Royal Cliff Hotel and the Royal Garden Hotel.

The Royal Cliff had тАЬhelpful management and staff". Readers were instructed to тАЬshow your Spartacus card when you check in". Obviously the Royal Cliff were going after the gay market in those days.

The Royal Garden Hotel seeming had тАЬClean rooms, air conditionedтАЭ, and тАЬvery accommodating staffтАЭ (ooh-er!)

[fountainhall]

My only trip to Pattaya in the 1980s was a few days in February 1985. I stayed at the Royal Cliff where I was joined by a boy I met in the only bar I visited in what is now Boystown. There was absolutely no problem with his joining me at the hotel. I believe the name of the bar was Cafe de Paris and I think it was roughly where Funny Boys is today. All I can recall is that there was a long narrowish space where the boys danced but I am reasonably sure there was no nudity or show. All the boys seemed to speak some English.

[neddy3]

I remember Caf├й de Paris, vaguely.

Thought that it was nearer Walking Street, but not at all confident in saying that.
Yes, a long narrow space.
Most (all?) of the boys were wearing street clothes.

They did, ahem, have a room upstairs.

[geneman]

A full history of Pattaya in the 1980s and until 2006 will be found in

M J Burchall, "Boyztown 1982-2006" available from Ban Suay Resort.

It traces the origins of gay Pattaya in the 1970s and has a list of all

the gay places until 2006.

[RonanTheBarbarian]

The Pattaya scene was quite a bit larger by 1990.

Here is a photo of the map of the Pattaya scene from the 1991 Spartacus guide:


[attachment=0:1ssilneo]Pattaya91aResize30.jpg[/attachment:1ssilneo]

[lonelywombat]

I first met Dolf Riks my first trip to Pattaya in the late 80' and into the90's. From there I got my introductions to a number of North Pattaya gay locations and it kicked off from there.

He has been mentioned here before and this link on google is also worth reading

https://www.google.com.au/#q=Dolf+Riks

[2lz2p]

I always made at least one visit to Dolf Riks for the rijstaffle (sp?) - Indonesian Rice Bowl. Afterward, it was just a short walk t0 Nautilus to watch the boys swimming in the water tank - often in the nude. As I recall, there was also another gay bar in the area, Memories.

[Dalewood]

I had completely forgotten about Adam & Eve---proof positive I am getting old. Great body massages by some great guys. It was run (and maybe owned) by a couple of nice drag queens. The Gentlemen club was another favorite. I never did like Boys, Boys, Boys much for some reason. It was five or ten baht to get to Jomtien Beach. I liked to stay at a small hotel near the Gentlemen Club but the name escapes me. [Oh wait: Sun and Sand was the name of the place]. There was an unpretentious German restaurant on Beach road I liked to eat at. What was the chain hamburger joint on Beach Road? Hardees??

[RonanTheBarbarian]

Originally, Dolf Riks had a restaurant at what is now the junction of South Pattaya Road and Walking Street.
It was there at the time of the 1981 Spartacus guide. In fact all the gay nightlife (which wasn't much) was there also.

Then in the early 1980's Boystown emerged as the main gay area, and another smaller area emerged in North Pattaya, around Soi 1 and Soi 2.
So when Dolf sold up his restaurant on Walking Street, he opened a new establishment in the North Pattaya area.

Boystown endures of course, but the North Pattaya gay area declined in the late 1990's , to be replaced by Sunee and Jomtien Plaza as gay zones.

Does anyone know when gay business started in Jomtien Plaza? Was it as soon as it was built?

[2lz2p]

I don't recall when Jomtien Complex started to have businesses move in. It was originally built about the time of "financial crash" (mid to late 90's as I recall) and stood empty for several years - each of those years, as I took a Baht bus to Dongtan beach, you would pass by all those empty buildings - then slowly, they started to be leased and occupied - when I moved here in 2002, I rented a house near the Hanamun (sp?) statue there were no restaurants or bars in Jomtien Complex - by the time I moved further away off Jomtien Beach Road 3 years later, there were a few restaurants and bars that had opened - since then more and more were added along with some changes of ownership and names.

[neddy3]

Maybe even built a bit earlier?

Yes, for years at Jomtien Complex there was this white elephant sitting there unused.
A real white elephant, as all the walls and the shutters of the unoccupied shops were white.
Rows and streets of them.

It sure took a while, but nowadays quite busy and lively. Big improvement.
Certainly not fully occupied however.