The Chiang Mai Gay Scene- A 2017 perspective

[Surfcrest]

4256

The Chiang Mai Gay Scene- A 2017 perspective

http://www.gayinchiangmai.com/News/2017/chiang-mai-gay-scene-2017-perspective/#prettyPhoto

Does this not make you want to go back to Chiang Mai?

Surfcrest

[werner]

If the photo is indicative of the guys available to off in Chiangmai, I am not very interested.....

[arsenal]

Click on the link. I can't believe there isn't something there to delight you.

[fountainhall]

The long list of gay bars and massage parlours that have closed in recent years virtually tells it all. And as the article points out, of the remaining traditional gay bars largely catering to farang (not many) some are in danger of turning into freak shows. I always used to enjoy trips to Chiang Mai, but over the last 3 years the scene has changed quite dramatically. When I visited Charoenphratet Soi 6 recently, I had one drink in one bar and left. The little Night Bazaar bars which disappeared years ago used to be a lot of fun. Not those in the new location.

Adam's Apple and My Way continue, although take a guy off from My Way and the chance you will be disappointed is very high. My favourite massage places have all closed. Of those left, I have always enjoyed His but it is quite far from the centre on the edge of town across from the Holiday Inn hotel. House of Male continues to be busy. Never been to Club One Seven although it is close to His Massage.

[Manforallseasons]

My first trip to C.M. was 13 years ago and it was before taxis in C.M.......Like fountainhall I to enjoyed the bars behind the night bazarre. First of many trips stayed at Lotus hotel ....... Adam Apple directly across, go go had original ownership it was unbelievable...Wow. After more visits than I can remember I no longer go......Small bars behind nite bazarre long gone....Adam Apple different ownership far cry from the original..Another go go near lotus "Free Guy" now closed was a favorite....like many gay scenes in L.O.S. it lost its allure have no desire to return.

[BonTong]

Another go go near lotus "Free Guy" now closed was a favorite...
Free Guy is NOT closed. They changed the business model to gay Karaoke and host bar. Same management and still have plenty of available Tai Yai boys working there. Open late and drinks are quite a bit cheaper than go-go. Many Thai gays go there.

[loke]

I can confirm that Chiang Mai is boring, The few bars are nothing special . And this is the second largest city in Thailand. Sorry unless you fancy the muscle guys, I'll take an Isaan boy any day. .

[Oliver]

Chiang Mai lost its appeal for me when the old Adam's Apple closed. I remember sitting in the Lotus Garden Bar waiting for it to open having arrived that afternoon, and being dismayed when the big apple sign outside didn't light up ....and the dismal truth hit me. The other venues had never appealed.
I was naive enough to hope that the opening of the Lavender Hotel might have heralded a renaissance. It had a decent go go bar with some cute dancers, gay massage , a roof top restaurant that I liked and was competitively priced. I stayed there twice in its brief existence. Its failure was a clear indication that a Chiang Mai for gay falangs was no longer viable.

[scottish-guy]

Ahhh...those evenings spent sitting at the Lotus Garden Bar.....swatting the mosquitoes with battery operated tennis raquet insect killers...

Those were the days

[fountainhall]

I was naive enough to hope that the opening of the Lavender Hotel might have heralded a renaissance. It had a decent go go bar with some cute dancers, gay massage , a roof top restaurant that I liked and was competitively priced. I stayed there twice in its brief existence. Its failure was a clear indication that a Chiang Mai for gay falangs was no longer viable.
The Lavender's demise was discussed briefly on another thread quite recently. I recall it was a show bar in the basement rather than a go-go bar. Indeed, I felt its shows were better than any anywhere else in the country, despite there being no nudity. I'm not sure I'd agree that the fact it failed was proof of Chiang Mai's gay downward spiral. It was surely way too big an operation for the city. I doubt if it could even have stood a chance in Bangkok.

But Chiang Mai had certainly more than started to go downhill by then. Like others, I have happy memories of the Night Market area - and not just the bars - from the late 80s. It just seemed to be teeming with young guys waiting to meet up with foreigners with money being rarely mentioned. And then the cluster of bars which developed were in their own way a lot of fun with owners/barmen happily interacting with customers - far nicer than the group that later developed behind the D2 Hotel where there was quite a bit of rent.

Interesting that that article also has a section predicting the beginning of the end of the gay bar scene - as has been discussed here a lot recently. I still visit every few months and the number of closures in the last few years has been staggering! But I still enjoy House of Male, especially when it has its 2-for-1 nights which seem to attract quite a number of students, and a couple of the further from the centre massage spas. After the transfer of ownership which I thought a near-disaster, Adam's Apple seems too be picking up. I'll check it out next time I'm there.

[pong]

DK whats happening, but now it takes ages to open en find the reply-pages.
But anyway: My last visit there was jan. '16-after NAN and in that days of awful cold wheather. Ive always really liked CM and went there much more often before 2000. This time was a rather big disappointment. Not just for the gay scene, but for the seemingly complete take-over by those Mainland Chinese of the Tapae area, the suddenly much higher prices for about anything and also yes, already documented by dear a747, so I did not repeat writing that, sad and very disappointing service in some gay places.
Yes, I am fully aware of the Shan/Karyen- note that there are more of them living in BKK as in CM, though they do not dominate the gay rents. A small comfort was an extremely hot guy the day of flying back to BKK (ThaiLion), who, curse it all, came from CMai to study in BKK! In my last visit to BKK I also discovered a realy nice and eager to please well-built white Karyen, Burmese with purple Thai ID, unable to read any Thai as for then. At least that proves that those guys/tribes can deliver- which I did never really find to be the case in Cmai itself.
About the only thing to please was a newly started citybus (again, for the 3d or 4th time), fare 15 bt, which ran exactly the routes and at times that suited me: Arcade to Tapae, and on to airport. Of cours I was the only passenger both rides, with driver and conductress.