Will Nudity Ever Return to Gay Bars?

[Armando]

I and others have written about the "old" days in the 80s and early 90s when full nudity was very common in many gay gogo bars. It was not just for big cock and fuck shows. The amount of nudity ranged from naked body painting shows under UV lighting to just dancing in the altogether. For many customers this was one of the main reasons for their visiting bars.

I am much less interested in the full-on nude sex shows - merely seeing cute guys in all their glory. I know that many of the Thai boys were quite shy about showing their assets and often had to be encouraged, usually by mamasans, to get their hands away. No doubt it's a cultural thing, but I find visiting hot spring spas in countries like Japan and Taiwan such a joy since few of the young men wandering around have any such hang-ups about others seeing their full bodies. Although in those hot springs which are geared more to a gay clientele there is virtually no chance of sauna-like sex or hook-ups, that does not concern me one bit. That's not why I'm there. Just being surrounded by so many great young in-shape bodies is a joy in itself!

I wonder if the young Lao, Cambodian and Vietnamese boys that have increasingly populated bars in recent years are less inhibited than their Thai counterparts.

[siscu58]

I wonder if the young Lao, Cambodian and Vietnamese boys that have increasingly populated bars in recent years are less inhibited than their Thai counterparts.

My personal experience is that Lao boys are not shy at all and always ready to perform, while Cambodians and Vietnamese are less prone to show their bodies and play, especially the latter. Is that the same opinion of you?

[Oliver2]

Attitudes to nudity are contradictory. We've all known guys who undressed with a towel around their waists and then performed uninhibitedly (au natural) in bed.

Is the lack of personal space in their childhood homes a factor? And , apparently, the communal showers that we enjoyed at school are unheard of in Thai schools. Perhaps it is cultural.

Full nudity was unusual when I arrived in 1995. I can think of bars in Chiang Mai, Phuket and BKK but it wasn't, even then, common to all bars. In Pattaya, i've seen it but rarely....and here I'm making a distinction between the sex shows and the dancing. The best I saw was a tiny bar in Patong (not in the Paradise Complex) where the guys alternated between florescent "jock-straps" with the lights off and full nudity when they were tunred-on.

[Armando]

My personal experience is that Lao boys are not shy at all and always ready to perform, while Cambodians and Vietnamese are less prone to show their bodies and play, especially the latter. Is that the same opinion of you?
I don't recall ever taking a non-Thai national from a bar and so I have no experience. As regards Oliver's comment, I suspect my earlier comment may relate primarily to the1980s and perhaps the early 1990s. Certainly Twilight, Apollo and Barbiery had regular nude dancing. I seem to recall Adam's Apple in Chiang Mai also had nightly nude parades through the audience catwalk even through to the start of the 2000s.

Of Phuket bars, the only one that sticks in my mind is Young Sharks which was located on its own and to the north of the Paradise Complex. It used to have some very cute guys. But here I must be thinking of the early 1990s since I stopped visiting Phuket for a while around 1994.

[Oliver2]

Yes, my association with Thailand began in 1995, long after Apollo closed.

I remember Young Sharks but, on reflection, the bar with nudity and glowing jock-straps may have been called Superboys.

Adam's Apple still had the nude parades in the late 90s. I recall the guys looking a tad embarrassed. Their moment of glory was infinitely preferable to the awful khatoey performances.