Are we in a Golden Age of Gay Thailand?

"Let's face it US$4 or ┬г2 is cheap to go and gaze at a mass of lovely boys in their underwear and you get a free drink! Prices have risen but in many bars the decor and comfort have as well. I don't fund that music is too loud recently. A notable exception would be Cartier where you risk your eardrums to enter. The bargain has to be Boyz Boyz Boyz where for the price elsewhere you can see a lavish expensive cabaret show.

The quality of drinks does vary and the public have got used to drinking beer or scotch on the rocks to avoid adulteration.

I did a tour of bars in the Boyztown area recently and drinks were 150/160 baht at all whether they offered a show or not. This makes Krazy Dragon's 95 baht a drink seem a true snip of a price.

Bangkok major bars nearly all offer explicit shows and charge around 200 baht and more on peak nights Friday and Saturday. Again this is not expensive as they have more boys and have to pay for the show performers.

Here we are in a 'Golden Age' of host and go-go bars, massage houses, karaoke, saunas, guest houses and hotels, gay festivals, thai gay organisations and health advice groups, and oodles of parties and special events to keep us amused. There are more boys and more of everything gay oriented and all of better quality than ever. I suppose that most will only see this in retrospect."

I wrote this on another forum to counter the whingeing. I can't see that it is not true?

Hi
Will you give me five countries fames for tourism?
Lots of thanks

[fedssocr]

I think it all depends on what your definition of "Golden Age" really is. Granted I have not spent a lot of time in Thailand compared to most of you but I do try and keep up with the news on a daily basis. I think maybe it's a Silver Age more than a golden one. Yes there are lots of venues as far as go-go bars and sex venues. And while the gay festivals are happening they are fairly small and I don't think they are mature enough to really consider it a golden age. Likewise I have seen, on more than one occasion, the lament that gathering places for gays that are not sex-oriented are few and far between. And what about gay social organizations, sports teams, service clubs, etc? I don't see a whole lot of evidence of them really, but maybe they are there but invisible to farangs. And what about the lesbian community? When will parents truly accept their gay kids for who they are rather than merely tolerating their sexual orientation? I have a gay Thai friend who has received his US citizenship and barely ever sees his family. He is there right now for the first time in several years. He is in his early 40s. And he has never come out to his parents. He kept up a ruse for a long time lying to them saying that he had a girlfriend here. He has had a steady boyfriend for several years. Only his sister knows the truth as far as his family goes. I find that very sad. Until people like my friend are comfortable coming out to their families I think it will not really be a golden age.

It's a golden age for Western silver foxes - but no-one else.

I have a gay Thai friend who has received his US citizenship and barely ever sees his family. He is there right now for the first time in several years. He is in his early 40s. And he has never come out to his parents.

Let me guess...Thai-Chinese?

[fedssocr]

I have a gay Thai friend who has received his US citizenship and barely ever sees his family. He is there right now for the first time in several years. He is in his early 40s. And he has never come out to his parents.

Let me guess...Thai-Chinese?

Not sure about that, but I do not think so. But he grew up in Bangkok, so it's not like they are from the hinterlands either, not that that answers your question.

And no condoms available in the cubicles at saunas while most of the patrons still indulge in unsafe gay sex.

What golden age?

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

as all things pass.

Thailand is not that unique in this respect. There were many places which were great fun to go to-maybe not as cheap but certainly great fun. Someone mentioned Amsterdam in another thread. Terrific in the 1970's. Morocco in it's heyday. Peurto Rico was every bit as saucy as Pattaya , on a smaller scale but that just made it even better while it lasted and oh how sexy are Peurto Ricons who are hot to trot all the time and some as blonde as an American surfer. Partytime along the beaches made Jomtien look like a retirement village. Parts of the South of France and Portugal were extremely hot for brief moments.

California and New York in the 70's were ace-New York was just one long party until AIDS hit like a time bomb and Miami kept the party going during the 8O's. Even London was a great place before yobbo behavior took over and Rio was sensational until it became just too damn dangerous to pick up a beautiful looking Brazilian hustler who may cut your throat around the corner. Moaning about the bars in Thailand is the maddest thing I've ever heard. :geek:

My first trip to Thailand did not occur until the year 2000, so I freely admit that my experience is not as vast and broad as many of the broads on this board.

Certainly the gay scene in Thailand today is more developed and sophisticated than before. And logisitically, Thailand today (well, at least Bangkok) is much more tourist-friendly than it was in the pre-Skytrain, pre-subway days. But I do not believe that now is the "golden age" in Thailand.

The farang in Thailand is now a well-developed industry. Not all Thai play the farang as an industry, but the vast majority do.

For me, the golden age would have been back a few years, perhaps as far back as the Jim Thompson days, when you could be seen with a Thai without all the other Thai assuming, on sight, that you are a sex customer.

But, if your criteria is the availability of a broad variety of boy shows in go-go bars for the price of a $5 drink, then I guess, yes, this could be regarded as a golden age of sluts - I mean, of sorts.

[bkkguy]

depending on who you talk to, the "golden age" was definately 10, 20 or 30 years ago when they were first here and everything has gone to the dogs since then.

while there were certainly a lot fewer bars around 10 years ago you seemed to have a lot more fun in them and a lot more satisfaction back at the hotel with whoever you took off - but maybe rose coloured glasses only when when looking backwards in time!

bkkguy

[bkkguy]

I see one unchanging thing: the Thai people ... their hearty realism ... their lack of xenophobia

thanks for that - I haven't had a laugh like this in ages!

bkkguy