Siam Thani - Heads up?

Is there a scam going on with what used to be Siam Thani spa and hotel off thappraya road? Was walking past there this morning and met a very disgruntled guywho had made a booking over the internet, received a confimatory email, and arrived only to find th eplace closed and locked.
As far as I know it hasn'r been a gay place for 6 months or more, but the web site is still going and on ringing the contact number i was told yes, they are still open for business. Anyone know what is really happening?

[Carnarvon-old]

This is the funniest thing I have read in a long time (sory for the poor guy who got ripped off). I went to the web site : gee, if I did not know the place, i would feel like going there. And look at the prices!!! :bounce:

[Gaypattayan]

I have had a couple of contacts asking about Siam Thani, indicating they arrived with reservations made over the internet, and were taken instead to Le Colonial. I was advised the web site still takes reservations but the people are then placed in Le Colonial. I have no substantiation of that, merely reports from unknown people. IF it is certain that Siam Thani is definitely closed, that fact should be noted. I have been advised that someone formerly affiliated with the business has control of the web site, but not control of the premises.

G.P.

You are driving on a country road and see a sign, "Granny's Whore House--10 Miles.
Then you pass another sign, "Granny's Whore House--5 Miles.
Then, "Granny's Whore House--1 Mile.
A mile further, an arrow directs you up a lane.
You arrive at a farm house: "Granny's Whore House. Open for business."
On the porch you are directed to deposit money into an ATM.
The door swings open, you wander through a maze.
After a bit, you find a door.
You open it and find yourself back out side--But there's another sign:
YOU HAVE JUST BEEN SCREWED BY GRANNY. THANK YOU! COME AGAIN. :cherry:

On the website http://www.lecolonialhotel.com/location.htm on the location map, it shows le Colonial as 'Siam Thani - le Colonial'. It all looks very nice but unlike the Siam Thani website, it no longer seems directed (or solely directed) at the 'gay' tourist. :idea:

le colonial is next to Siam Thani, as the map indicates, but the two are not linked as far as I know. Indeed, the Siam Thani car park has a large notice warning that cars parked there for le colonial will be towed away.

le colonial is also closed at the moment whilst new owners refurbish it

I have seen some occaisional activity at the Siam Thani, but always male/female couples, and certainly no cute boys in attendance.

To my knowledge, le colonial is now owned by the owners of Howard's and will be open in a month or so.

[Davey612]

I have had a couple of contacts asking about Siam Thani, indicating they arrived with reservations made over the internet, and were taken instead to Le Colonial. I was advised the web site still takes reservations but the people are then placed in Le Colonial. I have no substantiation of that, merely reports from unknown people. IF it is certain that Siam Thani is definitely closed, that fact should be noted. I have been advised that someone formerly affiliated with the business has control of the web site, but not control of the premises.

G.P.

If you go to Utopia's website, you'll find comments from a person who exactly experienced this. As other readers pointed out, the owner of Howard owns Le Colonial now, and it is under renovation.

A year ago my experience of Siam Thani was a run down dump which misrepresented iteself and ripped off its guests. If the experiences detailed above are true, seems like nothing has changed in the dishonesty department. Those whose bookings were not honoured were probably mercifully spared a really dreadful experience!

The heterosexuals are welcome to the place!! Good riddance.

Wow - am I glad to have seen this! I had just bookmarked the site for Siam Thani last night, considering it as a likely possibility for my time in Pattaya later this year.

The website does make it look very enticing - so I thank all of you for preventing me from being a future "disgruntled" guest!

-richard

http://www.lecolonialhotel.com/
According to their website the place is closed for refurbishment until May/June 2006 but it is great to think that there will be a new gay hotel service for visitors to Pattaya.

http://www.siamthani.com/
Siam Thani has such a sad history and recently, I hear, has been plagued by disputes and lawsuits between the owners. I must say that the website is superb and shos nothing that is not there but looks much more fabulous than the reality.

http://www.poseidon-pattaya.com/
How lucky we are to have this splendid place. I booked a friend in there yesterday and he is absolutely delighted with the place and bowled over by the value.

http://www.avalonbeachresort.com/
This new gay friendly hotel right on Dongtan Beach and (no joiners fees), seems to be slow in taking off. It is very nice with spacious comfortable rooms. The website offers rooms from By3500 but if you phone - I just did - then they offer from Bt2800 with discounts for long stays and this included breakfast and taxes. They have a very attractive pool area. The disadvantages seem to be a certain amount of noise from the building site of View Talay 5 and an unlit road to Tapphaya Road though there is an electric buggy to run you to and fro. They seem to be very slow at getting any presence on the hotel booking agents sites.

i stayed at siam thani once. what a dump. happy to see its gone.

http://www.siamthani.com/
Siam Thani has such a sad history and recently, I hear, has been plagued by disputes and lawsuits between the owners. I must say that the website is superb and shos nothing that is not there but looks much more fabulous than the reality.



Actually wowpow i must disagree with you. The website shows a lot that is not there any more. The sign that said "Mens Resort" has gone. There are no boys employed there, and the front entrance is padlocked at the moment. The buildings may be there, but they are definitely not being put to the use described on the web site.

http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/fo ... 8420#68420 (http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=68420#68420)

gwmforasian you are pedantic but correct. I was comparing the website with the place when it was open not since it has closed but I thought that self evident.

[Smiles]

The Siam Thani website certainly does make it look inviting, thought it hasn't changed in years. Seeing as how the place is apparently kaput they should just take the site down completely.
It's unnecessarily misleading ~ and bloody stupid ~ to leave up a website-leading-to-nowhere.

Cheers ...

01 586 3941
stefanpattaya@yahoo.com

Talking about accommodation in Jomtien I just realised that I had not mentioned Stefan. He rents condos in View Talay 1 and 2 and they are very nice bothe large studios and one bedrooms for around 16.500 a month. Most of my friends stay with him for months at a time and his service is superb. Very highly reccomended.

[Carnarvon-old]

Darling GP,

Is this you writing ?

I remember trying to post a honest report about the place on YOUR website and being barred by you for fear of a lawsuit!!!!

This placed sucked, you knew it!

You did not have even the honesty to take it off your listing, where the misleading "report" was copied and pasted from their owned misleading advertising , looking like bona fide comments.

Now everyone knows that this place was not what they pretended it to be.

The pity is it could have been heaven on hearth, had the owners been different and not protected by website owners who thought it was better for them to duck rather than stand up!

[bing]

I feel like the nun in the "Sound of Music" when the nuns were picking on Maria, she said, "I'd like to say a word in her defense." I agree that useless web sites should be pulled off the internet so as not to confuse well intentioned guys who are surfing with the intent of finding a nice place or planning for a future trip.

A year ago last October (04) having spent a day or two at the Jomtien, my Thai companion mentioned he had never had a massage after one of the guys at the beach approached and asked if we were interested. I thought of bringing him to the Thai Blind Institute, which is my personal favorite. Then I remembered the great web site I had seen on Siam Thani, and how close it was to the main road going to Jomtien. So I invited him to a massage the next day.... Since we stayed up to the late early morning it was almost noon when we started out. We turned up at the door of Siam Thani and they told us it did not open till 1:00 for visitors. They pointed us to a nice restaurant next door. We padded over to the bar,( don't remember its name, but they had wonderful flowers growing all over. I snapped a few pic of my friend by the orchids, and they are some of my favorite pics of the trip. We had a beer while relaxing on a huge stuffed couch. It's a good thing I'm such a gentleman or I would have taken advantage of the situation and been naughty. The only one in restaurant was the bar tender. He enjoyed having us put on a show for him. All in good taste naturally. He liked the tip so much he walked us to the door and said he wanted us to come back the next day.

Finally at 1:00 we went back. and sat down in the lobby area. It was beautiful with the small indoor pool with a Japanese walking arch over part of the pool. Pictures taken by the pool are also precious to me. We chose our massage guy and went up on the second floor of this A Frame building. With the matress on the floor and your massage guy wanting nothing more than please you, it was tres romantic. Young Thai friend floated down to the main floor after the massage and we had a drink with our massage guys sitting by the indoor pool. It was nice, it was elegant it was so much fun I wanted to go back to the restaurant next door, but young friend guided me back to the guest house to rest up for the evening. Ah yes, another day of hard labor in Pattaya. No wonder I have to rest up, after returning home.

So while the Siam Thani may be bust, it has a well deserved sconce in my memory palace. It is my hope they may bring it back to place I enjoyed so much.

According to this website (a real estate website that is trying to sell the Siam Thani for 25 million baht), they are booked solid through March:

http://www.kcrhomefinder.com/propertyde ... page=sales (http://www.kcrhomefinder.com/propertydetails.php?id=341&page=sales)

They are also seeking an investor on the website:

"We have an opportunity for a minority investor to purchase interest at cost from non-working partner who wishes to sell. Perfect for the person(s) who wishes to live at Siam Thani free for part of the year and/or eventually move to Pattaya. To find out more, contact ...."

So instead of being just a non-guest, you can hand over a lot more money and be a non-owner too! :idea:

[catawampuscat]

I had the misfortune to met one the owners (at least he said he was) and he explained that all the problems were because of another partner and he was going to get rid of him..I got my check bin as soon as I could as the man was beyond obnoxious, very hard on the eyes and full of venom
(unlike sweet ole catawampus)..
I am sure he was the type to sue anyone he could and it is no surprise GB or anyother forum owner wouldn't allow criticisms about his resort..very bad karma around his aura...

[Smiles]

Wow, take a look at the number of Members currently logged into GayPattayan's Archived Message Board!!?? Who's Online - No Guests and 3340 Members online now.Talk about yer Hydra Heads: http://www.pattayagay.com/forum/

Anyway ... here is the thread on the old PattayaGay Message Board (now Archives only) to which Carnarvon posted this:



Carnarvon

Member
Posts: 321
Registered: 9-5-2002
posted on 9-8-2002 at 05:52 PM
---------------------------------------------------------------------

I did post elsewhere but maybe you did not read it

I have stayed at Siam Thani in Pattaya and wish to share my experience with others, so that if you think of staying there, you know what to expect.

This place has good and bad points.

The good points are :
- it is decorated with taste
- the swimming pool is small but beautiful
- it is clean
- the staff is friendly, some house boys are cute
- it is private
- it is neither far from Pattaya nor from Jomtien
- there is no problem to bring a friend to you room. It might actually be too easy, because they do not check your friend┬б┬жs ID, so you can run into

trouble if you do not realise the guy is under 18. You can run into other kind of trouble if some guys purposely stay at Siam Thani because there is

no ID check and you find yourself one day in the midst of a police raid┬бK

The bad points have to be seen as reality compared to what is claimed on their web site (www.siamthani.com (http://www.siamthani.com)) which describes it as a luxury place.

The things which I noticed and made me think it was not a luxury place were :
- my bed was shaky with a simple foam mattress
- some bed sheets had holes
- there is no furniture to put the luggage on
- the clothes cabinet has no shelves
- the bathroom is very small (maybe 2x2 metres) and has no ventilation even tough the toilets are in the bathroom ╞Т┬╝
- the wash basin has no hot water. In my friends┬б┬ж room, the tap was loose and the water was splashing all over the place
- the lighting is very minimal, one bulb was broken and could not be replaced. I could see myself in the mirror, but shaving was difficult (not to

mention uncomfortable because of the absence of hot water)
- there is no proper shower.
- towels are limited to ONE per person (no hand towel, no face towel)
- there are no Kleenex tissues , no soap. The bathroom amenities come from the local convenience store. You do not know what is what because it is

written in Thai.
- one fan in the main room did not work
- the curtains in my room were too narrow and would not even cover the rail
- some bulbs could not be changed because they were too high up, so the place was very dark
- some of the bulbs which could be changed were to large, hence hanging out of the ceiling hole where they were supposed to be hidden and blinding

you at night
- the armchairs and sofas are not comfortable because the cushions are very thin. So, your bum aches after 5 minutes. I had to use 2 cushions instead

of 1, leaving one sofa without cushion
- breakfast is acceptable, but can not be described as luxurious : 1 orange juice, one croissant, some fruits and tea or coffee
- there is no telephone in the room
- it is very noisy, because the walls are paper thin. So you can hear everything from outside and from neighbouring room.
- the refrigerator is empty (only water). There is no snack possible, no drinks (the house boy can go and buy you beer, but forget gin tonic, vodka

lime unless you buy a full bottle of spirit)
- the business centre advertised on the web site does not exist
- there are no newspapers available
- there are only 2 resting chairs around the pool, so very few people can rest around it.
- when the place is full, I doubt there is enough room in the pool for everyone
- the outside lighting is blinding because the bulbs are apparent. We had to hide them with a sheet of paper.
- they charge in US Dollar, not in Thai Baht. They ask you to pay one day before you leave (if you have not paid up-front) via a web site, not with a

credit card machine. They do not print a bill.

All this to say that this place is indeed liveable and one can have a good time. It just does not fit the description of a luxury place as emphasised

on their web site.

It is actually basic. Clean, friendly staff but basic with a nice swimming pool.

One should compare their rates with other┬б┬жs in Pattaya and Bangkok and not believe they are going to a luxury resort.

If you wish more comments, you can contact me at *******@******.com. My name is *****.

I believe this was the post which started the ongoing brouhaha. As you can see, it all started in 2002!! Personally I thought it a perfectly legitimate critique even if it did go on later for what seemed lke forever. And here we are in February, 2006!

If you want to read more (??) just click
on the link above ... click on "Search" and type "Siam Thani" in the appropriate field.

That is, unless you're enthralled with watching the ice dancing competition in Turino.


Cheers ....

Smiles, thank you for posting that information. My point in starting this thread was to not to discuss the facilities, etc, as they no longer exist, but to warn people.
Siam Thani has closed, the building has been renamed and is being run as a poorly frequented heterosexual hotel BUT the web site bearing the Siam Thani name is still up and running, and taking bookings, which are then apparently switched to another hotel.
That would be illegal in some countries.
I don't know who owns the website.

[Carnarvon-old]

According to this website (a real estate website that is trying to sell the Siam Thani for 25 million baht), they are booked solid through March:

http://www.kcrhomefinder.com/propertyde ... page=sales (http://www.kcrhomefinder.com/propertydetails.php?id=341&page=sales) Geeeeeeeeeeee! Now we are talking big money!!! Over 500,000 euros. Read the desdription of the place. How can they? What is the point of such blatant lies? Anyone buying wil visit the place first and see for himself...

Very strange place, right from day one...

Was talking to someone from Howards, who confirmed that in the past people have booked into the Siam Thani using the website but actually been accomodated at le Colonial. This gacve rise to a number of complaints, as the guests were paying siam thani rates to stay in le colonial - quite a big difference.
Of course this has stopped now that le colonial is being demolished and rebuilt.

Was talking to someone from Howards, who confirmed that in the past people have booked into the Siam Thani using the website but actually been accomodated at le Colonial. This gacve rise to a number of complaints, as the guests were paying siam thani rates to stay in le colonial - quite a big difference.
Of course this has stopped now that le colonial is being demolished and rebuilt.


Hmm - I wonder if le Colonial will be reducing its rates during demolition?

I'd pay extra. I love shirtless Burmese guys with sledge hammers.

I checked up who owns the website, and it is registered to an expat sounding name with a Thailand phone number and hotmail email address. If anyone is interested they can easily find out the publicly available information by using the lookup on Whois (http://www.register.com/retail/whois.rcmx) but on advice from ES i will not publish the details here myself.

Walking past the other day i noticed a couple of new signs outside Siam Thani, advertising Spa and resort, and the place looks open for business. No indication if it is gay though.

Walking past the other day i noticed a couple of new signs outside Siam Thani, advertising Spa and resort, and the place looks open for business. No indication if it is gay though.
I have been travelling a lot to Spain and Mexico and elsewhere and enjoyed several gay guest houses in these places where you can walk around in the nude, enjoy an open bar, have a snack and in general relax from everyday life. Is there such a place in Pattaya??? All the nice guest-houses seem to be mixed and the few gay ones that I have seen advertised - such as the Siam Thani - I learn here are said to be closed or undesirable. Would any of you gentlemen have a proposal for a relaxed all-gay place in this resort? I am planning a trip in November with my boyfriend and the alternative would be Phuket but we prefer to stay on the mainland.

Doesn't exist, sorry.

PS: the only thing I know of in Thailand that is anything like what you describe is a straight/bi place (how "bi" I'm not really sure), but it's nowhere near Pattaya:



Resort Caroline (http://www.resortcaroline.com)