Trip report - Chiang Mai - 29 Dec - in progress

Flew Bangkok Airways from BKK to CNG Chiang Mai. Flight was delayed 30 minutes due to late arrival of aircraft. Flight is short and pleasant, about 55 minutes. Fun began at the Chiang Mai airport - luggage quickly arrived but there were NO taxis and there was a huge number of people waiting for the limited number of taxis. After about a 50 minute wait, I was in a taxi and within 15 minutes I was at my hotel, Club One Seven - C17.

http://www.clubonesevenchiangmai.com/

Hotel check-in was quick and easy - they only have 11 rooms. The guy brought me to my room but this being an antique 130 year old Lana Teak House you need to remove your shoes and I leaned on the side railing of the stairs to leverage myself and I immediately broke one of the wooden teak slats with my fat ass. How embarassing and what an awful way to begin my 6 day stay. I guess I need to continue dieting - the last time that I checked I was down to 78kg. But in typical great Thai "save face" style the manager said to me, "mister, it ok, house is very old".

I have a nice room that overlooks the Ping river with a small outdoor terrace. The room has a large 4 poster bed. You feel as if you are staying in the country side. Breakfast is served outside in the terrace alongside the river. Prior to 5pm you feel that you are in an antique gay hotel but after 5pm the place starts to transform as the sauna activities start to pick up and all of a sudden we have many new cute Thai "guests". I have not yet tried the sauna yet - sorry guys - there hasn't been any free time yet with all there is to do in Chiang Mai.

Unpacked my luggage and headed off to the "old walled city with a moat" which was about an hours walk away as the C17 is pretty far away from both the historic centre and popular Chang Phuak gay zone. I arrived on Sunday so that I could take advantage of the 1 time per week Sunday Walking Market. I think that this is the biggest open air market that I have seen in my life. It was packed with people just walking around enjoying the many concerts, handcraft shopping, art, performers, religious ceremonies, and incredible "food courts" that were set up in each of the grounds of the 3 or 4 Wats (Buddhist Temples) that I visited. I ate wonderful things that I have never eaten before. It was truly delightful to have seen this event for the several hours that I was able to. If you do visit Chiang Mai try to make sure that your visit includes a Sunday evening on the "Walking Street". I was so exhausted afterwards that I took the first tuk-tuk that I could find and payed the asking price of 200 bahts back to the hotel. Sauna already closed so I did not encounter any action (I would have been too tired anyway).

Next day after the wonderful breakfast I headed off by foot to discover the Nimmanhaeminda and Chang Phuak gay zone. It took about a 2 hour leisurely walk to get there and it was nice to see the contrasts in the various Chiang Mai neighborhoods. The gay zone is in a nice newer part of Chiang Mai with nice shops, bars, and stores, with many new condo buidings being constructed. I had hoped to have lunch in one of the gay restaurants but it being both a monday and also a government holiday (making it a 5 day weekend) the ones I had hoped to go to were closed for lunch. So walking back towards the centre I ate lunch in the big mall (Kad Suan) on the Huay Kaew Road - it was full of falangs which I found interesting.

Again exhausted, I took the first tuk-tuk from the mall to the "2 Brothers" massage place which is in the cool hippy backpacking hangout area of Chiang Mai which is near the main gate to the old city. To no surprise I chose the 4 hand 2 hour massage from 26 year old O (р╣Вр╕н) and 24 year old Aok (р╣Вр╕нр╣Кр╕Д). Showered alone and awaited their arrival in the small room with a low futon bed. Their massage was an excellent intense deep tissue massage for over 1.5 hours which is what I needed after all of the 2 days of walking. The "happy ending" was in the remaining 30 minutes and was less intense but ok. Then we showered together which was a lot of fun.

Afterwards, I told them that I wanted to buy them a drink in the downstairs bar and we hung out for about an hour together before they were taken by new arriving customers. It was great because I got to see how the other massage guys are chosen by the other customers. I realized that my choosing style is very polite and shy like while I saw other customers reject and then re-select the same guys that they already chose. Maybe it was a power thing. I tried to get the various massage boys to help me find a gay tour guide as I want to go out of Chiang Mai to see the mountains, jungle, elephants, and possibly the famous white Wat in Chiang Rai. With their limited English we did not get very far - but it looks like we are close to finding a gay guide who can drive and speak English.

http://www.2bmassage.com/

Wanted to take a short nap and either try out the sauna or head over to the Adams Apple go-go bar but my body slept until 23 - so I could not try either - so I wrote this trip update. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and they are having a party here - so I will check it out...

hopefully my report was not too boring. This portion of my trip will be more cultural as Chiang Mai does not have a Twilight zone like in Bangkok.

So much to see in Chiang Mai. When I was there last year, I had an excellent gay tour guide called OSS. He drove a Honda Civic which was in good condition and we went all sorts of interesting places over three days.

He then went to study in Melbourne for six months but is now back in a Chiang Mai.

Unfortunately I don't still have a number for him but he is on Facebook https://th-th.facebook.com/oss.keen and Gay Romeo asian_tourguide4you

OSS is a really nice guide, speaks excellent English and is very handsome too!

Enjoy the rest of your stay in Chiang Mai

wow - thanks for the lead on OSS - he is hot.
I already booked, Woody for a two day tour on 02 and 03 January
we will go to see the elephants, jungle, waterfalls, and up to Chiang Rai to see the famous white Wat.
cheers,
m.

For New Year's Eve day and night I decided to relax and at the suggestion of the wonderful C17 staff decided to remain on site.
Had a nice leisurely breakfast and had a great conversation with a 50 year old already retired farang from the UK (yes I am jealous). He is preparing for his relocation to Thailand and he bought a condo in Pattaya that is still under construction and he hopes to move in later in 2014. Since I am also very interested in retiring in Thailand I seized the opportunity to ask my million questions - mainly, "why not retire in Chiang Mai?" (since he was raving about CM). He said he chose Pattaya because it is on the seaside and it is very oriented towards the ex-pat community. He felt that CM did not yet have the same level of ex-pat infrastructures and by him living in Pattaya he could easily fly over to Chiang Mai when he would want. I sensed that he had a preference for the CM guys over the Pattaya guys.

does anyone reading this who lives in Chiang Mai have any comments/opinions on what it is like for an ex-pat to live in CM?

Then I decided to lay out in the sun - the Club One Seven (C17) has a great penis shaped pool. There is the on site bar, pool boy, and massage boys, who could ask for more to have a relaxing day.

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Then I took a massage with sexy 30 year old Kim. Massage was 90 minutes and I paid 800 to the house and I tipped Kim 1,000 baht. Of course there was the sensual happy ending but it was somewhat mechanical for my tastes and lacked some variety. Kim was obsessed on finding a farang to marry so that he could move to the USA or Europe. He said that the only good farangs are already in a relationship and taken and the rest are butterflies. To kill his conversation and where it was going I told Kim that I was a butterfly to avoid being asked to marry him.

Then I had lunch on the terrace on the Ping river which was lovely and I had some great conversations with the wait staff and other farangs. Then off for a nap in my room. Then for the evening I wandered over to the bar and chatted with the staff to see what I should do for New Years Eve. They said that I should remain at the hotel for the naked party. I had been invited back to the "2 Brothers" bar for their party and I had thought to go to the Adam's Apple go-go bar for their celebration. I decided to stay at C17 since I already had a lovely day with them and I had not yet seen their sauna facilities.

Disrobed and put on a towel to explore the facilities. I was surprised at how big they are. On the ground level, there are the locker area, showers, dry sauna and wet sauna where everyone was walking around with their towels on. Then up stairs, where you needed to remove your towel and shoes, was the naked zone. There is an inter-mix of cabins, hallways, open sex areas with beds, video porno sala, glass wall looking onto downstairs where you can see the new guests that are arriving and another dark room. Then there is another upstairs to a semi-closed area with a big bed, and a hallway with many cabins. We were about 30 guys of which 6 were falang. The guy from lunch had told me that the prior weeks naked party had 150 participants (speaking to the staff they told me that the exact count was 154). The space is very large and could easily accomodate 154 people spread out on 3 floors. For just 30 of us, the space was too large and in typical gay sauna fashion we walked kilometers in endless stand and model chases. I knew then that I had made a mistake for my New Years Eve choice. :<((

However, I did get to watch two hot Thai guys that wanted to show off fuck each other - but I was not allowed to touch them. That was pretty much the entire night - ok to look at the cute Thai boys but you could not touch them (except there were 2 that did touch me but they were not the type of Thai guys that I desired). So in the end, I was only able to play with another farang but after he came he ran away - so no orgasms for me.

I am not much of a sauna guy to begin with as I hate the endless chase as it is a waste of time. I guess I thought "this time would be different" - but it wasn't - so I was angry at myself for making a bad New Years choice. It made me remember when I moved to Italy in 1999 when I visited the various Italian saunas and I saw how badly the Asians were treated as they were not desired and made to feel not welcome. Now I know what that feeling is like, "as I felt like the Asian in the Italian sauna last night".

After going back to my room and sulking for a while I went outside on the balcony and saw an amazing sight for my sore eyes, the sky was full of kongming sky lanterns which illuminated the sky above the Ping river. They brought tears to my eyes and I was happy to be in "Amazing Thailand".

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To kill his conversation and where it was going I told Kim that I was a butterfly to avoid being asked to marry him.

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I can't listen/talk and have sex at the same time, even a TV switched on is a disturbance. Every know and then, I come across a chatty money boy, and have to find a way to stop him talking. This never happened with boys who go with me for free.

OP: Thoroughly enjoyable report, so look forward to reading more. I cannot speak for living in CM but I agree with what you were told about the infrastructure compared to Pattaya. Also a lot of the cute CM gays especially the gay ones leave that city to work in the likes of BKK, Pattaya and Phuket.

Thanks for the report, I'm also visiting chiang Mai at the same time. Thought I would chime in with a few reviews as well...

I'm staying at the Lotus Hotel which is okay. Very pricey, but the location is great for walking to bars and the old city. I booked a loft type room with a bedroom upstairs. However after nights of drinking tons of beer, I should have thought more about it, because negotiating the stairs down to the bathroom to pee in the middle of the night is a little ennerving. the place is very quiet and seems like more of a nursing home for old ex pats at times.

I went to the NYE party here lastnight and it was a pretty nice little do. Just a handful of people, all very friendly and the owner had a host of games for prizes the whole night which was very cute.

I've been to some of the go go bars that are around here, some great some really awful:

Circle Bar - this one is amazing. Great show, or I should say quality show. Actually very sensual, not just dirty. They put a lot of effort into it and it had minimal ladyboy lip synching which I truly appreciated. A large selection of guys, from twink to beefy. The place was standing room only for the 10 pm show.

Adams apple - right across the street from the hotel. Good show, more twinks here, but seems like a quality place and easy to get to!

My New Way? I think that s the name of the place. This one was odd. About half the audience was women. Another good show with a variety of types of guys, but I was seated on an aisle and the staff kept fussing back and forth so much that it made it hard to see the stage. Also, they were very unorganized when I was in there. They kept trying to charge me for the beer I already paid for, so finally I just left.

Freeway- abysmal. Keep away from this place. Something about the place is truly depressing. The guys in this bar are twinks, but they all have this looks on their face like they are waiting to be rescued. If I ever thought of becoming the patron saint of Gogo boys this would be the place. I would goin here pay all of the off fees for everyone and open the front door wide and yell. "Make a run for freedom!". Show was beyond lame and they have the nerve to charge a little more than the other places.

Off to Pattaya tomorrow.

Went to the NYE party here at the hotel

Great Report. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

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Originally Posted by bkkmfj2648

does anyone reading this who lives in Chiang Mai have any comments/opinions on what it is like for an ex-pat to live in CM?

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Well, you could write a book on that! Actually, having lived in Chiang Mai for too many years already, I might even do it one day. But, until then, hereтАШs a few quick thoughts:

Chiang Mai is a great city to live in and a very popular retirement destination for gay and straight alike. No lack of infrastructure, you can get pretty much anything you want here, same as Pattaya, Bangkok Phuket etc. But, Chiang Mai is far more laid back with a fabulous winter climate. There are good hospitals, an over-abundance of shopping malls, with more set to open and so many restaurants and bars you could go somewhere different every night for several years! It used to be easy to get around, though now traffic is becoming a bit more of a problem in the city centre, and there is no lack of new places to live with a massive ongoing construction boom.

You basically have three choices for living here: city centre or suburbs Condo, house in the suburbs, or a house out in the countryside a few km away from the main city. The later requires your own transport, whereas itтАЩs optional for the first two.

What you donтАЩt have, apart from a small area around Thapae gate and the Night Bazaar, is the in your face tourism business that exists elsewhere. And even then itтАЩs quite subdued.

Although there is a thriving ex-pat community, without which I know many foreigners living here wouldn't survive, I personally prefer to avoid most of it/them. Much better to learn enough Thai to manage basic conversations and make some Thai friends, then you will get to see a whole different side to life here.

As to gay life in Chiang Mai, that depends who you ask and where you look. To give an idea, one gay Thai facebook group for Gay Chiang Mai has over 17,000 members so thereтАЩs no shortage of young guys looking for fun. Just look online, Grindr, Jackd, Hornet, Gay Romeo, CamfrogтАж. Personally, I have a large circle of gay Thai friends which is a great way to socialise and meet new people too. Or go to Chiang MaiтАЩs most popular gay club G-Star Vintage which is packed to the rafters with sweet young guys. But, donтАЩt expect immediate hook ups тАУ go with friends and have fun, meanwhile collect phone numbers for later use. ;)

Whatever you do, donтАЩt come to live in Chiang Mai primarily for the increasingly morose Farang gay bar scene (you can read my thoughts on that subject here: Chiang Mai City News - Where did all the Nice Boys Go). A lot of gay ex-pats I know now avoid the bars completely with the social scene having shifted towards restaurant type places, including plenty of straight venues.

Of course, if you want gay for pay there are still four go-go bars and plenty of massage places that continue to flourish. The added bonus is that many of the guys here are Tai Yai from BurmaтАЩs Shan state and quite a different proposition from Thais; that IS a good reason to live here. :ymapplause:

I could say more but the above is too long already. Hope itтАЩs useful. In summary, I think Chiang Mai is a fantastic place to live as an ex-pat!

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Originally Posted by goteed1

I went to the NYE party here lastnight and it was a pretty nice little do. Just a handful of people, all very friendly and the owner had a host of games for prizes the whole night which was very cute.

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I dropped in for five minutes too, seemed a good time was being had by all. Event pictures online here

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Originally Posted by goteed1

Freeway- abysmal. Keep away from this place. Something about the place is truly depressing. The guys in this bar are twinks, but they all have this looks on their face like they are waiting to be rescued. If I ever thought of becoming the patron saint of Gogo boys this would be the place. I would goin here pay all of the off fees for everyone and open the front door wide and yell. "Make a run for freedom!". Show was beyond lame and they have the nerve to charge a little more than the other places.

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And there was me thinking that the boys were there because they'd already been rescued by Uncle Ray (the owner and patron saint of Gogo boys) =)) Can't imagine what causes that "look" in their eyes.

I have to say I quite like Free Guy, in my opinion it's much friendlier than Circle Pub. However, I can understand the comments if you don't know the place - first impressions and all that.