Bars in hat yai?

[Brisboy82]

Has anybody been to hat Yai recently? Is there any gay scene there? Any info would be appreciated.

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[RonanTheBarbarian]

Hat Yai is a bit off the beaten track. I have never been there myself, but I understand that the small gay scene is centred around Thanon Sripoovanart, south of the city centre. It would probably be a good to get accomodation close to that street. Hat Yai has a very big straight bar scene, because it is full of Malaysians who come up on dirty weekends, not sure if you get a similar influx of gay Malaysians in the gay bars.

There is a map of the gay locations on the international gayscout site here:

http://www.gayscout.com/gaymap/Hat%20Yai/g196.-1.4715

The Utopia Asia site also has some listings.

Note that the spellings of Sripoovanart can be inconsistent.

The Utopia Guide spells the road "Sripoovanart" in the listing for a bar called Buddy Pub, and in a listing for a sauna just slightly below it on the same webpage, it is spelled "Sriphuvanut ".

[Marsilius]

I was in Hat Yai maybe five years ago. I was taken to a couple of host bars. One was surprisingly large with many handsome guys sitting on a stage at the front. I got the impression that western customers were something of a rarity but nevertheless very welcome.

[pong]

memories from 5 yrs ago dont say much here in Thaild for today. As I am bound to fly in there and stay maybe next week, I was interested too. Utopia suffers also from 5-6 yrs old ''reviews''-and were quite unkind when I once suggested them a better listing. The latest I can remember is from 1/2-1 yr ago, from that famous Penang contributor xian/dark/horse/dragon etc, with full description-I think on the gay branch of Thaivisa-but I am about to look into it further.
Most likely same story as The str8 bars-aiming at Malay visitors, who want white skinned, thus northern boys. BarS seem to overstate- I think there is just 1, sauna+ some other (listing in the latest Thaipuan)+1 massage.
Names; Buddy menclub, Top Man Bar, GL Sauna, G-Men club. Due to tourism mainly busy weekends (maybe even only open)
If you happen to stay in such a Hotel-ask likely looking staff to arrange for a massage by a man

[Marsilius]

As no one had previously posted anything at all in the way of experience, I thought even a five year old one might be of interest. And at least it indicates that there has been a gay culture in Hat Yai at some point in the past, thus indicating that the culture there is not by definition hostile to such activity.

[llz]

I was there last June

The situation had just changed a little since my last visit. The bars are still within walking distance one from another in the southern part of the town. The good news is that the overall quality of the boys has much improved and there was much more variety and numbers than before, even on a quiet Sunday evening. So for the record you have to know that Buddys Bar has opened again after a two year closure. G-Men seemed to be less interesting, but City Man (same street as G-Men) had really a good bunch of nice men from all over Thailand. They even provided a show as there were some customers (including a group of more or less true women) - very tame show by Bangkok standards though.

Drink prices were 120 THB in City Man and 150 in the other two ; and in Buddy Boys you off a boy paying 1200 THB for short time and 1700 THB for the whole night including the tip for the boy - an old Hat Yai tradition due to the fact that some customers (did I say from Malaysia ?) used to offer ridiculously low tips to the boys before this rule was introduced. Although I did not ask in the other bars, I guess that the rule and the prices are similar.

All this is probably not enough to be worth the trip but you could combine it with a trip to the south to discover an almost farang-free scene reminding the good old days in Thailand ... and also a bustling city which is a shopping paradise.

[Brisboy82]

I was there last June

The situation had just changed a little since my last visit. The bars are still within walking distance one from another in the southern part of the town. The good news is that the overall quality of the boys has much improved and there was much more variety and numbers than before, even on a quiet Sunday evening. So for the record you have to know that Buddys Bar has opened again after a two year closure. G-Men seemed to be less interesting, but City Man (same street as G-Men) had really a good bunch of nice men from all over Thailand. They even provided a show as there were some customers (including a group of more or less true women) - very tame show by Bangkok standards though.

Drink prices were 120 THB in City Man and 150 in the other two ; and in Buddy Boys you off a boy paying 1200 THB for short time and 1700 THB for the whole night including the tip for the boy - an old Hat Yai tradition due to the fact that some customers (did I say from Malaysia ?) used to offer ridiculously low tips to the boys before this rule was introduced. Although I did not ask in the other bars, I guess that the rule and the prices are similar.

All this is probably not enough to be worth the trip but you could combine it with a trip to the south to discover an almost farang-free scene reminding the good old days in Thailand ... and also a bustling city which is a shopping paradise.

Sounds like it might be a pretty interesting evening!

[pong]

- an old Hat Yai tradition due to the fact that some customers (did I say from Malaysia ?) used to offer ridiculously low tips to the boys before this rule was introduced. .

thanks for updateincidentally I fly there tomorrow. You mention also more bars as reported before.
The Malay may have another view (why always so negative) about it-tips (called going rates on these boards here) in massageshops etc in MY are indeed a lot lower-say half-of those in TH here. And also relate much more to delivered (perceived) quality. Which maybe again illustrates that the whitemans ideas and often so vigilant defending of those may be a little out of place anyway.

[Utopia]

Utopia suffers also from 5-6 yrs old ''reviews''-and were quite unkind when I once suggested them a better listing.

Correction on comment above by Pong: Utopia has a 12-month expiration policy on user comments posted in our listings. If you ever spot a comment older than this, please report it to us and we'll remove it. Also, being "quite unkind" is not our M.O. We encourage travelers with updates to take just a minute of their time to email us and we reward frequent contributors. Please do . Thanks!

[stevehadders]

I have also found Utopia very helpful, and indeed have happily travelled to Vietnam/laos using tips from that very site - carry on the good work!