Gay Russians in Pattaya

[egel]

Having just spotted the large sign outside the Serene Bar in Boyztown announcing themselves as RUSSIAN GAY NUMBER 1 DRINKING BAR, or something similar, makes me wonder about the future number of Gay Russian visitors to Pattaya. At the moment they are thankfully not that many but...

According to figures quoted on here there were 1.3 million Russian visitors to Thailand in 2012, split roughly 50/50 between Phuket and Pattaya.

That means roughly 600,000 Russians in total visited Pattaya.

If each stayed an average of 3 weeks during the 12 week high season, there would be approx 150,000 Russians in Pattaya at any one time in the high season. (600,000 divided by 4).

Now, lets assume Gay Pattaya gets better known by the Gay Russian community, and the hoardes invade.

Say 5% of the above 150,000 visitors are Gay. Then there could be 7,500 gay visitors in Pattaya at any one time.

Where are they all going to drink/party/stay?
Will they set up their own Gay Village and leave us with the Pattaya we all know and love?
Or will the existing gay business try and take advantage like Serene Bar appears to be doing?

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[sclivejames]

What i could see,it seems Ganymede at the Jomtien complex is encouraging them to stay there.

[paperboy]

I dont think there are so many gays in Russia as you think.
as you say 1 in 4 :dontknow:

i dont think that is the same in Russia
i might be wrong but what ive seen in my travels

[newalaan2]

Or will the existing gay business try and take advantage like Serene Bar appears to be doing?

Your heading is in regards to Gay russians, but with regard to russians in general looking at the huge numbers I witnessed on this visit if they did not visit Pattaya and thailand in the numbers they are Pattaya would surely be feeling the effects of the financial crash austerity backlash more starkley thats for sure. While they maybe dont spend per head anything like the western customers they are replacing they are still filling hotels, using baht buses, eating in restaurants and roadside carts, visiting beach consessions, spending some money. The amount of businesses welcoming and setting up Russian signage lets you know just how much businesses are gaining from the russian money.

As far as specifically gay russians are concerned in Pattaya, well they seem to be much younger than the westerners they are 'replacing'(?) and so probably will not have anything like the disposable income to splash around, but Serene and other BT bars must be feeling some benefit.

From what I could see personally on my latest visit and from talking with owners, mamasans and waiters they still tend to 'stick to their own' in pars or groups, very rarely off boys and are incredibly stingy with tips. But they like opening a bottle of spirits and like drinking so there must be some money for the locals somewhere. The personal incidents of Russians apart from their general ignorance on baht buses, have been in NAB where i saw at least 4 young (2 seperate pairs) russians in NAB without a table or indeed a drink. They just arrived started dancing in front of our table and made no effort to buy a single drop of anything. I was surprised the waiters did not approach or pressure them to buy. When it became clear they were unwanted in one bit, like standing right infront of a table whose customers could not then see the stage they just shuffled around to another spot.

But worse was the two who obviously knew/recognised a table of Thais, these russians were mid-late 20's and attractive-ish...they then proceeded to sweet talk their way into getting the thai boys to offer them drinks from their bottle, so here we have working boys after work with whatever earned money being pooled for a night of fun and these russian leeches practically begging free drinks off them. Hidious. I also saw a lone young western farang 30-35-ish who spoke english and a smidgin of thai with one half-empty heineken bottle for over an hour float around the tables of thai and other western guys he seemed to know flirting, enjoying a drink from a table here and there, it was so obvious! but never saw him dipping into his pocket. Some of these guys were very close by us as we had a table at the entrance door side of NAB and my thai bf and friends could clearly hear what was going on.

One Panorama waiter said while they are not so troublesome or bothersome now they are still 'hard work' for little return compared to especially asian and western customers. I think only gay business owners will be able to give an accurate assessment of the custom from russians. Visitors like me just see single incidents as they happen to make comparisons. Would be interested to hear comments from others here who have visited recently or live in Pattaya to see if my experiences are against the norm.

On a small club venue trail along Walking St one night, many russians were summed up for me when we nipped into a 7-11 near the far end of Walking St, near Tony's and outside were 6 young russians splitting a HALF bottle of mehkong whiskey (rum) into their "subway" logo'd coke containers. They were already well drunk, I wonder which lucky Thai ladies would run into them later?

I would imagine their money to be very welcome no matter how much work it takes to get it out of them.

Did I meet any sociable russians this trip? yes I did! on a baht-bus heading to jomtien, i was with my bf, they were def gay or at least gay 'friendly' and introduced themselves with handshakes, asking where we were from etc..telling just how much they were enjoying Pattaya and how much they loved scottish accents,I thought mine rather neutral till they said that, they were a good laugh however and said they hoped to run into us if we were headed for the beach, one spoke excellent english. Pluses and minuses.

[colmx]

I also saw a lone young western farang 30-35-ish who spoke english and a smidgin of thai with one half-empty heineken bottle for over an hour float around the tables of thai and other western guys he seemed to know flirting, enjoying a drink from a table here and there, it was so obvious! but never saw him dipping into his pocket.

If this is the same (german) guy that i am thinking of - he has been aound and doing this for years

I remember him coming to our table a few times in Maya and the first x-ray, he would come to flirt/say hello to one of the boys at our table... then put his almost empty glass on our table, waiters would spot the glass needs refilling and re-fill it for him.

He would then walk away and not return again until has glass was nearly empty again and the cycle would begin again!
I think he finally realised he was not welcome at our table and stopped coming... i still see him around pattaya quite frequently though...

[stevehadders]

Was this German blonde haired, quite a tall guy? If so I know exactly who you mean

[colmx]

Was this German blonde haired, quite a tall guy? If so I know exactly who you mean

No he is average height (maybe 5ft10in) & build with black short cropped hair

[Surfcrest]

I think it is fair to assume that we are all here for different and various reasons, gay or straight. My partner, who just arrived insisted we go to Central last night as he enjoys the food court downstairs for some reason...and as usual the place was dominated by the Russian crowd. It's easy to see why this place might draw them in, an air conditioned environment, where English and / or Thai is unnecessary...where the can hand over some notes, indicate on their fingers "how much" and where they can point at the pictures to order what they want. I was amused to see a young Russian guy yelling what few English words he knew (none of which applied to what he was trying to get across) at the drink counter (with all the staff looking on in mouth open wonderment) about the amount of ice in his drink.

As with the gay Russians, they too are probably not here for for the same reasons as each other and surely not for the same reasons as us. My understanding speaking with what few can speak English is that package tours from Russia bring these folks down for one week holidays starting at about 600 US, with hotel and a few meals included. These deals attract a type of trailer park trash that is indicative of whatever country they are being offered from and so probably don't represent Russia and Russians as a whole, accurately.

I've seen the wave of them coming and going now from the beach, bringing their picnic lunches, their own food and drinks and asking for a glass to pour what they brought with them into. I get a little miffed sometimes when I'm dragged to the Central food court and they are crashing into me and whomever else as though they were fighting for the last plate of food. Honestly, I don't care and do my best to avoid them....as I would the same trailer park trash I bump into from Canada and the US when I'm enjoying my condo n Cancun.

On occasion they take it a bit too far, smoking on a baht bus (oblivious to where their ashes and smoke are going) or getting loud and abnoxious to the point where I can't avoid them and I have no problem telling them. I'm a big boy myself and they usually get the point even if we don't speak the same language. I think it's the only way they are going to learn in hopes that one day they'll behave and blend in. For the ones that do speak a little English, I've enjoyed sharing hockey stories with them (that's one thing we Canadians have in common with them) from when I Played Junior hockey against them and the games and fights I've enjoyed having with them on the ice over the years.

Surfcrest

[sclivejames]

Well said Surfcrest,i do agree,unfortanetely with your comment's about Russians.
But i was a bit ataken back on your comment about "trailer trash"........i guess you mean people who are on lower incomes or unemployed etc.

[timmberty]

the language barrier is a wonderful thing at times ... why cant the whole world just speak english, well wouldnt that be boring ?
i remember one time i was in germany i wanted to buy a cheese roll .. i forgot what the german for cheese was, then it came to me .. so i asked for the fromage .. she gave it to me and i gave her the money ..
such an unfunny story i know .. but as she gave it to me i thought to myself ah fromage is french, but its still a foreign word, which made me smile.
the russains shout in english half the time at thias who have not a clue as to what they are saying ... why is it whenever people shout they tend to do it in english ? or did i just make that up. :knob: