Quote Originally Posted by Up2U
I found the the article Death of Gay Malate interesting and see some Thailand parallels.
As do I! I well remember Coco Banana. Long week-ends from Hong Kong were easy and cheap during the 1980s and Coco Banana would be the first hang-out I'd head for. It was not a large space but it was always possible to find an agreeable companion. Then there was the famous 690 Retiro Strip much further out. A huge barn of a place with several catwalks and many gorgeous guys on stage, it was packed to the rafters at week-ends. Both now long gone.

As has been discussed several times here and on other Boards, apart from there being many fewer go-go bars in Bangkok, there is definitely far less diversity in the entertainment provided now than was the case in the 1980s and into the 1990s. And there is a great deal less fun - in the sense of a sort of joie de vivre. Nothing now bears any resemblance to the shows at Barbiery across from Soi Twilight. Like 690 Retiro Strip it was bulging at the seams at week-ends year round with a majority of the audience being youngish Thais. When was the last time any of us saw many dozens of young Thais in a Bangkok go-go bar?

If I recall correctly, most of the bars did attract a majority of Thais, although Barbiery seemed to have the youngest group. The original Twilight always had good week-end crowds, as did the long dead Apollo, My Way, Super Lek and their ilk.

Glancing through the article on the death of Malate as a gay centre brought to mind a comment made in his book Bangkok Found by the author Alex Kerr. Published 5 years ago he compares the wide range of nightlife on offer in Bangkok with Berlin in the dying days of the Weimar Republic.

"In time, the more outrageous forms that prostitution takes in Bangkok (sex shows, go-go bars with half-naked boys or girls with numbers on their panties gyrating on tables) will disappear. Bangkok stands far out on the table of what most cities in the world consider acceptable. I don't believe it will last. Slowly but surely we are seeing a clampdown, and it's a matter of time before the 'sinful' Bangkok we see today fades away into legend, just as 1920s Berlin did.
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Not being a Pattaya regular, my comments relate only to Bangkok.