The Good Old Days

[poshglasgow]

Whilst reading the Thai press, from a wet and windy East Sussex, I slipped into a series of daydreams, recalling the 'good' old days of Pattaya and Bangkok, and by 'old days' I mean (from my point of view) 1993 - 2000, although I have been visiting Pattaya and Bangkok every year since 1993.

What vivid memories of people/clubs/go-go bars/ incidents etc., have you to share?

Let me start the ball rolling:

1. Ian, owner of Le Cafe Royale, shouting "FISH!!!!!", every time a female walked from the street into the bar. He was always asking the waiters, adorned in their pink shirts and white shorts, what colour underwear they were wearing when they passed him. "What colour, darlin'?" They all responded, of course.

2. The Yaba wars (as I call them) centred around Sunee Plaza, with sudden outbreaks of gang warfare. Boys in the clubs and beer bars would suddenly become very animated, run to the doors and look up the street, along which thundered a gang teenage boys armed with sticks and clubs, hell-bent on hunting down the enemy!

3. The chubby lad in Throb, (now Copa), who would pull a few cartwheels out of the bag and stun the audience!

4. The Aquarius Guest House in Bangkok and Kuhn Witchai the owner.

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[Marsilius]

Greetings from equally wet and windy Bristol - though from Sunday I shall be enjoying the warmth of Pattaya for a month.

I also first visited Pattaya in 1993 and have returned every year - at least once and sometimes up to four times annually.

The sheer diversity of the bars over the years is what comes to mind. A few favourites included: (1) Cockpit (across the road from - and a slightly downmarket version of - Boys, Boys Boys which was spelled with Ss in those days before they changed to Zs, (2) Star Boys Boys (on the east side of Second Road - I was there on opening night, as I was for A-Bomb), (3) the Sky Bar (on the roof of Mr Mac's Hotel on the road to Jomtien and probably the best-run of all the bars that I've known - apart from the week when the owner went away and I replaced him as temporary manager!), (4) Ball Park Pub (again, on the east side of Second Road, but much further north - just over the intersection with Pattaya Klang) which had wonderfully entertaining shows of all sorts every night. (5) Adam & Eve - later Madame Ed's - offered a unique experience in its massage (which I seem to recall was known as a Special B and involved a lilo and lots of soap suds!)

Fond memories of so many young men encountered at all of them and others...

[Oliver2]

I was thinking of Khun Oh from Cockpit only a couple of weeks ago so thanks, poshglasgow, for mentioning him (her?). This was because I was listening to Monserrat Caballe singing Tosca when I suddenly recalled Kun Oh's performance of that dreadful "Barcelona" song- the one in which Caballe unbearably did a duet with Freddie Mercury- and how he/she would knock punters off their stools. Yes, in those days, Throb needed stools to accommodate the huge audiences who came to see the shows. When I say "knock" I don't mean literally; what happened was that at one point in the song she would suddenly turn her large frame to those on the front seats and loom over them. Everyone enjoyed the moment, even those who knew it was coming, as the females nearby would lean backwards on their little stools and need to be prevented from falling.
Quite a performance.
And then there were the cheeky monkeys who would occasionally haul gentlemen onto the podium and express themselves the way that monkeys do. One of them attached himself to an elderly gent whose wife was sitting near me. When the monkey tried to achieve rear entry, his missus nearly wet her knickers with laughter.
What a tale she had to tell at her local Darby and Joan club when she recounted her experiences of Pattaya..

[poshglasgow]

Greetings from equally wet and windy Bristol - though from Sunday I shall be enjoying the warmth of Pattaya for a month.

I also first visited Pattaya in 1993 and have returned every year - at least once and sometimes up to four times annually.

The sheer diversity of the bars over the years is what comes to mind. A few favourites included: (1) Cockpit (across the road from - and a slightly downmarket version of - Boys, Boys Boys which was spelled with Ss in those days before they changed to Zs, (2) Star Boys Boys (on the east side of Second Road - I was there on opening night, as I was for A-Bomb), (3) the Sky Bar (on the roof of Mr Mac's Hotel on the road to Jomtien and probably the best-run of all the bars that I've known - apart from the week when the owner went away and I replaced him as temporary manager!), (4) Ball Park Pub (again, on the east side of Second Road, but much further north - just over the intersection with Pattaya Klang) which had wonderfully entertaining shows of all sorts every night. (5) Adam & Eve - later Madame Ed's - offered a unique experience in its massage (which I seem to recall was known as a Special B and involved a lilo and lots of soap suds!)

Fond memories of so many young men encountered at all of them and others...

Indeed, I too recall the time when BOYZTOWN was, as it should be, BOYSTOWN. It was shortly after a run of negative publicity by the UK tabloids that Pattaya, in panic mode, changed the sign.

Star Boys Boys. I remember its location. Wasn't it run by an Irishman?

Boys, Boys, Boys. I wonder if the custom of presenting the orphans with gifts on Christmas Eve, when the artificial snow machine was activated from the roof of the Ambiance, still happens each year? Maybe that too has fallen foul of the 'over-cautious' brigade? It was a great gesture and the kids loved it. I'm sure Father Ray was still alive when the practice of presenting gifts from the gay community was first introduced.

Another things has come to mind while typing: the Rolls Royce that used to swing into PL Soi 3 in the evening and drop Fasbind (have I spelt name that correctly?) off at BBB. I think he was a senior player up at the Royal Cliff.

[poshglasgow]

Louis Fassbind.....

https://www.pattayamail.com/features...y-dinner-17985

[gerefan2]

Funnily enough I was thinking along the same vein only the other day strolling through BT.

Unhappily I was counting the number of Gogo bars remaining. Discounting BBB (on my no go list) there are only 2 left in BT and 3 in the surrounding Sois...Toyboys, Cupidol, ABomb, Dynamite and Xboys.

In 2010 thee was probably another 7-10 making a total of about 15.

Then I reflected on Sunnee Plaza. Only 9 years ago gay maps show that there were 10, now only 3 remain. Nice Boys,Winners, and Power Boys.

So Pattaya now has a grand total of only 8 Gogo bars....as opposed to nearly 25 less than a decade ago.

Mind you the same applies to girlie bars. Take a stroll down the small Sois adjacent to Walking street and you’ll see practically all of them in those Sois are closed.

Alas, I too loved those shows...remember the “cat” that used to run through Throb rubbing it’s leg and pretending to pee up against members of the audience!

[frequentfliers]

I first came to Pattaya in 1997.Cocobanana was my first bar to visit.Now its Panorama.Charly Boys was my favourite go go bar.It was run by Mike.And I stayed in La Cafe Royal.Ian Robbie and Ian McKnight were great hosts.All changed now.

[neddy3]

I remember Charley (sp?) Boys being a good bar.

I guess that it was where the failed bar formed by joining two together is located.

Ah yes, the good old days, when there were a string of boy bars next to Dream Boys.
In its day, Dynamite was good, with Rose in charge before he went to Funny Boys.
And Lucky 777. And was it Classic Boys up above?

[Marsilius]

Star Boys Boys was founded in, I'd guess, about 1996 or 1997 by a guy named Frank - a chain-smoking civil servant, I seem to recall, evidently intending to let his hair down in LOS.

Charlie Boys was, so I understood, owned at one point by a collective of farang - about 20 of them had bought in, so I was told. Supposedly it was a way of fulfilling their fantasies of being bar owners at minimal capital cost while also incurring only a minimal hit in case of losses. However, with that many shareholders - no doubt all expecting not to have to pay for drinks or offs - I can't imagine that making decisions about the business was ever easy or straightforward...

[Marsilius]

The Sky Bar, meanwhile, was run in the early and mid 1990s by a genial Ulsterman whose name momentarily escapes me. He was succeeded by Allan (memorably described by the News of the World as "the vile vicar" and since deceased) and his business partner David. A delightful old American ex-military man, Don, had virtually permanent residence in accommodation there.