A new Host bar/club showed up in my facebook feeds in Chiang Mai which made me wonder if anyone lives there and how is it recovering?
New Circle Club Chiang Mai. very handsome men in the pictures.
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?...ub%20chiangmai
https://www.facebook.com/reel/607528924818880?fs=e&s=m
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christianpfc (September 10th, 2023)
This is the same address as the old Circle Pub. Presumably just been renamed. In its later years it was never much of a venue. Gay Chiang Mai remains in its death throes.
That's right; even in the Good Old Days of the late 90s, when Adam's Apple was packed to the rafters- dangerously so- and where CMU students in the customers were as good-looking as the dancers, Circle was quiet. CM has always suffered from its gay venues being spread-out so thinly across the city. Lavender Lanna made a good effort a decade ago but we all know what happened there.
An effort, yes. A good effort? Sorry I cannot agree. It was a total folly. It had been a cheap hotel before the gay owner took it over with the intention of turning it into a gay resort hotel. A few of its 100+ rooms had been renovated quite nicely, I believe. The rest were basic and the hotel had lots of complaints which led to upgrading when possible. A rooftop pool was advertised but we never saw it. Only saw a lap-type pool at the side on around the 2nd floor. Pretty dark there. But it did have a sauna and massage place with some nice looking masseurs.Originally Posted by Oliver2
The one eatery where we had dinner was a rooftop restaurant. Food seemed to be OK but it took our waiter 3 goes before he got the bill correct. One part the owner got right was the cabaret venue in the basement. A lot of the performers in Power Boys were students and we thoroughly enjoyed the show and chatting to some of them afterwards, although there was no nudity. But like the hotel itself, it was way too big, especially for 2 shows a night. In addition to bar seating, there must have been at least 100 fixed seats.
A full service hotel that was vastly too large, it required a staff of around 200. Yet the PR blurb always said it had been turned into a gay utopia that would take gay Chiang Mai into a new dimension. 100+ rooms was outrageous for a gay hotel in CNX and was never going to succeed. I can only imagine that it was partly huge debts run up trying to make the Lanna Lavender a basic going concern that led to the owner's suicide the following year. I believe it was eventually sold and turned back into a non-gay hotel. But according to tripadvisor reports, it was in a bad state. One reviewer wrote "This is a filthy hoel with stained carpets in the rooms, dust everywhere. I had paid a one night deposit but found it so filthy I checked out after haing an afternoon nap." No idea what it is like now.
You've opened an old wound for me! I stayed there twice, once alone and once with my boyfriend. Choosing the best rooms available, about 1300 a night, I was quite content with the 3* standards. The roof-top restaurant was good- well-priced and affording an interesting view. The on-site massage was at least as good as street-front ones in Pattaya and Bangkok, even if it was ruled over by a harridan.
And the go-go bar was excellent, at least for those of us who prefer twinks. Adam's Apple was closed at this time and so it was the only show in town.
The top half was gay, the lower serving many visitors to the next-door hospital This was easily discerned at breakfast; lots of families. I agree that the concept was over-ambitious but the non-gay lower floors were probably the money-spinners...or could have been. P and I were usually the only gay guests in the crowded restaurant. The others were Thais, rather than Chinese and so on.
Overall, I thought it good value but with teething problems. It was also conveniently placed for tuk tuks, unlike Lotus. I had no idea as to why it was disliked by so many, particularly if they hadn't stayed there.
I suspect- and the subsequent tragic events bear this out- that the owner upset some powerful people.
I stick by my view that it was CM's last chance as a gay tourist venue.
francois (September 11th, 2023)
so If I decide to spend a month in chiang mai... bring my own boy?
does anyone know if the circle club is foreign owned?
"bring my own boy?"
That's what I do....although he's forty now! However, your tastes may be different to mine and so you may find Adam's Apple a hunting-ground.
We love it there and go at least once a year.
I have also visited many times and loved it from the first. The city itself has many attractions as does the country nearby and it's a pleasant change from Bangkok and Pattaya. But over the last 6 - 8 or more years almost all the gay places have just died. Before it went belly up itself, the gay in chiangmai website listed well over 50 closures. We actually liked the fact that there were plenty of gay bars and massage spas dotted around rather than in just one place. We don't particularly want to see the scenery yet again and find the few bars that remain a shadow of their former selves. So for us it's been there done that.
You are suggesting foul play?
Last edited by Jellybean; September 11th, 2023 at 15:40. Reason: Quote fixed
The owner died from suicide.
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