The way we were
After a five-year hiatus, this trip is more like an inspection tour.
In August 1997 I made my first visit to Thailand and to Tawan Bar on Surawong Road. I loved it so much because I feel so attracted to masculine men. I’ve since been to this wonderful bar about ten times, I estimate, before I revisited it, in May 2015, two weeks ago.
Again In 2010 I went to BKK purely for this bar and the city’s great gay night life. Then I stopped travelling there. But this year I decided to check it out again after so much has happened in this country in the past five years—killer floods, violent protests, military coup, and the martial law which was lifted only recently. Is BKK attracting fewer tourists today? How does the current government look at the country’s sex industry? Is the city therefore losing its charm as a gay paradise in Asia? I hoped not.
Much remained the same, with some minor changes.
Many musclemen still work in Tawan, some are quite eye-pleasing to me. But the existence of such [Tawans] shows means BKK is as wild as ever. And on weekends Tawan is still fully packed with muscle worshippers. That’s great. Every time I go to Tawan, I always can find one or two go-go dancers that can make me knees weak. This time is no exception.
Dreamboy, another go-go bar about a five minute walk from Tawan, is as popular as before. I chose to check it out because I have the impression that it also has muscle guys to offer, although not as many as in Tawan. Well, I still enjoyed the shows but more enjoyable was how the first-time, especially female, visitors reacted to the men on the stage sporting a boner right before their eyes. Oh! There were five Mandarin-speaking pretty young ladies, obviously first-timers, in the front row. They looked stunned and then embarrassed. Some looked mesmerized later whereas one of them looked kind of uncomfortable and perhaps offended (Maybe she faked it). Another appeared quite shocked and excited at the same time. These girls’ facial expressions were more entertaining than the shows!
On the other hand, Albury, once a popular massage parlor for gay men, was closed a couple of years ago. That’s a pity. This time I went to V Club, another great massage parlor known for its facility and masseurs, and asked how much I should pay if the masseur comes to my hotel. That’s a minimum of 3,800 baht— 800 paid to the massage store and a minimum of 3,000 for the masseur. In contrast, I have to pay only 1,700 baht—700 to the store and 1,000 to the masseur — if the service is offered in this massage parlor. What a difference! I decided not to buy any service in the end.
And the next day I paid a visit to a comparatively new gay sauna called Chakran (admission 250 baht) located in the same building that houses V Club. I chose to visit that day because I heard that a musclemen show would be staged then. Chakran is really a well-equipped gay sauna, quite like Babylon. But the musclemen show is totally different from what I expected. Well, I sat on a bench at the pool area and then found two totally naked hunks making love right beside me at about 20:30 — the time the show is supposed to start. Such a scene quickly attracted a crowd of horny men approaching the “show.” The two “actors” then walked toward and disappeared into the dark “naked zone” behind the bench. I didn’t know what happened next, but I’m sure this is the “show.” I did see some muscles, but I was expecting a 30-minute show where at least 10 guys show off their muscles.
Anyway, that the massage parlor and the sauna exist in the same building is so convenient.
What other changes have occurred in BKK over the past five years? A brand-new Le Meridian Hotel was erected on Surawong Road. The BTS network has expanded and the trains seem to be more crowded than ever. It is more often to hear go-go bars make announcements in Mandarin. And you have to pay more than five years ago for admission to them. 350 baht for Tawan and 450 for Dreamboy. I don’t understand why Dreamboy charges so much more. Dreamboy’s shows are more interesting, but go-go dancers in Tawan have more muscles honed through hours of workout in gyms or in Lumpini Park. If you want to take a guy to your hotel, you have to pay 650 baht to Dreamboy and 500 baht to Tawan, although the minimum tip for the boy himself is invariably 2,000 baht.
I missed one of the men I took to my hotel this time. I started to miss him soon after he left my room that night. He used to be a blue-collared worker and I liked that and that’s why I love Maurice by E.M. Forster and Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence. When asked whether he’s gay, he said no and he’s a MAN. And I found he treated me like a girl and therefore looked quite comfortable and devoted when providing his service. He was one the few go-go guys that had kissed me on the mouth! Yes, I am Lady Chatterley and I don’t think I will wait another five years before I come back for my man.