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I just recently visited Mae Kampong village, in January. If you drive, go early in the day, so you can find a parking spot. Parking is very limited in the small village. It's an easy drive to Mae Kampong from Chiang Mai, and it can be combined with a stop at the San Kamphaeng hot springs, as it's in the same direction from Chiang Mai.

Interesting article, and it does reinforce the suggestion that the 1996 fire resulted in only "minimal" damage. That surely could not have meant a wall collapsing. This all took place well after the dreadful days of the main AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and early 1990s as medication was then avaivable to sufferers. It also reinforces the fact that the Club had by that time become popular with non-gays. So why the then owners changed to an all straight disco remains a complete mystery - unless any other member has some more facts. Like @khaolakguy I'd love to know more about their departure from Bangkok and their deaths. I also am sure the name "Rome Club" continued for some years after that fire. I seem to remember quite clearly that it was in operation around 2000. However, the information I had hoped to find - the actual date of Rome Club's closing - is not mentioned. It also fails to mention that the premises were taken over by others and that Roxy was at least one if its reincarnations. I know that for a fact as I was dating one of the young professional dancers in 2003 when they moved over to Roxy. That group had started out in Soi Twilight's X-Treme Bar. When that closed in 2002, the group was taken on by the bars across the soi that the German owned. I think they were there for about six months before then moving on to Roxy. But it also lasted little more than six months. I suspect that story referred to the Lanna Lavender Hotel in Chiang Mai. Around 2009 a businessman named Jay Gregson took over the very large old Tokyo Hotel at the northwest of the moat and renamed it. He announced that it was to become the gayest haven in the country, a "gay man's utopia" according to the PR, a place where gay men could stay, enjoy indoor and outdoor restaurants, have a lap pool, a massage spa with willing attendants, and in the basement a glitzy show named Powerboys. His basic problem, though, was that the hotel was massively too large. The hotel had 11 floors, 110 rooms and he announced five different quality of rooms from Deluxe Plus down to Budget. But he ran very short of funds. He was only able to renovate the upper floors and there were quite a number of reports on various sites about guests having to be relocated to those upper floors as the quality of the cheaper ones was very poor. A friend and I had dinner in the lovely open space above about Floor 3. But we had to send the bill back twice after they had miscalculated the cost of our meal and drinks. Thereafter we went to the basement to see the show at Powerboys which we found extremely good even though there was no nudity. We actually thought it was better than any show in the many Bangkok bars we had been to. Most of the cast were students from the nearby university. But again that show venue was massively too large. At least 100 fixed seats with a bar to the side. He was running two shows a night when we were there. I doubt if we saw more than 12 other customers. The hotel did not last long. The owner, allegedly as a result of money issues, killed himself in his home not much more than six months after it opened. The hotel closed soon thereafter. If only he had chosen a hotel one quarter of the size, he could perhaps have made a go of it. But it was very sad both for him and the gay movement in Chiang Mai. The announcemnt of the opening of the hotel can be found on this link - https://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/citylife-articles/special-scoop-lavender-lanna-hotel/

I call guy D in my reports ( and jason1975 duly follows that in his reports ) because his nick on Grindr, when I saw him first time there, started with that letter. Hope this explanation stops efforts to derail jason's thread.

Yes....on a clear day! We've been there three times; on one of those trips, we might as well have been in Bangkok so thick was the mist! Except for the fact that it was rather chilly, that is .

There is a Hilton (name, not brand) motel on the same street as Theatron entrance (Calle 58 Bis ? Guessing here) that is obviously fine with MM couples. This sounds more like one of the love motels in the other side of Avenida Caracas (same section described by @neygerabove) which are all accessible and have zero concerns about male couples in my experience.

That's a very different and much later event in Pattaya and unconnected with the Rome club issues.

I offered to set up a listing under Medellin Busnesses but zero responses. I have a guy in Belen (Rosales) who offers different therapeutic massage, but am travelling. Will post later. Also have other options for legit massage.

I work on a Mac desktop. Pressing the control and then += key easily increases the size, several times if necessary.

Here's a link to an article from May 2002. It is a page from the Bangkok Eyes website, and it has a lot of info on the history of Silom Soi 4, including the Rome Club. http://www.bangkokeyes.com/mapkato.html

Dinero?

My job is looking at sending me to the Philippines this August. Our company has an office in Angeles City but I'll have five days in the capital. I got really excited...I haven't been to the country. What's the prevailing rate there for locals?

continued…Installment 10: Decided I would venture over to Phaya Thai today and check out Ganymede Spa. Was going to make a full day of it, planning to go late afternoon to Ganymede followed by an early dinner at G’s. Have yet to eat here, and wanted to get to Soi 4 early enough so I could get an outside table and do some serious people watching. After that, I thought I might pop back into Banana Club and see if the cute number guy I saw on Friday evening was working tonight. I wasn’t sure if Sunday would be a slow night, or it would be just as busy as Friday was, but I didn’t want to take a chance so planned well in advance. As an interesting side note, Paradise guy has this uncanny ability to contact me when I am on another adventure. I was on BTS when he sent a text asking me what I was doing. I was not that surprised, considered we had neither one texted on Saturday. I expected to hear form him sometime on Sunday. He just always seems to catch me in the act of misbehaving. lol. I was a little unsure about the location of Ganymede. When using Google maps street view, it showed a single story run down shack that was painted pink with a metal roof in what looked like a dead-end alley. Not exactly the most prime location. @macaroni21 described it perfectly with the perfect photo as well. It was easy to get to taking Exit 2 at Phaya Thai BTS, walk around 100 meters (just past Thailand Department of Livestock Development building, turn left onto a private driveway for Pathum Wan Resort. Shops line both sides of the private driveway. Ganymede will be approximately 100 meters down on the left just before the resort. There is a overhead sign clearly marking the shop. Based upon previous posts, I was expecting to enter and immediately find a flight of stairs up to the next level, with a place to leave shoes before heading upstairs. They have either moved since those posts or done some major remodeling. You walk into a reception area with sofa, receptionist desk, cold water station, and place to exchange shoes for slippers…all on ground level. There is a fringe type divider and on the other side of that divider is an area where available guys are hanging out. While you can make a reservation and request a specific therapist if you know their name, in general this is a walk-in shop. It is a small shop with three upper floors, two massage rooms per floor plus a communal bathroom on each floor. There were three therapists for me to choose from. I would classify all three as twinks. They offer Aroma and Milk Bath massage. Aroma is oil, and Milk Bath isn’t actually a bath, but a milk based cream. Options are 60, 90 and 120 minutes. They have a section on the menu called Special Services, and Body to Body is specifically listed here. I opted for this one. Pretty sure the Aroma or Milk Bath would get you the same end result since this is an H-type or #4 shop, but I didn’t want to leave anything to chance and wanted the guaranteed action of B2B. I selected Ben, who it turns out is actually Thai. THB 1400 for 120 minutes B2B plus guaranteed THB 2000 tip for therapist. I apologize, but don’t recall the price for 60 and 90 minutes, but would be less than 1400. The restroom on each floor consists of two sinks with ample counter space, two toilets in private stalls, and two showers. Ben took me one floor up and showed me the restroom, then took me to the second massage room. The room was quite large and contained a decent size massage table, small stand with a lamp for atmosphere, small table for supplies, and wall mount rack for clothes complete with hangers and robe. For being an older, long time establishment, I was actually impressed with the facility. Ben asked me to shower while he went for supplies, then joined me in the restroom but in the second shower. I wasn’t expecting much in the way of massage, but he was actually quite good and thorough with coverage and used a variety of strokes. Dry thumb presses were almost too painful and I had to ask him to ease up just a little. Oh, and he was naked from the get-go, so no pretense about where this was going to ultimately lead. Let me just say that Ben was very well endowed. I mean to say he was hung like a horse, or perhaps I should say like a Thai elephant! I am surprised I was able to walk to the BTS station after he was finished with me. He had quite the surprise hiding in that pair of pants. He identifies as gay and was quite the kisser, too. That always gets my engines revved up. Their website is not current and doesn’t appear to be updated in quite some time, nor do they have much of any other online presence. Would certainly go back to this shop, and yes, we did exchange contact information and I hope to see him again. Photos online of therapists on not current. Probably none of those guys have worked at this shop in quite some time. If you want to request someone specific, ask them via Line to send you photos of who will be available at a certain time. Made my way back to Phaya Thai BTS. For a Sunday afternoon, BTS was packed both directions to and from Ganymede. It was almost as bad as rush hour during the working week. I was not expecting that. Transferred train lines and headed to Saladaeng BTS. A little too early for dinner just yet, so walked around Silom Complex, grabbed an iced latte at Starbucks, and did some people watching. I also think I spotted the area @Durian had mentioned as being very cruisy near escalators on 2nd and 3rd floors. Possibly discovered the guy he mentioned they picked up and invited back to their hotel room. I eventually made my way over to Soi 4 and went directly to G’s. There was only one other table occupied outside so I was able to sit on the deck and enjoy the scenery while eating dinner. I was really impressed with the food. Wow! I certainly wish I had stopped by here before now, and will definitely be going back again before I return to Denver. Only two negative things I would say about it: 1) even with a posted no smoking sign, they allowed smoking and even brought the customer an ashtray; 2) I am not a country music fan, but that is what they were playing while I was there. I could have passed on that. Kitty was sleeping under a table that had a reserved sign on it. Not sure if that meant the table was reserved for the cat, or guests coming later. lol. Soi 4 was not nearly as busy or active as it had been on Friday evening. It was still early, so I thought it might gradually pick up. It was interesting to observe people in general. Straight couples curious. Husbands would grab hands of their wives for fear of being accosted. Older couples snickering and whispering about the entertainers. Families with small children. Noticed a number of Jupiter guys heading to work. From my perspective, their body language communicated arrogance as they walked down the street towards the bar. After awhile I got bored with this and it was still early for any shows, so I decided to get a food massage at Adam. Wasn’t really interested in anything else but foot massage. Just a nice relaxing hour to chill out and let the world pass me by. After that, I walked back next door to Banana Club and sat out front. I was the only one out there, so the bar boy wasn’t that busy and able to chat a little. Excellent English skills. Originally from Cambodia, but lived in Thailand since he was a little boy. He told me about the different businesses on that street. Thai Female owner of Banana Club. Owner of Unicorn stopped by to chat with her. He is American from California. Turns out he also owns Rainbow Dragon. Just returned from a trip to Philippines. Seems like quite the character. Anyway, show started at 9:30pm, so I went inside the club then. Got to see the beginning of what I missed on Friday with Cam. Last half of the show was just a repeat for me. Unlike Friday, there were fewer people milling around outside Soi 4, but inside the club were many people. I counted 26, with about one third of that being female customers. As I said in my previous post about this club, some of the number tag boys are really past their prime. The one I thought was really cute was there. I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to invite him to go with me or not. Initially I asked the waiter to give him a THB 100 tip from me. Several other customers invited a few of the number boys to sit with them for a drink. After watching him take a second spin around the stage on rotation I motioned for him to come and join me. Decision made. Now negotiating begins. Bought him a drink and we chatted a bit. Decent English. From Cambodia. Not sure what is up with me and Cambodian guys this trip. I seem to be setting a pattern. He has been here 8 months. Shares living space with three other guys. Has a large family…4 older brothers and one older sister. He is the baby in the family. Anyway, I wasn’t looking for Long Term/Overnight…just a few hours. THB 380 drink, THB 500 off fee, he wanted THB 3000, which made me laugh and wasn’t going to happen, especially since it wasn’t overnight. Offered THB 1500 as a counter and accepted. He was cute and good, so with tip I ended up giving him THB 2000 before he left to go home. Was lucky again, as he identified as gay and was a fantastic kisser. Naturally, exchanged contact information. Next time I will invite him to spend the night.

I've been following these guys on Instagram for a while, if this all goes ahead, it could really be a game changer.

Some D? Sounds cryptic. D as in a D grade. Sigh...

Way back in 2010 Andrew Drummond (journalist who used to cover the sleazy side of LoS, for those who don't know) had a story about a different establishment where one of the partners died in mysterious circumstances shortly after investing a lot of capital. I wonder if that's a mutation of the same story? I won't reference it here but it shouldn't be too hard to find.

I met a guy at one of these when I visited a few years ago. I was new to Colombia & payin. Turns out he lived out of the motel room. I'm usually really good with names & directions but I can't find it online. Seemed a little south of there, not far from Theatron. He was a methhead & smoked a little. We went to buy cigarettes & I was desperate for it to end, but not without getting off first. Anyway, there was so many hotels around there & I had a much chiller experience at one but that was in Cartagena.

Gents, Came across this, surprising simple idea, just taken the length of time of the evolution of man before being invented. KickStarter launch is 19th March if anyone is interested.

I thought that said, Aunty Vin gave him some D, which confused me more that giving him a D, as in a grade?

when taking guy from the bar most likely to off fee (usually 500) we need to add cost of our drink ( 400-500 ) and boys ( another 400-500). It's why it's helpful to have guy's Line or other contact so we can ask him to visit us without actually going to bar , just give him off fee he will be charged. But that option , while cheaper, misses whole entertainment part, show , interaction with boys and mamasans in the bar so I personally don't subscribe to it too often.

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That sounds like more details would be interesting. Especially as it was always rumoured that the "sleeping partners" invested several hundred per cent of the club's value.

No afters, but this place is good!

As an additional to our conversation about booking.com not being the safest anymore ( if ever) here's an current article from WHICH which lays things out very clearly and shows we must remain on our guard ( if not use a different company even perhaps due to booking.coms apparent lack of "giving a shit" about trying to change things for the better! https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/what-went-wrong-with-booking.com-aYOyv4Q7Ua2D?utm_campaign=scams&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwZnRzaAQfqFRleHRuA2FlbQEwAGFkaWQAAC_F_iu3OHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR7qi2VQb6iV_7EdDoL0yJVXX805K0iQBMzLfBGzA02LSJNPBns2Zyj2Y6k3gw_aem_v9eQfIFUB9BWkb9cyio_aQ&utm_id=52523832924000&utm_content=52527419169000&utm_term=52523832924400

you are not alone

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