moistmango

Haven't been active on this forum for a little while now, but thought I'd give everyone a heads up, esp. those of you who have plans to be in Chiang Mai and will be on the hunt for some R & R. If you find yourself at Circle, steer clear of the guy calling himself Jack. (Pic below.) It's the first time that something like this has happened to me in about a decade or so of hitting the bars. Was at Circle with a couple of friends last week, incld. a local, and ended up offing Jack. The bill came up to 250 BHT for his drink, 400 for the off fee, and 1500 for his tip. (Unusually, the tip was paid to the bar directly.) The group of us headed out for supper, and my Thai pal was curious about his background so had a long-ish exchange with him. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. At first he seemed perfectly nice, even bordering on friendly, but it was after we got back to my hotel room that matters went south quite quickly. I asked him if he would like a beer, and he insisted several times that he would go out to get some. I thought that was strange, so said I'd just get some from the hotel bar. He then changed his tune, insisting that he had to leave at 1 am; it was already ten to. I was taken aback, to put it mildly. I repeated several times that I had paid out the tip, but he kept mumbling something about the mummy not allowing him to stay. At least, that's what I thought was said ... I asked him to text/call mummy - it didn't make sense that he had to cut and run before business was finished - and finally, after about 15 mins of texting and a call, he finally said that mummy agreed to him staying overnight till 6 am for an extra 1000. I didn't have much choice at this point, so gave in. He asked for the grand up front. I handed it over like a fool, then headed down to the bar to get the beer. What happened next seems almost predictable in the telling of the tale, but, as mentioned, this is virgin territory for me. When I returned with the two cans of Chang, he'd disappeared. Without finishing what he'd been paid for, and with the extra thousand baht that he managed to swindle me out of. At first I assumed that he was just out for a puff, but when I went downstairs I discovered that the little shyster's motorbike was gone. It is deeply, deeply unpleasant to be taken for a ride by someone you've been nothing but nice to .. While the money wasn't a big deal, the principle of the matter certainly was. I returned the following night with Thai pal and had words with Circle's mummy. She summoned a sullen-looking Jack out, and according to what my friend summarized for me afterward, he told her that our business had been done by 1 am, and that I had given him the grand as a bonus. Friend promptly set the record straight. She made Jack hand the 1000 BHT over, who did so with some reluctance, then disappeared without so much as an apology or look of contrition. I informed mummy that, since business had not been conducted either, I would like the 1,500 BHT tip back as well. (The off fee I was willing to forgo, seeing that he did at least spend the time having supper with us.) To her credit, the refund was promptly transacted. I then told her exactly what I thought of the crooked, two-faced fraud she calls an employee, and that if he could do this to one customer, he could certainly do it to another, and she best let him go. She appeared, unlike the boy, sincerely apologetic, so that at least provided the satisfactory conclusion that had eluded me the previous night. TL; DR. Jack from Circle in Chiang Mai is a liar, and a cheat. Avoid.

Lol, I'm going to be that guy and give everyone a clue.

Dude. Seriously.

Was he the Mandarin-speaking Caucasian fellow who used to emcee/provide commentary for the shows at the old DB? That dude was hilarious. When a particularly big drag queen came thundering down the spiral staircase, the flimsy stage shuddering with her every step, he would recite in a complete monotone, in near pitch-perfect Mandarin: "Here comes the big elephant. <pause> Here comes the big elephant." I had to lower my head to hide my laughter, for fear that the drag queen in question would leap off the catwalk to beat the sh*t out of me.

That's harsh, DoA. Animal-like behaviour seems a more befitting description for folks like Weinstein and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, which isn't exactly the case here.

Lol, you trolling, dude?

Yikes. I hope indeed it was an exaggeration. Can't imagine that DB can keep up the numbers they're used to without foreigners.

Generally speaking, the dress code for Patpong boys is, as little as possible - undies, shorts etc. The flickering hope is that one day an enterprising bar owner institutes themed nights, with an evening dedicated to the speedo. 🏊‍♂️

I hear that. Not really into the sex or chuck wow shows either (aside from those with a comic element). More of a lycra / speedo fetishist, but sadly that's not much of a thing in Patpong.

Wonder who the owner pissed off, indeed? - That's a lot of hassle just to nab a bunch of folks throwing three dice around.

Boy, I do miss the old site, yeah .. First go-go bar I ever stepped foot in.

Yeah, there was a game going on every night I was there. Those in the know: if foreigners are found working illegally in Thailand, do they get deported? Are they able to enter the country again?

Not sure if you're referring to Muslim Asians, but Muslims are enjoined to use water, for reasons of cleanliness - why you'll sometimes encounter a faucet and a hose in the stall, rather than a roll of paper, in rural and not-so-rural areas of countries like Malaysia.

I'll preface this by saying that @PeterRS makes a good point: we can't expect the globe's entire population to adhere to first world standards of bodily hygiene, as much as we'd like it to. Never used to be an issue, till the boom in mass tourism fed into inevitable cultural comparisons; now we're down to whose bumhole has fewer polyps stuck up there. That noted, I live in a part of the world that's particularly susceptible to immigration and tourism from the Mainland, not unlike Thailand, and we don't appreciate them any more than the Thais, to be perfectly frank. I get @Department_Of_Agriculture's annoyance. Yes, we should be understanding of cultural nuance and differing levels of social finesse, but there are bottomlines, pun not intended. I remember a Cathay Pacific flight about ten years back: I saw that the door to a particular bathroom stall was closed but not locked, and proceeded to push it in, only to be greeted by the split-second sight of a Chinese gentleman seated on the can, before he promptly slammed the door shut in my face. I waited outside till he was done, and after he exited while giving me the stinkeye - he was in his 50s, clearly a Mainlander, and equally clearly not an urbanite - I went in, only to discover immediately that he had not availed himself of the bowl's flush function. He had been sitting, so the sight that greeted me may well be imagined. Like the easily repulsed first-worlder that I am, I went and got the nearest and unluckiest stewardess, and to this day recall very vividly the intake of breath and momentary pause, as she was confronted by the reality in that stall ... And, in case you're wondering, I felt not the slightest twinge of guilt in so doing. CatPac crew aren't exactly models of courtesy and graciousness, in my personal experience - one of several reasons I prefer not to fly with them. So, yes, I do try not to be an entitled jackass, but I'm also well aware that there are limits. At some point, the Swamp Thing takes over.

Where I come from - Asia - there used to be very little by way of a "community", if only because, as @Marc K observes, most of us were too busy maintaining facades and ensuring that our less licit activities remained under the radar. Growing up, the gay men around me were by and large judgmental, hierarchical, resentful. It wasn't great, to put it mildly. Things are a little better these days, thanks to the interwebs and the adoption of American notions of queer pride and community by a younger generation, but I still only have a small handful of gay friends. When I think of a "gay community", it isn't the pride parades that come to mind, but the sniping, morose, conflicted bunch in "The Boys in the Band" - which was brilliantly true to life. RIP Crowley and Friedkin.