macaroni21

We need a volunteer to watch the 79 Adult Show and post a review, though we should also be prepared to chip in and buy the volunteer severals beers to help his recovery from the trauma of heteorsexual titillation. 😁

Way back in the early 1990s, there was a gay gogo bar on Thaniya called Banana Bar. It literally had a banana in its logo, displayed on a neon sign among the numerous neon signs of the street. The bar itself was on one of the upper floors of a building on the eastern side of the street closer to Suriwong Road than Silom Road. I must have visited it just once or twice. It didn't leave much of an impression on me. I can't even remember if it aimed at Japanese men.

Total = 4000 baht. Was that before or after the "50% off"?

My blog post https://shamelessmacktwo.travel.blog/2023/01/05/fifteen-strokes-and-its-time-to-move-on/ is about my encounter in December with one of the featured guys in Jey Spa. Not good enough for a repeat session, though.

@abidismaili mentioned 7500 a week, so that's about 30000 a month. 10800 in a supermarket is a third of that. That said, sex work is not regular work for most of them in the trade. It would be nice to get 5 clients a week, but I reckon many do not. Also, social shame and the ickiness factor of going body to body with someone who could be your grandfather can make the supermarket career option way more attractive by comparison.

Although Prime is justifiably known for its reliability in delivering good massages, I fear standards may slip when the boys are tired, as they may well be seeing the steady stream of customers. Your report on 15M is useful for others even if it wasn't a satisfying session. From my admittedly limited experience of the saphan khwai places (and Ganymede and what's-its-name on Soi Ari) I'd agree they aim for fun rather than therapeutic excellence.

I'll second that - a useful service. Thanks for taking the trouble.

Awww, thanks @floridarob for the shout-out. To answer a few questions above, @tm_nyc - it was a conscious decision to turn off comments. My posts come in spurts and starts, and for months between travels I may not post (nothing to report) and so have no reason to even look at my own site. This may frustrate people who put questions there, and they may think me rude to not reply. I would rather they put their questions here in GayGuides and this way benefit from the collective wisdom of many others, not just me. @Marc in Calif - Having done the other parts of Bali before, I had no urge to go trekking to the other towns; not even Ubud which I personally think a bit overrated (but that's just me). Furthermore the trip was half work and I didn't want to risk putting myself in the smaller places where wifi might be uncertain. Even in earlier visits, I have not come across gay places outside of the main urban area in Kuta - Seminyak - and I have not seen mention of any online (except 1 or 2 clothing-optional resorts). So, if you know of some, please share. I may check them out the next time. I've never been to any of these advertsed clothing-options places (no real interest) but I once had a longish conversation with someone while we were both stuck in transit at Singapore's Changi airport, waiting for a delayed flight to Manila. I don't fully recall the details (I don't even recall his name now!), but I do recall his general observation that the one (or was it two?) places he had been to were quite isolated, and there was limited choice beyond the in-house staff. Also, he said something about poor customer traffic, thus poor upkeep of the premises. But this is second-hand information. Would certainly appreciate if others had better and more recent information.

But... but... it's been so for at least 40 years!

If Russia were to make it a criminal offence to avoid conscription even if one were overseas, would it then be incumbent on Thailand to arrest and extradite accused persons?

For @vinapu and others into Tawan types:

My sample was not large enough to be able to say what's "reasonable" or what the going rate was. The boys generally asked for 400,000 to 500,000 rupiah (there was one case of 600,000), and I generally agreed to those requests. Were they on the high side? Possibly, but I honestly do not know. @dscrtsldnbi in his post from October 2022 described the rates from 2019, before Covid. He said 200,000 - 400,000, so I was paying 50 - 100% more than that.

Wait, since when was @vinapu into pretty faces? Didn't he say some of his hookups looked like axe murderers?

Thank you, forrestreid. I'm quite immodest, actually, but I was sort of waiting for a moment when someone might ask a question or two about Bali, and then I reply saying here's a bit of a resource. I should add that Bali has to be taken on its own terms, and not assumed to be another Thailand. By that I mean that certain kinds of services or fun readily available in Thailand might prove harder to find in Bali. There are no gogo bars where you can buy boys off the stage, for example. Another thing I am conscious of is that my taste skews quite differently from others. I like massages, and it's important to me that the massage is good, and not just a prelude to sex. Others don't really care about massage and want to get straight to the sex (some of my own personal friends have that preference too). Since getting straight to sex is not what I want, it's therefore not something I would have investigated, so if someone asked me if that's possible or available, I really wouldn't know. Then there are others more interested in app hookups, or boyfriend hunting. To them, I have to apologise in advance. These pursuits not being my taste, I have nothing to report that's of any use. Given how limited my posts will be in terms of usefulness, I didn't think they merited any advertising. Over the next few weeks, the opening posts on my blog will be followed by reviews of each of the six massage parlours I visited, and of five restaurants where I ordered Indonesian food. I won't bother to review western food. In his mention of Banana Spa, @TMax was referring to this post: Lomi-lomi heaven

It was slow again about an hour ago, so I gave up. Then I tried again (just now) and it's fine. Something's not exactly right.

If you're tired of cultural sites, there is apparently a bar in Ubon - but I have no idea of the bar's name or address.

Not just mobile phone banking, surely. Even if you use your laptop, there's a similar risk of trojans and phishing. So you'd have to avoid all online banking. But then how to pay? Either credit cards or cheques? Credit cards have their own problems (cloned cards and skimming), and increasingly vendors don't want to accept cheques or cash....

If you're a sun and sea person, this vlog will tempt you to Phuket. What's particularly interesting is the mention of a bus service that goes to all the main beaches.

Terrible writing at Pattaya Mail. 25-30% of compared to what number? 30 per cent of flights resumed? 30 percent compared to what number?

I have never experienced anything like this, but I have heard something similar, although by the time the story got to me, it was third-hand, so I cannot swear to the accuracy of the details. If I recall correctly, it happened in Pattaya. A boy was offed in the usual manner and was already halfway through the proceedings in the hotel room when the mamasan called. They boy then told the client that he had been instructed to finish within the next 30 minutes and get back to the bar as another customer was arriving soon. Since the boy had a follow-on booking, and he wanted to be sure he could rise to the occasion when needed, he told his client that he would not cum. This abrupt turn of events naturally left the client very frustrated. I don't know what financial adjustments were made.

You're almost right. I believe it stands for Penises Like Elephants'. Some members would rush over if true.

I have vivid memories of 2 shows in which members of the audience were invited on stage. One memory was from a bar on Twilight - but I can't remember which bar, could have been X-boys or Fresh Boys. The other memory was from Dream Boy in 2019 in its first Patpong Soi 2 location. On both these occasions, the boys who went on stage were droolable-beautiful, and on the Dream Boy occasion, the boy took off his shirt too. I almost fainted. On being invited onto the stage and asked by the performer or mamasan where they were from, they said (into the mic) they were from China. The Taiwanese would not say "China". They would say "Taiwan". Of course, my sample tells us nothing about how common they are in the bars, but they're definitely there and will be once borders open again. By the way, I have seen gay dance clubs in the big Chinese cities, (or at least gay nights) and they can challenge Soi 2 in terms of crowds. So, yes, there is a huge market.

@PeterRS I get similar comments. In my July visit I had the opportunity to chat over dinner with friends of friends who were from Malaysia and Singapore . In my recent visit, I had some casual conversation with a group of Taiwanese guys who were outside Raya Hotel and a bit shellshocked to see Soi Twilight boarded up. The Malaysians and Singaporeans were older, and in their words, "dance clubs are no longer our scene", so they no longer go to Soi 2. (it remains obvious to us however that lots of 20ish, 30ish even 40ish Asians still flock to Soi 2). They said they mostly get their thrills from erotic massages, though they may still take a boy from a bar if they had not had "satisfaction" in the day. But their other comments about bars reinforced my impression that they are put off by their prices and bored by divas in the shows. I can understand why some may say boys strutting their stuff in bars don't interest them; that would be logical since they are not intending to take an off for the night. What I learned is that their main interest in the bars, if they go, would be either (a) to see live porn (if available), or (b) to ogle at fine specimens of manhood (Moonlight and Jupiter models) To this, there were comments that the prices are still unattractive for what little they get to see (no nudity from the models), especially since there's plenty of free porn online. From the Taiwanese, the conversation was much briefer, and I learned less. My key take-away was that they had come from a massage parlour (VCK) they said - so I assume they'd had their rocks off already by the time they made it down to the boarded-up Soi Twilight. As for why they were interested in gogo bars, I didn't ask, but it seemed quite likely that their motives were similar to the Malaysians and Singaporeans, looking for an explicit show rather than to off boys for the night.

@reader Much obliged for any information you can provide, whenever you have it. But even from your informant's list, I see I do not have Ma Ha or Center Point (I don't even remember seeing these names anywhere) but I do have a Natural Massage on their right side of the soi as one enters from Silom Road. As for 9-Teen, are we saying that it had an original location on Soi 6, which is now under renovation, and the shop facing Silom Road is actually their second shop?

Six shops before the dogleg? I only have four on my map (https://shamelessmacktwo.travel.blog/2022/12/22/map-of-silom-surawong-area-december-2022/), so I apparently missed two. Do you happen to recall the names and relative order of the shops (right side or road/left side of road), so I can update the map?