Babylon-like Sauna?

[joizy]

Hi guys,

I'm thinking about returning to Bangkok after many years. Heartbroken that Babylon has closed. I spent many wonderful hours there over the years. The last time I was there, a hot Vietnamese guy flashed me several times while I was in the pool and he was sitting on a lounge. We had a great time in a cabin.

I know this site is mostly geared towards those who like to pay for sex, but I (maybe foolishly) long for the days when I could meet guys at a sauna and spend time with them without a financial incentive.

Are there any saunas that are anywhere near what Babylon used to be? Not only guys who are interested in farang, but also with restaurant, beautiful space, massage, etc.

I did do a search here but didn't find anything, so apologies if this has already been discussed.

[hojacat]

22 minutes ago, joizy said:

Hi guys,

I'm thinking about returning to Bangkok after many years. Heartbroken that Babylon has closed. I spent many wonderful hours there over the years. The last time I was there, a hot Vietnamese guy flashed me several times while I was in the pool and he was sitting on a lounge. We had a great time in a cabin.

I know this site is mostly geared towards those who like to pay for sex, but I (maybe foolishly) long for the days when I could meet guys at a sauna and spend time with them without a financial incentive.

Are there any saunas that are anywhere near what Babylon used to be? Not only guys who are interested in farang, but also with restaurant, beautiful space, massage, etc.

I did do a search here but didn't find anything, so apologies if this has already been discussed.

I would suggest Krubb sauna. I guess it can be considered the legitimate heir of Babylon (you will even find a plaque outside given to Krubb by the owner of Babylon). The facilities are quite modern and there is a nice bar (with a very cute bartender) + jacuzzi on the rooftop. However, there is no space outdoors like Babylon used to have. You can also try Chakran. I have heard the facilities are quite nice.

The issue I have with saunas in Thailand right now is that guys are still wearing masks indoors, though fewer that when I went in May. Sauna Mania in Silom, a place I usually don't go to, had a very fun and crowded foam party/orgy during the white party days. Looked like lots of the guys went there before heading to the party. Never seen that place so crowded. Even there though, you could tell who was local and who was visiting cause even guys from other Asian visitors (Taiwan, HK, Singapore, Malaysia, etc) were not wearing masks but Thais were, including some of the performers the sauna hired.

I definitely saw way fewer masks (usually just one or two usually) when I went to saunas in Kaohsiung and Taipei this month.

[PeterRS]

4 hours ago, hojacat said:

You can also try Chakran. I have heard the facilities are quite nice.

Unless you are Thai or Asian, forget Chakran. When it opened over 20 years ago, it was a wonderful alternative to Babylon but with more younger and in shape Thais and foreigners were made welcome. Over the last decade, though, it has become amost exclusively Thai for Thai or Thai for Asian. Even if you are young and slim your chance of success is pretty slim.

[MarcSingap]

30 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

Unless you are Thai or Asian, forget Chakran. When it opened over 20 years ago, it was a wonderful alternative to Babylon but with more younger and in shape Thais and foreigners were made welcome. Over the last decade, though, it has become amost exclusively Thai for Thai or Thai for Asian. Even if you are young and slim your chance of success is pretty slim.

It is just a general trend in saunas. Young Asian are not into having sex with farangs for free... unless the farang is young and not fat.

One asian boy there told me last month at Krubb "why fat farangs come here ? They should go massage shop and pay for sex. Sauna is more for fun" (meanning free sex)

[PeterRS]

11 hours ago, MarcSingap said:

It is just a general trend in saunas. Young Asian are not into having sex with farangs for free... unless the farang is young and not fat.

One asian boy there told me last month at Krubb "why fat farangs come here ? They should go massage shop and pay for sex. Sauna is more for fun" (meanning free sex)

It's obviously changed a lot. In the earlier days of virtually all the saunas, farangs of almost any description were welcomed. Like the gogo bars where the Thais have now mostly disappeared, both on stage and in the audience, it's mostly the farangs who make up the clientele.

[PeterRS]

On 1/24/2023 at 11:55 AM, MarcSingap said:

Young Asian are not into having sex with farangs for free

I agree with the first part but definitely not the second. In my view it has absolutely nothing to do with being paid or not. I referenced the gogo bars 30-40 years ago when the majority of the customers were Thais. How often have you seen lots of Thais in gogo bars in the past decade or more? That has nothing to do with their not preferring to be with farang. It's a sign that as the Thailand gay scene and Thai society has developed, Thais increasingly want to be with fellow Thais rather than in bars where there are increasing number of farang. Times change.

The same trend has become very obvious in other countries like Japan. As a gay bar/club/sauna culture developed in the 70s and 80s, young Japanese gays found it extremely difficult to form relationships with fellow Japanese. This reflected the long work hours of Japanese, the closeness of housing making it extremely difficult to keep any kind of MtoM sexual relationship private in a country in which the vast majority frowned on them, and overall low salaries. Gaijin generlly had large apartments in Japanese terms, far larger salaries and much more personal freedoms. Many young Japanese found it was far more convenient to live a gay lifestyle by attaching themselves to a foreigner. On my early visits to Japan, such relationships were extremely common.

With Japan having become very wealthy since then, with social attitudes changing and same sex civil partnerships now legal in several parts of the country, Japanese preferring to be with fellow Japanese has rightly become much more the norm.

[joizy]

Thanks guys for your responses. Sorry for the delay in responding - I don't come here often these days.

I'm not really interested in having sex with young Thai guys. One of the things I enjoyed about Babylon was being able to meet older Thai guys who were interested in hanging out outside of the sauna. I had a lot of great experiences and went places I never would have been able to go on my own. So any recommendations on places to meet older guys that are not bars? Do you think Krubb sauna is a place to possibly meet older Thai men?

[AlexThompson]

On 1/23/2023 at 3:41 PM, joizy said:

Heartbroken that Babylon has closed.

I 100% agree. I have been dragging my feet about returning to Thailand because Babylon was my #1.

[reader]

Like many of us oldies here I, too, harbor great memories of the Babylon I first encountered 21 years ago. Unfortunately, it gradually lost its allure as the younger local crowd moved on to other venues and farangs came to dominate. In its last 10 years the place became less well maintained and far less of a draw (for me, anyway).

But the massage business is roaring in Bangkok now. And for those who are comfortable doing business on the apps, you can still manage to find new experiences to justify a return trip.

 

[Gaybutton]

On 1/24/2023 at 11:55 AM, MarcSingap said:

One asian boy there told me last month at Krubb "why fat farangs come here ? They should go massage shop and pay for sex. Sauna is more for fun" (meanning free sex)

You know how much attention I would pay to that?  None.  Zero.  Nada.  He doesn't speak for anyone but himself.  Many Thais are attracted to us old, fat farang and more than just me can attest to it.  There is an interesting currently active topic on the Sawatdee board about just that.  See:  https://sawatdeenetwork.com/v4/showthread.php?23019-Non-commercial-is-it-possible

The Krubb web site is written entirely in English.  Who do you think that's for?  When was the last time you noticed a lot of young, fit, handsome farang in any of the gay saunas?

Instead of worrying about what one guy said, I would much rather go to the sauna and see for myself.  Maybe I'll get lucky and maybe not, but it would take more than just one visit to convince me it is always going to be "not".

[MarcSingap]

4 hours ago, Gaybutton said:

You know how much attention I would pay to that?  None.  Zero.  Nada.  He doesn't speak for anyone but himself.  Many Thais are attracted to us old, fat farang and more than just me can attest to it.  There is an interesting currently active topic on the Sawatdee board about just that.  See:  https://sawatdeenetwork.com/v4/showthread.php?23019-Non-commercial-is-it-possible

The Krubb web site is written entirely in English.  Who do you think that's for?  When was the last time you noticed a lot of young, fit, handsome farang in any of the gay saunas?

Instead of worrying about what one guy said, I would much rather go to the sauna and see for myself.  Maybe I'll get lucky and maybe not, but it would take more than just one visit to convince me it is always going to be "not".

I just related honestly what some boys told me. Nothing more. Krubb targets young farangs and especially the Koreans. Go see by yourself.

Of course go go !! enjoy !

[reader]

Here's the link to Krubb Bangkok Social Club and Sauna. If you explore the site you find numerous photos and a video but all of the men are Asian (most likely staff).

https://www.gaysaunabangkok.com/

Although the following video is aimed at a Chinese clientele, it features a guided tour of the interior.

[MarcSingap]

1 hour ago, reader said:

Here's the link to Krubb Bangkok Social Club and Sauna. If you explore the site you find numerous photos and a video but all of the men are Asian (most likely staff).

https://www.gaysaunabangkok.com/

Although the following video is aimed at a Chinese clientele, it features a guided tour of the interior.

i didn't want Gaybutton to loose his motivation... he will go and see by himself....

[hojacat]

9 hours ago, Gaybutton said:

When was the last time you noticed a lot of young, fit, handsome farang in any of the gay saunas?

This one, I think, was the main problem with the old Babylon. I know that sauna had a long history and went through several iterations but I only frequented it in its last 5-7 years of existence when I was a slim guy in my mid-to-late 20s. Yes, the facilities were good but the crowd much less so. I feel that once Babylon got to be known as the place to-go for old farangs, it's decline started. Old Western guys made up most of the customers and those few younger Thai twinks that went there were mostly after them (for one reason or another) than after a younger guy. At Babylon, I mostly hooked up with other Asian tourists visiting the place because of its reputation. I honestly preferred going to the Rama 9 saunas, like R3 and Underground, which even though geared more  towards a Thai-to-Thai type of action, had a  much younger local crowd who didn't mind messing around with farangs. The only time I enjoyed Babylon was during their Songran foam parties, but even then the  ones at R3 were better.

 

As for Krubb, i have been twice, in August and December. As I said in some other posts, there is definitely a big "sticky rice" vibe in the crowd, but Westerners are definitely welcomed, both young and old. You hear a lot of English around but it's usually spoken by other in-shape and young Asian tourists instead of older farangs (Koreans but also lots of Singaporeans, Taiwanese and honkongese). Maybe the owner of Krubb are not trying to be the next Babylon after all. I think they aim more to be the Soi13 or the Hutong of Bangkok. Places known for attracting a big crowd of young and in-shape local guys and a destination for visitors wanting to meet them.

[Gaybutton]

5 hours ago, MarcSingap said:

i didn't want Gaybutton to loose his motivation... he will go and see by himself....

Don't worry.  Next time I go to Bangkok and have time for a sauna, that is exactly what I'm going to do.  At my age and the way I look, if I get stares I'm expecting nothing more than their natural curiosity at spotting the bizarre.  If anything happens better than that, I'll be very pleasantly surprised.

Meanwhile, if some other customer, or even a staff member tries to tell me I shouldn't be there, they will very quickly be reminded that I have as much right to be there as they do and if to them I'm an eyesore and it really bothers him, let him be the one to go elsewhere.

I didn't always look the way I do now and there was a time when I too was young and attractive.  Those days are long gone - very long gone.  I wonder how they will react when they reach old age and start encountering people who no longer want to accept them.

I would go expecting nothing more than enjoying the sauna part of the sauna and a chance to feast my eyes on good looking boys.  If nothing more than that happens, Fine with me.  I'm not expecting anything more.

If I want sex, but nothing happens at this sauna I still have two options - go somewhere and pay for it or go back to my room and get it by self-service . . .

[PeterRS]

50 minutes ago, Gaybutton said:

Don't worry.  Next time I go to Bangkok and have time for a sauna, that is exactly what I'm going to do.

Just for clarification unless others have not noticed it, Babylon closed about 3 years ago. The building is currently being demolished.

[hojacat]

31 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

Just for clarification unless others have not noticed it, Babylon closed about 3 years ago. The building is currently being demolished.

He probably was talking about Krubb.

[floridarob]

1 hour ago, Gaybutton said:

I wonder how they will react when they reach old age and start encountering people who no longer want to accept them.

The question I ask my friends.....when you were in your younger years, how did you treat the older guys in your "fun zones" and how do expect them (todays younger people) to treat  you now 🤔 

I'm glad there are massage shops, saunas and go go bars for that reason.

[MarcSingap]

4 hours ago, Gaybutton said:

 

Meanwhile, if some other customer, or even a staff member tries to tell me I shouldn't be there, they will very quickly be reminded that I have as much right to be there as they do and if to them I'm an eyesore and it really bothers him, let him. . .

I can't believe that a staff would tell you anything that bad. The other customers won't tell you to have a look somewhere else even if they think so. This is the nice aspect of Thai and Asian culture: they are much more polite and respectful than the people in any of our western country.

You certainly can have fun watching group action. And maybe something can happen with you. Because another funny aspect of Thai culture is that they are always very curious about the unexpected 😁.

 

[reader]

12 hours ago, Gaybutton said:

Next time I go to Bangkok and have time for a sauna, that is exactly what I'm going to do. 

Good luck, GB. Look forward to your report.

[Gaybutton]

44 minutes ago, reader said:

Good luck, GB. Look forward to your report.

Don't lose any sleep waiting for it.  I'm not going to Bangkok any time soon.  Even when I do go to Bangkok, I don't often have time to go to saunas.  The only plan I have for Bangkok is to go to the Chatuchak Market and most likely return to Pattaya the same day as soon as I find what I'm looking for - and that won't be until at least until March or April.

[reader]

Try to find time to check out the go-go bar scene. Will give you that opportunity to feast your eyes on some good looking boys you won't find in Pattaya.

[Gaybutton]

On 1/31/2023 at 9:30 PM, reader said:

opportunity to feast your eyes on some good looking boys you won't find in Pattaya.

You mean the boys in Bangkok are not also in Pattaya - two places at once?  Thank you.  I never would have thought of that . . .

[reader]

You're welcome.

You seem so dismayed with the Pattaya bar scene I knew you'd appreciate it.

[Gaybutton]

3 hours ago, reader said:

You're welcome.

You seem so dismayed with the Pattaya bar scene I knew you'd appreciate it.

Pattaya has a bar scene?

I'm getting to the point that "self service" doesn't seem like such a bad option.  Besides, it's probably much less expensive to every so often send flowers to my hands . . .