Report on Soi 13 sauna, Taipei

[12is12]

I visited Soi 13 on Saturday 18:30, June 10.

Someone wrote here that it's the best sauna in Asia. I'd say maybe it's the best sauna in the world (Brazilian garoto saunas excluded)!

Two non sexual things striked me in the first few minutes.
One, everything including the floor is so squeaky clean, everyone is barefooted (maybe footware is prohibited).
Two, there are unlimited free light drinks.

Lots of young eye candies; didn't notice any attitude.

Although, as usual, many walking around stone-faced zombie-like, there's also talk to be seen and heard. I guess it's mostly because friends come together, but - for example - an old local striked up a not-hitting-on-u conversation with me in English at the hot water pool (it's not really a jaccuzi). Better atmosphere.

The best feature was the dark room, darkest and most interactive I've ever been to. Can't see a thing, no matter how long I stayed there. At some point I was taken care of by 2 guys. Only after I tried to decipher with my hands who was doing what, I found out that I'm actually part of a fivesome...

The dark 'room' is actually a corridor, with 5-6 very small wooden cubicles opening on it's right side. For some reason, two guys making out prefer to do it in the corridor, so most cubicles r empty. By 19:15 there was a jam, everyone stuck together with intense action.

Only when I finally got to the end of the corridor for the third time (still erect), I found out that the last cubicle had no back side. It opened into a parallel corridor, which was just as dark and almost empty. I guess most patrons aren't aware of its existence. It's much more conducive to 'normal' dark action. 

I enjoyed myself immensly. Never had so many anonymous guys take care of me.

[hojacat]

11 hours ago, 12is12 said:

Someone wrote here that it's the best sauna in Asia. I'd say maybe it's the best sauna in the world (Brazilian garoto saunas excluded)!

 

Welcome to the club @12is12

[Zappel]

Do they provide condom and lube in so13in?

[hojacat]

14 hours ago, Zappel said:

Do they provide condom and lube in so13in?

Yes, at the entrance floor where the lockers are located and not in the cruising area, which is two floors down from the entrance.

[PeterRS]

On 6/18/2023 at 9:54 PM, 12is12 said:

I guess it's mostly because friends come together

This is very typical in Taipei. I think @hojacat will agree that it is relatively rare to see guys on their own. I certainly find this at the gayish Huang Tzu hot spring.

A note about Soi13in - you will not find it on Utopia Asia even though it has been open for several years now! I wrote to the webmaster around a couple of years ago to ask why it is not included. I can't recall what he replied but I think it was something to do with his having asked the sauna owner for some details and did not get a reply. Whatever the reason, it makes one wonder if other facilities in other cities are deliberately omitted from the Utopia-Asia site. If the Utopia-Asia webmaster is reading this, perhaps he can kindly post a reply. 

[hojacat]

On 7/14/2023 at 7:54 PM, PeterRS said:

This is very typical in Taipei. I think @hojacat will agree that it is relatively rare to see guys on their own. I certainly find this at the gayish Huang Tzu hot spring.

 

Yeah, definitely true. I've had quite a few encounters at Soi13 where I started chitchatting with a guy, some touching and even kissing and then when offering to go to a cabin, he would say: "Oh, but I'm done for the night...just waiting for my friend to finish".

On 7/14/2023 at 7:54 PM, PeterRS said:

A note about Soi13in - you will not find it on Utopia Asia even though it has been open for several years now! I wrote to the webmaster around a couple of years ago to ask why it is not included. I can't recall what he replied but I think it was something to do with his having asked the sauna owner for some details and did not get a reply.

That used to be my go-to website for my first couple of trips to Asia. From around 2013 though I started using more travelgayasia.com (now just travelgay.com) as I  felt that it had more info and  user reviews than utopia, plus the website layout was much better. Once that website decided to go global and  not just focus on East and Southeast Asia, around 2018-2019, it started missing a lot of places and saw that the number of reviews went also down. (like the Nadam spa in Saigon that i mention in my other post which is not listed in there, even though it's the most popular sauna atm).

As for utopia-asia, I rarely visit it anymore. The UI feels prehistoric (it hasn't changed since I first visited it in 2008). I imagine their website traffic is way below their peak years.

On 7/14/2023 at 7:54 PM, PeterRS said:

Whatever the reason, it makes one wonder if other facilities in other cities are deliberately omitted from the Utopia-Asia site.

If we are talking about Taipei specifically, according to my Taiwan friends, Soi13 is still pretty much the only player in the area (including New Taipei and Taoyuan) and that's why they could raise their price. What the international gay travel websites are missing in Taiwan is the info about the outdoor cruising areas, which even with the high number of love hotels and MTVs are still quite popular in there, including with the young generation. You find them only on local websites (in Mandarin) or from local guys.