chiang mai off scene

[Guest aot87]

Has any one been to chiang mai in the last few months? Its been about 5 yrs since i was last there, and i would like to know what the boy off scene is like.Ive been told thats its unlike the pattaya or bkk scene in that the guys are nearly 100% str8 and not really into much , but are still asking the earth. what should i expect to pay including the bar fee,

[Guest Astrrro]

One thing I noticed is while Pattaya has lots of Issan boys, Chiang Mai has lots of Burmese boys.

 

It has been a while since I have been there. A couple posters here are from CM and I am sure they'll check in.

[Guest luvthai]

I like the Burmesse guys as they seem friendlier and try a little harder to please you.

[Guest fountainhall]

I go to Chiang Mai a couple of times a year. Last time was in January. Yes, there have been changes. The Lanna Lavender Complex opened and looked as though it would really revitalize the gay scene. But it seemingly got into major financial trouble and the excellent show bar had to close some months ago. Pity, because it was the best show in Thailand, in my view. I am told the hotel still operates, but recent reviews I have seen have not been very complimentary.

 

Adam’s Apple, once one of the best sleeze go-go bars (and fun, too), closed, was taken over by new management, and opened at the end of last year. Opinion seems varied. The downstairs cocktail lounge is nicely decorated, but not so well patronized when I have been there. Upstairs, however, I feel the new owner has ruined the place. Very personal view, I know, and I hope others will balance it if they disagree. My friends (Thai and farang) found the seating uncomfortable, the air conditioning did not work properly, the go-go was deathly boring, and the show about the worst I have seen. The boys generally were older and tubbier than before. Knowing how they change quite regularly, there may be a whole bunch of cuties there now! Best to take a quick look and check.

 

The other bars – My Way, Circle Pub and another whose name I do not recall as we did not visit it - are host bars. Some of the boys/waiters at both I found cute. Many are Burmese, but most are straight. All are offable. I believe the price was around Bt. 300 for the boys and about Bt. 400 for a waiter. My farang friend offed a very polite and nice looking guy. The next morning I was told he was a total dud. He was given Bt. 1,000. The bars do have shows, quite tastefully done with some nudity.

 

All but a couple of the open air bars at The Peak have closed. The Peak itself has burned down. However, if you walk 150 meters back to the excellent Dusit D2 hotel, you will find an alley of 7 or 8 bars immediately behind. There are usually quite a few boys there, all keen to go with you. Some work in the bars and so there wil be an off fee, but others are just cruising. Make sure you check ID cards as there are definitely under-age boys amongst them.

 

If you want to venture further than just the bars, there is a thriving massage scene in CM now. My favourite is The 2 Brothers near the Le Meridien hotel. But it’s a very personal thing and you just have to try them and find out for yourself. Some of the boys are gay; others not. I had a great tme with one gay guy from Udon. All seemed offable! As mentioned on the Chiang Mai thread, the House of Male sauna in a lovely old Thai house is good for hooking up, especially on their 2-for-1 nights when a lot of University students seem to go.

 

Hopefully our CM residents will update this and provide their own thoughts.

[Bob]

I'm more familiar with the Chiangmai scene but don't frequent the gogo bars all that often (maybe once or twice a month). I have been back home in the states since May and will be returning to CM for another long stay in two weeks.

 

In my view, there's a good selection of boys at the gogo bars with the following comments(opinions)/notations:

(1) There are few ladyboy-types or muscle men (not my cup of tea anyway but I'm noting that in case it's your cup of tea).

(2) A fairly good selection of decent-looking boys (again, personal opinion).

(3) Adam's Apple was very good earlier this year (I probably haven't been there since March or so) but some have said it's gone downhill rapidly. I thought the bar upstairs was perfectly fine (quite contrary to FH's view) and but do agree with him that the bar/lounge downstairs on the corner is also very nice (although rarely populated). I do agree with FH's description of the some of the seating upstairs as I too didn't like the seating on the tables right next to the stage (the seats had little or no back support and I frankly don't like some of the dancers swinging their "wares" 4 or 5 inches in front of my face) but the seating along the walls (4 or 5 feet from the stage) was perfectly fine to me (after the first visit, I would only sit next to the walls as I learned the first time).

(4) New My Way and Circle Pub are not host bars (at least the way I define host bars), they are gogo bars (FH, I'm puzzled why you describe them as host bars). You might enjoy the shows, you might not (I enjoyed the ones I saw from October through about March). And a fair number of very good looking boys, at least when I was there.

(5) The "Peak" bars near the night market area closed down last November because the new owner (somebody related to Chang Beer who allegedly is going to build a hotel there someday) booted them out. There was no fire although I will admit the place looked like somebody trashed it the last time I went by there. I had a great time (mao maak!) at one of the closing parties given I paid for one drink and then drank for free for the next many hours! hehe

(6) When I was last (maybe February?) at the night market bars on the soi behind the D2 Hotel, five were open and they actually were fairly busy. But I did notice (for the first time in going there fairly regularly for a lot of years) what I thought was a significant underage issue. Others who have been there more recently have reported that there's only about 2 bars open there now and they did also comment that they noticed the same problem mentioned. Maybe - not sure - things will pick up there once the alleged "high" season begins.

(7) As FH notes, there is a thriving massage scene in CM although, since there have been so many of them and tourist numbers have been dwindling, they all have been eating each other to death the last couple of years. Two places with nice rooms and staff are One2Come (my favorite) and Mystic Orient Massage. Bbeez Massage has also gotten a lot of nice comments although I've never been there. 2Brothers, as FH reports, also usually gets good reviews. But the tourist numbers have been down for a long time and one might find very little activity at any of the massage places on a given night.

(7) There's a very recent report on one of the boards from somebody who lives permanently in CM that Lavender Lanna has reopened it's gogo bar and that it seems to be fairly busy. He did report, however, that there was little or no nudity in the shows and I believe he mentioned that there are more ladyboy-types there now. I'll have to check that out in a couple of weeks.

( There have been a good selection of boys at the various gogo bars so there's no need at all (just my opinion) to bring a boy from elsewhere when visiting Chiangmai. A lot of the boys are Shan or Tai Yai and from both Chiangmai and Chiangrai provinces (at least based on my and others' discussions with them). I've run into very few boys who are really fresh over the border from Burma.

[Guest fountainhall]

Just for clarification of a couple of points Bob raised -

 

1. Adam’s Apple is definitely go-go. Circle and My Way are described in several places as host bars (in its ad in “What’s On: Chiang Mai After Dark” at the end of last year, Circle describes itself as a host bar) and honestly we never saw any go-go dancing, except some boys would dance a little on stage with jeans and a shirt of some description. In my book, that isn’t go-go, but maybe I am wrong. And yes I agree, the shows are more interesting and have a more professional ‘feel’ about them than the ones in Bangkok. The boys also looked to be enjoying themselves more.

 

2. The Peak was the rock climbing wall that provided the focus for the gay bars some years ago. Didn’t that burn down a year or two ago (or was in some other way destroyed)? The ruins were still there in January. As indeed were 2 bars, one either side. For a good 2 years I had been friendly with one of the guys behind the counter and definitely chatted with him there in January. Its snooker table was also still there. But all the other bars were gone.

 

That publication “What’s On: Chiang Mai After Dark” is a supplement that comes with the monthly “What’s On Chiang Mai”. It has a lot of ads for the massage places with instructions for taxi drivers. Well worth trying to find a copy.

[Bob]

Somebody tore down part of the climbing Peak a couple of years ago and then just left it a mess. No significant fire there (although vandals or people playing with fireworks there may have scorched a part of it) that I'm aware of although admittedly it looks like hell. Somebody also trashed the bar area north of the wall a month or so after they finally closed last November (but that tends to happen to boarded up little sheds like that).

 

I guess I define a bar as a "gogo" bar if it has shows and maybe I shouldn't do that. There's occasional dancing (if you call it that - you know, the standing there and shuffling from foot to foot on occasion) at both of the bars mentioned and both have shows (or did every time I was there) but obviously not as organized as the gogo bars of Pattaya, Bangkok, or Phuket. The night market bars are simply host bars (no shows, no dancing, but with staff and assorted hangers-on that can usually be offed).

[Guest Astrrro]

climbing Peak

 

I thought I visited The Peak a couple years ago.

 

But it did seem like a peak, Maybe I went to the wrong place. from my map it appeared to be quite close to the night market bars.

[Guest fountainhall]

I thought I visited The Peak a couple years ago.

But it did seem like a peak, Maybe I went to the wrong place. from my map it appeared to be quite close to the night market bars.

That's exactly where it was. But somehow it was destroyed quite soon after your visit. Those bars now appear to have closed completely.

[Bob]

If I think something was 5 years ago, it more likely was 10 or more years ago (just a function of getting older, I think). Anyway, here's a photo of the Peak (the climbing wall) I took in February of 2008 so my guess is that the actually climbing part of the wall was removed in 2007 or maybe as early as late 2006. Looking at the photo again, I see the "black" stuff (some black waterproofing?) that was behind the wall that to all appearances could look like it was burned (but I don't think it was).

 

[sorry for the slight diversion of the OP]

[Guest MonkeySee]

Has any one been to chiang mai in the last few months? Its been about 5 yrs since i was last there, and i would like to know what the boy off scene is like.Ive been told thats its unlike the pattaya or bkk scene in that the guys are nearly 100% str8 and not really into much , but are still asking the earth. what should i expect to pay including the bar fee,

 

It has been about six month since my last visit to Chiang Mai. I found it pretty much as Fountainhall described it in the above post. Adams Apple had all str8 guys except two dumpy-looking guys and this according to the mamasan. New My Way had one gay guy but the show was somewhat better. The go-go bar at the Lavender Lanna had the best mix of guys, but I am not sure if the bar is now open. I long for the days when Coffee Boy had some real beauties and Adams Apple was a little sleazy. Aaaahhh, the good old days.