Cracks

I have now come back home and resumed the everyday boring routine. Despite the nice weather here, no sunshine can match the thai sunshine and I already miss the place where I have been staying for exactly 26 days.

Last beer in Thailand

The travel trip back home was nothing to write about ; only some hidden tears (from me) after waiving Tam goodbye at Morchit, and it was then a short taxi ride to Suwanaphum where I arrived very early. No wonder I had no waiting time when checking-in, but some other rows seemed to be overcrowded.

I could visit the place and found it convenient but definitely too much like a shopping mall and not enough an airport. There are a lot of shops airside and I could not resist a last beer in a bar (Singha 150 THB) despite having sworn that I would boycott the King Power shops .. not difficult when you see the prices of what is on offer.

..........Down to hell ... Suwanaphum, gate E02

I travelled with Austrian Airlines and had a three hours stopover in Vienna, which is a nice small airport. No thai boy on board this time but a magnificent view over the Alps between Vienna and Geneva. How quiet Geneva is when you come from the hustle and bustle in Bangkok ! And to think that Geneva is the place where I go when I want to escape my too quiet place !

After arriving home, it was the usual unpacking stuff, the last physical contact with what had been last touched in the room of a Saphan Kway hotel ... I phoned Tam and I found he seemed to have drunken quite a lot, as he spoke very quickly. I got in contact with him exactly at the time he was cashing some bahts from the ATM (I could distinctly hear the sound of the keys being pressed) ... probably from the money I had just transferred to his account before leaving. He told me he was ordering a craftsman to finish off some work in his house and needed some money for this. I had seen by myself that there was indeed still a lot of work to be made, especially the ceiling which should protect him from the cold/hot air.

To-day, before going back to work, I phoned him once again, and told him I thought he was drunk yesterday. He mumbled some words and suddenly I could only hear the "beep-beep" of a phone that had been hung up ... as if he did not want to be blamed for something he was not proud of ... as if he did not want to speak with me.

I did not try to phone him back, and he did not either ... this could be a soft way to break up, couldn't it ?

Back to reality

We are now in Bangkok for a short laundry-gifts-rest stay before the end of my holiday. Pattaya was a dream, Tam let me enough freedom to visit all the bars I wanted (which I did), and even offing all the boys I wanted (which I did not a lot).

Phayao boy

Last Saturday we went to Hollywood Disco with him, friends of him, and the nice boys who manage the yellow chairs in Jomtien gay Beach. I told him I had chatted with a boy from Mic My Boy Bar and he almost urged me to go to pick him and bring him to the disco. I will never know why Tam did this : did he want to test my faithfulness, did he want to give an opportunity to the boy (as Tam's best friend knew the boy closely from what I understood) or was it a way to gain face ? Anyway to Mic My Boy I went, offed the boy (a northern guy from Phayao, not too cute but with a broad smile) and brought him to the disco. When we were out, I took him to the hotel but, as usual, Tam did not join for a threesome. The guy was very shy in the disco but not in the sack, please believe me ! Tam came back to the room at 5 am after another karaoke session and did not tell anything about the boy (who had left before) ...

We spent the last night in Pattaya together for the most part ; I just took some time to say goodbye to the boys I had offed : the Chayaphum boy (who had left), the lad from Boy-Isan (who did not forget to ask me some money for his trip back home, which is only another reason for me not to get too involved with any boy any more) and the Phayao guy whom I gave my Hotmail adress. After this farewell trip and after Tam's friends had finished their work in Googies, we went to the karaoke next door for another good time (although my broken voice did not allow me to sing my favourite ones ...).

In Bangkok Tam went once again in the sticks to visit some acquaintance while I staid in the room and in Saphan Kwai Big C. Why Big C ? Because this is a place where you can see a continuous flow of cuties (for example in the Yam Saep restaurant), and I have to fill my head with as many pictures like this as possible before going back to Boringland.

To-night we will take a taxi together, I will leave him in Morchit and the cab will then bring me to Suwanaphum. Tam is booked on the 8 am bus to Phrae while my plane will take off at about 11.30 pm.

I still do not know if and how I will break from him. I have no experience at all regarding breaking away from someone as never in my life I have been involved with someone for such a long time. I want to be completely free again - including financially - but in the same time I feel that it is impossible to delete all the good times I had with this guy. In fact I fear I still love him much more than I would admit.

Notes (2)

Holiday 2
By far the the sleaziest gogo-bar in Pattaya ... as soon as you enter, a boy will come and sit with you, and will not oppose at all if you want to kiss him, or much more. In the same time, three or four other boys sit on the stage with their dick out and working it. Boys are rather old by Sunee Plaza standards and not too cute but you would not come here for eye candy but for action ...
Clubber
Nice place with a good atmosphere and mostly nice boys on stage. The staff is very friendly.
Euroboys
Beware not walking on the boy's feet when going to your seat ! Many ladyboys once again but some beautiful male lads among them. Beware ID cards.
...(censured)... Bar
The place in the middle of Sunee where you would not like to be caught dead. I went inside (doormen are very agressive and efficient here !) but was not impressed except by the sadness of the place. There is a gloomy streetside bar next door where some nasty action seems to take place between old (and I mean : old) farangs and young (and I mean : young) street lads. I am not a fussy guy but this was really too much ...
Y2K Gogo Bar
I went there because of a doorman only to find a bunch of very ordinary boys and almost no customers at all. Sorry for the owner who seems to be very proud of his selection ...
Red Dragon (Day & Night)
Has recently been turned into a gogobar but they are in fact both a beer bar outside and a gogobar inside. Nothing to write home about but a nice all-red decor.
Isan-Boys
Having developped special relations with one of the boys, I went quite often in this beer-bar (for chatting, cuddling and offing). Except for two of them, the lads seem to change very often, but were invariably young and cute. The (thai) owner could do well too....
Mic's My Boy Bar
This is the beer bar between K-Boys and Forest House. I have to say I do not understand how this bar works ... they always have cute boys sitting in front of it, working hard to call you for having a drink. Nevertheless I hardly saw any customer here. A boy explained me that most customers come very late in the evening, as the places turns into a karaoke and closes very late. In my humble opinion, they could do better if the boys did not sit on the street level but on the bar level so that you could see more of their nice faces... The place has some discrete corners where it would be easy to strike up a thorough acquaintance with any boy you would fancy about.
Threezone
This is a special place for me as I met Tam there ... They are now specialising into ladyboys (easier to manage, said the owner) but this beer-bar remains a welcoming easygoing place with an unobstructed view over the Kaos entry ... and doormen !
Royal House Message Place
I generally do not like to go in massage places probably because I only had ordinary experiences with the massage boys I have met so far. The massage that a Nakhon Phanom young lad gave (err.. sold...) me was definitely the best one I ever had in Thailand at least for the "special" part of it. Promising myself to give more time to this kind of entertainment next time I go to Thailand ... Royal House is somewhat hidden behind Day and Night Plaza on Soi 3.

Short time

I have always been surprised by the shyness of posters on gay boards ... almost never any name, and never any picture ... If you are a member of straight boards such as Pattayatalk, you will often see full trip reports with all the most intimate details and X rated pictures. Never saw this on any thai-related gay board ...

No nude picture here but I thought I could share one of the boys I have offed in Pattaya. He was a guy from Chayaphum, a little bit shy but with a very cute face, one of the few masculine guys in a bar which has mainly effeminate boys and katoeys.

Well-built Chayaphum boy

On the day after I offed him I went back to the bar but a police raid was announced and he was not there like many others (which could mean he was underage, but I doubt it). On the second day, Mamasan told he was sick and did not come. And on the third day, another waiter told me he had gone to Bangkok to look for another job.

I will never know the truth and probably will never meet him again. He was only a brief encounter like many others before I met Tam, and like many others after I will break with him. And like others, I will always remember the short time we had together.

Notes

It will soon be the end of my stay in Pattaya before going back to Boringland ... Everything has been like I thought and the schedule I had forecast was followed almost everyday. Tam has gone back home for two days because of a party for his aunt's wedding ... This is perhaps true but this is for me a new indication that he is not as interested in staying with me as before ... in fact I will interpret this as a green light for breaking with him without too much damage for him.

Of course I did not stay in the room waiting for him and I visited a fair number of Pattaya bars. Here is a short review of those I went to.

Cartier Boys
This bar is the closest to my hotel so this is the first one I went to. The owner had a bar in Nakhon Sawan before, and he relocated both the bar and the staff in Pattaya. I found the boys there to be well above average as far as looks are concerned ; they are mainly real boys, I did not spot any obvious ladyboy.
 The emphasis is put on quality for the boys, the entertainment, the decor and also the price which seems a little bit higher than in most other bars in Pattya ; there are two shows in the evening : one with the boys in a very well made Chippendale-style show and another later in the evening (cabaret show).
 This bar and the boys should be encouraged despite the bad location. The Soi Buakhao area is thriving now with a lot of girlie bars, hotels, etc but still no gay place except this one ; perhaps Cartier Boys will be a pioneer the way Crazy Pub started the Sunee Plaza scene.

Dream Boy
In Pattayaland : the percentage of real boys seems higher in this bar and some are on the cute side but not all. For me the best bar in the soi.

Star Boys
This bar is on the wrong side of Pattaya 2 if you are in Boystown but they always have a staff of young and friendly guys, and no one hassles you for offing or for drinking, which I like.

Other Pattayaland bars
I went to Handy Boys, West Wild Boys, Gacuya, Sawatdee, Four Seasons and Gentleman. I was surprised to find very few farangs when I went there (they were generally outnumbered by asian customers except in Gentleman). Also the prices for drinks vary from one place to another, West Wild Boys being the most expensive and this not being justified by the cuteness of the boys on display, at least for my eyes.

Fogus Bar
This is a new beer bar facing the New Paradise Inn near Sunee Plaza. Definetely situated in the jailbait category and seems to have links with the most infamous bar in Sunee Plaza (the one that nobody even dares to name ...). On October 24 th they had three absolute stunners from Kalasin and Nong Khai and on the 25th, three absolute stunners were to be seen with handbags ready to embark on the bus back home. They are probably at school now (school holidays finished on the 31st) ... mattayon four perhaps ? The bars remained almost desert after these guys went out except for two or three urchins and the very pushy mamasan.

K Boys (Sunee)
Another crazy place where every hour or so, four boys dance in the buff on one of the cubicles situated at the corners of the main scene. The age average here is about the same as in Kaos but there is not much discipline. I was softly chatting with a boy when the lights went off and a birthday cake was brought ... just for my new friend ! I felt somewhat embarrassed to be designated to everyone's attention but discreetly tipped accordingly to the event. I dared to ask how old the boy was but did not get any clear answer. Nevertheless I did not intend to "off", the atmosphere in this bar is still more scary than in the other one with some boys seeming to be very far away and some other overexcited. OK for eye candy but nothing more ! And definitely too many ladyboys.

More to follow ...

Magnet

I have been staying in Pattaya now for two days and I understand once again why I always trip around Thailand BEFORE going to Pattaya. Because if I didn't, I would never have been in any other part of Thailand ... not that I love Pattaya, but this place is like a magnet that you can escape only if you are compelled to.

This year, Pattaya is more alluring than ever. The Sunee scene is vibrant, dangerous, diabolic, .... you feel like a butterfly which goes towards the light only to be burnt by it ... and you step back at the last second ... and the light is always there which lures you again ... and you approach ...

On the first day, we went with Tam and one of his friend to see the two main "attractions" of the place : the 10 pm show in Kaos and the all-evening show in Crazy Dragon. Both places are crazy, but why should I avoid them if I like it ?

The "show" in Kaos is exactly like many described it : dozens of boys, some quite young, taking off their underwears and dancing in the buff ... the bar is jam packed (reading the gay forums you would think that no one goes there ...), and it would be tempting to think with one's scrotch and act as if there was no law and no limit ... The boys are beautiful and even if most hide their treasure with their hand, seeing nude young bodies more or less dancing is very pleasing to the eye and somewhere else too....You would had to be blind to forget what is behind this show ; especially, many boys if not most are probably high on illicit drugs : too excited, too keen on showing off their nude body, too friendly with the audience.... But I will not be an hypocrite and I can only say I like to go sometimes to this kind of place (and I am obviously far from being alone ...).

We then went to Krazy Dragon which seemed much tamer in comparison ... A Khorat boy whom I had chatted with last week (incredibly cute face but very shy attitude) had already gone back home and many boys seemed to be busy with farangs. Another great place to go in Pattaya but better to go early when all the boys are still there.

Thian, should I be jealous ?

Yesterday was Loy Krathong day ... We spent the evening in Jomtien with Tam, friends of him, and also Thian, a cute isaan massage boy who is never far from Tam although having a girlfriend ... A lot of alcool was drunk, a good time for all even if I generally prefer a more intimate atmosphere for this beautiful thai tradition.

To-day is day 3 in Pattaya and will have the same pattern as usual :  sunbathing at the hotel pool in the morning, Jomtien in the afternoon, restaurant and bar-hopping in the night. Tam has definitely given up the idea of going with me in the evening ; generally we eat together in a restaurant (more than often in Googies where the food is good and where his friends work), and then I go alone to the bars while he stays with his friends.

This is a dangerous freedom he allows me, I suspect more and more that he is not attached to me like before and he prefers being with his friends (which would be quite understandable) and also drinking beer and alcool (which I could find more worrying).

Market train in Samut Sakhon

Tam was very proud to land at Sawanaphum but acknowledged that not everything was perfect. In fact my second landing did not go as smoothly as the first one : we had to taxi a long way in a bus from the Air Asia plane to the gate, and then had to wait our luggage for about half an hour.

I like to stay one or two days in Bangkok before heading back to Pattaya : this gives me time for resting, having the laundry made, and above all I like the atmosphere in the place I stay (Saphan Khway).I like the Bangkok bars too and this time Tam came with me to Be High on the first night and to Future Boys on the second night. He wanted to see the show and I obliged, as I had not seen any one since about five years (and I will probably not see one again before five years !).I also tried the Bonny Massage with a charming boy from Loei ; Tam was a little bit upset about this but did not object too much.

During the day, while Tam was visiting an aunt, I chose to do an unusual train trip and caught the Mahachai commuter train. The trip starts in the little-known Wong Wiang Yai train station and brings you to Mahachai (the former name for Samut Sakhon). If you have the time, you can then cross the river, and jump into another train which will bring you to Mae Klong (the local name for Samut Songkhram).

Market train in Samut Sakhon / Mahachai

This trip is a great way for discovering thai life ; this train is used only by the local people, including students coming back from school which is generally very pleasant for the eye. I did not see any farang during the whole trip. The arrival in Mahachai is rather stunning, the railway crossing the market with the stalls almost on the tracks ...

I crossed the river on the ferry but going further on the second line would not have allowed me to get back in time, so I came back. As I had forgotten to take my camera, I have borrowed a picture from the very informative thaitravelblogs.com website which gives a full description of this trip.

To-day we will go to Pattaya for nine days before the end of my holiday. This will be another atmosphere for sure !

Chiang Rai

From Chiang Khong it is another nice trip towards Chiang Rai : the roads here are quiet and well-marked and it is a real pleasure to drive among the mountains and the paddies.

We stopped at the Golden Triangle and then made the mandatory trip to the burmese side of the boarder in Tachilek. Tam and me bought a lot of CDs, he also bought some kind of sex medicine (apparently used to help convince women (or men ?) to have sex ...) but he was searched by the thai customs on the way back and the drug was seized ... I should have accepted to take it with me because I was not searched and no farang seemed to have been as well. 

Border crossing from Burma to Mae Sai

On the burmese side, we had a tour with a (nice) tuk-tuk driver who brought us to the few tourist places in Tachilek. We were lucky to find that he spoke thai perfectly, being a burmese national from a thai origin (Thai Yai). He told us it was possible to find girls as youg as 13 in a local brothel at night, but he had never heard of anything like this for boys

In Chiang Rai we stopped at the Wangcome Hotel which has overpriced rooms at 1700 THB/night but is conveniently located close to the two boys bars in town. Of course we visited both to find very cute boys in each of them. In these bars, only one boy dances in his underbriefs at the same time while others are dressed and sit in the bar waiting for their turn. They dance for four or five songs so that you have to wait a long time to see all the boys.

Regency is located immediately on the north of Wang Come Hotel while Lobo Bar is located 200 meters further in a small alley on the right when you go towards the clock tower, in the middle of many girlie bars. We finally "offed" one boy from each bar who led us to a disco called Par Pub where we had really a great time (with the help of some Red Labelled stuff).

It is now Thursday morning in Chiang Rai ; we have been visiting Wat Khao (Wat Rong Khun) which is an absolute wonder. This wat is a lifetime project of a thai artist and it is entirely white, making it completely different from any other temple in Thailand. It is still not finished yet and has yet to appear in any tourist guide, but seeing this twinkling temple under the sun is really magic (and they say it is still more impressive in the moonlight).

Wat Rong Khun in Chiang Rai

It is time now to return the rent car, wait for the Air Asia flight to Bangkok and go back to more familiar areas ... One thing which makes me wonder is that Tam has already lost the threads that his mother tied around his wrists. He tells me that they tore already but I cannot believe this. Tam speaks more and more about one of his friends who took good care of him when he was injured, he even speaks about him as a geek (thai slang word for a second-ranked lover). Would Tam be in love (which I would not mind at all ) ? This would explain a lot about his now more distant attitude ...