Temperance in Chiang Mai

San Kamphaeng Hot Springs, Chiang Mai

Being with Tam, I had a rather quiet stay in Chiang Mai. In fact most of my energy was used to visit further places around the town using our rented car. So we could make it to Lamphun and its temples, the Samoeng loop in the mountains, and another visit to the San Kampeng hot springs.

At night I did not forget to visit the main bars and found them to be as good as ever, be it Freeguys, New My Way or Adam's Apple. The shows are daring enough but very similar one to another, with a lot of nudity.. Only Freeguys bar had a male-only show, the other two having some katoey show as well. I did not go to Circle Pub as I know that this place has never been for my liking.

Another evening was spent in the sleazy allay near Night Bazaar, but I have to say I was not impressed at all by the freelancers who hang around there. The atmosphere did not look as bad as it has been written here and there.

Finally I found the most stunning boys in Chiang Mai were the ones working as waiters in the Sabaidee Pub and Restaurant - a rather hard to find place near Santitham Plaza ( http://www.sabaidee-santitham.com/ ). Tasteful decoration, cute waiters, great food for a very reasonable price, what do you want more ? Another magic place not to miss in Chiang Mai.

I am now in Bangkok after a strenuous 14 hours bus transfer following the cancellation of Nok Air flights. Bad luck I guess but the 1st class Nakhornchai busses are comfortable enough to support such a long punishment. Let now the plan to conquer the Samut Prakan boy's heart now go into action !

Raw nature

The first part of my stay is now over ; not a lot about the boys here - although they are never far when you are in Thailand - but a long and impressive trip in one of the remotest parts of the country.

As scheduled we got our rented car in Phitsanulok and this was not your usual Honda Jazz ; knowing that the roads will be tough, I had splashed out on a big four wheel Toyota Vigo, not the car that I would dare to drive at home if you ask me (by fear of being labelled as a braggart). My boyfriend Tam was happy about this choice and he drove most of the way, except in the really windy mountain roads which I am more used to.

Unfortunately the bar I had read about in Phitsanulok seems to have closed, at least we could not find it at the location it was supposed to be. I rather think that once again, the information I had being from thai people, it was probably false or incomplete as we spent one hour exploring this famous Soi 19 where nothing was to be seen looking like an open bar or even a closed one.

Our first stop was in Mae Sot and we made the mandatory trip to the so-called Friendship Bridge on the Burmese border. A rather curious place where burmese people come and sell their things - mostly cigarettes - down from the walkway which stretches along the thai side of the river, and under the view of the thai soldiers. Among them, some teenagers who would have a lot of success should they have sold something, say, more private ...

Refugee camp near burmese border, Tak province

Our second day took place along the thai-burmese border on very quiet roads with very few people around, except for many police controls. I was especially impressed by a huge refugee camp after Mae Ramat, hundreds of wooden houses all over the hills seeming to shelter so many unfortunate people fleeing their country. Probably a heavy burden for the thai Government. Besides this, there were viewpoints, waterfalls, caves, and a 50 km stretch of a rather small road on the borders of Tak and Mae Hong Son provinces, without any village, gas station, or eating place. You guess that finally arriving in Mae Sariang was a relief. A local karaoke gave a nice end to the day.

Mae Sariang to Mae Hong Son was a more civilised ride although with countless curves, and more beautiful waterfalls. To Tam's dispair, the Thung Dok Bua Tong (the Mexican sunflower field) had not blossomed yet, but the Mae Surin waterfall on the same road was in great shape after all this rain. Thanks to a thai guidebook, we visited a little gem of a cave in Mae La Noi ; Kaew Komon Cave Forest Park is a calcite cave and the glittering calcite shines sparklingly in the cave walls, making it look like ice (no picture allowed). In Mae Hong Son, we staid in the Bayoke Chalet Hotel, which doubles at night as a disco for the local teenagers, and of course we could not miss the opportunity to have a drink there. Mae Hong Son population is mostly Thai Yai, and this is a guarantee for fine-looking well-built young men. Also not to be missed is climbing up the hill which offers great views over the ton. At dusk it is also a flirting place for the local youth.

Mae Hong Son town from above

A long rest in a mud spa only 17 km from Mae Hong Son was enough for being ready for the following day driving to Pai ; fantastic viewpoints over the mountains, another beautiful cave near Phang Ma Pha (Tham Lot, where the river flows through the cave) made another great day. In Pai the atmosphere was more touristy, with a huge amount of mostly young farangs, as Pai is known as a paradise for travelers.The population has kept his smile though, and the prices are still reasonable. The C Bar which is sometimes advertised as a gay bar is a very small bar but it seems that only the owner here is gay.

Pai was the first step back to bustling thai cities but it was still quiet, probably due to the long and windy route leading there from both sides. We had still another hot spring and a waterfall to look at before finally arriving in Chiang Mai. Back to the bars and the boys, although the experiences with the boyfriend in tow should be tamer than when I come alone ...

Noo (rising tone)

Noo (rising tone) is the thai word for "mouse" ; it is also the way parents call their children, or teachers their young pupils. But this boy wants me to call him "noo" as well, and he also always call me "than" which is the pronoun that you should use for people you respect (your parents). He is definitely not a child, and I have been chatting with this this 19y/o guy on Camfrog since about two months. He had told me that when I would see him for real, I would flee the scene because he was not handsome ... of course I was not worried as I know that for some unexplained reason, thai boys always look better in real life than through any camera.

I wanted to meet him near his place, and not near my hotel so that he would not feel uncomfortable. And here I am, like a pre-teen going to his first date, sitting in the BTS train towards the new Bearing Station, as he lives in nearby Samut Prakan Province. The appointment place was not romantic at all as there is an easy to find Esso gas station just under the BTS. I even did not have to wait too long, and he appeared on the back of a motorsai. As handsome as I had imagined, as shy as I had guessed when chatting. We went to the nearby Imperial Word commercial center and had some steaks in a thai only atmosphere (BTW Samut Prakan province is a very populous area with heaps of nice boys all over) . We never had talked about sex on Camfrog, and we never talked sex either on our first meeting. I do not even know whether he is a king or a queen. And I cannot figure why he wants to talk with me ...curiosity, money or anything else. He laughed, I laughed, we promised to meet again and I think we will. I had brought some eau de toilette for him, and slipped a banknote in his hand, telling him it was for helping him start studying again.

He is a common next-door thai boy, meaning a very handsome, always smiling and very easygoing lad. Will we go further together ? Time will tell, but I guess I will have to make the first move if I want him in my bed, which is of course the ultimate goal. Anyway a refreshing experience, so different from the relations with your usual thai rent boy.

This was my first night in Thailand and I did not go anywhere else ; going back from Samrong, I made a short visit to the Silom area for a drink in Dicks Cafe ; I did not see a lot of customers in the whole soi. Same in Soi 6 area where there was almost no one in the Thai Boys 2011 Massage place, but it was already 11 pm and I guess I should have come much earlier to see the nice guys the place is well-known for. I was too tired for going to Super A Bar, this will be for a next time as I plan to stay in Bangkok longer than before.

The travel to Thailand with Lufthansa had been a breeze with very few travellers at Immigration in Suwanaphum airport. During my waiting time in Frankfurt, I wanted to go to downtown where I had a one month work experience about 38 years ago : I did not find anything I had known then and the closest thing to this period of my life was a beer in Romerplatz. I could not find either the "Come-In" hustler bar which I just wanted to visit, despite being in the right street. And I could see once again how quickly my formerly good knowledge of German language had gone away...

I am now awaiting my boyfriend Tam, and we will fly to-morrow to Phitsanulok where we will start our trip to the North with a rent car. Not many boys bars for a while I guess except for the special mission I have been assigned with, namely exploring the only gay bar in Phitsanulok.

I just hope that Don Muang airport will stay clear of flooding like Bangkok is until now. You would not even know of this threatening disaster when staying in downtown Bangkok, if there were not some rare shops (mostly Seven Eleven and banks) having built brick protection walls just in case. Phitsanulok should be better as everyone says the situation in the North is improving at last.

Halcyon days or ...

Rayong boy in Gayromeo

Thirty three hours more and I will land at Suwanaphum airport .. or wherever. I made more planning this time than ever and everything could as well be cancelled because of the terrible floods that thai people have to face now.

I can only hope that I will be able to fly from Don Muang to Phitsanulok on next Tuesday ; from there, it will be travelling the way I like it : a car, a boy - my boyfriend of eight years - and freedom to stop and to go wherever we wish. Should the weather be nice, it could be great from Mae Sot to Chiang Mai via Mae Hong Son .. albeit without any boy bar (except one I have spotted in Pai).

Until then, I have only to pray that Saphan Kwai will stay dry so that I can taste the atmosphere once again. If no one of the Camfrog boys is free, it could as well be a trip to some massage place in the Silom area ... And if the area is wet, the closest boy bar is only one hundred meters from my hotel.

Holidays have begun and the magic is here once again.

Waterfalls

Waterfall boy

Thai are crazy with waterfalls ... OK some are worth the visit but many others are really very ordinary, at least for this mountain boy.

However I guess that this eagerness to visit the slightest cascade could have something to do with the atmosphere that you generally find in these places. They offer a nice relief for those wanting to escape the scorching heat, and especially during week-ends, many people gather with their families or whatever group they belong. Could this be the main reason why waterfalls attract so many people ?

National parks

Some will think I am busier at visiting new towns than natural tourist attractions. They may be right, but should not forget that it is easy to go to every town in Thailand, but you have to be on your own wheels as soon as you want to go in the countryside.

Moreover, I cannot come to Thailand during the best months, and being in the middle of nowhere in the mud and surrounded by all kinds of mosquitoes and leeches is not my idea of hard-earned holidays.

There are 48 national parks in Thailand and I think I only visited 4 of them : Doi Inthanon and Doi Suthep-Pui in Chiang Mai, Mae Yom in Phrae and Had Nopparatthara-Mu Ko Phi Phi in Krabi. And each one for too short visits. However, more will follow next month during the planned trip to North Thailand. Many others are on the must-do list.

On the top of the list are most isaan parks, among them Phu Kradung (picture above) which is well-known for providing fantastic natural views ...

Outdoors

Those coming from hot areas cannot realise how great it feels to have a drink or to eat outside ... a pleasure that I very rarely indulge in at home, as temperatures are on the fresh side most of the year.

This is the most likely reason why I like to sit in a beer bar or an open-air restaurant everytime I can. Despite all the little bugs you could meet in these places...

Why I love LOS

So many reasons why I love Thailand - the Land of Smiles ...

One of them is the convenient transport network .. be it by road or by train, by boat or by air, it is really not a problem to get from point A to point B in this country. Something we could take for granted, coming from so-called developped countries .. however I find using most means of transport (except cycling) more convenient in Thailand than in my own country. And more rewarding for the eye too.

Addictive

I am now in the middle of my mandatory stay in Farangland and the setting up of my next trip filled most of my free time. The schedule is complete now, with more time in Bangkok as expected, and also a long car trip in the North with Tam – like in the good old times. I am really looking forward being with him for a long time, even if I will be careful to be on my own for another part of my stay. I still cannot realise how it is possible that we can be boyfriends since such a long time (more than eight years), though I am rather a butterfly, and more inclined to twinks than to more mature men …

The trip will begin in Phitsanuloke where I should gather some information about the two gay places I have already identified there (one bar and one massage place), and also visit the wats – that I had missed because of a Royal visit when I came there before. We should then drive to Tak and Mae Hong Son along the burmese border and to Chiang Mai, with enough time to stop in the most interesting places and make some side-trips.

But for now, most of my freetime goes to using this diabolical Camfrog network, which gives me the impression to be in Thailand every night … Having upgraded to Camfrog Pro, I can now see many webcams in the same time, and looking at some rooms sometimes looks like indulging into a fantastic bukkake party with the most handsome boys jerking-off for you … Seeing a young thai man in his briefs is an absolute turn-on for me, so you can imagine how addictive this Camfrog thing is becoming for me ..

I have two or three contacts with guys in Bangkok and hope to meet them for chatting, and then seeing where things can go … one is a young whore from Samut Sakhon, mostly interested in money but with the nicest face in Southeast Asia ; and the second one is his complete opposite : he describes himself as (and looks like) a shy boy "who cannot be easily got", and I think he has contacted me mainly out of curiosity – be sure I am ready to meet the challenge.


The only problem on Camfrog is that very few English is spoken and much less written : at least this gives me a good excuse for lacking assiduity in my thai lessons. And if you could see the expression on the face of the young man when he realises that he is answered in thai …

I am now just crossing my fingers hoping that the final financial collapse will be kind enough to wait for next November. It will then be the time to bury the system who is currently crushing our lives and our hopes.

Specs

I had never seen so many building sites in Pattaya : there were at least four running in the immediate vicinity of my hotel – fortunately without any disturbing noise. And when there are construction sites going on, there is a great chance that construction workers come along.

I could by chance take some pictures, which only confirmed that I should one day try to know one of these workers better. They usually match what I say to a mamasan when she asks me about my specs regarding boys : soong, phom, dam (tall, lean and dark-skinned) and of course narak (cute).

Sagging workwear

Still the best

My last week in Pattaya was a little bit uneventful but every second of it was worthwhile. Pattaya is still the best place to go for us, and was much better than what I could have feared.

I staid most of the time with Tam who had taken some free days from his work. He is really not the kind of boy who would spend all his time in a room, so that having good meals and visiting new places were frequent. He brought me to the Floating Market south of Pattaya : a tourist-oriented place full of thai people, which was surprisingly well laid-out with a pleasant atmosphere. And Tam did not event indulge too much in boundless shopping of useless trinkets.

Floating Market in Pattaya

I also had some time of my own which I used as usual to stroll round the bars both in Sunee and Boystown. This was enough to feel relieved after all the bad things I had read on the boards : there are still boys, there are still customers, there is still life. Sure the numbers were not very high especially in Sunee but bar owners who know their jobs can still enjoy a regular customer flow.

I especially liked Nice Boys in Sunee where a waiter approached me, which is not the rule in this bar. He had probably noticed that I could not take my eyes out of him, so we spent a lot of time chatting before taking the plunge. I told him I had one day passed through his home town (Kalasin) and noticed how the boys there were especially beautiful : I could see him blushing at the compliment – and not I am not very good at smooth talking, I really thought this. For me, this bar had by far the best staff all over Sunee.

Happy Boys was once again visited and once again, entering without any other intention than having a quiet drink quickly turned into a strong need to know better the boy who took my attention. He had already taken care of me last time and I did not remember how it went, although I should have printed his dark skin and his long hair in my brain. In this place you just have to be very cautious to turn down any offer by any other boy : some seem to specialise into coming upstairs uninvited.

I was more disappointed by the beer bars : few guys, fewer cuties in my opinion. I felt that you had to go many times in a bar and get acquainted with one guy or two before feeling really welcomed, so this is a definite hindrance for tourists. Not that this is a big surprise for me, as this is exactly the reason why I feel so good in my favourite taproom : Threezone Bar where I have been a loyal customer for the last nine years (and at first because my then boy special had moved to freelance there).

What was the most worrying was strolling along the sois in the immediate vicinity of Sunee Plaza : in either direction, arabic presence is increasingly heavy, making our Sunee looking more and more like the Gallic village in the middle of the roman empire. How much will this last I wonder, and I can only hope that another area would replace it in case of a huge gay drain.

For the time being, there should be still be some boys and bars available next time I go there, in October.

Longer stays

It was good to be in Bangkok again. Sure the place is hot and overcrowded but there is always something to do there - the first being updating the blog after one week in the sticks.

I always find myself promising to spend more time in the capital, but I say the same about spending more time in Pattaya and also spending more time in the provinces. So I guess the problem could only be solved by a so much awaited retirement, which is not within sight for the time being. This time however, one week in the South and in the Northeast was enough, probably due to the fact I had packed to many things into a too short period of time.

I could not help but going again to the infamous Soi Anuman Ratchathon area, and if I managed to avoid Nature Boy, I was more than happy to enter the Nice Boys Bar. Not for the many questionable boys hanging about there, but for the boys on the scene who were rather intersting to say the least. I did not take one but chatted for a long time with a tall slim dark-skinned guy who was hiding behind the others.

In fact I had reserved my evening for the Boys Bangkok 2011 Massage Shop (under Super A Bar) where I had been so impressed by the overall cuteness of the staff. The best was still the one I had already taken - although I do not like to choose a boy for massaging more than once. And so we went up stairs with Bank, his stunning smile and his good skills for everything you want in a boy massage place (including massage).

On the next day, I went checking the situation in the Saranrom area, as I had not read anything new about it since a long time. I am happy to say that even on a Sunday evening, the place had many guys of all ages and all shapes, in fact more than I had seen last year. As usual you have to be cautious enough and also to know that the truth at, say, 10 pm, may be very different thirty minutes later. Most potential customers use a car or a taxi to drive around the place but as a pedestrian I was welcomed by most boys.

The other places I visited were Solid Bar in Silom and Charmming Bar in Saphan Kwai where they have every day a steady flow of nice young men.

Pattaya will follow and I am already sure that the place is far from dead despite all comments that you can read here and there on the boards.