Chiang Mai Update

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Chiang Mai Update

Post by Asia Traveler »

Chaing Mai Update


Lotus Hotel is pleasant place to stay with very attentive staff. They have a wide variety of food available. The location is across the street from Adam’s Apple and a few blocks from major market place. A bit far from the night market bars such as Ram and Secrets. Hotel is old which makes it more interesting to me with wood work etc but maybe not be for others. The area is a bit noisy with street traffic and bar music. The hotel bar is outdoors and plays music at night. Next door is a Karaoke bar that can get hard to take. The bar noise seem to be dependent on customers so it is not there all the time just be aware and maybe select a room away from hotel garden.

Ram Bar has nightly show which does not seem to have changed much. A pretty good lip sync drag affair. Secrets has not changed much many of the same freelancers a last year. Same with Orion Bar. There are a couple of other bars in this area but my look inside was nobody but bartender. Not sure how they survive or what their business model is.
Adams’ Apple has a great selection of staff both large and small in all ways. Just don’t expect them all to have a lot of experience and best to check with Mama-San if you need a specific activity to be happy. Off fee is 400 and boys expect 1,000 for short time. Hours are limited 21:00-midnight. Showtime is 22:30. Bar is clean and well run. Staff is polite and not pushy. No Wifi available. My favorite place in Chiang Mai.
New My Way Bar is less sharp and shinny than Adam’s Apple. The staff is older more muscle boy types of a larger size in all ways. I did not stay for the show as the boys were not my type. Opens 20:00 and show time is 22:30.
stkyricesf

Re: Chiang Mai Update

Post by stkyricesf »

Thank you for the update. I was thinking of visiting Chaing Mai on my trip in July. You have provided good information.
fountainhall

Re: Chiang Mai Update

Post by fountainhall »

My reading of posts on this and other forums is that the gay nightlife scene in Chiang Mai has reduced quite drastically from what it was, say, 10 years ago. Would you agree? Is it true that most of the go-go boys at Adam's Apple and New My Way are almost all straight? Does Adam's Apple still have the cocktail bar downstairs? This was a feature when there was a change of management around that time.
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Re: Chiang Mai Update

Post by Gaybutton »

fountainhall wrote:the gay nightlife scene in Chiang Mai has reduced quite drastically from what it was, say, 10 years ago.
Also, I'd like a little more information about the gay bars around the Night Bazaar area. Are all of them still there? Is the Ram Bar still the most popular in that area?
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Re: Chiang Mai Update

Post by Moses »

Gaybutton wrote:
fountainhall wrote:the gay nightlife scene in Chiang Mai has reduced quite drastically from what it was, say, 10 years ago.
Also, I'd like a little more information about the gay bars around the Night Bazaar area. Are all of them still there? Is the Ram Bar still the most popular in that area?
Yes, Ram is one only bright place, it was crowded every evening. Secret and Onion were almost empty at time of my visit at March.
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Josan

Re: Chiang Mai Update

Post by Josan »

The last time I was in Adam's apple all the boys sat in the back of the club, behind all the customers so you could not really get a chance to find someone special. Do they still do that? During the non-show time are there boys on the stage?
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Re: Chiang Mai Update

Post by Asia Traveler »

Good questions but please keep in mind my answers are limited by the fact It is low season here and this is only my third trip to Chiang Mai and all were in June.
Adams Apple only has the upstairs bar open. When the club opens at 21:00 the boys are sitting around on their cell phones while the late arrivals straggle in and apologize to mama-san. About 21:30 they are rousted up and go on stage for viewing. They generally play around on over head bars, do push ups, and this is great time to see them relaxed and interacting with each other rather than performing. The show acts alternate between a drag singer and some activity involving the boys. They also have they standard “big dick” show where the performer tours the audience for inspection and tips. While the shows are running the boys not performing sit at bar in the back. The boys are all from Shan State but I could not determine which tribe. They are all young and light skinned. They do appear to be mostly straight but I did catch one looking at guys on cell phone while jacking off. They all seem interested in pleasing but as I said before some seem fairly inexperienced. Mama-San checks with me if all was OK the next day when I have taken a new boy home. Best bet is to check with mama-San before offing if you don’t want to be disappointed.
The New My Way I have visited in past and once this trip. I did not interact or off any of the boys as they all seemed to be older tops. So I don’t really have a good feel if they are gay or straight. They did seem to be reasonably good looking unlike some bars in Bangkok or Pattaya that seem to drag the alley for anything with a big dick. But take that with a grain of salt as I am an old school Pattaya visitor who longs for the old days of bars full of pretty young boys who were shy and pleased if you paid them any attention.
Ram Bar was 90%+ full last Thursday so they are doing well. Secrets had maybe three customers who appeared to be locals and did not off anyone. When I returned to Secrets after the Ram Bar show I was the only customer. Earlier in the evening Orion Bar had maybe two customers. There were another couple of bars listed in Thaipuan but they had no customers or were closed. What is nice about the Night Market bar area is you can walk from one to the other as they are clustered together.
This week I plan to visit Circle Pub and Barrocco as well as a look inside Black Door which never really seemed like a gay bar to me just a gay owned bar but maybe things have changed. I have also not yet tried out any massage locations.
One thing I wanted to say about the Lotus Hotel. I am staying in the apartment suite and I brought my Apple TV so I could play games and screen mirror video from my iPad but it will not connect to captive hotel networks that require a web page log in. I mentioned this to the staff on Monday in passing. On Tuesday engineering began work running a cable up from the ground floor to me room so I can plug in my APPLE TV. The cable is in and now they are suppose to connect to to the network this week. Now that is what I call being responsive to a guest!

Hope I answered all the questions if not let me know and I will update on other bars after my visit. My experience over the last three years is the gay venues in Chiang Mai are decreasing but Club 17 seems to do well with the bathhouse events. I also am unimpressed with what I see on Grinder but keep in mind my taste which is my lens of judgement.
fountainhall

Re: Chiang Mai Update

Post by fountainhall »

It's about 3 years since I was in Chiang Mai which I visited three times that year because routing through Chiang Mai on V Air was the best and cheapest way to return from Taipei (sadly V Air no longer flies to Thailand). I find all the closures depressing - at least the closures of places which I had previously enjoyed on many visits over more than a couple of decades - like the SoHo bar and the 2 Brothers Massage. At least the House of Male sauna and the excellent (at least, that has always been my experience there) His Massage remain open.

I used to find this site about gay life and venues in Chiang Mai very useful -

http://www.radchada.com/gay-chiang-mai-gay-scene-guide/

I am not sure how up to date it remains, but it seems reasonably current. I hope another reader will correct the information if I am wrong. For specific detail, click the links listed in the yellow box on the upper right hand side. Interestingly, it not only lists the venues that are open. It adds those which have been closed in recent years. for example -

13 gay and 2 gay-friendly bars - 58 closed including such old favourites as SoHo and all the bars within the Bazaar near The Wall and those behind the D2 hotel.
3 go-go bars and 2 host bars - closures listed in the above 58
2 gay saunas - 3 closed
8 gay massage spas - 22 closed

The trend, sadly, seems obvious.
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Re: Chiang Mai Update

Post by Gaybutton »

Asia Traveler wrote:Hope I answered all the questions
I think you did and your taking the time to do it is very much appreciated.

My board has a reputation of being primarily "Pattaya-centric," but that was never what I had in mind when I established this board. I had hoped it would be informative of literally everywhere in Thailand, but unless board members in other areas post information, it doesn't happen.

Obviously we get quite a bit of information about Pattaya and Bangkok. We get information about Chiang Mai too, but not nearly as often. Once in a while Smiles posts information about Hua Hin. We hardly ever get current information about Phuket. Those are the major cities in Thailand where gay bars are found, but there is certainly plenty of gay activity in other areas of Thailand too, whether bars are involved or not. Trongpai and Fountainhall are very good about that, but I'm sure we all would appreciate much more participation about other areas of Thailand.

I really would like much more information posted about other areas of Thailand, especially lesser known areas and if such posts include gay information, so much the better and, of course, if the posts can include photos, better still.
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Re: Chiang Mai Update

Post by Asia Traveler »

Thank you for the link fountainhall it is a great resource.
Local transportation is now changed with the Uber sale to Grab Taxi. Tuktuk last year was the standard for private transportation and the Baht bus for shared rides using color coded routes. A typical Tuktuk price for short trips was 100-150 Baht. At night they raised their prices when bars closed. The hotel recommended I use Grab Taxi which I was a bit resistant to. I like cruising around town in a Tuktuk once you find a honest reliable driver. But now that I am using Grab there is just no way I am putting up with sorting out Tuktuk drivers. I took a Tuktuk back to the hotel from Rimping Market and they wanted 200 Baht I laughed and said no way so they agreed to 100 Baht which the drivers then argued over who was willing to take me at that price. The Grab Taxi fare for the same trip was 55 Baht. The Grab cars are recent models with AC. I have never had to wait over five minutes for them to arrive. The fare is given to you before you book and I pay via Grab Pay by having by credit card on file with the app. No money changes hands. The fares are usually about 60 Baht for local around town trips.
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