Farose Sauna Pradiphat
I went there yesterday, sunday afternoon. This one is a bit difficult to find if you are riding shanks's pony. Here are some fresh directons. If you are getting there from Silom on BTS get out at Saphan Kwai and take the south exit on the right hand side facing back from whence you came... The map tells the rest. But here it is writ.
When you get out at this exit and go down the stairs turn around and walk towards the traffic and down to the intersection about 500 m. Turn right and walk along Tn Pradiphat until you come to Pradiphat Soi 19 (RHS) clearly marked. Walk down Soi 19 for 389 paces (about 249 metres LOL) and TR into a short soi and walk about 30 m and turn left. Farose is the third building/dwelling on the left 128/3. The entrance is a large imposing block structure brown render colour which makes it look like a garment factory. Admission - when I went it was 100 baht may be 120 later.
Striped hand towels of the type mother used to give father for cleaning the car when she had finished using them for everything else are available. If your waste is more then 29.5 inches then drape them over your shoulder. Bring some undies, boxers or swimmers. Most guys had on swimmers or boxers, also the std cap.
Inside is a bit like a building site. Bits of crap everywhere. Uneven floors, broken tiles particularly in the steam room (which is great) with some angular bits missing. Thought it was a bit of fancy terazzo... Ha Ha. So take care. Scant towels mean water on ‘polished’ wood floors and stairs… Many many stairs.
A rabbit warren of areas and many levels. There are round biscuit type, large and hard poofs (your oxymoron for the day) in every little cabin which are impossible to get comfortable on but then who wants to sleep.
There is a bar, karoke, stage show all being done with fun. The surrounds are dingy but this sort of adds to the atmosphere. They are fixing the outdoor top floor doing some planking and concreting so this may account for some of the mess.
For my part I was mostly ignored sort of politely but did have 2 encounters of the best kind. The second was suitably rough and hung like in the proverbs. There is always something for you in practically any scene, you just gotta be patient… Alas not my strongest suit.
Now remember I was only there for a couple of hours so it may not be fair to judge so bear this in mind when reading below.
Overall an average experience but I will give it a second look over when the memory fades. By the way as a regular at GSM until the fire I can tell you it is not a patch on GSM. GSM had some folk who cared about the place. This is not really evident here yet but may be this is developing.
Anyway please read with the above caveat.