I have spent the last week in Patong Beach. The 2011 Gay Pride event started on Wednesday and ended last night with a colorful parade along the beach road and up to the Paradise complex. The whole event had a heavy emphasis on drag queens probably because that is what the hoi polloi, which seems to be the target audience rather than gays, best understands about gay events. It ended up being a huge distraction from what is usually on offer here, but I guess the event is about making money from straights rather than gays. The go-go bars were full of straights. My Way even had a family in the audience. By the way, I think My Way must be the worst run establishment with the manager there often interrupting activities by barking orders through a megaphone to the go-go boys to re-deploy them outside to lure more unsuspecting customers. Mind you I don't know why anyone would want to be inside the go-go bars anyway when all the activity seemed to be outside on "Exit Road" which is where most of the gay venues are located. Each venue took turns in staging free shows along "Exit Road" during the three days of the event. This created huge crowd congestion as the hoi polloi competed with gays in moving up and down the street, made worse by the frequent intervention of vehicular traffic along the street. Chaos ensued. However, sitting outside the bars proved to be hugely entertaining, not because of the free shows, but because the passing crowds of straights turned out to be the freak show rather than what they thought they had come to see. Anyway, the local gays seemed to enjoy the opportunity to dress up and show off/shock. I found the event to be very disruptive. At least I had spent the prior three days enjoying a quieter gay scene.
|