-- I went to B'LON. SAUNA on wednesday, 25th.; primarily to see how the new opening-hrs. - 1O.3O. to 22.3O.hrs., would be working-out.
- ETA.: approx. 13.15hrs..
- Adm'n.: 23O.bh..
- Possibly a score of men sunning themselves around the outdoors' pool? Inside - dk. & steam rooms - almost deserted.
- Inner Courtyard OPENS now at 16.hrs..
- Some Thais started to arrive after 17.3O.hrs.; but, even so, both the larger steam-room & the Jacuzzi were not busy.
- 19.15.hrs. to supper in the downstairs' rest't., about half-a-dozen others in there; I left around 2O.hrs. by wch. time possibly a dozen and an half eating therin?
- Despite it being a wednesday - originally 'U'wear. Night.' - there was no e'tainment. in the Inner C'yard. as there used to be. I didn't check to verify if the Sound Shaft & the Maze were OPEN., as they used to be on weds..
- By 22.hrs. most men had left.

-- Drinks' prices have been INCREASED:
1.- Coffee & tea - 6O. & 5O.Bh.;
2.- Beers Chang & Singha - 9O. & 1OO.Bh.;
3.- Hse. wines glass & carafe - 13O. & 33O.Bh..

-- An Aussie. acquaintance went there last night, 27th., and said that it was far from busy.

Quote |

Previous Wednesdays no centre maze open nor underwear night action.Babylon is now a gamble for a wide selection but on quiet nights people make a decision quicker knowing that Mr Right is elsewhere.

Any predictions about Babylon's viability ?The overheads must be significant unless the hotel is the subsidising profit centre.

A smart entrepeneur should open a modern but smaller "farang and friends venue".The resort style may have had its day.

Quote |

One of the reasons Babylon may not be very busy at the moment is that a lot of locals may be helping their families on farms. Apparently this happens during November. I expect things will get busier from now on.

Quote |

Are you kidding? Isaan farm boys seldom if ever go to Babylon. I can't remember anyone ever telling me in Babylon that he was even from any of the farm regions of Thailand. There might be a few but I never met one.

Quote |

Where do they go IYHO?

Quote |

I've met some Isan guys in there--and also a Laos farm guy. Two were looking for money (later, after we left and slept at my hotel--they tried to see if they could get it--nothing pushy, but I was slightly generous). I've almost never had anyone try to get money from me in there. But a few have been very direct (go in the room and they bring it up immediately and I say no that's okay and walk out). But some farangs I've talked to in there claim that quite a few Thai guys in there are looking for money. I could never figure Babylon out--there are some strange things about that place. The strangest thing is people who come in (early afternoon), change at their locker, and a few minutes later disappear permanently.

Quote |

-- This forenoon, (3Oth.], I chatted with a couple of farangs - both of a certain age and both frequent & long-staying visitors - both of whom visited BABYLON SAUNA y'day..
- The Aussie. said that he was MORE successful than on his previous visit.
- the American repeated that he found B'LON. was wall-to-wall with farangs. He added that he talked with a couple of long-time staff members, both of whom deplored the prevalence of farangs as they were the ones MORE likely to complain!
- Both longed for ChinaTown's GSM. SAUNA to re-open.

Quote |

I always preferred the older, much smaller Babylon at the top of the Soi - now a restaurant called Pandanus. I have many happy memories of that place. But I think it is also important to remember that there were far fewer saunas in the 1990s. Quite a number of Thais went to Babylon who, were they transported forward ten years, would probably now prefer to visit some of the mostly sticky-Thai establishments.

In terms of size and facilities, I believe Chakran remains very popular and it has many of the facilities offered by Babylon, thought smaller in size. Also, from reading the gay magazines, one of the saunas in Ramkhamhaeng (Farose 2?) is supposed to be the largest in the country. So the clientele a sauna caters to must also play a part in its popularity - or otherwise.

Quote |

Farose 2 is huge but dirty, and it's frustrating because, although you might be the only farang there, they will avoid you like the plague. The parading is amazing, too. It's aggravating and frustrating. The Thai are all looking for super-Mr.-Right. They do go in rooms after a lot of very finicky parading, and you wonder what they're looking for (why it takes them forever to finally pick out who they're going in with).

Likewise, Chakran is aggravating and frustrating--with the same weird, finicky, non-stop parading.

Quote |

The Thai language cruise site states that many familiar faces from GSM are now in exile at Heaven Sauna

Quote |

Dono what the fuss is about. For farangs non asian - and asians over 35 this is the place to go go. All others u can forget - see posts above- if u dont like the pool, the food, the parade of willing guys to have sex with than do stay away. There is simply no other way to cruise, alternative sauna's - street , cinima and mall cruising are all DEAD u can ofcourse go clubbing but for sauna zero else u can get laid

Quote |

I'll be in BKK for two weeks soon and will check out Babylon again--and if I find it no good, I'll just go more to some of the MANY other saunas in Bangkok. Some are open until 6 a.m. The other saunas are difficult, but I've connected in them. Some (like Farose 2 which is open until 6 a.m.) don't open until maybe 7 p.m. (Farose 2 doesn't really start to fill up until midnight). My worst experience was with Farose 1 (the bitchiest non-stop rejection, with lots of drama).

Quote |

-- Y'day., (10th. - Constitution day.) - was a toss-up between the PHAHOL CINEMA at S. Kwai, (BTS. N7.), and BABYLON SAUNA; the latter won.

-- ETA.: 15.oo.hrs.;
- adm'n.: 260.Bh., (the usual week-end rate!),;
- Around the sw. pool of the 8 sun-loungers on the sunny side 4 were occupied a l'Allemande; 2 were taken eventually by other farangs apparently impatient at seeing sun-loungers unoccupied for so long, (the original owners ret'd., collected their paraphanalia & departed without saying a word of expostulation.),. The remaining 2., by now in the shade, were occupied by the original owners a bit later on. There were just 4 Thais there: 3 on their own and 1 with his farang friend.
- The upstairs dk.room was quite busy with farangs, while the gf. steam-room wasn't too busy.
-- At about 17.hrs. I went-IN to the Inner C'yard. and enjoyed a cup of tea and admired a couple of new-to-me waiters,(1 smallish & twinkie & the other a MORE hefty young man with a neat-looking arse.), in their tight & wh. shorts!
- Then to the larger steam-room & Jacuzzi, both of wch. were busy spasmodically.
-- At 19.30.hrs. to supper - some 18 other happy eaters. The menu had several items on it the same as for my previous visit some 10 days earlier.
-- After supper I looked-IN again at the larger steam-room & Jacuzzi, busier but not continuously so.
- Sometime during the evening I went to the Sound Shaft and looked at the Maze, just an empty volume with all partitions etc. removed.
- I left just after 22.hrs., thinking that for a public holiday it wasn't all that busy and that the ratio Thais:farangs was getting-on to 50:50., but I should add that I didn't go upstairs and check-out the rest-cabins' area, whither MORE Thais might have gone in search of whatever.

Quote |

My instincts have always told me that the steam-room and jacuzzi are a waste of time--so I never spent more than a few minutes checking them out. I always had good luck up in the rooms. Does anyone else have observations about this? Am I missing something? I've always avoided steam rooms and jacuzzis in Thai saunas as a waste of time--instead preferring to stay in the hallways where the rooms are.

Quote |

there is action in the steamroom but cause it is so dark u run a big risk running into these enormously big hairy smelling farangs grabbing everything around them which if its ur thing its ok otherwise its a bummer. The jacuzzi has action when late nites but its a health hazzard. Poo and pee mixed with cum which sticks to ur body and can give u all kind of nasty things. Sometimes u can see hard bodied super horny asians getting it from 3 or 4 guys at the same time but i stay out of there if i were u

Quote |