I finally found the elusive sauna which almost everybody has heard about but never been able to find. It took some while and a great deal of walking about to find it but the best thing was that, in the process, I also discovered the gogo bar area in Hatyai. It still isn't anything like BKK or Pattaya, or even Phuket, but for all those who are thinking of a trip to the south, here is the link to my blog post.

The Rowdy Reprobate: Getting to GL Sauna and men's gogo bars in Hatyai

My apologies to everyone for posting just a link as I took photos of the way there and all my directions are on the photos to make it easier for people to find the way. There are too many pictures to upload the entire set to every forum where I post regularly, and I'm too lazy to copy and paste repeatedly.

Quote |

Very useful, thanks!

Quote |

Indeed! I've been to Hat Yai quite a number of times 3-4 years ago and I kept looking for the sauna, but I couldn't manage to find it. Thanks a lot for pointing me to your blog post, next time I'll visit Hat Yai I will know where to look...

Quote |

Wow, great job! One of these days I'm going to better understand why, in some regions of the world, an address is meaningless.

Quote |

I'm glad to be of help. And I know what you mean about addreses. I tried locating the sauna by following the house numbers at first. And that didn't turn out too well because the numbers ran up and down in not-necesssarily sequential ordering on both sides of the road named in the published address. It was only after asking a very helpful ladyboy that I finally found the place.

I can't say that my time was wasted though, because I also found Hatyai's small collection of gay boy bars (and girly bars), while wandering around.

Quote |

terimah kasi dari disini. Good discovery.
1.approx how far (kms or mins walk) from the DIANA store=well known landmark in HYai?
2.this moreorless confirms my idea that in provincial Thai towns -if they have some sauna- it is very often in/near some gay bar area-to allow some place for nearby incidental meetings or so.

Quote |

Hi Pong,
You're welcome. I think if you follow my directions according to the photos I posted, it shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes brisk walk from Diana Dept. Store.

If you take a tuk-tuk to Nattaporn K&K, it's just round the back of the minimart.

What I know about Hatyai is that some ten years or so ago (I can't remember for sure) all the naughty places were supposed to be shifted to one place away from the main tourist stretch around the the big hotels. Some places got around the prohibition by becoming "barber shops" or "salons" with lady tonsorial experts but you could only make your bookings before 6pm, when they closed their premises.

A tuk-tuk driver took me to one of the boy bars (I can't remember which) a couple of years back, but it was the only one I actually saw along ThaiAkarn Road back then. I never managed to find it again after that.

It's taken me more than a year of patiently and discretely asking about here and there to find the sauna and bars. It would have been easier if I could have simply asked my aunt but I didn't necessarily want her to know I was plannng to have wild and uninhibited sex with other men the minute I left her house after dinner.

Incidentally, massage parlours were not included in the move to one red light district, and there are many along the main tourist areas. I have never availed myself of their services but from some things I heard people say - and a couple of male masseurs I saw - I gather it might be possible to book one of the male masseurs for an in-room massage at your hotel. I know there are no facilities for 'private massages' at the massage shops I see while walking along the streets. Friends of mine have booked masseuses for that purpose, I know.

Speaking of the male masseurs I saw this last trip, I noticed that all the shops had younger men with fairer skin, who looked almost Chinese, to provide no-hanky panky massage at the glass-fronted shops. I was told that they came from the north and could be booked for in-room massage, too - whatever that might mean.

I am afraid I did not investigate the range of their services as I prefer well-tanned Thai men. And as I did not have time to check out the bars at ThaiAkarn Road, I am afraid I can't say if there were more of these light-skinned guys at the gogo bars.

Quote |

I was in Hat Yai 40 days ago and went to the three bars which are within walking distance one from another.

They were offering a much better choice of boys than on my last visit about 5 years ago, but I did not see many southern-looking guys there. The boys they choose clearly have a fairer skin complexion than in Pattaya or even Bangkok. I also saw a group of women roaming the same bars as me, and of course the boys were more interested in them.

The bar I preferred was City Man which is on the western side of Thai Arkan Road : very welcoming owner (from Buriram) and some great looking lads. A little bit closer to Sripoonavart Road you have G-Men - less boys than in the other places and than before. Go further north towards Sripoonavart Road but turn on your right into a small soi just before crossing this main road, and you will find Buddy's which has opened again after a two years closure.

There was a Studio 54 Bar on Chaniwate 2 Road -southern of the three above places, where there are many girlies bars ; I could not see it so I guess it has closed now.

Quote |

Thanks for the update about the bars and barboys. They were all still closed when I went there - I thought day time pictures would be easier for most people to see the directions and landmarks.

I'll probably be going to Hatyai again some time towards the middle of this month and I shall certainly check out the bars and sauna and take some night time pictures to post, if I can.

Concerning the predominance of very fair-skinned boys in the bars as well as the massage places, I am rather disappointed though not surprised. Most Asians consider dead-white skin to the be acme of beauty. I'll probably just have a look at the bars and then move on to the sauna...at least in Hatyai, I'll be sure of meeting more locals with tans.

And if I can find a way to ditch the rest of the family at one of the big shopping venues, I also intend to find out if the masseurs offer hanky-panky as part of their services!

Quote |

further to this-am now last day ChMai (where all those Chinese looking white skined ladies also live-they are pretty) and fly tomorrow-direct AirAsia-to HYai-to folow up into Malaysia.
It is since long ago last century that to appeal to the mainly Malay clientele in HYai the str8 massagebisnis is populated with Lanna=northern Thai ladies. As seems also the case in many more diguised thus shops in MY and SIN. Hece this would probably apply to PLU too.
Southern Thai boys can be pretty hot-the few that choose to work in this trade seem to do so out of choice and not out of necessity. Many have these really (for me-suka!) hensum Malay type looks+wide black eyes. I remember-a really long time ago-one walking into a BKKbar- and fell for him. He was dead-honest to the point- wanted to know what he had to do and said then-OK- you do not want to much-I like you. (from Krabi or Trang, I think)

Quote |

If you say so but I personally do not know any Malay PLU friends who go for the "Lanna look" I am afraid. I am not a particular fan of pasty skin or make-up of any kind on men, either, for that matter.

As for why any of the youthful gentlemen choose their particular line of work, I am afraid I can't comment, either, as I haven't offed any in Hatyai over the last ten years as I have done almost all of my cruising in Southern Thailand either over the internet or the old-fashioned pre-internet way.

Quote |

visit to GL sauna, HYai. Spent 1 day in Hyai-flew in from ChMai 9direct now-very busy fluight) and left next day by heaviky guarded train to SgKolok-into Malaysia.
easy to find with description, were it not that I thought the inner city deptmtstore was Diana-is not, this is Odean, and there is now also a Centran. A little further on the route as descirbed there is an exactly same orange building and a very busy night/food/market, you pass TopMan going there coming from town. The nightmarket before the Kk is not busy-they only do cofee/kopi and custardbread. KK is actually a supermarket(9and later i saw it is a 7 lookalike chain in KUL). But all this hardly matters.
Sauna open 18.30-23.30 and I was charged 200 bt for entry. Dont know if different on weekends. You only get 1 towel, choice of various size condoms and lube. there is fee icewater.
There were a lot of motosais outside and it was fairly busy inside. Ground floor is just that: empy, not even a motosai or rubbish ,and stair up. Entry-with beside it a kind of unstaffed bar and a heap of dusty workoutmachines, likely the gym. the WCs lok neat, design, but the rest is not and is also unkempt, if not dirty in many places, but not as bad as farose2 just by here.
Showers only cold water, several broke.
Then you go up and enter a kind of show/gathering place with white imi-leather seats and a small stage, on which a puppet stands. There would be no show though. There are groups of friends who gather here and thus see any newcomer. On these floors it takes 2 adjacent shophouses thus is bigger as you think. There is an alley with cublicles beside, dark, where anyone stands and grabs and feels-much more as usual in thai sauna's. Ends in some more lighted TV-room with gay poh-movies.gayromeo. on the side there is also a kind of dark maze-which someone only showed me later. Also other as Thai sauna they talk to you-anyone wanted to try out his english and even introduced himself and friends. And asked if I had a good time afters..... About 60-70% young guys, just a few of the aged uncles. Apparently they gossip among them, as after action 1 I was grabbed for more and thus had a good evening;. But by then-just after 22.00-it had become fairly wuiet already. Hyai also lacks any available transport later in the eve in these places-thus it was another walk back to centre. With yet another few hopeful gazes and glances and comeones.
in short: the place, dirty, unkempt, but with good you know, that attracts customers.

Quote |

-- In the SGP.-centric > Trevvy < there is another's & favorable viewpoint of GL. SAUNA in > FORUMS > TRAVELLERS' LODGE > BANGKOK: posting dated 23 nov 12.;
- NB.: No need to register and/or to sign in for reading only.
--

Quote |