Hi taoboxer

As far as I can remember, Buddy's Boys was in the same location with the same layout (a big stage where the boys were sitting).
You probably know that this place is almost next door to Akarn Road.
Have a nice trip to Hat Yai ...

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Hi Pit, I would be most surprised if they actually told the barboys THAT!

Hi Llz, that would be at the ground floor of the old 'Regent Hotel" right? I'll go have a look anyway.

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I do not know whether there was a hotel above, sorry. Look at this map for details (except that Buddys was on the southern side on the little soi which parallels Phoosawat Road).

Gay Map of Hat Yai · gayScout 2012

This map also shows a karaoke bar in another part of town (Paladium , 9 Chaiyakul Uthit Rd) but I never went there .. could you be our special correspondent and launch an enquiry ?

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I can't be sure from the map so I'll have to go to Buddy and see if it is still where it was. The last time I went there (quite a few years ago) it was on the mezzanine (sorry, not ground) floor of SC Regency Hotel which is not the same as the current Regency Hotel. I had to dig up my old diaries to get the name right but I remember it was located in a small, quiet, soi about ten minutes walk from the main stretches of shopping in Hatyai. The SC Regency was actually a pretty nice place with balconied rooms and it was actually cheaper than the other hotels of the same grade.

The Palladium seems to be quite close to the Diamond Plaza hotel where I usually stay so I'll see if I can check it out, too, though karaoke isn't one of my favourite activities. Even in Hatyai, my previous experiences with such singalong bars have been decidedly less than memorable, I can tell you.

I can't promise to check everything out as I'll only be there for a day and a night, but I'll do what I can.

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Actually I would never be surprised at what people tell barboys.

I'm aware of a guy from Utah, used to visit several times every year, Bkk and Pattaya, off boys, have his fun then tell the boy that he's on a small budget and they will therefore have to accept a small tip.

He seemed to think this is all OK and that he's entitled to take this posture because his funds are quite limited, so he said, compared to other tourists. In fact he had a strong chip on his shoulder about this.

Last I heard (maybe 18 months ago) he was paying 450Baht for all night. He had many severe arguments with working boys and has been beaten up a couple of times.

He passed away about 1 year back, in Bkk, from severe diabetees plus lots of side complications which he'd been living with for a couple of decades, all of which cost a fortune in medications etc. But that's no excuse to expect bar boys to accept way way below the going rate.

I'm also aware that he used to share all of these details with other farang on the gay beach in Pattaya thinking he would impress people, but attracted severe abuse by other deck chair occupiers.

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It's sad what some people delude themselves into believing to be justification for all kinds of things. I just hope he's at peace now.

I leave for hatyai tomorrow morning and I'll be back by Sunday evening so I hope to be able to post updates about the situation there by Monday night at the latest.

See you guys in a few days time.

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I'm in Hat Yai now.

Staying at Meridien hotel, 750Baht includes (very basic) breakfast if you negotiate. Old hotel , has air con, hot water etc, about 3 star, clean and pleasant. Fast free internet.

No more than 4 minutes walk to Buddy Boys. Went there at about 9.30pm, dizzy manager was outside and said no go-go boy show and no show at all at the moment. Sign says show at 10.30, so I double checked - no show at all.

Then walked around to the soi indicated in most write ups to have several boy bars (3 minutes walk from Buddy).

Found one place only, 'Top Man'. Has about 10 boys in street clothes. Show starts at 10:30pm. First few dancers in jeans with no shirts then dancers in bikiinis only, then candle show, then soap show. Overall the show is about 1hr 15 min and not too bad. Drinks 150Baht.

Three customers until just before show time when it filed quickly, about 25 customers, a handful of 'male' customers and a lot of gatoey. No other farang.

The working boys are a very mixed bunch. No full on lady boys, one slightly fem boy, then the rest more macho boys, several overweight.

For me nothing interesting enough for a rendezvous except one young man who really took my eye. He sat down, spoke perfect English, 22 yrs old, and I quickly learned he's from Myanmar. Works at Top Man on Friday only but only every third week when he comes to export clothing from his family factory in Myanmar.

Also learned he has a regular Hat Yai customer whenever he comes to town. Regular customer arrived a little later, an old Thai man, very effeminate, very drunk and loud, with an entourage of loud gatoey.

Then headed back to my hotel, walked past Buddy again and learned that go-go boy show had just finished, also noted about 25 motorcycles outside. Some of course would be customers but I'm guessing quite a few would be driven by the working boys.

I'll go back to buddy at 10:30 tomorrow evening to get a clearer picture.

UPDATE - Sunday evening 22 Sept.

Just went to Buddy. Total waste of time. The venue is a mess, about 10 boys, all about mid - late 20's, all sit on a stage away from the customer seating, for me nothing even remotely interesting, certainly nothing cute, but each to his own of course. Drinks 150Baht.

Waiter confirmed definitely no go-go dancing and no show.

Waiter confirmed Hat Yai currently has 2 venues: Buddy and Top Man. He wasn't sure about sauna.

Easy directions to the two bars: As suggested by Taoboxer, use Diana dept. store as a start point..

- Walk out of Diana to main road and turn left (don't cross the road)
- Keep walking about 150 - 200 metres, walk past a tyre depot on your left side then another 20-30 metres walk past a Honda motorcycle showroom on your left side.
- By this stage the shop frontages have started to move in about 10 metres from the footpath of the main road.
- After Honda keep walking another 4 or 5 shophouses and Buddy is right there on your left.
- For Top Man, just keep walking (don't go out to the main road, after Buddy an internal Soi now appears).
- Walk past Buddy and within 10 metres a soi directly to the left appears, don't turn in, just keep walking straight ahead.
- Another 20 metres and a bigger Soi appears to the left side. Turn left into this Soi. Walk down this soi about 70 metres and on the opposit side of this Soi you'll see a can't miss sign for Top Man.

Enjoy.

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-- Khun Xfun,
- Thank you for yr. informative & model posting.
--

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Since Xfun has given such a detailed report already, I'll just add the following -

1.The mamasan at Top Man was a nice, darkskinned slightly fem guy who was quite informative. He confirmed that there are now just 2 gogobars at Thai Akarn Road - Top Man and Gman (or something like that) which you reach first if you follow my directions. Gman was closed on Saturday night, and when I told the mamasan that, he me that there'd been a raid just a couple of nights ago. I think that's quite likely as the girly bars were also closed (with one exception).

2.I wish I'd gone back to check out the show because I saw two or three boys whom I wouldn't have minded taking home (all still in their street clothes as I was there early at 9.30pm) but I didn't have enough cash on me and I wanted to check out the sauna as well. I did find out however that -
Short time - 1200 Baht
Long time - 1700 Baht
*The rates quoted include the off fee. I was told that if I wanted to tip the boy a little bit extra, that would also be welcome.

3.The sauna is on the second and third floors. It was very Spartan, to put it kindly. 250 Baht gets you a towel and a lock for the locker. On the second floor, there was a lounge with some practically unused gym equipment in a corner, bath stalls and some chairs and settees placed in odd corners around the 3 rooms. On the third floor, there was a mattress on the floor in front of a curtained-off room in which settees and chairs had been placed along the walls. There was also a stage with a mannequin in of all things, a silver bridal gown.

4.The clientele was most interesting. The old uncles were mostly on the second floor while in the large curtained off room, there were about fifteen younger guys on a row of settees along one side of the room, while three or four uncles were on the sofas on the opposite side. At first, I thought the younger gentlemen were for booking (they did look nice enough for that), as they were all clad only in blue towels but I was quickly disabused of the notion when one of them started talking loudly enough for me to overhear. None of the boys there were fem in the least.

The guy who spoke was a young Indian bodybuilder (very goodlooking, too) and he was speaking Malay (with a Malaysian accent) to one of the boys and from their conversation, I deduced that the boys in that group were all there to look for maturer admirers.

I didn't hang around long since I was thinking of going back to the hotel and grabbing some cash so that I could go back and check out the gogo show at Top Man, so I can't say much more than this regarding the sauna but don't expect anything resembling Bangkok standards and if you don't speak either Thai, Chinese or Malay, I imagine you'd have a difficult time getting further with the young admirers of senior men since they seemed rather shy.

I didn't have time to check out Buddy as my time was limited, but I couldn't find the karaoke mentioned earlier, either.

I am quite happy that I really took the time to go see the bars and sauna for myself at last. Trips to Hatyai to see my relatives won't be quite so staid and boring in future.

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