Things not what they used to be
 

Visited Pattaya in early July. I agree the best bars are Funny Boys and Toy Boys. I don't like the changes at Copa which is now a bar open to the street. But its good to see the boys back performing in the water tank there.

The quality of boys on offer has declined a lot but still much better than Bangkok. I prefer the bars to select a companion rather than the internet. I was ripped off twice via Hornet/Grindr/JackD/Gay Romeo. One person was not the person advertised, and another tricked me into lending him 3000 baht, but at least he was a great fuck!

I get the impression that everyone is more than usually desperate to make a buck. The boys are demanding more, and the mamasans are lying, even to regulars.

Mamasans
 

Mamasans, never, over 35 plus years my favorites.

A few weeks ago a friend went to a bar in soi twilight, asked to speak to one of the boys and mamasan refused 'he's not Thai'. Young man , with 3 or 4 other boys, was sitting down full clothed, none of them dancing at all. Farang asked if it's possible to see these boys dancing, mamasan replied 'no, not thai so not handsome and black skin' (farang says none of this group had skin tone more than light tan). Farang now walked over to where the boys were sitting and took the boys hand leading him back to his sitting position. Farang discovered the boy was quite pleasant and speaks perfect English, he's from Vietnam. The farang involved works permanently in Ho Chi Minh City, he and the young man now back in Ho Chi Minh city and the young man ready to restart university. I met the farang friend and his new companion twice before they left for HCMC, very pleasant young man, can talk about any subject, very polite, he had to stop his studies in bio-technology because of family finance problems.
I will visit them in HCMC in November when I'm working there.

The bar closures continue. In Boystown Wild West is no more. (Once the hottest cabaret show and always packed out, its now a noodle bar!)

Over in Sunnee, Sunny Boys has shut it doors.

What is surprising is that this has happened in the high season when visitor numbers peak - but they're now Chinese, Indian and Russian visitors and not gay farangs. The days of the 'go go boy bar' are indeed numbered.

Since none of them ever did anything even closely resembling dancing, much less "go go" dancing, maybe it's not such a big loss.

They were both fun! .... and better than staring at a computer screen all night looking for a date.

Jomthien Complex was full of people out drinking and talking and laughing and having a good time last time I was there. Better than looking at boys playing with their phones in their sagging underwear.

Not sure which bars you frequent, but there are no saggy undies here. Dreamboys just re-outfitted all their boys in skin tight black leatherette briefs with 180 degree zips. Sexy maak maak :)

Yes Jomtien Complex is full, but when the street clothes come off you don't always get what you expect.

I think I'd still rather enjoy the anticipation of not having it all laid bare before getting it home. If every trick were perfect I guess I'd find it a bit boring.

And it was the Sunee Plaza bars where I remember skeletal boys in sagging underwear sitting around doing nothing. Boystown is too full of women and Chinese package tourists for my taste.

More Boystown go -go closing... now Vaasa has gone, plus the dreadfully laid out attempt next to the old Lucky 7 which only opened about 6 months ago.

Half that soi now in darkness (girly bars also closing.)

Jomtien busier ... host bars now 80% non-Thai (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam).

Low -low season, but great beach weather....

Do you find the non-Thai more appealing?

No preference - I enjoy them all. :)

Wonder if this trend will be affected by the government's recently-announced crackdown against undocumented alien workers.

Asia Pacific
Thailand backtracks on labour law after migrant workers flee
BANGKOK: Thailand's military government said it will delay enforcing new labour regulations after thousands of migrant workers fled home to neighbouring countries this week fearing arrest and heavy fines under the new decree.

The scramble is the latest chaos triggered by Thailand's efforts to regulate the millions of foreign workers who prop up its economy with jobs in factories, fishing boats and other low-paid work.

The junta has trumpeted a flurry of campaigns aimed at registering migrant workers and cracking down on illegal smuggling routes, but the efforts are often ad-hoc and short-lived.

As a result, much of the migrant work force remains undocumented and vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers and unscrupulous employers.

On Friday the junta said it would suspend parts of a new foreign labour law, which came into effect on Jun 23, for 120 days after the regulations sparked a panic among migrant workers and their employers.

"(During this window) there will be no arrests or crackdown on illegal workers except those for those who violate human trafficking laws," Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam told reporters.

The reprieve comes after thousands of labourers fled home to neighbouring Myanmar and Cambodia fearing arrest and new fines under the law, which punishes migrant workers with up to US$3,000 in fines for lacking valid work permits.

Under the new law, employers can also be fined up to 800,000 baht (US$24,000) for each undocumented worker they hire.

In Samut Sakhon, a seafood industry hub known as "Little Burma" for its concentration of Myanmar migrant workers, around 500 labourers have been returning home daily during the past week, said Suthasinee Kaewleklai from the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN).

"These workers don't have any documents and have to return to Myanmar as they fear needing to pay a heavy fine," she told AFP.

The advocacy group also warned that traffickers frequently profit from such mass movements of migrants, with smugglers and border agents exacting fees from undocumented workers looking for a safe passage home.

A police chief in Myanmar's Karen state said around 6,000 migrant workers had returned home from Thailand since Thursday.

Meanwhile on the Cambodian border, the number of migrants streaming home has been increasing daily since the new law came to into effect, said Thai immigration officer Benjapol Robsawad.

Since Wednesday nearly 2,000 workers have crossed back to Cambodia through the Poipet checkpoint, he told AFP.

In 2014 some 250,000 Cambodians fled Thailand after fears that the newly-installed junta government would arrest and deport undocumented workers. They slowly trickled back in the following weeks.
Source: AFP