Sakon Nakhon

[pauleddy]

I am popping up to SakNak next month on business.

I am not necessarily interested in fast fun, as I have a partner-- and I know that SN is not like soi 4.

If anyone has any clue at all re. any bars, spas, gay hotels, malls or zones, then I would take a peek out of curiosity. I can't find anything on Google.

Cheers

Eddy

[asanee]

`1.you mean the city=capital of that province? I suppose town for the following:

2. booooooooring-for the very same answer that has now been given dozens of times to about any Thai provincial town, be it Isan or not, will apply: there is not. If you even really thought there ''must'' be something on google: then you have not yet quite captured how provincial Thaild functions. There are no malls-there are the usual hypermarkets+ Makro, there are no ''gay'' places: but about any currently ''in'' place for entertainment, Thai style, will have its gay corner-there will be no leaflets, no signs, special hotels or whatever. To prevent any misunderstanding: of course there are hotels, some feeble shopping centres, a giant market, a giant college or 2 with a few 1000 local students in that age, the provincial hospital, the chiangwat offices and the massageshop or 3. None, repeat none, of these will be ''gay'' enough to list in any of those listings.

4.now why I did this time take the bother to respond: as my best friend happens to come from there (left home some 16-17 yrs ago for that big mango) and when I once asked him (for him at nauseam) about that and how he found friends there, his answer was: it just happens. And there are the katoeys walking around the park+lake in the evnings, anyone knows.

5. finally: this town has a sizeable Vietnamese population and a fair lot of them are catholic. This town/province is mainly known among the Thai for the dog-eating habit.

[pauleddy]

Thanks anyway!

I have been in the kingdom about almost ten years, and have visited Nakon Nowhere-type towns before. I wasn't expecting to raise my hopes any more than those raised by your answer.

Even KK Ubon Udon and C Rai have 'something' in some listings. Looks like I will need to take a long novel and a short wankmag.

Eddy

[Rionoir]

I think you'll find gay and straight mixed pretty much everywhere in the smaller cities. Come on, learn give off some signals... it's not that hard.

[pauleddy]

Thanks

I am back in BKK now.

SN was predictably boring. Yes, I gave off signals, and there were a few obvious return of signal in the Big C area and the market...but nothing strong enough to follow up, as it were. Glances but not real cruising.

In the end, I walked for about 15 minutes to find a "normal" farang bar (the Escape Bar, but I think the name has now changed). I wanted to chat and drink with somebody, straight or gay. However, there were no farangs in there, just a bored-looking Thai girl and 2 Thai kids playing pool. I was staying at the MJ Hotel, which was alleged to have a "pub" frequented by farangs (mainly non-gay?), but the hotel was largely empty and, anyway, had no pub. The hotel restaurant has a Karaoke singer, but nothing else.

I have heard, just recently, that some boys "supplement income" near the university, although that is out of the town centre. The lake with Katoeys (?) is not in the town, either.

As mentioned, I was not expecting SN to be San Francisco...but even Udon and Chiang Rai seemed to have more "signals" and even a mention or two in the listings.

Fortunately, I had other reasons to spend 3 days there, so I was not looking for a gay holiday! Just curious, really, hence the posting.

Eddy

[Ijustwannateach]

It is rare, except in cities which have unhealthily large populations of foreigners living there or passing through, to have a 'farang' bar around. Most of the very few of them which I have seen in the smaller cities are apparently doing terrible business, because they don't have an actual local clientele, and unfortunately many of the Thais who are employed in them are, um, highly commercially motivated in their relationships.

Chiang Rai is close enough to Chiang Mai (and also on the tourist trail a bit) to have some more foreign-y places, and Udon Thani- well, I would suggest that a certain exchange program happening between that place and Pattaya has something to do with the higher level of foreign occupation.

I happen to think that the *actual* scenes in the smaller cities- which can be quite vibrant and fun- highlight what has gone wrong in the tourist areas and are a good litmus test for whether one is really familiar with Thai nightlife culture. And showing Thai language ability helps a lot- Thais don't like to lose face by not being sure if they can communicate with a foreigner effectively or not- but if the connection is strong enough usually people manage to communicate their appreciation pretty well.