Bangkok's Tawan Bar: Muscle Men Central

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Gay GoGo Bars, Gay Thailand, Offs, Tawan Bar

My last night in Bangkok and it was time again to hit one of my favorite gay bars, Tawan. Love those muscles! Tawan gets a lot of bad press on the internet, or I guess I should say the guys at Tawan get a lot of bad press. From exorbitant fees to wham, bang, thank you mam sir encounters, to promising the moon and delivering close to nothing, I read again and again about customers’ unhappy happy endings after offing a guy from Tawan. So there’s got to be some truth there as the complaints are just too frequent for it to be otherwise.

But my experiences have always been good. And I’ve been visiting Tawan for two decades now. Couldn’t count the number of guys I’ve offed from there and never once have I been unhappy with the result. I think, perhaps, when expectations are not met, the blame maybe isn’t quite as one-sided as most would have you believe.

First off, you have to realize that the majority of guys working at Tawan are straight. Not that there isn’t a certain fluidity in what a Thai straight guy will do, and even more so when he’s working at a gay gogo bar. But in addition to being straight, the majority of guys at Tawan are men. Seems obvious, but I’m not talking gender here but rather the meaning of the word to a Thai. And a ‘man’ doesn’t bottom. So if you are offing a guy from Tawan thinking you’re going to get a night of bouncing on a butt of steel . . . It’s not likely to happen. But he said he does everything? Well, he does. But not that. Because he is a ‘man’. And you certainly should have been able to read that into what he said. Thais are notorious for saying things by not saying them.

Muscles worth worshiping

A lot of customers want nothing more than to touch. Muscle worship. Many do not need, or want, the guy to do a thing. And a short, short-time is fine with a lot of guys. Many are willing to pay big bucks either out of generosity or due to a mistaken belief that you have to pay more than the going rate to a guy from Tawan. So then you come along, expecting ‘everything’ and an overnight stay . . . how the hell is he suppose to know that? Far too often customers do not take the time to lay out explicitly what they want and instead assume the evening will just go their way. Not gonna happen.

Yes, there are some guys working there who will do nothing more than get naked and let you touch them. But if you ask them up front, they’ll be honest about that. And yes, if you ask a guy at Tawan “how much?” He’ll probably say 3,000 baht. Uh, do you pay the quoted rate when you hop into a tuk tuk? Same, same. (Btw, this is Thailand: ‘how much’ is up to you and should never be a topic of conversation. If a guy at any bar quotes you a fee- especially if you didn’t ask – save yourself the money and save yourself from a rotten experience. Take a pass.)

Are you going to be able to convince one of the stars to bottom for you? Hell, no. Those guys routinely get multiple offs on any given night. And most of their customers are ‘easy.’ In, out, top dollar, all for having to do little. Nor are you going to get anywhere by being obvious; a quiet approach is needed because if the guy will bottom, it’s the last thing he wants his mates to know. I’ve topped several guys from Tawan. And I don’t think the percentage of those who will bottom is really any lower than at the other bars – at least among the bar boys who are ‘men’. As far as having him smoke you, I’ve never offed a guy from Tawan who wouldn’t (come to think about it, I’ve never asked a potential offee if he smokes and got a negative reply either).

The boys of Tawan

As far as quality goes, any guy you take back to your hotel room is going to perform better if he likes you. So what are you doing to see that he has some fun? It’s no secret that having fun is on the top of the list for most Thais. If the guy is enjoying himself being around you, when it comes time to get down to business, your business will be much more gratifying.

Mmmm, that was a major digression! I was gonna tell you about a guy I offed from Tawan, and the confusion, mystery, and eventual friendship we shared. So it was late October and I was staying at La Residence, just down the street from Tawan (‘just’ being several long blocks). I’d only hit Tawan once earlier on this trip and figured it would be the perfect finish. Among the usual crowd of body builders on stage was a guy I hadn’t seen before. Kinda young, built but not buffed. And he had a great smile. So I invited him over for a drink.

Turns out he didn’t speak much English. I mean even less than normal. But an expressive little sucker nonetheless and with lots of repetition and pantomiming we managed to carry on a conversation. Aptly so, his name was “Lek” which means small in Thai. And it was his third night at the bar. He had a great smile and an infectious laugh so I offed him, without even bothering to check to see what he would or wouldn’t do as I usually do. He slipped into his street clothes, we left, stopping for a snack at a street stall, and then headed back to the hotel.

Muscles peeking out all over.

When we got in the room, he kneeled down, untied, and then took my shoes off. That was kinda sweet. Then he kicked his off, followed by his pants and shirt. I love when those guys strip down to the shorts upon entering the room! Sitting on the edge of the bed, he started laughing pointing at my feet and then his. Took a bit before I got it was the difference in out feet – me having grown up wearing shoes, him having not  -  his were fat, flat, and spread out. Extremely inquisitive, he grilled me on the English words for most everything in the room and managed to get across some of his life story. We laughed a lot. Not sure how we got to that part but at one point he was splayed out on the bed, jokingly dry humping the mattress and moaning “Oh, My Buddha!”. It was hilarious.

Several hours later, he hopped into the shower and came out naked, drying himself off. Nice. I cleaned up, too and then met him in bed. Good kisser. No problem hugging and just rolling about together. And then he gave me an incredible massage. Including walking on my back. While up until the massage we’d still been cracking each other up, once he started the massage it was all business. Good business. And when the time seemed right, he went down on me without me having to ask or direct him to do so. What he lacked in skill he made up for in enthusiasm. In any case, this wasn’t suppose to be a porn blow by blow so suffice to say we eventually both shot our loads, cleaned up, and then he fell asleep cuddled in my arms. (And no, no anal. I asked, he did a short negative shake of his head and I let it pass).

The next morning we had to get up early as my plane left at 7am. Outside of the hotel he waited on the sidewalk as I got into a taxi. I looked back to wave as we took off and he stood there waving, with tears in his eye. No, really!

Tawan’s guys come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have muscle in common.

So three months later, I’m back in Bangkok and immediately head to Tawan to see if Lek was there. OK. Stop for a sec. At the time I didn’t remember his name; I have to use it here to keep this story straight (so to speak). As I was ushered to a chair I saw him on the other side of the bar. When he got on stage we made eye contact, he smiled, and I waved him over. Still cute. But a bit wider than before. Seemed he was on his way to beefing up as he’d previously indicated he wanted to do. Didn’t waste a lot of time at the bar and we were soon back at my hotel, the Swiss Park over on Sukhumvit Soi 11.

Same kneeling and removal of my shoes as last time. Same infectious laugh. And again we hit it off well. Well enough that I offed him for a three night run. I had an incredibly great time with him during the day. His English had improved somewhat. He tried teaching me some Thai this time around. We spent one afternoon at Lumpini Park feeding ducks at his suggestion. And then over to the outdoor gym there for him to exercise for a while. And this time around I caught his name, So. Huh?  So? Okay, changing nicknames isn’t that unusual for these guys and I didn’t remember clearly that it had been Lek last time anyway.

In bed, I thought, wow. What a difference 3 months makes! From slightly unskilled in giving head, he’d progressed to slipping a condom on me with his mouth. And as for bottoming, it wasn’t like he was swooning with desire, but certainly was a willing enough participant. Three days ended too quickly and I once again headed home. (Uh, no tears this time).

At Tawan the guys run the gamut from ripped to muscle bound.

Now it’s June and I’m back in Bangkok again. And back at Tawan for my muscle guy. He was on stage as I walked in. I was led to a chair to the right at stage side and as I walked past I touched what seemed like a new tattoo on his arm, smiled at him and sat down. He immediately hopped off the stage and joined me. Big Hug. Bigger Kiss. And then he nestled himself under my arm and relaxed. Ahhhhhh.

So we’re sitting there talking with him cuddled up in my arms and I’m kinda looking around the bar. It was crowded that night and as one customer moved out of the way, directly where I was looking sat So. Or Lek. Or whatever his name was. WTF??? I looked down at Lek/So. Yup. It was him. Then looked across the room at Lek/So. Yup, it was him. The one who wasn’t in my arms saw me, got a big smile on his face, and came over.

Turns out they were brothers. The one in my arms being the older of the two and also being my original off. The other, whose name really was So was the guy I’d spent three nights with on my previous trip. The three of us had a great laugh over the whole thing, and then I took them both back to my hotel and fucked the living daylights out of them. (Sorry, I got carried away). Shit! Decisions! I ended up offing #1 for a few days and again had a wonderful time. But #1 still wasn’t interested in being fucked. Ah, well.

Tawan changes their official ‘costume’ often, but it is usually black and if you’re lucky backless too.

Next trip I’d considered switching to So, for obvious reasons. But he had cultivated a  boyfriend by then (that’d be a regular customer) and was booked solid. So I spent a few days and nights with #1, Lek, who had now become Nut. He’d been working out, doubled his muscle size, and ‘Lek’ was no longer an appropriate name. I was staying at Windsor Suites on that trip. Second night together, I tried out the possibility of him bottoming once again and this time around, he laughed and said, “I never” and promptly sat himself on my dick. LOL. He didn’t last long, but I liked that he at least was willing to give it a try.

So (that’d be #2) disappeared from the bar, spending some time in Boston with the boyfriend. I offed Nut several times on subsequent trips over the years; at the very least stopped in to say Hi. His English improved greatly and he bulked up to an even higher degree. Which meant he looked amazing, the downside being he was now too large to be walking on my back during massage sessions. I spent one New Year’s Eve with him and his youngest brother (not in the business), during which Nut admitted to me his family was from Burma which, when his bro found out I knew was totally aghast ( guess this is a matter of some shame in Thailand). Eventually I was introduced to his older brother (who ended up working at Tawan, too.) And no, I never went for the trifecta.

As we’d grown to be friends over the years I learned a lot from him about how the bars operate and how the boys think. By now Nut was often scoring triple offs in a night and he explained that most customers didn’t even want him to cum (making the three nighters possible). Just talk and touch, is the way he put it. We started spending days together when I was in town, no offing, no sex, just companionship.

Last year I stopped in Tawan and Nut was there. He’d just got back from his annual trip home to Burma and was exhausted. He asked if he could cuddle up and grab a quick nap (seems he’d get in trouble sleeping on the job, but it’d be Okay if he was with a customer). Before he nodded off, he said, “I remember first time I meet you. You leave at 5 in the morning. I stand on sidewalk and cry.”

Blew me away. Sure, I remembered that, but my numbers are a hell of a lot lower than his. That five years and countless customers latter he still remembered that time, and with details . . . Amazing Thailand!

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