 |
|
|
|
|
Chiang Mai is also home to gay life in various forms. University students tend to meet in cruising grounds, local bars and clubs such as Mandalay. Such places do not identify as gay and they favour the Thai style of nightlife, where drinking with friends is more important than meeting strangers. Western visitors usually frequent one of three types of bar: (a) offering instant companionship with young men from the hilltribes with no other source of income these are mostly found in a narrow passage behind the Night Market, (b) offering instant companionship with young men displaying their muscles on a small stage mostly in small streets off Chang Puak Road, (c) Western style where one is more likely to go with a steady companion than to meet a new friend there are only a couple of these: Glass Onion and Soho. Alternately visitors visit one of the citys many massage houses, or lounge around the pool with a drink at the House of Male sauna. Despite the many venues 60 or more by some counts Chiang Mai is not very gay-friendly. In March 2009, protests by conservative activists linked to the outside Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra prevented HIV activists and bars from hosting a gay pride parade a situation exacerbated by a local gay activist who was miffed at being excluded from the organising committee. It was therefore surprising to learn that Asias biggest gay hotel, the 110 room Lavender Lanna, had recently opened in the city. Since I had to visit the city shortly before Christmas, where else could I stay? I booked a couple of nights in one of its most expensive rooms (1,850 THB / app 36 / 39 / $57 per night in high season). The good news first. The hotel is in a central position, overlooking the moat that surrounds the old town, next to the Kad Suan Kaew shopping centre, a short walk from the oldest temples and a short tuk-tuk or song teow* ride from the airport, Night Market, Zoo and other locations. Only two other gay venues are within walking distance Soho bar and House of Male, but the Lavender Lanna offers its own gay scene with a caf, restaurant, massage service and go-go bar on the premises. My tenth-floor room was spacious and high enough that the constant traffic roaring past was little more than a background hum. I loved the Lavender Sky restaurant, for its excellent Thai food and its rooftop setting with a view of the old city, Thai pop playing quietly in the background and a water feature echoing a more rural setting. The bad news lay in the details. The hotel has been refurbished rather than newly built and in places it shows. Recyled modernist furniture and fittings sit uneasily next to newly installed features of classical northern Thai style. My bathroom was nicely laid out with pebbles and wooden boards, but the plasterwork was slapdash, the shower curtain too thin and too short and the towels, although soft to the touch, stubbornly refused to dry my hands, face or body. Meanwhile, the photo on the hotel's website suggests there's a swimming-pool; there isn't: it's merely a splashpool. In the restaurant the reasonable cost of an excellent meal (640 baht for three dishes, rice and dessert), was offset by the exorbitant 400 baht for a glass of wine - two to three times the price in other gay venues. And since I'm paying the for the most expensive room and you provide me with a kettle to boil water, why not include the free sachets of coffee and tea that go with it in other hotels? Service was typically Thai which meant that it was either speedy and effective or downright inadequate. At reception if an employee could provide something easily, then satisfaction was guaranteed. But ask for something out of the ordinary, like an address intown or the an opportunity to speak to the manager (not to complain but to ask about the hotel) and all you get is blank looks. Back in the restaurant, I waited ten minutes for someone to notice that I had finished my meal. The table was then cleared, but did the waiter come back to ask if I wanted the bill, a coffee, the menu? No, with three staff apparently rushed off their feet to serve three tables with a total of eight guests, it was another fifteen minutes before I was able to make another waiter aware that I wanted dessert. I discussed the problem with the restaurant manager at the end of the meal. He apologised, but Im not sure he understood the basic point that waiters should be allocated specific tables that they check on regularly instead of rushing to deal with whatever appears to be the latest crisis. [While Im in gripe mode (a) I've never yet met a gay man who enjoyed more than ten minutes of ladyboys lipsynching. The amateurish show in Power Boys in the hotels basement could have made much more use of its attractive young men as dancers, instead number after number of overpainted and overdressed dolls mouthing words to boring songs. And when you do have men in erotic poses, dont have them fully naked an embarrassed young man failing to get an erection is not in the least sexy.] [While Im in gripe mode (b) Another minor irritation common in Thailand: I respect Thais by speaking their language and do not want to hear English in return. My accent is not always good and my grammar is not always accurate, but I read the language slowly and can hold reasonable conversations. Since I respect you enough to learn your language, please respect me enough to help me speak it better. ] All these factors taken into account, the Lavender Lanna provides a competent three-star experience (to call it a boutique hotel, as the website does, is also misleading). The room price is slightly higher than other hotels of the same quality, but a premium is reasonable for a primarily gay ambiance - except for the vastly overpriced wine.Staff can be trained and a successful year or two could lead to a more complete refurbishment that would make it a primary destination for gay travelers in the region. Not that the hotel needs my recommendation or advice. Within three months of opening it has attracted gay guests from all over the world who sit side by side at breakfast with package groups of straight Thais who presumably booked under the hotels previous incarnation. The mere fact that they are surrounded by a men, men and more men will be enough for most gay customers to forgive the defects in service that they come across. Finally, there's broader issue than one hotel or one medium-size city. The Lavender Lanna is likely to prove the first in a series of larger gay hotels across Thailand and Asia. This raises two key questions should we be encouraging more travel at a time when climate change is threatening our very existence? And if we can overcome the problem of carbon emissions, is the potential ghettoisation of gay men a good thing? No, I don't have the answers... 
|
Gay Books, Films & Stuff 
|
|
Supporting advertisers helps to provide an income for this site. Clicking on advertiser links may allow these companies to gather and use information about your visit to this and other websites to provide you with advertisements about goods and services presumed to be of interest to you. |