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Sunee Plaza is one of two main gay areas in Pattaya, Thailand, the other being Boyztown. Sunee
Plaza is a main area for gay nightlife. Pattaya is known as a seaside resort,
and as such is frequented by tourists. However it is also known as
“Sin City” with a thriving sex trade, much of which is gay.
History
Krazy Dragon Table Top Gogo Bar
Valentine’s Night Party 2009
Pattaya is a meca for sun-loving tourists. Tourism Authority of
Thailand, TAT for short, boasts over 5 million visitors to Pattaya
each year [1] Pattaya
became renowned for its red light
district during the Vietnam War era, after the Americans built
a military base at what is today U-Tapao International
Airport. The U.S. Military used Pattaya for rest and
recreation. This lead to the growth of the hetero-sexual Walking
Street and later Boyztown and Sunee Plaza. The first gay bar in
Sunee Plaza to open was Crazy Pub in 1996, closely followed by what is today called the
“Sunee Plaza bar”. Topman Nightclub (today known as CockTail Boyz)
started shortly after and was the first gogo bar in the area. It
later became renowned for its cabaret shows. All the buildings in
the Plaza are owned by Madame Sunee a Thai national, and are leased
to the various businesses. [2] Pattaya
has subtitled itself “The extreme city” and Sunee Plaza has adopted
this in its styling as “The heart of the extreme city”. [3]
Types of
Businesses
The Plaza boasts the largest collection of gay host bars in one
location in Thailand. (over 25)[4]. These
are bars where the waiters are generally young Thai boys (aged 18 to
approximately 30), who will not only serve you drinks, but will sit
and entertain you. There are also around a dozen gogo bars, where
the same service can be obtained, but there is the added
entertainment of seeing the boys dance, normally on a central
stage. In addition to this, there are two hotels, two guesthouses;
a number of restaurants, serving local Thai food to European
cuisine. Additional amenities include mini marts, hair salons, taxi
service, a travel agent and internet shop.
Location
Sunee Plaza is located just off Soi V.C., which itself comes off
Second Road in the South of Pattaya. Pattaya itself is about 165 km
South East of Bangkok on the East Coast of the Gulf of
Thailand. It is built around two parallel streets, with a cross
linking street. There are a number of gay businesses just outside
this main area and these are normally associated with the Sunee
Plaza tag.
map of businesses in Sunee Plaza June 2009
Balkan Express BBQ Restaurant & Bar
Notable
businesses today
Among the gogo bars, Krazy Dragon is the oldest currently open
bar. This styles itself as Pattaya’s first table top gogo bar. The
performers walk around the tables and will provide a short show on
each table as they pass. Euroboys is unique in that it does not
have a stage, but the boys perform on a ground level lit walkway
between two banks of padded seating for customers.
The beer bars vary from quiet “local” type bars, where the
emphasis is just sitting and watching people go by. Examples of
this genre are Forest House and the Corner Bar at opposite ends of
the soi. There are music bars which
specialise in different styles of music, such as Memories Music
bar. There are also party bars, where a regular event is staged.
These would include Mike’s bar La Cage, just outside Sunee Plaza in
Soi VC. Oud’s bar and café is another landmark, mainly because of
the extroverted Oud, who can sometimes be seen performing an
impromptu drag show.
Duc’s Coffee Shop and Bar also contains a book library with books
for sale. The Terrace Bar of the Don Plaza hotel is worthy of note
as this was opened on a derelict piece of land which was cleared as
part of the cleaning of the area. [5]
For accommodation, there are a number of hotels on site, but
there are also good budget guesthouses, such as Twoguys Guesthouse,
providing personal service.
Controversy and problems
in the area
Over the past years, Sunee Plaza developed a reputation for
supplying underage boys to paedophile sex tourists. There
has also been a problem in the past with drugs, in particular Yaba, being sold around the area.
However after a number of police crackdowns and changes of owners,
these problems are diminishing. There have been some high profile
arrests of paedophiles and many of the bars which supplied the
underage boys have closed. [6] [7]There
has also been a problem with underage street boys annoying
tourists, but again a number of police initiatives has reduced this
problem and Sunee Plaza itself is working to clean itself up. The
Office has fenced off a disused swimming pool, used by many of the
boys to sleep in.
Plans for
the future
Thailand, like the rest of the world, is suffering from the
generally economic recession. The closure of the airport at Bangkok
in November 2008 [8] and the
riots at the Asean Summit in April 2009 [9] have
not helped the situation and have resulted in governments around
the World issuing warnings against visiting Thailand. However
Pattaya has been relatively trouble free, and apart from the Asean
Summit, has not been involved in any of the political upheaval.
However the publicity this has generated has all been negative and
has depressed tourist visitors. Sunee Plaza has reacted to this by
engaging in a heavy programme of promotion. A loose collection of
business people have united to promote the area, and many joint
activities have developed from what before was a disparate group of
businesses. A poster campaign lead to a joint party on 15th June
2009 across the soi and there was a grand White Party and gay festival on 15th
November 2009. [10] There
were a number of businesses closed for the “low season” (March to
October) and this is normal, but they are now all open again. The
work continues to clean the image and cooperation with the City
Council and local police is bringing results.
References
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