By The Bangkok Banshee, for The Wild East

The city — after weeks of protests, riots, and just general unrest — was heavy, and with the heat wave of the last 4 days was just completely oppressive. I, along with a weary population, needed a break. I had been cooped up in the house for 4 days and the heat was getting to me. I decided to venture forth on Saturday night and see what fun could be had.

I had read online that some places in Silom were going to try and open on Saturday. I got all done up with my new giant black VON DUTCH belt and a black cowboy shirt. I was channeling an up-to-date John Travolta in “URBAN COWBOY”. I got a taxi right quick and we went into the night. On turning onto Silom Road things looked pretty dark. At the checkpoint where they had the road entirely closed off, myself and the driver had to get out of the taxi while the car was searched. The driver got patted down; a cute army boy just grinned at me the whole time and I grinned back, hoping he knew what my very thoughts were at that moment and what I was doing to him in my head!

Once done we went down the road. The entire place was shut down tight, many shops were boarded up and ringed with razor wire. Darkness everywhere. Platoons of black riotgear-clad special forces soldiers were all around, many with automatic weapons, all with riot shields. It was like out of one of those day-after-tomorrow, everybody-gets-some-strange-disease-and-they-turn-zombie movies.

But leave it to the queens! Got close to DJ STATION, the largest and most infamous night club in BKK, and saw the twinkling of multicolored fairy lights and a rainbow flag, not waving but still, as there was not a breath of air this hot night. I got out of the taxi, and heard it right away — the beloved gay heartbeat of house music at 130 beats per minute.

Now DJ is known to anyone who ever visits the city. On any given day, there are 1,500 hot, sweaty male bodies packed tightly inside, drinking, dancing, and cruising. Would tonight be the same?

I was one of the first to arrive. All told in the 7 bars that make up the queer nucleus of the Big Mango, there were in total about 15 customers, only two of us were foreigners. I got a quick cocktail from one of the smaller empty bars and sat outside to smoke. Every few minutes, some locals would pop in and look around, but seeing so few people they quickly left. Faggots have a schooling mentality like fish, they can never be first, for fear they might miss a better party somewhere else. Sadly after my second drink, I was beginning to wonder if the night was not going to happen after all.

I decided to go into DJ and decide if it was going to be worth staying. There were now maybe only 20 or so people that I could see. Paid my cover and walked into the dark cavernous disco that I know too well. Usually you have to push and use a shoehorn just to get into the front door. Not tonight. I walked in and the club was going full tilt — boogie lights, thumping music, giant mirror ball, and smoke machines ( No smoking in BKK clubs for over 2 years now!). But there was one thing missing — ACTION — a completely empty dance floor was ringed by the bored and sleepy looking staff. I smacked my forehead wondering, what was I doing here?

To be continued…
Read Part 2

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