Featured blog: Shamelessmack

I recently came across the blog of Shamelessmack, a gay man who goes all over Southeast Asia seemingly for business but actively checks out the local gay scene on his trips. Most of his travels are concentrated in Thailand, but he also goes to Kuala Lumpur and Manila. He specializes in reviewing and sharing his experiences in various gay establishments with an eye for providing users with a helpful guide. The type of establishments he’s most interested in are gay massage parlors and gay (macho dancing) bars, but he also sometimes checks out the dance clubs and bathhouses. In Metro Manila, he has mostly stuck to the massage parlors and the occasional macho dancing bar.

What I really like about Shamelessmacks’s blog is how extremely helpful and informative his articles are. Some people have praised my eye for detail when writing about bathhouses, but this guy is on a totally different level! As an example, check out this paragraph where he describes the state of the toilet in one seedy massage parlor along Kamias Road:

The toilet was a disaster. First of all, the door wouldn’t close properly. The tiles were chipped, stained of course, and the walls/ceiling had not been repainted since 1949. Cold water was stored in a plastic drum with a dirty scoop floating in it. There was no need to look for a shower set or water heater. You knew they hadn’t been invented yet as far as this place was concerned. The toilet bowl had no pan (naturally), but hey, the flush worked. Amazing.

Shamelessmack writes his entries with an entertaining flair but still manages to inform. I am personally not the kind of guy who would go for M2M massages, but after reading a few of his entries, I am almost reconsidering my stance. He’s that good! He also makes maps locating various gay establishments such as this map of Kamias Road, as well as floor plans like the one on his article on Equanimity Spa. He’s probably a guy I could really get along with. Hehehe.

Moreover, he has a nice glossary of PLU terms related to the Southeast Asian gay scene, and an interesting set of codes to quickly describe the body shape and body hair type of any guy, complete with well-drawn illustrations! For example, if I’m interpreting his body shape codes correctly, Piolo Pascual might be a W3M and Enchong Dee is maybe a Q2. I wonder if we should all adopt his codes? It certainly beats trying to decipher what somebody means when he says “stocky” or “lean,” right?

If ever I find myself going to Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, then Shamelessmack’s blog is definitely on my reading list. It’s just too bad that he has almost no entry on Singapore which I’d really love to visit.