In the center of Bangkok, there is a "Lumbini Park".
The name "Lumbini" is common in Thailand.
There are Lumbini subway station, Lumbini Road, more than one "Lumbini Mansion", as well as the overwhelming "Lumbini Apartment" and "Lumbini Community".
Of course, the most famous of them belongs to the "Lumbini Park".
If you stop a taxi in Bangkok and tell the driver, "I'm going to Lumbini," the driver will most likely take you directly to Lumbini Park without any additional instructions.
The name "Lumbini" is generally unfamiliar Chinese, but it is famous because in 563 BC, a queen named Mahabaya in Nepal gave birth to Prince Siddhartha in a place called "Lumbini".
By 1920, King Rama VI of Siam had built the country's first open-air park on the royal grounds of Bangkok City, named after the birthplace of the Buddha.
During World War II, the park became a camp for the Japanese army. After the war, it was renovated and transformed into one of the most important open parks in the heart of Bangkok.
The park covers an area of 570,000 square meters, with pavilions and water pavilions, trees, ancient trees and flowers. In addition to a huge artificial lake, there are museums, schools, libraries and concert halls. Anyone entering the park does not need to buy a ticket.
In the hot and crowded city of Bangkok, Lumbini Park is like a paradise.
If you ask Thais what the specialties of Lumbini Park are, they will most likely tell you: "monitor lizards".
More than 1,000 one-person-long monitor lizards live in the park all year round, walking around the park. Every year, the Bangkok municipal government sends people to symbolically grab dozens of them and throw them into the river. But it doesn't take long for these monitor lizards to climb down the Chao Phraya River into the sewers and back down the sewers back to Lumbini Park to breed their offspring.
However, if a Thai person knows you well, he may tell you another unique thing about Lumbini Park.
There, it is also the Thai version of "Dongdan Park" and "Lychee Park", a famous gay gathering place.
The mayor's gamble
On August 7, 2018, a netizen with the screen name "jiji winkieboy" posted a message on Twitter.
This tweet, he wrote about his encounter in the park.
On a Tuesday, he went for a jog in the park at 8 p.m., and because he saw that the sky was overcast and it seemed like it was about to rain, he changed his route and took a shortcut deep in the park.
As he walked through the middle of the seemingly empty park, he found a group of men doing something in the dark in the woods.
At first, he thought those people were playing Pokémon.
However, when he got closer, he found out what these "dark shadows" were doing.
It turned out that it was a group of "comrades" who were carrying out "group activities" under the cover of night.
Among this group, there are Thais and there are also many foreigners. Seeing that the running brother came, he thought it was "his own person", so a well-built "comrade" also invited the running brother to "come and play together" in a friendly way.
The running brother fled into the wilderness.
After the tweet "Lapmini Park Night Run" was posted, it was retweeted more than 18,000 times in a few days.
On local Twitter users in Thailand, this is already a "viral spread". (After all, the tweet of the universe internet celebrity Chuan Jianguo himself, one is only 20,000 or 30,000 forwards)
As a result, the news of the "Lumbini Park Field Platoon" went unnoticed and became a hot topic on the Thai Network at that time.
Thai netizens began to discuss the "strategy" and "cost performance" of Lumbini Park.
Even veteran foreign drivers have gone to Twitter to ask Thai locals about the traffic routes, opening hours, and "surrounding facilities" of Lumbini Park.
After the "fire" of Lumbini Park, the mayor of Bangkok was a little embarrassed.
Although everyone on earth knows that Bangkok is also a city known for its well-developed red light district and prosperous and open "gay industry" – somehow, the mayor of Bangkok, Admiral Asawin, is still angry about the "unusual popularity" of Lumbini's park.
So, on August 10 of the same year, the mayor of Bangkok responded: Lumbini Park is full of lights, the flow of people is huge, and it will close at nine o'clock in the evening, so there is no spectacle of "gay gathering".
He also publicly choked and issued a public challenge to the netizens who posted tweets -
"The person who posted this news, I ask you to take me to that place for myself, if it is true, I am willing to bet 100,000 baht, but do not use false rumors until there is real evidence."
Since the mayor "bet and bet", it is even more to add fuel to the fire of Lumbini Park, and the Thai media is overjoyed and quickly follows up.
On August 10, a number of Thai media, as well as online broadcasters from all over the world, heard the wind and went to Lumbini Park to conduct "live testing".
The reporter personally tested on the spot and found that Lumbini Park was not as "full of lights and large flow of people" as the mayor said.
The corners of the park, especially around the place described by the netizens of the "field tweet", are indeed lush with trees and dim lights.
Far from the runway and far from the buildings in the park, it is indeed a dark corner that is not easy to notice at night.
And in that corner, used condoms could be seen all over the floor.
The reporter interviewed the security guard of the park, and the uncle of the security guard replied bluntly: Comrades gather, this is indeed there.
According to the security guard, the male group entering the park to carry out group sex activities is indeed a true and strange norm. There are no cameras installed in the depths of the park, the lights are dim, and the general walking and fitness people will not drill into the black and rumbling woods, so it is indeed a natural and good place for gay gatherings.
The security guard also told reporters: "There are gay activities in Lumbini Park, and there is no need to make a fuss at all." Generally, our security personnel will see them and talk about them, but as soon as people see the security guards, they immediately pretend to be ordinary tourists, and our security guards are originally less manned, so it is impossible to stay there and supervise them all the time, right? ”
The security guard also said that it is common to find "large gay bands" of 20 to 30 people in the park, and both Thais and foreigners alike.
In addition to Lumbini Park, the reporter found that many other parks around Bangkok City are also similar.
The "Buddha City" park in Bodhi Mun Thong, a suburb of Bangkok (the name is also a more than a Buddhist system), is also known as the "Field Park". Not only do gay groups often come here, but there are also some foreign tourist couples who often "play in place" in the park. Sex workers, as well as same-sex sex workers, also often roam the park for patronage.
Every week, the cleaning staff can sweep "more than 1,000 condoms" in the park, which shows what the pomp is.
The evidence was overwhelming, and the mayor of Bangkok had no choice but to admit it.
On August 13, after intensive reporting and "deep excavation" by the Thai media, the Bangkok City Administration finally completely admitted.
Bangkok's deputy mayor, Chengguan, Acknowledging that "there are indeed loopholes in park management" and deploying more guards and security guards in 37 parks across the city.
At the same time, warning signs in Thai, Chinese, Burmese, and English will be added to Lumbini Park to warn domestic and foreign tourists to "refrain from misconduct" and fine them 10,000 baht (about 2,000 yuan).
As for what the "loopholes and misconduct" are, the deputy mayor did not say.
Comrades are also mortals, but they can be more honorable
Nowadays, what is Lumbini Park like, the old man is not an insider, nor has he ever tested it on the spot, so it is not easy to say.
On the Chinese, English and Thai internet, there is actually a debate about whether Lumbini Park is a gay stronghold.
Some people say that the location there is close to the red light district of Shilong Road, which is indeed a well-known place for gay gatherings;
Some people also say that the lights in Lumbini Park are still "too bright", which is not a high-quality gay meeting place;
Some people pointed out that the gay gathering in Lumbini Park is only an "accidental phenomenon", and the real strength of that place lies in the huge number of "sex workers", which can be called an open-air urban sex supermarket.
What about that? If there are any compatriots in the know, please also teach one or two in the message area.
The old man is not going to do anything... Just as a media person, you always have to know the bottom line.
In fact, whether it is a "self-service supermarket for sex workers" or a "holy place for same-sex gatherings", the old man feels that it is no big deal, it is normal.
Bangkok is a place, how many red light districts. There are thousands of "workers" on pattaya's coastal streets all year round, compared to the small scenes in Lumbini Park, what is the point?
As for homosexuality itself, the old man originally had no prejudice, and after living in Thailand for eight years, there was no prejudice - in this country, if you are not used to this, you will not go out.
LGBT, the old man feels that it is just a form of human sexual orientation, since ancient times, there are things in china and abroad, and there is nothing to be fussed about.
However, there is still a bit of a personal opinion, I don't know when to say it.
I understand that Lumbini Park, as well as resorts such as "Beijing Dongdan Park" and "Shenzhen Litchi Park", are a way of making friends in the gay circle, and it is also an underground social culture forced by comrades to be forced to develop under the long-term social exclusion of society.
In the dark corner of the "scene about one", if it was forced to do so, now it is a little out of place.
You see, in thailand, gays are no longer taboo, and it is completely possible to go in and out of any neighborhood, any bar and hotel.
If this is the case, why should the "park culture" that was hidden and hidden in the past be carried forward?
It's a straight bend, and it's all right.
But whether it is love or desire, it should stretch out in the sun and settle in the room. Quietly making a mystery in the dark all day long, neither beautiful nor healthy.
This is true of both homosexuality and heterosexuality.
Lumbini under the night, now looking, always has a different meaning.
Sometimes I feel like it's like a microcosm of this country.
It is magnificent and picturesque, naming itself, defining itself, and packaging itself in the name of the most holy Buddha.
But in the night, under the shadows, there are very different faces, full of flowing desires, hidden corners, and staged at all times with amazing scales of different landscapes, which are breathtaking and inconsistent.
This is Thailand, this is Lumbini Park.
Text/Yue Han