Bangkok Youth Center (Thai - Japan) — Attraction in Din Daeng Subdistrict

December 2017 edit: It's been over a year since this review was written, and there have been a couple of changes from then. Most importantly, they did a complete renovation of the bathrooms and locker rooms in the main fitness and recreation building, and they redid the track and football fields -- both completed around early September 2017. Bravo!

The annual membership for adults older than 23 is THB 40 per year. Yes, it's 40. No catch. Well, the only catch is that:

In order to use the Olympic size swimming pool, you need a health certificate. You need to pay to use the tennis court, badminton court, and swimming pool (not sure for the swimming pool though). The rates are around THB 20-30 an hour PER COURT. All those who wish to use the facilities must have membership.

Based on the cost alone, this place has amazing value. The facilities are somewhat run down (think 90's) and lack the amenities we have all gotten used to -- no air conditioning, no towels, no soap, no hair dryer, no alcohol-based sanitizer, no water fountain. So, be prepared to bring your own tools.

Note: There are no shower stalls. There are squatty potties only. Water is provided, but you provide your own toilet paper. (The vendor there also sells them.) There is a small hole-in-the-wall store that sells snacks and beverages. Bring cash. They have very small cubed lockers in the changing rooms. Bring a lock. Alternatively, you can just leave your belongings somewhere well lit that you can observe.

So, what kind of facilities are there? So far, I've noted:

Full football field Track field Swimming pool Tennis courts Volleyball courts Badminton courts Jogging trail around the facility Table tennis room Olympic weight room Fitness machines & weight machines (no free weights) room Muay Thai boxing ring Judo/aikido/jiujitsu space (with the rubberized matting) Boxing gym with jump boxes, weights and 5 heavy bags (1 of which needs to be replaced soon; there are no speed bags)

Did I mention? They have judo/boxing meets there, and are free to attend, provided that you bring your own stuff. This place gets packed towards the evening, especially on weekends.

Foreigners need to bring their passport for ID...

Came here to get pfizer booster after 2 previous pfizer vaccines (obtained outside Thailand).

Arrived 9am Tuesday. Finished 2pm. Time taken: 5 hours

They put the wrong nationality in my vaccine certificate and they said they cant change it, and that I would have to go to a district office in Bangrak to change it. I'm not blaming the staff because they have so many people to process. They are doing a great job.

When you first arrive there are no signs about where to go, so you have to ask people in the queue.

I went in the walk-in queue rather than booking using the QueQ app. It seems that the people who booked with the app were processed a LOT quicker.

Make sure you have left 6 months between second jab and booster as per Thai regulation. We were 10 days short but managed to get permission from a doctor there to get the booster. At first they refused us.

The whole experience took about 5 hours. Wasn't expecting it to take that long. After getting the jab, I was expecting to wait 20 mins then go, but we had to wait for another hour to pick up the paper certificate. An emailing system would surely be better.

The staff working there are friendly and helpful. There just needs to be more of them to process the volume of people.

Make sure you bring proof of previous vaccinations, a pen, and youve been to the toilet!

There was parking...

This place is AMAZING if you even lift. Gym is split over three rooms- one small downstairs room with some gnarly old machines and a limited selection of heavy ass dumbbells. Upstairs section with a few more machines if that's your thing.

HOWEVER there's a MASSIVE 40k square foot powerlifting room complete with everything you need to do heavy diddlies, and it's empty all of the time- Thai people don't seem to be too keen on Olympic lifts. Even has punching bags and a boxing ring if kicking boxes is your thing

Best aspect of this place tho is the old ass shredded Thai dudes joking around all the time & ticking each others nipples. This place is only 40 BAHT for a YEAR so forget about fitness first or anything else, get your ass down to BYC. Ignore the other reviews here because they are sissy girly men who need shiny clean equipment like in planet fitness.

This place is a DIRTY old gym full of HEAVY ASS weights. NO air conditioning. Bring a towel. Bring sweatbands, Bring gloves. Oh and bring your passport when you sign up cause you're gonna need it for the form....