Unsatisfied by lighting in saunas, plus other issues

[hungry_hole]

I went to Steamworks Baths twice while visiting Toronto, once on a Thursday evening for their "Lights Out" event, and again on Saturday night. I really like this place because it's the only club that is built for a bathhouse instead of renovating and existing building. I can tell by the distribution of the facilities, which include douching facilities. It's incredible but there are many saunas that provide slings, private or public, but really poor bathroom facilities. Steamworks offers excellent douching facilities, which is important for me who likes to bottom because I can relax regarding that issue while at the sauna. 

On Thursday, with a clean hole at some point walked into the middle darkroom and took my first load. A few minutes later walked into the back darkroom and took my second load. Now that I think about it, the music was so loud that I couldn't hear the guy's moan at all. In other quieter saunas I find it hot to hear the moaning even from the rooms close by.  After two loads I felt I would feel better with a second cleaning, so I used their facilities, and clean again, no sweat. Obviously like most bottoms I would like to "collect" as many loads as possible, which would also save me the time of having to use their facilities. But I also find it hot when my hole goes from clean to sloppy with the guy's cum. Douching facilities are essential.

My main point in this thread is the lighting in the bathhouses and that in every bathhouse I've been to, men congregate in the darkest areas. I went several times to a sauna in a South American city housed in an older house semi-renovated into a sauna. In every floor there was a long corridor for people to walk around the floor but guys would all stop where it was the darkest, completely blocking traffic. There was a "darkroom" on one of the floors but too much light came into that room and most guys would again congregate in the little space available in the "darkroom".

If everyone knows that there are many men who go to sauna and prefer the dark areas, why not provide them? I sometimes wonder if it's related to insurance and legal issues. Years ago I approached the manager of a popular sauna in Montreal about the issue of lighting after they had "renovated" the place and had spent a fortune. He proudly showed me expensive pieces of art that they had chosen for the place. This is fucking crazy, I was thinking to myself. This bathhouse had public slings in two different areas and I suggested to the manager that the area around one of the slings should be quite dark. He became defensive and started telling me that guys like to see who they are having sex with.

There was a sauna I used to go a while ago that had a pretty dark room with only a small black light. Inside there was a sling surrounded by a curtain of plastic strips around the sling which provided some privacy.  In those days guys in saunas were not as kinky as they are now, I guess in part because of the internet. That sling in the darkroom was not being used a lot so I would mange to turn off the black light which made the room pitch black, and I would then jump on the sling. I had a white version of shorts with a hole that glowed in the dark so when guys walked into the pitch black room they would see a bright hole in the see-through curtain. Once they approached the only thing they saw in the room, they would touch the clean lubed hole or with some cum, some would leave, many would stay. We could hardly see each other or the guys around us. But I had to turn off the light in the darkroom to get this kind of action. Why doesn't the administration of the bathhouse do it?

In Steamworks Toronto there are two main hallways and two hallways that cross them. There is a darkroom at the back and if it was up to me, I would gradually darken the hallways around the darkroom. Looking at a map of the rooms of website Steamworks Toronto, the hallways for rooms 202, 204,206, 208, 210, completely dark, preparing the visitor who wants to enter the darkroom. The sight would get adjusted to darkness walking through the dark hallways. I would also go for a dark hallway for rooms 216, 218, etc. When you check in you have a choice of room in a dark or lighted hallways. It would be interesting to know what guys would choose.

There are guys who like it dark others who don't, that's a fact. So bathhouses should offer both, normal or darker lighting.

[backtails]

I like it more with the lights out. It makes the place feel bigger, more mysterious, like I'm exploring a vast unknown territory full of ass. With a tiny flashlight.

When it's less busy I think there's a reason to keep the lights on because well-lit areas feel like they're intended for traffic rather than sex. Guys tend to move through without spending a lot of time. That's just a natural thing, you're on your way from room 216 to the darkroom, you've got a purpose, you're paying less attention to who you see on the way. So with fewer men in the venue, you want less dark (more sexualized) space, so guys will tend to congregate and fuck in the spaces they have. When it's busier, you need more room to hold the action.

I'm not surprised that a bathhouse in Montreal bought expensive pieces of art. It's just what they do. There's so damn many hot guys there, though, I can kinda see why guys there would want to see who they're having sex with. Still seems like a good idea to have a really dark area available at least some of the time. During slower hours, every bathhouse really should have a no-loads-refused cumdump waiting in a sling in total darkness. When the cumdumps have to line up for sling time, then maybe the lights should go on a little.