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Any idea what the tipping rate (above the cost of massage) is in TPE? I will visit in May for first time. Thanks!

donOLD's "granddaughter," Kai, has expectations of playing on the University of Miami's women's golf team. Shouldn't Kai be required to be gender tested to verify if they qualify to play on the women's team? A Google search of "is kai trump a boy or girl" resulted in this response "identifies as an 18-year-old woman."

I have another general question about my situation for members... Assuming the 60-day stay remains in place by the time I return to Bangkok in the fall, but my plan is to apply for the 30 day extension so I can stay a total of 90 days, should I purchase my airline ticket with return to US after 60 days or 90 days? I have been looking at 90 day return flights, but don't want to raise any questions or have problems on arrival in Bangkok with immigration. I won't be able to apply for the 30 day extension until the 60 day entry is almost up. Plus there is no guarantee it will be granted. Recommendations?

I am certainly open to exploring other places in Thailand. The problem is going to be how to get there. Air travel is probably out of the question without proper documentation. Wherever we end up going would need to be accessible by car or bus from Bangkok. That is why I was focusing more on Pattaya, as I know I can hire a car service to drive us there without any problems.

As I just replied to @mauRICE, at the moment I have way too much free time on my hands and am spending most of my time thinking about Cam, checking out return flights to Bangkok, looking for Airbnb's, etc. Probably am in the overthinking mode at the moment. Beginning tomorrow my daily routine will be back to normal and very busy. Hopefully that will help me take a deep breath and chill a little. I only have experience paying the off fee to the bar is for short term with guy from Banana Bar and with Cam at Hotmale. I made an assumption that if the off fee was a set amount per night (500 Baht), it would be the same regardless of how many nights you took a guy off. Just goes to prove what they say about 'assuming' things. Thanks to comments like yours and other members, I now realize this was way off-base and not how things actually work. At the moment, I am leaning more towards what @hank75 suggested, and that is to negotiate with Cam what he expects in the way of compensation for three months and then let him deal with the bar and his job situation. Simply remove myself from that part of the arrangement. That is between him and Hotmale. That said...anyone have any suggestions on what a fair and reasonable compensation would be for 3 months? I am sure he will throw out some astronomically high number. I want to be fair, and don't mind being a little generous, but also don't want to be taken advantage of. Willing to help out more in the future if we truly do become a 'couple'. While I have enjoyed the company of quite a few guys in Bangkok, I am pretty much a one person guy when it comes to relationships. At least for me, I won't have a problem giving up visits to massage shops and my past extracurricular activities. lol. I cannot speak for Cam, and we haven't had that conversation yet. I know he enjoys having a drink or two with his bar friends. I certainly don't mind getting together with his friends. Whether he will want to include me in that will be another story. We went to all of the various shows...but that was just because it was something to do late in the evenings. Not something he insisted on doing. I just knew based upon his routine working in the bar that going back to the condo too early would be a problem. I often was the one who suggested going to the show as a way of passing time...not him. I do believe his actual circle of friends is very small. While he does know a fair number of guys from the various clubs, he tends to just hang out with other guys from Cambodia. Just an observation on my part. These are the people he seems to be closest to, regardless of which bar they work in. Some of them he knew back in Cambodia, and his roommate is also from the same general area of Cambodia where his home is.

You could look at the Helsinki Bangkok flight with Finnair

You are absolutely 100% correct. I need to take a long, deep breath and slow things down a bit. Part of my problem is at the moment I have way too much free time on my hands. My body clock is just now catching up to being in Denver, and I have not gotten back into my usual routines. Beginning tomorrow that will all change, as the rest of my week is very busy with little down time. The focus of all my thoughts on the return trip and up until this moment have been entirely on Cam. Regarding support...I am not really looking to support Cam. As you said, he was doing fine before we met, and he will continue to do fine with or without me. As of this moment, he has not specifically asked for anything other than compensation agreed upon for the time we spent together in Bangkok. The original agreement was 3 days/nights for 10,000 Baht. When it eventually ended up being 7 days/nights, we never actually discussed a change in compensation. In the end, I gave him 25,000 Baht. Was it too much...no clue. Some here will think it was too much, others may think it wasn't enough, and some may think it was fair. Did he send the money home to his family? Again, no clue. That is between him and his family. While I would hope so, those are his choices and decisions to make. I did not offer to send him money on a monthly basis over the next several months, nor did he ask. However, based upon my previous experience and stories from other forum members...I am expecting at some point there to be some sort of crisis or emergency situation and a request for assistance. This is why I am researching now what options are available for sending money to him. While he hasn't asked nor have I offered, our conversations have included discussions about how to go about doing that if the need ever did arise. That is how I am aware he does not have a Thai bank account and uses his Cambodian bank phone app. Not sure how he actually sends money to his family. I haven't asked that question, nor do I really want to be involved in that. Anyway...the entire question about how to send money to Cambodia is typical me...wanting to be prepared in advance...anticipating that the request will eventually come. Having used Western Union in the past for various other things, I have an account with them and assumed it would be easy to transfer to a Cambodian bank account with them. It appears that is not the case...no bank account option available. Since he obviously is not in Cambodia, there can be no cash pick up option at local agent. Thus my request from members for other options. Just want to be prepared.

No need... I've already found what I was looking for 😜.

Clever.

BA and others have e cancelled all flights for some weeks, I think. Last time I looked, FCO warned against any travel there, so invalidating any travel insurance

Word on the streets in Qatar is that Qatar is paying Iran not to attack.

Whilst walking past, yesterday, I saw a sign noting that the Lotus Hotel, on Soi Viangbua, was for sale. I don't know whether this is particularly new, but I hadn't seen it before. Adam's Apple was its usual self but, with low season, the place was not crowded.

At Goodboy, three Filipino customers were seated with two boys (fully clothed) and enjoying a bottle of whisky. They had food brought in. Some sort of celebration. The three of us sat at long sofa right at the back of the bar. We were next to the bartender and we could see the board where the mamasans wrote the individual number of boys working tonight. At the right side, there was a margin and written there were numbers of boys who had been offed by customers already. There were three numbers on the right while there were about 25 numbers on the left side.

Forum member was keen to have a look at new bar Big Boy on Patpong 1 so we went there. Unlike Friday night which was quiet, there were other customers. Some ladies and straight couples. They looked like they had been persuaded in by promoters outside. Same number of 3 guys on stage. Once we sat there, the show began. The manager probably saw enough of a crowd (there weren't even 10 customers. Including us, it was 7 at best) to start the show. To be fair to the bar, the show was pretty good. The performers put in eftort including a dancer who came in just to dance his solo performance. Soon, another forum member joined us. After the show ended, the other customers left the bar. We stayed awhile more then we decided to go to Good Boy.

Offing boys from bars is a niche activity, and will be more difficult to sustain without a predictable supply of boys from neighbouring countries. Asian tourists, and locals, often prefer the massage experience, as evidenced by the large and highly segmented number of massage shops in Bangkok and the fierce competition between them. If the Chinese like a venue they will promote it on RedNote and they will often pose together with their favourite masseur.

You’re circling something real here, but I think the frame needs tightening. What you’re reading as “weird pricing” is less about Singha leaving money on the table, and more about how different shops in Bangkok deliberately position themselves within a very segmented market. Ssense is not trying to be everything to everyone. It sits in that middle lane, and quite intentionally so. Ssense caters to both a local Thai clientele and a steady foreign crowd. Younger Chinese book Singha or Knott and take photos with them, and they all end up as a review on RedNote. This composition matters. Local regulars anchor the business. They expect consistency, discretion, and predictable pricing. It is also gay-owned and operated, and you can feel that in how the place is run. There is a fairly strict sense of quality control, both in terms of who they hire and how services are structured. Supplementary services are not a free-for-all. Prices are set by the shop, and that removes the whole negotiation dynamic you see elsewhere. No haggling, no awkward calibration mid-session. You either accept the menu or you don’t. For many clients, that clarity is part of the appeal. No H services are provided officially by the shop. So yes, could Singha charge 2–3k in a different setting? Probably. But at Ssense, the pricing is not his to float. It follows a standardised band that aligns with similar shops in that category. It is set by the shop and therapists are not allowed to diverge. That’s the trade-off. Stability, volume, and a controlled environment over maximising individual upside per client. In terms of positioning, I wouldn’t call Ssense “upscale” if you’re comparing it to places like Titan or Prestige. Those lean harder into a curated, almost boutique experience, with pricing to match. But Ssense is noticeably fresher and better managed than older venues like Chaichana or Green. It feels current. Clean lines, younger roster, tighter operations. Where your comparison with History of Massage is useful is in highlighting the contrast in business models. History runs a much looser system. No mandated central tip level, and the guys can present options directly. That opens the door for higher earnings per session, but also introduces variability. The massage itself is often not the headline product there. Let’s be honest. You’re paying for physique, for presentation, for the aesthetic labour that goes into those gym-built bodies. It’s a different value proposition. Ssense, by contrast, sits closer to what places like The Signature Massage aim for. More structured. More service-led. Less transactional improvisation. Stepping back, Bangkok’s gay massage scene is highly stratified. You’ve got budget walk-in shops, mid-tier hybrids like Ssense, physique-driven venues like History, and then the more premium, almost spa-like environments. Each comes with its own pricing logic, client expectations, and internal rules. So the question isn’t really whether Singha could earn more elsewhere. It’s what ecosystem he prefers to operate in. Some guys optimise for margins. Others for consistency, volume, and a workplace they’re comfortable in. In that sense, the market is working exactly as designed. Pick the segment that suits you, and the pricing starts to make a lot more sense.

Olddaddy is going to love you. 😍🥰

That would be great Btw I meant 21-25 April, not May. I am mid 30s but dont mind whatever age

I once had the privilege of attending a private birthday-party performance by Mark Bunyan, who was canonised by the SPI as St Mark of the Musical Tendency.

Agreed. But as the No. 2 executive of a major airline stated unequivocally that it appears depending on the origin of the ticket, that has to be one reason. As hinted in the ChatGpt list.

Like the top one!

She's in the right place!

TheGur The Guardian is owned by the Scott Trust, which also owned the Observer, until last year. The Observer was sold off, to Tortoise Media, but the Scott Trust retains a shareholding. So there was/is, a close connection.

Yes, it does. Forum numbers do meet up and some of the Pattaya residents would be happy to show you around if need be. They'll either contact you here or message you privately.

I had heard about the possibility of the Rabbit card and the MRT cards being merged. But there was a problem in that seniors get half price on the MRT and the Skytrain was not prepared to accept that. I do have the half price card and understandably would prefer not to give it up.