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I thought I'd skip that part 5. The Green Massage (2) So the next day I went there again. The head/neck/shoulder massage great same same like yesterday. I told the masseur to massage a tid softer, what he did. After the 60 minutes we went upstairs and the masseur told me to shower. They have proper rooms with a proper shower and a proper massage table with a hole (although I must say I almost prefer my head thai style on a pillow) He was waiting somewhere outside the room and came back when I almost finished drying myself. I laid down on the massage table and another 90 minutes of heaven began. He started with the back, then legs then arms. When massaging the inner side of the upper legs, he incidentally touched my cock, not often enough to come to any decisive conclusion about the further course of the massage, but often enough to make me slightly aroused. When I turned around I was looking and smiling at him, he was smiling back and said "You like?". That expression was new in his vocabulary, so far he only used "ok?", this must be "English for masseurs, level 2". My answer was of course "yes" with an even bigger smile than before (yes also farangs can smile when the circumstances are favorable...). He continued with the belly and the chest by making big circles with both hands, which I find extremly pleasant and I must have been purring like a cat, and the "incidentally" slowly became an "obviously on purpose". I started rubbing his belly and then put my hand under his shirt and felt his smooth skin. After a while I asked "ok?" and he said "no", so I removed my hand again. Maybe he misunderstood my question, because a minute later he took my hand and put it under his shirt again ... Later he asked "Do you want me to come?". I'm not sure whether I was more suprised by the meaning of the sentence or by his english skills, "English for masseurs, level 3", or is it all covered by "Survival english for masseurs" anyway? Whatever, not in control of my mouth anymore, I answered "yes". He then mentioned quite a high figure and I agreed again. Overpriced for sure, but it is like holding a drug in front of an addict and mentioning any price the addict will say yes... Those guys for sure know how to extract the baht of us farangs but I really can't be mad at them. Later at home I also thought that those guys will probably face difficult times in the next months so it is ok to overtip them. Without going into further details, I must say I left the place very happy and for sure will make a visit there again on my next holiday, which under the current cirmumstances unfortunately is unclear when that will be...

They probably are. About the concern for the local laws shared by some friends, you are correct. Be super careful in public, but you will be safe in private, specially if your date is in the privacy of your European hotel. My experience in Saharian Africa es limited to two weeks in Morocco, 30 years ago. If that experience is transferrable, the secret for your safety and the gate to experience the local culture is hiring one boy to be your local guide. In Spanish, we call them the "espantamoros", something like "scaremores". Not only they keep other hustlers away from you, but also bargain best prices (remember bargaining is the standard) in markets, keep you away from dangerous areas, give you the best possible tips on local life, and provide you any goods you may need, including themselves or of you do not want them, other male or female companions. They work for a vey low daily fee, and may even invite you to their homes to share a meal.

Cardapio ... ‘hot drinks’ is a colloquialism, not torched. A friend’s café was a small espresso but there may be other caffeine bean choices. Bon appetit while your bottoms are up.

Active. A few minutes walk from Espaço Lagoa. Instagram banner ads. Thurs, consider skipping Lagoa, or suggest head over as things have wound down following Lagoa stage shows Fri/Sat. Mixed crowd. Montreal/Toronto strip club, CDMX/PV strip club, BRZ spa brothel all frothed up in a blender. Money talks. Nothing like it in Rio. Pergunte me.

Forgive us if we don't believe you, some random poster on an internet forum, has the magic smoking gun of evil that Hillary has hid from all the republican investigators to date. Well except for your all knowing self. I'm sure you keep that proof right next to your deed to the brooklyn bridge.

I am so sorry that I couldn’t find the time to continue this trip report. lo and behold, I will be in Bangkok next week!

This is exactly overreacting will do. If what i read is true, that it does transmit the same flu is, and even asymptomatic person can also transmit the virus, no travel restriction will be effective anyway in combating the spread. Itll slow down for sure but will never stop it. What travel reatriction and virus scares really do is hurting the economy, hurting the income of business that rely on tourism, hurting the factories, hurting the import and exports. What should be focused on are for all nation to ensure their healthcare are up to standard to face such pandemic if and when it happened. That includes having enough budget allocated for health. I know some countries are doing a good job at this but clearly some are not. And with the economy being badly hurt, itll make it much harder to channel money towards healthcare, let alone research on vaccines and cures. Heck, we couldve had a vaccine had the SARS vaccine research continues, or at least very close to have one given how similar this virus is to SARS, even being named SARS-cov2. Malaysia currently having a second wave of cluster infection, almost all linked to a person. That person travelled to shanghai and came back on 17th january, and tested positive 27february, 6 weeks after, so he might got infected from an unknown person locally instead. He is a high profile guy who is dierector of company and board of member of another, and lots of close contact with him tested positive now. Not as bad as south korean church though. It is inevitable and i do believe a delay by travel restriction will actually help in countries with poor health care, as what happened in wuhan, is not what all want to see elsewhere. I did google how an outbreak ends, its either a cure or vaccine is found/developed (like smallpox), or enough people has been infected and developed antibodies against it and no more new infection happening, or it becomes a normal infection where u can get it everwhere and is no longer considered localized and can be contained (like H1N1).

More and more, this is looking like a long-drawn-out epidemic. Even as cases in China fall, new epicentres keep emerging in other countries and tourism globally will be greatly affected. The low numbers in Thai bars -- and I suppose, massage places too -- will be the norm for months, perhaps well into the middle of the year. Do these businesses have the financial reserves and working capital to last through such a prolonged period of losses? I doubt it. Will landlords help by reducing rent? Will those other "lords" help by waiving demands for tea money through this period? One extreme scenario is that most such businesses close after two or three months of struggle and never re-open even when the epidemic is over. Unless, post-recovery, new entrepreneurs open new businesses to cater to us punters, the scene as we know it may become history. It's a sad thought, and I hope it doesn't come to that... but I can picture that possibility.

That having been said, Thailand isn't the only country where "confusion persists". Sydney Morning Herald, 8 March 2020: Source: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/two-australian-defence-force-members-test-positive-for-coronavirus-20200308-p547yr.html Meanwhile, news about Australia's Great Toilet Paper Scramble has travelled around the world even faster than the virus Mack.

If you end up being quarantined, I'll go, get some food from there and bring it to you.

I have had to travel extensively for work even during the virus escalation. While I had the same thoughts as you (relatively “young”...well at least not close to retirement! healthy etc..) with good hygiene I thought I would be fairly relaxed about it all. Let me tell you. Long haul travel is zero fun. Other people’s paranoia and tension starts to rub off especially in airports and places with crowds. I don’t doubt you could have a good time in Bangkok proper especially if you picked the right hotels and activities, but the actual commute through flights and airports is a complete pain in the a**. My friend just returned from Bangkok, he had an average time but said he felt leery everytime he got into a taxi because a number of known cases were via passenger-driver transmissions and he doubted the drivers were properly sanitizing their vehicles. Tuk tuk suddenly felt like a very attractive option. The situation changed significantly once the first death was recorded, far more panic, so it depends also if another death occurs or things remain stable. On SK2020, this is a tremendous financial loss for the organisers. I heard they are very appreciative if ticket holders opt for SK2021 instead of refunds as this helps to keep the event going for next year.

Thanks for the heads up! Shall visit next Saturday evening before I visit the bars at night.

So after 24 hours, and from 14 respondents, the vote is neck and neck: which is kind of surprising, since I thought people would be more upbeat about Bangkok here, regardless of the circumstances. Thank you for the great advice so far. I've had a long conversation with the BF yesterday, and he is still leaning towards not going. I am on the fence, leaning a little towards going, but I would hate that the first time the BF sees Asia is through the fog of COVID-19 complications. One thing has been clear, the virus itself is more or less not the issue here, us being relatively young and healthy, but its the other complications of the pandemic (quarantines and airline cancellations and travel bans and media hysteria, not to mention my parent's worry) that makes it a complicated matter. A number of music festivals and conventions have already been cancelled here in the US, which makes it even more of a bummer. I guess we were lucky that carnaval in Rio was not scaled down last week due to this mess. Offing for me is a solitary activity. I wouldn't dare do this with the BF, or if with "regular" friends with me in Bangkok, which happens once in a while. But, the BF is keen on at least seeing a boy bar and the seediness attached to it (and a girlie bar or two as well). He is Brazilian after all. Ugh this is just one of many things that complicates things. It would be OK if it were just me, seasoned traveler, having seen everything, but not with the BF with his first time in Asia. I'd dare say even if we cancel there will be other chances for sure. Knowing me though, it might be with a different BF lol. Thanks for laying all this out. It's the infinite permutation of complications that makes it almost not worth it. But lol yes getting home quarantined is actually a positive. At work this week, people were paranoid, and one sneeze has everyone look at you weird, and HR has been quick to recommend people to just work from home. I am American yup. The BF is Brazilian. I didn't realize there are countries putting Americans in a quarantine list. I don't blame them. We do not have our shit together yet. The mercy with our airfare is that they are awards booking through United, so if we cancel last-minute, it is only $50 to redeposit the miles we used. The Crowne Plaza Bangkok booking can be cancelled without penalty. The issue is not the Bangkok bookings, the issue is more making other travel plans because he and I have the time off already planned with our respective work. If we cancel BKK, I may just spend that easter week in Brazil (like you!), or maybe somewhere closer like Mexico. Amen to all of this. Dying is not my worry though. We are not gonna die from this. It's the other complications that this confusion has brought that I am worried about.

Kathy Griffin Slams Andy Cohen Says Anderson Cooper Won't Reconcile I kind of feel sorry for Kathy Griffin. For one, she should never wear her hair short if she doesn't want to look like a miserable, unattractive, over-pulled lesbian. For two, she got unfairly dumped by a so-called famous friend for possibly making a single mistake. What kind of friendship is it when a single mistake can't be forgiven? Kathy Griffin's talent never did much for me. I worked with Brooke Shields early in her career, and I met Kathy during her Suddenly Susan run. I don't remember Kathy ever making me laugh, but I always found her interesting and attention grabbing, and not just because of her hair. I have to admit the controversial Griffin photo of Trump's head did make me chuckle. It reminded me of one of my favorite authors, Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus of Ancient Rome. Suetonius had a biting wit when he would describe unloved, beheaded emperors lining the shore of the Tiber. For this I thought Griffin's humor was prescient, knowing full well that Trump devotees would not know who Suetonius was. Given most of what Trump and company says and does, was Kathy's photo really that offensive? Coming from a female comic who took her stand-up cues from Joan Rivers? I don't think so. But much like Al Franken's debacle, timing is everything. Wise advisors once gave me thoughtful advice: Expect to be judged by the folks you hold close and most dear. But when a friend hits a rough patch, is dumping the friend not a test of character? I never liked Andy Cohen because he's a cheap gay man. Self-centered, too. I view him as money-sucking TV scum. IMO, his product is no better for our culture than Jerry Springer's was, except Cohen's product is worse. He's making his fortune promoting primetime misogyny by dressing his Housewives with more bling and paint one could find on a RuPaul drag queen from Atlanta. The worst of America loves a car crash that continually beheads wealthy-looking bitches. I realize women-hating is a popular sport in the gay community, so I'm not expecting many gay guys to agree with me on this one. A lot of gay guys hate their mother, and some have very good reason. Some mothers are awful. Happily, I don't share that experience. The women in my life have been nothing short of fabulous. I'm grateful and appreciative. As far as I know, Andy has a good relationship with his Jewish mother, and that is not always easy. So how do we explain his dedication to the Housewives? M.O.N.E.Y. Andy sold his soul for salacious ratings that do damage to our culture, and he's laughing all the way to the bank. What will his legacy in TV be? Promoting women hating on women. There's good reason why many A-list actresses in Hollywood want nothing to do with him. I saw HBO's riveting Nothing Left Unsaid. Liz Garbus did some terrific work on this fascinating, very personal documentary. Make no mistake, Anderson Cooper did not lead an ordinary life. But he was very lucky to have had a special relationship with his famous mother through it all. And from what I know, Kathy Griffin enjoyed Anderson's mother as well. So what, exactly, did Anderson see in Kathy? She made him laugh. Anderson enjoys friends who make him laugh. Laughter is very important to him, and if you see the documentary, you understand why. But why dump Kathy and keep Andy? Was Andy funnier than Kathy? I guess an easy answer is Andy has a cock. But that answer could be construed as misogyny as well. I doubt we'll ever know the truth from Anderson's perspective. It is fascinating to watch a very public friendship of famous people - a competitive threesome - disintegrate. Almost like watching an episode of Housewives but more real.

You must think you know something the rest of us dont here! ? But as you obviously have little idea what you're talking about so i'll not even bother correcting you, aside from saying I already can and do travel from the Republic of Ireland a lot if and when it suits me and that has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on anything to do with Nationality or Sovereignty, it's simply a matter of logistics.

The most often issue I encounter is the wait time. Drivers sit and idle after they accept your request. I could never understand what they benefit from this. Are they hoping customers would cancel and get charged cancelation fee of less than a dollar each time?

It happens even here on Brazil, the driver's rating in some cases is useless and Uber is contribuing insted of trying to prevent this shit. Last time I got scammed was during the last weeks of February, coming back to Jardins to Guarulhos airport in SP. A 4.91 stars driver with over 3000 rides, arrives at the airport and picks me up... I was so tired about the flight (canceled flight at night, closed airport, flight diverted to GRU instead of Congonhas airport) I wasn't paying attention to the road and the driver certainly thought i was an unaware gringo. After 15 min we approach to a tollgate, and inside my head an alarm starts ringing. I check my position on google maps, and this fucker was bringing me OUTSIDE Sao Paulo. Since my Uber's account is linked to a prepaid card which I can freeze, realtime using my smartphone's application, I secretly locked it, and then asked the driver for explanations. In Sao Paulo, the more you go to East from Guarulhos airport, the more you're approaching to dangerous areas of the metropolitan area, so I have been very carefull about the way i was talking to the driver, who unscrupulously lied to me, saying that we were actually going to my destination. Not very smart since I was clearly holding my phone in my hand. After a ride of 80 minutes, 2 detours, and a total distance 1.5 times the usual and a declined charge on my credit card of 1.3 times the original amount (like 140 reais instead of 60), we finally arrived to my address. But before we arrived I had plenty of time to take countermeasures...I wasn't sure about what could have happened once we arrived at destination...the driver could have asked me for more money in a not very friendly way, so I asked a friend, who is an MMA fighter and a policeman to wait me in front of my building. I highly doubt that the guy will ever do this joke again to anybody else, Uber's support proven to be very helpful, but if you believe that Uber is a 100% danger free way of transport...you're wrong. It's safer and more transparent than regular taxis, BUT it's not immune to scamsters. And I believe that the drivers ratings are affected by a huge flaw. The majority of the customers doesn't realize they got scammed and/or forgets to report and rate the driver. And more importantly with a 4.910 (4.91) rating and over 3000 rides completed, a 1 star rating for a single ride means absolutely nothing, decreasing the average to 4.909...still a displayed 4.91 rating, This means that there might be some drivers who deliberately try to scam the customers (the foreign ones in particular), because they're aware that the cost/benefit ratio for them is favourable in terms of reputation. I don't know how Uber acts after you report a driver for such a shitty behaviour, but It they were a serious company, the first thing they should be doing is deactivate the driver's accounts. .

I like this tone better for the conversation. I prefer empathy rather than judgmental preaching and bullying. Assholes make me double down on assholeness. @Kevie770 is in his first trip to Brazil and clearly is leaning the culture and conventions. Assuming that his intention was disrespecting the boys is preposterous, and a malicious assumption. There is no reason to make that interpretation from his narrative. So @Kevie770, learn the lesson for next time. Arguing as you do that you were saying "no", is not a realistic argument in this context. Just remember for next time that if you are in a Brazilian sauna with garotos de programa, you should remove yourself from initiating any interaction or, otherwise, we ready to pay. As the friends point here, these are working boys and their time is money. When I went to the saunas, even when the boys did not interact sexually with me but just chatted, I treated them in some way. Sometimes a drink, sometimes a snack, sometimes I paid for their ticket (boys pay half fee to enter). You did pay for a drink, so no one can tell you did not tip him. You should have probably been more generous as it looks like the interaction went far beyond just a few kisses. It is clear to me this is just a misunderstanding and not an attempt to take advantage from sex workers. Remember, there are two kinds of gay saunas in Brazil. If you want to interact without a goods exchange, go to a regular one. But if you go to a garotos de programa sauna, all interaction are based in a working contract. I hope to coincide with you someday and go hunting together. I am not taking my American weed through the boundaries, I would love to take advantage from your courage. If you are planning to be back in April, hit me back through PM.

I'm more interested in the report. Not interested in being an anonymous internet social critic. I want to hear about the guys and the events of the night as well as your hijinks. I have written about my time in Brazil at the gay Thailand board but I may post some memories here as well. Anyway, keep writing and posting. Like many here, I'm hungry for firsthand reports about the guys and businesses of Brazil.

yeah....but..... WHO just said fatality rate for COVID-19 is 3.4%. According to the LA Times, the fatality for regular seasonal flu last year was .15% in the U.S. (so possibly higher in some parts of the world??). Even if regular flu has fatality rate of 1%, COVID-19 would by one measure - fatality rate - be quite a lot worse than the normal flu Same LA Times article said that Spanish Flu fatality rate was 2.5%. And I think people thought the Spanish Flu was really bad. Maybe the WHO number will come down. It does seem that with testing being so inconsistent the "denominator" in the fatality fraction can't be that reliable. We can hope. https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-03-05/flu-killed-more-people-coronavirus-covid-19 When you play out the percentages into large populations, they become numbers of real human beings and it does seem that this is an area where we would rather avoid the deaths. I had a professor once who pointed out that in the U.S. if you really wanted to save lives, lower the speed limit. Statistically it saves lives. But no one cares about that. Sometimes we care. Sometimes we don't.

If you have the time to do a drive down to Cuenca, a smaller version of Quito (I've heard a few people say Cuenca was what they had expected Quito to be), you will see some of the most gorgeous scenery in South America along the way, including the valley of the volcanoes (weather-permitting, of course, as it can be rainy and cloudy in the Andes). The highway is now very good and the drive can be done in about 6 hours. However, if you break it into 2-3 days, you can also detour to the Quilotoa crater lake for more deserty scenery or to Banos for a more jungle/tropical feel. An hour up the mountains from Cuenca is the Cajas park, a high altitude moor-like watershed with lakes and orchids and fresh trout. Honestly, I know of few other countries with such incredibly diverse and beautiful scenery crammed in a small area, and we haven't even talked about the Galapagos Islands yet. But I can't help you much on the more carnal attractions.

I have almost had it too with Steven Kesslar's very, very long politcal forum posts and his rants against others who don't agree with him.

No I don't. In 2016, Republican party favorite (at least among the backers), Jeb Bush, ended his campaign on Feb 20. Ted Cruz and John Kasich remained in the primary along with Trump all the way until May 3. They continually split their primary vote among three men, allowing Trump to win more primaries with just ⅓ of the vote. Had it only been a two-man race early on, there's no telling what might have happened, given the number of never-Trumpers out there at that time. In 2020, the Democrats will not let this mistake happen, and I predict they will coalesce to Biden, which is already happening. And it's only March 5th. Obviously, some Trump acolytes don't think it was a mistake to get in bed with the Mafia don devil. Against Hillary, they saw Trump as their only chance to win. They believed no one but the devil could beat Hillary. (I'm certainly not saying Hillary was a saint, but she's no Trump, and IMO, she's a much better human being.) Hillary won the popular vote in 2016 by almost 3 million people, a FACT that Trump acolytes love to ignore. Considering the shit that went down in the 2016 election (the Russians, WikiLeaks, the server, Comey, and Anthony Weiner), Hillary still broke popular vote records against Trump. But her campaign failed by taking Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan votes for granted. Losing these three states by such narrow margins was the biggest mistake of her campaign. I always thought the hatred towards Hillary was irrational, extremely partisan, and very sexist and misogynistic. Very much like Obama, I believed Hillary had the potential to make a terrific president. I also believed she was the most qualified candidate this country has seen in my lifetime, despite her obvious flaws. However, she handled her in-home server scandal horribly, which gave her hate-filled opposition plenty of ammunition to destroy her presidential bid. And that's precisely what they did.

Seems as though a bunch of the nasties over there took an instant dislike of me that turned into this weird stalking bullying bullshit.... But I gave a big FUCK YOU to BnaC, MikeBiGuy, and that weird admin GuyFawkes and gave them a view of my lovely smooth Asian butt hole as something to remember me by. Their loss, haha.... I got a three month banishment by the right wing trolls over there, but they will never see my sweet Asian butt ever again.

He will have no trouble finding love!

I thought I had read somewhere on this forum that Club Tobi had closed. My local friends weren’t sure and since my time in Medellin was limited I didn’t check it out.

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Amazing how pols protect each other, isn't it? Best regards, RA1