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I'm rather surprised by some reactions. In my twenty-five years , consisting of nearly eighty stays, half of which involved frantic activity on the scene, I can only think of two questionable guys I met. One was a drug addict , as I later found out, and the other a charlatan in that he never had any intention of fulfilling an agreement made in the bar. I can't believe there is anywhere else in the world where the guys involved in the trade are so honest, genuine and trustworthy.

As a regular visitor to the US from Australia I am always amazed at how around half of the US population is ok with Trump. He is either an incompetent fool or an evil genius. Either way, he is a danger to the USA and the world. Yesterday there were over 33,000 new COVID-19 cases in the USA. Australia had 14.

Still 2gether (2020) ... and still not convinced. It's ok to watch but don't see the hype it created. Nothing much happens and Tine is whining all the time. It took 13 + 5 episodes for the main couple to have a (still rather shy) kiss. Ok Tine is cute and Bright has it's admirers... Together with me (2017) Watched the first episode. Funny und suggestive. Kissing already in the first episode, not shy at all. Mom: "Did you too have an argument? You are not a kid anymore, are you still poking his butt with wooden sticks?" Korn: "Something similar, but this time it wasn't a wooden stick." Very promising! I will keep watching. With Korn (Max Nattapol Diloknarawit; he had a main role as a fitness trainer and gogo boy in "Bangkok Love Stories - Innocence" which I also recommend) and Knock (Tul Pakorn Thanasrivanitchai). Both hot but I prefer Tul. To get an idea:

Things go fast, was at Soi 4 again 3 weeks ago and found Banana already open in it's new splendor: Another update (for which I can't find the thread in which I have previously posted about it): Senso is has been closed again for several weeks, with a sign on the door saying "temporarily closed"

From Coconuts Bangkok Quarantine Dispatch: After 6 surprise months abroad, my costly journey back to Thailand By Lobsang Dundup Sherpa Subirana The room is spacious and habitable. There’s a television, large fridge, an attached bathroom, a balcony with a view to a desolate field and a table with Personal Protective Equipment. Also on it are a booklet outlining the hotel’s quarantine rules and a paper with a QR code guests must scan to contact the nurse daily via Line. The phone rings immediately. “Hello! Welcome to Thailand! Did you have a good flight?” says the operator, who identifies himself as Mac and insists on going through the “Guide Book” together. Just minutes earlier, a car fitted with a protective screen, driven from a barren Suvarnabhumi Airport terminal by a man wearing what looked just short of a full hazmat suit, pulled up before the deserted hallway of an allegedly packed hotel. It all felt like a mix between Chernobyl, a prison ward and a laboratory experiment. “Hotel look empty, but you take last room,” Mac said, adding that nobody was allowed outside until they passed their first Polymerase Chain Reaction, or PCR, swab test, seven days into confinement. That will mean a half hour on the patio, with a day’s notice and a mask on while rooms were being cleaned. Just as other expats became stuck abroad when the country closed its borders in March, this reporter’s Swiss holiday turned into an unexpected six-month stay that just ended last week. After longing to see friends and family over half a year and wondering month after month when a return would be possible, my repatriation ended up requiring great reserves of patience – and money. Amid the seemingly endless extensions of Thailand’s emergency decree and uncertainty among many a farang stranded outside or inside the kingdom, one thing is clear: Allowing the lucky minority who qualifies to come back is being done efficiently, but not easily. Money is a must While communication with embassies abroad is generally free-flowing and efficient, requirements to qualify for repatriation can be costly to gather at once. The hefty price hikes of flights, the cost of insurance and the quarantine facilities alone favor those with larger paychecks, just like providing nine-month visas to a reduced quota of tourists, or mulling a seven-day quarantine to replace the current 14-day one. It all invariably seems a knee-jerk gimmick to allow a select few in while keeping the decree alive and borders shut, despite almost no local cases being recorded in the country for months. A one-way ticket into Bangkok from Europe’s major cities such as Paris, London or Frankfurt is no cheaper than THB15,000 on any given day. Return tickets in March, before the border closure, were about THB18,000. Flights from New York are the cheapest from the United States’ major cities, at about THB25,000. Health insurance – which must specifically state coverage of all COVID-19-related expenses – hovers at about THB30,000. This means returnees have to repurchase insurance if theirs refuses to reissue them a modified certificate. The cheapest approved government accommodation for a 15-day stay is another THB30,000 baht to THB40,000. While they all follow an obligatory standardized package model with meals, airport pickup and tests included, the 14 most affordable venues on a list of 16 hotels two weeks ago all said they had no rooms left for the month. Another had one remaining, but it was windowless. The “last room” this reporter booked at a Samut Prakan hotel, according to Mac, cost THB37,000. Added to this is the cost of the PCR test that must be taken a maximum of three days before take-off to obtain a “Fit to Fly” certificate. It could be free or a couple hundred euros in Europe, but can set people back more than USD$1,000 (THB32,000) in the United States. Add it all up, and it’s THB100,000 some may not have for the Certificate of Entry the government issues applicants when all documents are compiled. Continues with photos at https://coconuts.co/bangkok/features/quarantine-dispatch-after-6-surprise-months-abroad-my-costly-journey-back-to-thailand/ ================================================ From The Thai Examiner Special Tourist Visa a fiasco boss warns Most Western and European tourists are still excluded from Thailand as a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed, over the weekend, that only visitors from Covid 19 free countries will be eligible to apply for the visa. The news comes as a top Thai tourism industry leader, Chairat Trairattanajaratporn, castigated the Thai government for failing to listen to his industry and warned that up to 1 million hotel and hospitality workers will have been laid off by the end of the year as disaster looms for the industry despite heroic efforts to keep it alive. A leading Thai tourism industry leader has slammed the Thai government’s efforts to reopen the country to foreign tourism saying that representations from those within the industry were falling on deaf ears. Mr Chairat’s comments came as observers rubbished efforts by the government culminating this week in the announcement of a new Special Tourist Visa as a drop in the ocean compared to what the country is losing every day from 2019 revenues. The boss of the Tourism Council of Thailand said that, so far, only 500,000 of Thailand’s tourist workers have been laid off or let go as Thailand’s hotel and hospitality sector desperately tries to keep the industry open in the face of adversity but fears that at least another 500,000 will be laid off before the end of 2020. Mr Chairat dismissed government efforts at domestic tourism to replace the lost income from foreign tourism and pointed out that many hotels that had reopened on such promises had again been forced to shut their doors after the hoopla fell flat. The hard-hitting comments by the tourism boss come as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this weekend pointed to even further restrictive measures linked with the Special Tourist Visa which is only projected by Thailand’s Tourism Authority to generate a minuscule 1,200 visitors a month and ฿1 billion in revenue, a figure itself questioned by industry analysts as it would represent a massive 1,600% increase in expenditure per tourist per visit.

Trump leaves his sick bed at Walter Reed for his photo op...driving past his base crowd and waving..... Trump the HERO ! NOTHING will take him down (or that's what he WANTS us and other foreign leaders to believe).... He couldnt stand that his TEAM was giving the public a wrong message of his health....that he was sick and weak. More irresponsible and reckless behavior from Trump, just to satisfy his base... He is fucking contagious and he puts secret service men at risk to travel with him in an enclosed car for HIS OWN EGO..... This man is a Fucking nutcase !!!!! and a showman.... The Trump Shit Show continues. and he wants GREAT ratings !

I first saw the original at 19 yo. Just starting to deal with coming out. Thought it was very great, and helpful. The difficult parts were the best.

I agree But, Jim Parsons' character takes over by the last half of the film (the phone calls to the man you love the most). Ugh

Yummy!

How fast things change. I was in Soi 4 briefly today, and later in Soi 6 and observed the following: Banana Bar on Soi 4 as well as the gogo bar upstairs are permanently closed. The door was open and I could see the interior has already been largely dismantled. The Spanish restaurant on the right hand side (I think Tapas was the name) is no more. Instead, there is already a brand new gay bar & restaurant named "pride" (not really a very creative name I find, but so what) Super A was closed, if permanently or just tonight I couldn't tell (was riding on my bike, so no closer look) Golden Cock is in the process of being closed down. BUT: apparently they have merged or will replace Nature Boy. Riding past, I saw a guy carrying something out of GC towards NB. The green Nature Boy neon sign was lit, inside colored lights were flashing. New on the outside a brightly lit Golden Cock sign, complete with, well, the cock image. No picture as I was riding....

Understandable, but when in Rome...

Keep in mind he travels mostly SE Asia....boy is very commonly used, boy or girl doesn't relate to age....man woman is usually expressed as to which role you are in bed. Then there's always Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV.......

unless you are like Tomcal or Namazu that go through a dozen guys a day

From The Thai Enquirer Review: Sunisa Manning’s ‘A Good True Thai’ is a timely novel Every few years, it seems, Thailand is convulsed by the throes of protest. People fill the streets with waving flags, witty posters, and vicious slogans – sometimes directed at the powers that be, sometimes directed at fellow citizens. Each time, the protests feel unique: the 2010 red-yellow shirt protests distinctive in their polarizing effect, the 1992 protests in their bloodiness, the 1973 protests in their unifying, national character, and the 1976 protests in their geopolitical resonance with the global Cold War. The ‘newness’ of current protests is once again touted by the press: this is the first time we’ve seen open protest of the monarchy! Never before have students so young led protests! No Thai movement has embraced such a progressive agenda! The protests are pivotal and it is the work of the press to capture what is so topical about them. On the other hand, it is the work of political scientists and novelists to reach for the deeper truths of any particular moment – to put into words the traces of frustrations, anguish, heartbreak, and hope. Maybe the most remarkable thing about the current protests is not how new they are but just how much they have in common with ghosts of protests past. In that sense, no book is timelier for the current political moment than Sunisa Manning’s ‘A Good True Thai.’ The book is a vibrant, captivating story about three students navigating the 1973 – 76 protests and brings to life a period that was equally tumultuous and equally pivotal for Thai politics. Written long before the current protests exploded across the country, Manning paints a vivid portrait of a nation gripped with frustration at the tyranny of military dictatorship, of students unafraid of being deeply critical of the systems that created ‘Thainess’, the cross-generational and cross-class fractures of protest politics and, more than anything, the deeply human struggles that meet those willing to challenge the status quo. The struggles are animated by the interpersonal tensions between the novel’s three main characters: Det, Lek and Chang. Det comes from a prominent family, his father the Minister of Education, and his mother a royal descendent with the title Mom Rajawongse. On the opposite end of the social spectrum, Chang grew up in the Khlong Toey slums, living with his single mother who is a factory worker in a leather handbag factory. Lek rounds out their trio, a sharp, beautiful Chinese immigrant and scholarship kid with a passion for literature. Det and Chang become best friends at officer training camp. In Thailand, the military still facilitates the few spaces in Thailand where the rich and poor meet – at ror dor, on draft day. Despite – or because – of this, they are spaces laden with class tension and caste-like privilege. Rattawut Lapcharoensap’s ‘Draft Day’ lays bare the tragedies of being poor in a Thailand where this means all the difference between a two-year conscription sentence and a get-out-of-jail-free card. For Det and Chang, however, the shared experience forges a friendship that forces both outside of their comfort zones. Continues at https://www.thaienquirer.com/19241/review-sunisa-mannings-a-good-true-thai-is-a-timely-novel/

We customers can be weirdos too so boys need to learn spot those as well. Non-performing customers may be OK but non-paying may be problematic they need to learn to spot. I think weird is OK for both sides as long as it doesn't turn violent or outright disgusting

You do not need much cash, mostly for the boys. Everything else can be paid with your CC or DC, even in the beach.

The hotel was fortunate that this moron did not have a gun with him when he made a fool of himself in the Resort. More worryingly however. How on earth is it possible that a man with a criminal record, who fired off his gun in several locations and claimed to be a federal agent can find a job teaching English in a Thai school? What background checks were made before he was able to find any kind of job in the Kingdom? So he lost his job. Do I care? Not one jot. He brought all this on himself.

Given that customer satisfaction is part of their income stream, im not surprised that only a minority have issues.

I worry the White House is one big germ box, how many are at risk, people that work there for their career, before and hopefully after the Trump crowd clears out. How many of them are getting sick? And whoever does Trump hair and makeup: What a risky job!

The story sort of begins and ends with Michael. I loved the entire cast. Not a Ryan Murphy fan so was pleasantly surprised by the movie.

Their nicknames (in order) are Od, Kem, Kay, Day, Name, Ming, Net, Arm, Suea (Tiger), King using an unsystematic transcription (ignoring aspiration, tone etc.) that may or may not be any help with pronunciation.

looks like you never heard about back stabbing

Big props to Zachary Quinto, Jim Parsons, and the entire cast. This movie was wonderful!

so many cute boys on the beach, sigh, wish I know some Portuguese.

That picture is in Mexico, many people promised to take him places when he got his passport, then when he got it, they all had excuses why they couldn't. I brought him to Mexico for 2 weeks during his vacation. Everyone that met him,loved him. Always offered to pay his own way while he was here...very rare.

it may not be enough space as Nature Boy is not exactly famous for being big bar.

I believe that Nakarat Massage occupied the third floor of the building where Tapas was located (corner of Soi 4 and Silom). Did you notice if Nakarat was still in business? As for GC's relocation to Nature Boy, hope they move the sofa to the new venue. Wouldn't quite have the same vibe without it.

Besides sex, there are many things to see and do in Merida and surrounding Yucatán Penninsula! The whole area is pock marked with “Ceynotes” basically holes in the underlining limestone base which vary in size from swimming pool to large pond size swimming holes! Many have access to them and are places to go swimming and exploring! They form the largest underwater cave system, stretching all the way to Cancun, over 100 miles away. Mayan pyramids - there are over 25 locations with the Mesoamerican Pyramids that are anywhere from one to 3 hours away and many tour companies will pick you up and take you or you can rent a car, For the nature lovers, Along the coast are several large nature preserves with huge flocks of up to 15,000 Flamingos which can be seen most of the year, mammals such as Jaguars, Ocelots and Marguays can be found. Also various species of Monkeys and Parrots. All of these places are easy day trips. Further to the E/SE towards Cancun and Tulum would take 3-1/2 hrs. each way and are better for a several days trip. the last photo is the Cathedral of Merida that sits in the center of Merida and which the large park in front of has numerous activities every night, music, dances and food fairs.