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At 10pm, I left the merry folks of Hotmale Beer Bar downstairs to enter Sol Bar to watch the show. Mamasan led me to a seat on right side at second last row. The big pillar in the middle prevented a clear view of the stage but at least it had full mirror on it which allowed the back view of the guys to be reflected when the guys stood in front of the pillar as part of their rotation. P, whom I got to know from last night, was waiting for me. He was in white singlet and white shorts but no number. About 15 other guys were on stage and they had numbers embroidered on their singlets and shorts. I asked him why he had no number and he said something but I couldn't catch the explanation. No matter. I told him I wanted to watch the show. I definitely was taking him off so he could change to his own clothes. He took his leave and I surveyed the bar. There were low round sofa type of seats ideal for groups right below the stage. Only about 10 customers including one Asian customer to my left seated with former Hotmale twink who had changed out of his waiter uniform. Asian customer (looks Taiwanese or HK) was taking him off but like me, wanted to watch the show. The bar started filling up quickly. Two separate groups of Thai customers came in and ordered bottle service. Each group called down some guys down from stage to drink with them for the night. Just before the show started at 10.22pm, (yes, I checked my watch), a group of 4 farang women tourists came in. They took front row sofas below stage on the right side. Midway through the show, one of the Thai groups would move to front row sofas below stage on the left side. Sol Bar has adopted the best practices of the other bars. Their show started in a similar fashion to Jupiter where the guys took turns to walk individually and present themselves to audience. Unlike Jupiter, they didn't have the cold lifeless model stare. The guys of Sol Bar were free to smile at audience. Most removed their singlets to showcase their upper bodies. Some seemed awkward with runway walk. They need more model training. Also unlike Jupiter, the numbers on their shorts were visible for all to see. Very accessible for any customer who wants to off a guy. Regarding the show, there's only 2 ladyboy singing - the opening act (backed up by 2 dancers) and the fifth performance (a solo item). Total 8 performances and I don't count big cock show. The other performances are all performed by the Sol Bar guys themselves - mixture of dance numbers and slow erotic dancing. But overall what stood out was the last performance - a SM act between a master and a slave. The slave was stripped, pulled on a leash, thrown onto the floor, "whipped" and had candle wax poured on his body. Audience members were invited to pour wax - one lady from the all-girl farang tourists in the front row and the Asian customer sitting with ex-Hotmale guy. I suspect the latter arranged for him to go up on stage. Customer seemed sheepish but I could tell he enjoyed it! The twist at the end of the act was that the slave turned the tables on the master! I have watched similar shows at Freshboys and Tawan but this particular performance made it into an unforgettable viewing experience with a storyline. Kudos for best SM show in Bangkok, Sol Bar! Maybe Sol Bar should rename itself as Sol SM Bar!

I asked P if he was not with me, which show he would be in. He said the erotic dancing. He also said some nights there's a shower show and he would be in it. "You do shower show for me in hotel?" I asked. Yes he said. After the SM show, the Sol Bar guys came up on stage. I gave 100 baht tips to numbers 10 and 14 - one for nice smile and another for well proportioned body. Both I suspect our forum member @vinapu would approve. I didn't do the @vinapu tuck into their white shorts though. Finally, P, being a good friend, asked me to consider tipping his friend, no. 18 and I did willingly. I love how P looks out for his friends. We left Sol Bar and in hotel room, P kept his word and gave me a shower show. He's a true pro. Well worth his tip!

No way. You are the champion on that field here.

Was in Bangkok in early October and back again two months later. Link to October's trip report below. https://www.gayguides.com/forums/topic/40292-weekend-in-bangkok/ The reason why I decided to come again now instead of during Christmas (my usual timing) is because this week is the last week for two fellow forum members in Bangkok. They will be flying back after their months long stay. I am envious of them, being retired and all that. I can't get leave from work to go on holiday for months. The most I can ever get is 2 weeks at a stretch and unfortunately, I have used up my leave for this year and am left with only one week. I arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday evening from Singapore. After checking in and leaving my luggage in my room at Le Meridien, I was off to Hot Male Beer Bar downstairs. Both fellow forum members were already seated there. They were drinking and chatting with two guys from new Sol Bar just across the soi. One is an old timer from Twilight while the other is new. It was their off day hence they did not have to report to their bar and they could go to other bars. Forum readers who read my previous trip report would know of my promise to buy authentic Calvin Klein briefs for Z, my current infatuation. When I appeared at Hotmale Beer Bar, Z was elated to see me. I got him a three-pack with three colours - white, black and grey. Later in hotel room, he returned me the grey pair. Grey is not his colour. He likes white and doesn't mind black. He's both practical and sensible. "But it's size M. I can't wear it. I give to other boy?" I said. "Ok," he replied. We both know that even though we profess we are each other's boyfriend, we have (many) other boyfriends. In fact, in the morning, just before we were to go for breakfast, he had to take a video call. I could hear from the accent that the guy is from Philippines. Z gestured to me to keep quiet while he spoke to his Filipino boyfriend, "I call you at 3pm and we chat ok? I need to sleep now." Lol! Sorry I got ahead of myself. Back to Hotmale Beer Bar downstairs. Many customers. Festive mood. The guys from Sol Bar surprisingly didn't come out to the "balcony" as often as they did in October. Spotted a waiter who used to work at Hotmale and was one of the stars of the big cock show. If I ever go inside Sol Bar, I will ask him why he made the change. I had a great time catching up with fellow forum members and the Hotmale Beer Bar waiters. I even exchanged Line account with P, one of the Sol Bar guys seated with us. I told him I could not off him tonight but I will off him another night. Z was the chosen one. After chatting for about an hour or so, our merry trio of forum members went our separate ways. I had a great time with Z and we were exhausted and slept by 1am. We continued with round 2 in morning then we washed up and went for breakfast. After breakfast, Z went home. "See you tonight!" we both said to each other.

8 guys in big cock show. Mostly twunk.

Dinner was at Circus on Soi 4 with fellow forum members. We did people watching while we ate and chatted. Recognised many old faces. After that we adjourned to Hotmale Beer Bar downstairs. The latest buzz is the lottery which is on Friday 1st December. Many of the staff bought lottery tickets when the lottery ticket ladies came around selling them. The top prize is 12 million baht!

After Z went back, I had time to myself in morning. I was at swimming pool for half an hour then back to hotel room for Netflix and Tiktok. At 1.30pm, I had lunch appointment with fellow forum member. He suggested we eat at new Foodland branch at Park Silom. Very clean and new but not as big as I expected. Prices are same as Foodland Patpong. However, atmosphere will never beat Foodland Patpong! Fellow forum member and I then continued our conversations while we walked around Patpong and Silom. We did one full round from Park Silom to Silom Road to Soi 6 to Surawong Road to Soi Thaniya then along Silom Road to Soi 4 and back to Soi 6 where we accepted the invitation of two cute massage twinks. Massage for 60 minutes was 500 baht excluding tips. I was very satisfied with my guy, L and I got his Line after finding out he's willing to come to my hotel room before/after work. Finally, I have to share this sad photo of the place that used to be Coffee Grnder Silom.

didn't you say you want to open a bar, not caring about profit?

I think no one looked for this massacre to happen. The IDF and Netanyahu did not ignore intentionally the warning, in my opinion. This is just blatant incompetence, an incident that put into question the legendary super efficiency of the Israel army and intelligence. That is exactly why their reaction is unacceptable. If the IDF and the Israeli intelligence did their work as they were supposed to, we would not have thousands of innocent Israeli murdered by Hamas. They would have been stopped at the wall, and a few Israeli civilian would be hurt or killed by home made cheap rockets. Easier than accepting your incompetence and your mistakes is blaming Hamas and the Palestinians.

I cannot imagine anyone in Israel wanted this massacre to happen. And I am saying that as someone who is no fan of Netanyahu

One observation from my recent Brazil trip--the beard epidemic continues!. I would guess that maybe 90% of the guys walking in the gay area in Sao Paulo are sporting some kind of beard. It's not really my thing . This trend seems to have started a few years ago and continues to grow in popularity. I still was able to meet non bearded guys in the saunas but also a trend the amongst the guys there as well. As a side note--not so many beards in Colombia but more than a few years ago.

Perhaps the most vile, hateful, and ignorant post ever made on this forum.

I am not a risk taker, so I always stick with Sauna. I have hooked up with guys from Grindr for free, but their bodies are not as nice as sauna GP, so I usually just skip Grindr these days. I prefer paying, and asking the guy to do exactly what I want, never have to worry about mutual pleasure. It's all about him deliever what I pay for. Garotocomlocal may or may not be good. I don't know if I would hire someone just by his pictures online.

While I do not go as far as @Department_Of_Agriculture, it is perfectly clear to those who have considered Israel's treatment of Palestinians over a long period of time that the Israeli government absolutely does not want a 2-state solution, whatever Netanyahu and his cronies parrot time after time. Yet the Palestinians cannot absolve themselves of blame. Those who attended the 2000 Camp David Summit between President Clinton, Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat are all very clear that a deal was very close but it was Arafat who killed it. On the other hand, I am reasonably certain that had an agreement in fact been reached, it would have quickly collapsed as Barak's government lasted less than a year to be replaced by the ultra right-wing hawk Ariel Sharon and his fellow believers who have ruled Israel virtually ever since. I would be delighted if Netanyahu could be hauled before the Internatinal Criminal Court. Unfortunately, Israel does not recognise the Court and I am not sure if that could be possible. On the other hand, after the ghastly massacres in Israel and Gaza, I hope he is kicked out of office very quickly and finally brought to book for his criminal actions he has taken every action to avoid for many years. In the meantime it seems President Biden could be in considerable trouble in his own country for his unwavering support of Israel, the more so given the Israeli Intelligence failures we are now learning about. Did the USA not have spy satellites over Gaza for the last few years and was it not aware of what Hamas and its affiliates were doing as they rehearsed the Israel raid? After all, these were done in plain sight and were even capured by Hamas on video! Could the USA not have warned Israel? Perhaps we will learn more in the fullness of time.

This matter is particularly troubling because the warning provided was from a staunch ally that had the assets to collect superior signals intelligence and surveillance monitoring. On the surface it seems incredulous that it would not be taken seriously. it takes me back to 9/11. A field agent in the Southwest was the recipient of a tip that a group of middle eastern men taking flying lessons for commercial jets. What the tipster said was unusual that they wanted training in take off and flight ops but had expressed no interest in landing instruction. The info was passed on to FBI headquarters in Washington where it was never taken seriously for reasons yet to be explained.

Please name the bar…..

Our thoughts for now are obviously on the Thai workers, especially those prisoners of Hamas terrorists. But how much thought did we give to the 30,000 Indian, Bangladeshi, Nepalese and Filipino workers who suffered horribly for years in the camps when building the stadia for last year's Soccer World Cup in Qatar? In February 2021, The Guardian newspaper wrote that 6,500 migrant workers were killed while working on the sites. And still Qatar has not provided proper compensation to those who were paid a pittance for their work. As Adam Smith wrote, mobility of labour was one of the essential elements of capitalism that would enable nations to become richer. I doubt if he included moving overseas to work in that theory, but the fact is that today vast numbers of people work overseas because they can make better wages and save more than in their home countries. Approx. 2 million Filipinos work overseas. It is estimated that if they withdrew their labour, the hospital systems in several countries would be close to collapse. Over 6 million Turks have emigrated and work outside Turkey. 113,186 Thais work legally overseas and remitted an estmiated 299 billion baht back home during the last two years. But the total number of those working illegally elsewhere, especially in Asian countries, is far higher. As Kritaya Archavanitkul a professor at Mahidol University stated at a seminar a few years ago - “The problems of deception, tricking people to work as forced labour or in the sex industry are more prominent. Every year, an increasing number of people are becoming victims of such crimes, while there are still no concrete measures to protect or support Thai workers in other countries,” she said. https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40026706 https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/30334588#

I am going back to Brazil this Dec until early Jan. Will spend most of my time in Rio with a few days in SP and BH. Has anyone been to Olimpo BH since the re-opening in Oct? It looks like it might be sem garotos now and 24 hours on the weekend. There is also a new Dedalos BH. Strange that there are many 24-hour sex venus in BH but none in Rio.

I think CNN summed up his life and work succinctly this morning. To many he was revered; to many others he was reviled.But we should not, I suggest, consider his legacy without recalling that his German Jewish family fled to the USA in 1938 after suffering many humiliations at the hands of the Nazis. Nor that he was very much a product of the Cold War during which he was determined to protect American interests. I have read much about his career, mostly those parts which are more reviled today. Of his achievements, there is the ending of the Vietnam War for which he shared the Nobel Peace Prize (although this rather hides his many actions in the pursuit of that war), the major change in policy towards Mao's China, his many attempts to find a solution to the crises in the Middle East, and a gradual detente with the Soviet Union. On the negative side of the balance, I suppose the illegal invasion of Cambodia which resulted in the rise of the Khmer Rouge with the estimated murder of between 1.5 and 2 million Cambodians, and engineering the murder of the elected President and the consequent coup in Chile are the ones that first come to mind. To that and other errors of judgement/deliberate policy decisions we have to add his agreement in advance by promising the USA would not interfere in any way when Pakistan invaded East Pakistan, a war that resulted in savage butchery and the consequent genocide of around 3 million Bengalis. As he said to Nixon when the war ended with the establishment of the state of Bangladesh, "Congratulations, Mr. President. You saved West Pakistan," a reference to a possible invasion by India with assistance from China. The late Christopher Hitchens was no fan of Kissinger. Indeed, one of his books is titled The Trial of Henry Kissinger. As the San Francisco Chronicle reviewer wrote, "he presents damning documentary evidence against Kissinger in case after case." In a two-article piece for The Guardian written in 2001 before some of the documents about Kissinger and the Presidents he worked under were declassified, there is this paragraph about the fact that after leaving office he became a fixture on the lists of those who were desperate to have him as one of their dinner guests - Everybody "knows", after all, that Kissinger inflicted terror and misery and mass death on that country [Cambodia], and great injury to the United States Constitution at the same time. (Everybody also "knows" that other vulnerable nations can lay claim to the same melancholy and hateful distinction, with incremental or "collateral" damage to American democracy keeping pace.) Yet the pudgy man standing in black tie at the Vogue party is not, surely, the man who ordered and sanctioned the destruction of civilian populations, the assassination of inconvenient politicians, the kidnapping and disappearance of soldiers and journalists and clerics who got in his way? Oh, but he is. It's exactly the same man. Later in the article he adds one sentence about Chile - Kissinger once observed that he saw no reason why a certain country should be allowed to "go Marxist" merely because "its people are irresponsible". https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/feb/24/pinochet.bookextracts Another expert who knew him and had been curator of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library said this morning, "Kissinger was a much greater hawk than most realised. His major flaw was that he failed to understand the human consequences of his strategic decisions." I wonder if the world will see his like again, a man with such huge influence on the occupants of the White House.

Maybe things are slowly improving? https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/social-and-lifestyle/2693024/championing-change When Jasmin* transferred to Pibulwitthayalai School in Lop Buri, Sutep Upayak, a guidance counsellor and admissions committee member, learned she had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria by a psychiatrist....

I'm sorry to hear about the passing of Dr. Iain Corness. He sounds like an incredible individual who made a significant impact on Pattaya and its community. His diverse accomplishments and contributions are truly impressive. I've been searching for some unique burial ideas for my grandpa, who passed away yesterday. I recently came across an eco-friendly alternative to traditional methods, and I'm exploring options like that. It's not about advertising but finding meaningful ways to honor his memory while being environmentally conscious. Any insights or advice on that front would be greatly appreciated.

Indeed, you probably should have read what you were signing as the OSA does indeed last a lifetime. Annoying, isn't it. Unless you are a government minister when, apparently, you can leak with impunity. Interestingly though, you don't have to have signed the OSA to be bound by it. All UK citizens are bound by its terms.

I'm sure it would all have been obvious to you at the time.

This seems a bit odd. How would 95 x $100 notes fit into a single wallet (assuming that the money was all in that denomination)?

Much easier than looking forward, too.

Sad ,and yet I see many people marching in support of Palestine Hamas including Thai & Filipino people,sad 😭

Wow! You just demonstrated that you don't understand "freedom of speech" at all. 😁 I'll explain this again: You cannot define or restrict the "rights" that members have on these forums. If you don't like the viewpoints of other members, just don't read them. Isn't that simple? 😘

Or more popular Wise or Revolut? The conversion is mid-market exchange rate. No issues when I used it in Brazil last May - can also add as Apple Pay

I’ve speculated often at the time how that bit of information wasn’t appreciated for what it was: a red flag. I was trained many years ago as a private pilot. Airport approach and landing was my favorite part of any flight. Adjusting your rate of decent to end up at the runway threshold at just corrrect altitude was challenging and rewarding. It’s possible that that whoever handled the tip didn’t see the significance but still couldn’t buy that excuse. It was simply too obvious. Yes, read the report. We’re left to our own devices to fill in the missing pieces.

I wonder if you have in fact read the Official 9/11 Report. That makes it quite clear that the road to 9/11 had been quite clearly marked by dots, many dots of information which intelligence services had received and in some cases had passed on, but as @reader correctly points out those higher up the intelligence tree paid no attention to them. It is surely part of the job of intelligence services to analyse all the information they receive, research them and then come to a decision as to which might not be real. Prior to 9/11 - as it seems has also happened prior to the massacre in Israel - too many of the dots were not even investigated. In other words, no research was done. If an intelligence officer learns that there are young men seeking to learn to fly but only interested in take off and in-flight procedures with no interest in how actually to land a plane, that was certainly a huge dot that at the very least should have been investigated. It was not. But who anywhere seriously wants to fly yet has zero interest in how to land an aircraft? Sadly that was not something from a movie.

From Thai PBS World Education Ministry assigned to improve Thais’ English proficiency Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has ordered the Education Ministry to come up with measures rapidly, to improve English proficiency among Thai people, students in particular, after Thailand’s very poor ranking on the global Education First (EF) English Proficiency Index 2023. Government spokesman Chai Wacharonke said the order was made during a weekly Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. EF ranks 113 countries, where English is not the first language, based on scores in 2.2 million Education First Standardised English Tests taken in 2022. At the top of the list is the Netherlands, with an average score of 647 out of 800, followed by Singapore (631), while Denmark, scoring 615, and Norway, with 614, swapped places at fourth and fifth place. Thailand is ranked 101st, which places the country below seven other ASEAN countries, namely Singapore, the Philippines (578 – 20th), Malaysia (568 – 25th), Vietnam (505 – 58th), Indonesia (473 – 79th), Myanmar (450 – 90th) and Cambodia in 98th place with 421. Laos and Brunei were excluded from the listing. The average score is 502. Thailand’s score puts it in the category of “very low English proficiency” countries. It was also noted that Thailand’s average score has not improved since the index was introduced in 2011, except in 2017, when the score increased slightly.

This is great news for those of us who love to see manly men sporting manly beards -- on their faces, rather than walking beside them!

Yawn, of course they did.

Longer than that ... I HATE IT!!!

Nice summary XClay. If I may add to it for other Canadian members. Since our banks / credit card companies are essentially bandits due to the lack of competition I recommend the Koho prepaid Mastercard, with zero exchange mark up, to avoid the 2.5 to 3.5% mark up on foreign exchange banks credit cards charge. It's a prepaid so you have to load it but it will give you pennies within the XE mid-range rate saving a lot of money. That is, with the decline conversion trick, that has been explained. I used to use the Stack card but they charge 2.5% now. It also has the advantage of only having the funds you put on it so if your card is cloned you will lose as little or as much you put on until you discover the cloning. (Card is insured, however). In 16 years of coming here I have cards cloned 5 times but not in recent years, not sure if cyber security is better here now or what.

From Human Rights Watch on Nov. 26, 2023: "Gaza: Findings on October 17 al-Ahli Hospital Explosion The explosion that killed and injured many civilians at al-Ahli Hrab Hospital in Gaza on October 17, 2023, resulted from an apparent rocket-propelled munition, such as those commonly used by Palestinian armed groups, that hit the hospital grounds, Human Rights Watch said today."

The problem isn't connecting the dots. It's that you have thousands of dots and you have to know which dots are real and which order to connect them or you get a mindless scribble instead of a picture. Intelligence services don't go out of their way to miss things and rarely is anything obvious. It also isn't one mind looking at all the information so a person seeing one source may not be the person seeing other bits of information. I think people watch too many movies.

To a certain extent I agree with you - but only a certain extent. What happened in Israel was ghastly and horrific in the extreme. In the light of what is now being discovered and revealed by the israeli media, and particularly the failures of Israel's Intelligence and military services and hence its government, I find it more than appropriate that it has been called by more than a few "Israel's 9/11". For those who have actually read the Official 9/11 Report, you will recall that planes flying into the World Trade Centre just would not have happened had someone bothered to connect all the dots emanating from various parts of the country and which should have been perfectly obvious to the intelligence and other services. But in the USA there was not even anyone like the anonymous officer V as in Israel who saw what was happening and did connect the dots. But senior intelligence officers basically did not believe her. Clearly they had not read the Official 9.11 Report. As more detais are revealed through leaks - there will ALWAYS be leaks - what israel is now doing in Gaza seems increasingly like a "fuck you". "Our intelligence forces made a huge mistake but you Palestinians are now going to pay for it - big time." I urge readers to look at another Guardian article, this time from a surgeon who has a practice in London. Prof Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon . . . told of horrific scenes at al-Ahli Arab and Dar al-Shifa hospitals as they ceased to function and said he witnessed the use of white phosphorus munitions. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have denied using such weapons. “Having seen this massacre unfold, the creation of an uninhabitable Gaza Strip was the aim and the destruction of all the components of modern life at which the health system lies was the main military objective,” said Abu-Sittah, who has a practice in west London and has worked in Gaza since 2009, as well as in wars across Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon . . . For six weeks he shuttled between Gaza’s hospitals. It immediately became apparent about half of the wounded would be children, he said. As time passed, medical workers went from treating patients suffering from blast injuries to those exposed to fragmentary missiles, sniper injuries and incendiary bombs – which Israel has denied using. On the day al-Ahli Arab hospital, the oldest in Gaza, was struck on 18 October, Abu-Sittah heard the whistling sound of a missile followed by an explosion. The blast killed hundreds and sparked protests across the Middle East as Israel and Hamas traded blame over the deadly blast. It was a litmus test, Abu-Sittah claimed, for what the IDF had planned to do to the rest of the health system. Following the attack four paediatric hospitals were targeted, he said. Last week Israel targeted the al-Awda and Indonesian hospitals in Gaza’s north, and arrested Shifa hospital’s director and several medics. “There’s a pattern in which the aim of this war was to turn Gaza into an uninhabitable death war zone,” said Abu-Sittah, who witnessed a phone call from the IDF warning the al-Awda hospital’s medical director to evacuate otherwise the hospital would be targeted. Over time medical supplies dwindled and painful procedures were performed without anaesthetic before operating was no longer possible. Patients’ wounds were cleaned with store-bought washing liquid and vinegar, said Abu-Sittah, while others became infected with larvae . . . Since leaving Gaza 10 days ago, Abu-Sittah said he felt an overwhelming sense of guilt for those left behind. “My fear is even those who are steadfast enough to stay will eventually leave on their own and we will have what the Israelis want, which is another 1948,” he said. “This war is the continuation of the 1948 Nakba.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/27/london-surgeon-says-saw-massacre-unfold-working-gaza-hospitals

The most important thing is that you are completely loyal to each other.lol.

Intelligence by hindsight is always 20/20. Intelligence is a bunch of data and educated guesses as to what it means. It's really easy to pull a list of pieces of intelligence that point to something that happened after the event but bloody hard to before the event.

Following Endlessdream's highlighting of this shop, I decided to pay a visit myself. I'm impressed. The facilities are really good. At the time I went (around 6pm) there were four male and eight lady masseurs on duty. I didn't particularly want to choose at this sort of place, so I was pleased to be allocated a really cute guy. I was asked to put on a pair of those tiny disposable pants that really don't have any room for men's appendages, and was thinking this might be too formal a massage shop for anything interesting to happen. But I was pleasantly surprised. If anything, the tiny pants made the whole experience a lot more tantalising. From a massage perspective, it was good, and I got the full time I had paid for. And alongside the therapeutic element my guy made the whole thing highly erotic, allowing mutual touch throughout and building things to a very exciting climax with prostate massage on the way. Highly recommended if, ike me you like a decent massage as part and parcel of the experience.

As the article points out, Singapore comes top because although the country essentially has four official languages, English is spoken by the vast majority of the population. Four decades ago when I moved to Hong Kong, English was also widely spoken. Even taxi drivers spoke some English. With the end of British colonial rule, that language facility is understandably slowly disappearing in favour of Mandarin as the second language. As for Thailand, it is tempting to suggest that its not having been colonised by the British is one reason for such poor rankings. Yet that cannot be an explanation since Vietnam and Cambodia were French colonies, yet their education systems clearly place much greater emphasis on English teaching than Thailand. Indeed, having talked with Thai students over many years, I am convinced this is the root of the problem. With few exceptions, the quality of English teaching is dire. In those schools where a Thai is the teacher, it seems that he or she is barely a lesson or two in advance of the students. I know that some English teachers are in fact younger Brits, but I think not so many as the pay is very poor. Not intending to demean anyone, I found an example of another type of English teacher some years ago. I was leaving Siam BTS station to go to Paragon when I saw a rather large well-dressed African American lady seemingly around mid-50s and looking very lost. I asked if I could help. With a very strong accent from the American South, I could hardly make out that she was quite pissed off. I asked if she was a tourist. No, she explained, she was working. As, I asked? A teacher! A teacher of English! She had tried to find out where Paragon was by asking the official at the exit gates. When she said "Paragon", he did not understand! I then suggested she just turn around as there was a sign clearly stating Paragon. She thanked me profusely and I helped her through the ticket gates. Earlier she had told me she knew nothing about Thailand until a few months earlier when some US administration department had asked her if she would like to go to Thailand to teach English for three months. She liked the idea, but found Thailand too hot, too difficult, didn't like the food, and generally was looking forward to going home. That got me thinking. Clearly the Thailand Education Department contacts Embassies asking them to send some English speakers to teach English to young Thai kids. I assume the Department arranges accommodation and much higher than usual teacher salaries. But, I wondered, what on earth is the point of engaging teachers with any kind of difficult-to-understand dialect? Again with respect to that lady, if I had some difficulty understanding precisely what she was saying, I sincerely doubt that most of her students even understood a small fraction. It would be the same with a teacher from East Anglia in England or any number of other areas with strong regional accents. It all seemed like the typical Thai solution to a problem that no one had ever bothered to think through. I remember when I first met my present partner. I assumed he spoke some English. We met for dinner in Terminal 21. I spoke slowly, clearly and in short sentences. He seemed to me to understand. Months later, he told me he had understood very little. Now he is all but fluent - but then he's had a good teacher 🤣

They may rip off the customer like they did to a friend of mine at a Boyztown go go bar and deliver a boy drink chit for every drink the boys took from the bottle of whisky he purchased.

Very good summary. I am more of the visual type. As far as fetish, I am very much into a guy's pecs and Nipples. Much more of a turn on for me is a hot pecs with quarter size Plus nipples. I have never been a big cock person. In most cases I would rather play with a guy's nipples than their cock. Probably why I absolutely love male strippers and strip clubs.

Whitebird: been there a perhaps 3 times over the past 13 years, not a place I'd make any effort to go again, last time maybe 2018. 1. It's increasingly hetero, female customers come in groups. 2. The show is so-so quality. 3. The boys can be invited to sit with you but conversation quality is very poor, even if their English is OK (mostly not), 4. Boys cannot be booked out. The place operates on a "drinking-bar with hosts to help you drink more" business model.

Enjoy your life at retirement travel all around and do the things you like why enslave yourself to a business and kill all the fun ?

Where are the photos?

You must have had some really terrible experiences in Brazil. I feel bad for you. Why do you even go when you obviously don't enjoy yourself? I can assure you things happen as advertised. Hot house is a lot of fun and the hosts are really accommodating.

I just spent six days in Fortaleza (i.e. mid-June 2023) and I can confirm that everything reported by bcdaron from early February this year was still 100% accurate! California Thermas was still thriving with 12-15 handsome, toned GPs (and only a couple were not ready for prime time) and enough clients to lure them there. One thing to add: The GP gene pool at California was far more European than you might expect for the Brazilian northwest. Sadly, Dragon is still a spacious, empty shell with only two GPs (both overweight) in my brief visit. By the way, you get fingerprinted there. The beach was long, clean, and uncrowded and the city has come a long way since my only previous visit twenty years ago. I'll be returning!