NIrishGuy

"Thailand has an aircraft carrier without any aircraft" That's nothing, the UK will shortly have TWO ! ( well at least for a while anyway it seems - and only until we probably sell the second one anyway once t's complete as we never could really afford it and probably won't be able to keep up with the monthly repayments anyway )

Any update on this ?? Hopefully all under control now and no injuries !???

Funny i'm guessing they say EXACTLY that about us too ! :-)

In my experience no, it's the exact opposite - a Thai guy can call you old, ugly, fat or worse, you name it, no problem, it's just "cultural" - but just you go and try calling HIM even just one of those things and watch the major huffy fit and drama act that ensues thereafter. He'll instantly starting moaning and complaining and asking "why you say that about me !" and setting out to get you back later, preferably in front of other people just so "save face". So no, in my experience they can give it ( oh it's just cultural, I no mean bad to you) but they sure as hell can't take it ( why you say that to me, fuck you, farang you can fuck off, I not need you, many farang in Thailand better than you, you OLD, FUCK YOU" - and that could be over something like "hmmm those shoes you're wearing tonight don't seem go with those trousers very well are you sure you want to wear those when we go to the nice restaurant ??) !! Or maybe I just always find the drama queens :-) - ( and if so fuck them as I can out drama queen the lot of them too when it suits with a highly offended, ok, I think better you go find new farang, you not good for me........and count the seconds until the "No, but I want YOUUUUUUU" kick in as he sees his rent money rapidly disappearing before his very eyes ;-)

Hmmm interesting - so, if your Government issues a travel warning to a particular country for a set time it's widely accepted that such a warning generally invalidates your travel insurance should you choose to ignore that warning and so on. So, I wonder does then does this "worldwide" warning mean that if you're a US Citizen that you're screwed now no matter where you choose to go as US insurance companies will now be able to use this as one of their many catch all "well you should have read the small print of your policy Sir" rules as they try to look for one of their many "how to fuck you over when you most need it" clauses each time it suits them ?

I can honestly say that Lek's massages are the one thing I miss most about Thailand ! If I was one of those super rich guys that could fly their masseuse in from anywhere in the world on a private jet for a quick going over then Lek would be my masseuse of choice. We've known each other a while now and he knows exactly the right spots to stretch and pull and push to make me hop and skip out of there feeling 10 years younger I highly recommend him and his various skills.

Sounds like a man with "issues" - the man he doth protest too much I think !

As long as it's only your nose thats dripping then you're fine, anything else and THEN you've really got a problem ! :-)

Thank goodness, for a second I thought this post was going to be about so how many active ( and passive) members do we have.......as that question opens up a whole host of possible answers :-)

Actually for the sake of accuracy ( and you may have meant this perhaps but autocorrect kicked in ?) but his reply when asked in 1924 by a New York Times reporter as to why he would want to climb Mount Everest etc his reply was " Because it's there". Actually although he's famed for those 3 words his full reply was " “BECAUSE IT’S THERE… EVER­EST IS THE HIGH­EST MOUN­TAIN IN THE WORLD, AND NO MAN HAS REACHED ITS SUM­MIT. ITS EXIS­TENCE IS A CHAL­LENGE. THE ANSWER IS INSTINC­TIVE, A PART, I SUP­POSE, OF MAN’S DESIRE TO CON­QUER THE UNIVERSE.”

Re Christians "in short" I would just add that that is obviously "his" in short and I wouldn't concur with his "the bars are horrible" view etc, but I guess it all depends whether you're going to a bar to be social and sociable and to meet new people and have a laugh and a good night out or just attending the bar to further am aim of picking up a guy to meet your ( strict) criteria and then go back to your room - which I'm not knocking, each to their own and all that but there's lots of ( genuine non sexual ) fun to be had in the ( few) gay bars in Bali IF that's what you go out to go into bars for.

Nightlife wise I agree re Kura. Scenery wise I agree re getting out and about and guy wise there's definitely something and someone for all tastes.

If anyone is stuck for accommodation suggestions I have a contact in seminyak who works privately for the Australian owners of a few select villas in the town and he can offer good prices on them and take good care of you whilst there ( I mean re collecting you from the airport and tours etc etc .... the rest, well that's up to you both I guess lol). I that's of interest PM me and I'll forward you his email address and you can take it from there. Needless to say I'm in no way involved with this apart from passing on his details and verifying he's a nice guy and dependable etc.

Again without sounding mean I would suggest NOT going with the same wallet out automatically attitude as one MUST have in Pattaya as it's just not required, as I've said the guys are genuinely more up for a good time overall and not just about getting the last rupiah out of you. Needless to say pay for all ancillary items like food and drinks etc of course and pay for their mates too - and not because you have to but just because it's the nice thing to do and unlike in Pattaya where you get zero appreciation for that as it's "expected" the guys in bali will think well of you and you'll be well received and remembered for it - and in my experience the second your done with your shag de jour the same mates that he was out with will be approaching you to "try you out" too - but not for money but for fun :-) One thing ( perhaps not so unlike Pattaya) Bali is a small place and the local gay scene is small and the guys DO gossip and bitch about each other and even more than Pattaya their reputations are everything to them so be careful not to bad mouth anyone or they'll soon find out from whence it came ! But the gossiping does tend to be about themselves not us and even if it IS about us that doesn't tend to lessen their interest as long as you're not perceived as a bad or a mean guy as I know I ended up with a bit of rep as ( there's no polite way of saying it) a bit of a slut lol and I can assure you that reputation didn't lessen the guys interest in me in ANY way, in fact it may well have increased their interest as the guys knew they could have a good time with me both in and out of bed and there would be no gossiping or comeback from me and even though they all knew I was banging their friends they still wanted to "try the white guy so THEY could say they were too" .......god that sounds very arrogant and I don't mean it to, but it was just what happened and I'm not suggesting it was anything to do with "me" personally as I'm sure ( I KNOW) it's the same for every other boule who goes there who plays the game. So my main advice, go, but don't think you're in Pattaya nor treat the guys / situations like as if you were that as it's just not necessary and the guys react better if their not treated like money boys ( as most are not in the same sense on Pattaya ! ) and if you do that you'll have a ball - and if you use gay Apps etc you phone will ping NON STOP for the duration of your entire trip of that I assure you ! :-) Oh and if you meet a nice guy you click with and are happy to spend some time with and want a quality day relaxing take him to "Potato head" - he'll love it / appreciate it and will post being there on Facebook no doubt and you can lie back and enjoy it too ( even though it is overpriced compared to the rest of the island) - but still damned cheap for what it is.

In Bali 300 Rupiah ( 300,000 actually i.e. about £15 stg ) is about the norm and there doesn't seem to be too much difference between long and short time, if short time that's fine and the guys will naturally just head off after you're done, whereas long time the guy genuinely is happy to stay around, not just for the money but for where you're maybe taking him the next day for lunch or a trip or whatever ( so he can put it on Facebook and impressive his friends that he's out with a Boule ( (white guy / farang to them). Of course you can give a little more if you feel like it and it'll be gratefully received but in my experience it will almost never asked for nor expected as Bali is a LOT less money driven than Pattaya and in fact I could count the number of times I felt gently required to pay out when in Bali on one hand and I was there for nearly a month ( and I was busy the whole time :-). And before anyone moans about "oh that's not right etc" trust me if it was called for or expected I would be the first to pay out but Bali IS different and the guys there are on the whole out for drinks and a laugh and some company and yes many a little help them along with the rent money ( MAYBE), but that is a bonus and taken as a genuine help thing rather than the cold hard "ok we're done, you pay now mister, plus I'll come back at you with another attempt at some guilt ridden scam too" attitude that you may get when you're done in Pattaya and for those that think I'm wrong I had the same guys coming back time and time again for the "pleasure" of my company and many who are still Facebook friends etc today so if I got it wrong they certainly didn't seem to think so. I went to Bali for a month and came home with ( quite a lot ) of spending money left over - that NEVER happens in Thailand and I spend more ( bored) in my one last week in Pattaya than I did in almost three weeks in Bali - and trust me I was out eating, drinking (and the rest_ a LOT the whole time I was in Bali. NB I should add that the above " all for fun" excludes the simple grindr type short time " ok come now" deal where things are clear cut between you both at the time of hook up, but trust me the 300 rupiah is correct and those asking more, tell them to "do one" as they say these days, but also you'll find a lot of the grindr guys DO just want to cum free anyway ( in both ways) for the reasons already listed or that they just want to fuck with a white guy ! ( thank you Jesus !!) Oh the dancers in the various bars etc may ask for 1 million rupiah ( about £50 stg) to go and like everything thats all negotiable too of course. Enjoy.

Aye and even at that size I'm betting that I'd still be that absent minded enough to still forget mine and leave it in my room still and so end up having to pay my usual 500 baht 'maybe you can help" fine - although for god sake nobody tell Pattaya's finest that the helmet size has increased to that size just incase they try to increase their bribe price expoentially ! :-)

I would ask why as short of just asking for the sake of your own general knowledge one can have all the legal answers in the world but the bottom line is that if the hotel has a policy then THAT is it's policy and no amount of arguing with them re that will change that and it's simply then a matter or finding a hotel with policies that suit your own particular requirements after that.

Alas in my experience unfortunately it never seems to and it's always more just a case of buy three pay for three (or four or five)

I'm glad you posted that about the machines as I thought I was just being thick in trying to get even the most simple running on several of the machines I tried to use - I'm talking here about basics such as speed of the treadmill or the incline etc and I too came to the conclusion that a lot of the machines were well past their best. Glad I'm wasn't TOTALLY losing it that day. Oh and the reason the guy couldn't and wouldn't take cash of me in the corner gym was in case his boss heard he'd taken it and not given out a ticket ( which he hadn't been given access to) as he said a previous staff member had already been let go for trying that scam and so he both wasn't allowed, nor wanted anything to do with collecting the 200 baht or so gym charge - hence telling me to go elsewhere and buy it and then come back.

After going to the gym at home for a few months before heading off on my last trip I decided to try to stick at it a bit while away to offset the holiday beer and eventually dragged myself to the outdoor Tony's gym on the corner there, firstly a) sorry no you can't train here, Thai only, there's a farang Tonys gym up the street. That was then changed to sorry ok you can train here but you can't PAY to train here as we can't take your money so you're going to have to go up to the other tonys 'gym, pay your money then come back with a ticket ( why i didn't just stay in the other AIR CONDITIONED gym and use it escapes me still !) But away I went, got my ticket and came back and jumped on a machine or two and BOOM - the heat, OMG I thought i was going to die from the heat and a lack of seemingly available oxygen so I ended up doing about a quarter ( tenth :-) of what I'd usually try at home and genuinely thought i was ready to die even after that ! I ended up reducing down to just running SLOWLY on a treadmill a bit to save face and even that was no better as the sweat was running off me like a river lol. Normally I would have cringed and gone back to my room BUT the one plus point is that it seems the Thai army pays for their soldiers to attend their local gym free of charge meaning that Tonys that night was RAMMED with the fittest, hottest, muscled, hot and sweaty ( in a good way) Thai guys that I've probably ever witnessed. So, after I realised they were all politely ignoring the fat and sweaty farang in the corner ( albeit not even happy that I was there in the first place and not up in the farang gym it seems) I reduced my work out to almost nothing and "bluffed my way" and stayed watch the hottest workout shows going on all around me, then went home, got on Grindr and had a guy come round to my air con'd room and did my own horizontal work out training based on what I'd just witnessed. This was a MUCH better use of my time and that day was WAY more fun than any other gym work I've ever forced on myself :-)

You're just not trying hard enough perhaps ?? :-)

"Under your argument it is ok to offer the boy 400 baht because he is desperate" Please don't put words in my mouth I never said that at all and nor I am having an argument. I'm merely pointing out that if the guy agreed to a rate then that is the rate unless the farang decided his services were worth more - and I absolutely agree with you re the boy not bothering to put in the effort BECAUSE it was 800 baht he agreed upon etc, but that doesn't change the fact he did agree it and so the farang is within his rights to pay as he did. As to whether that's a particularly nice thing to do or as you alluded to a smart thing to do perhaps in terms of ensuring a good time with a guy then that's an entirely different matter of course and like I DID say personally I wouldn't think the 200 baht is worth worrying about for any farang but hey each to their own and all that. Perhaps the farang felt that it WAS the amount agreed and that the boys services were average to say the least (or less) and so he decided just to stick to paying what was agreed upon and no more - which is of course his right and "up to him" as by your logic the boy could agree to go off for 100 baht, give shit service and still fully expect a 1000 baht tip as "that is the norm" even though it wasn't what was agreed - life doesn't work like that and I don't see why it should be any different for a Thai bar boy over any other self employed worker. Hell the guy should consider himself lucky as some other posters on other boards would perhaps have tried to reduce the amount paid from the 800 agreed due to his lack lustre performance ( and no I'm not condoning that behaviour before you suggest it.)

Well it is of course up to the boy to agree or otherwise to go for 800 and if he agreed to it he really should stick to it - or provide extra better service to enable you to chose to pay more ( which in this case it sounds like the guy absolutely DIDN'T do). So while I agree it's hardly worth arguing about for the sake of 200 baht but if it was what was agreed then that's what was what was due.

Yes I was there last year, great fun and SO many hoy guys ;-)

Anal Street as mental as ever afterwards I take it ? :-)