vinapu

You must be right, out of curiosity I just checked and Baan Dok Mai is already full for Christmas / 24-27.12 / , 5 months ahead. So bottom line is , recession , junta, whatever but if somebody is planning vacations it pays to book well in advance to get best value places.

Sounds like trolling question and probably was discussed here before but I'm not a troll , curious only : Do you tell your family , friends, co-workers and neighbors that you are vacationing in Thailand or rather you prefer to keep it private due to country reputation as sex destination ? Or you do not see any issue with that in your circles ? To answer my own question my first 8 trips were in connection with other destinations in the region with Thailand as a transit point so folks knew that I was in Burma, Cambodia etc and in between flights I spent few days in BKK. Nobody dwelled on the issue and still I managed to have deserved reputation of somebody who knows Bangkok tourist charms very well. When asked about sex scene always claimed that while existing is well hidden and visible only to people who are looking for it which is true. I had people on Silom asking me where famous Patpong is and I know straight guy regularly whoring in Nana Plaza who for years did not know about existence of soi Cowboy not that far away. My last trip, the 9th of them all was entirely 2 weeks in Thailand and I decided to keep it strictly in the closet as to not rise any eyebrows for two reasons - to avoid probing questions in relation to LOS reputation as sex heaven and to avoid jealousy as lots of people are equating exotic vacations with great expense not knowing actually how great value for money Thailand is. You think I'm a bit paranoid or about right?

This seems to be common with Thais, lots of them look younger than they are starting with HM King. In Nov I had massage with Wat at Derby Massage , Jomtien , olimpian body , when asked his age answer shocked me -40 !, Looked 25 , no more

That is sad but as experience of may others in the past shows , by no means unique. Don't want to sound nosy but what it means he forbid you to see him boarding bus ? Literally told you so or just gently suggested? / no need to answer if you do not want to /. Wipe your tears and look at bright side, if inevitable , it's better is's over now than many thousands of baht later. I like your attitude, always look at full half of glass, yes you are free for BT. Feel free to report on newly re-opened Dreamboys and Lucky777 if you will happen to go there. Like you know who said ' sun will shine on our street eventually as well '

I saw Muslim men sleeping or at least napping in the mosqes in such diverse places like liberal Morocco, secular Turkey and strictly islamic Iran so I'd replace " any ' with ' non-muslim'.

in my opinion sleeping in airport prayer room is disrespectful No trains 12-6 at night but since Nasa is not that far from airport and rates are cheap I recommended it as an alternative to sleeping in the airport even if taxi cost is accounted for. Used my own advice in May 2013, no complains

I found interesting set of criteria listed by firecat above, they can be divided in two sections, one objective - WIFI quality and consistency, price of breakfast, thinness of walls, on which I'd consider opinion of complete strangers, one subjective - fair price and quality of food and service and choice of side of hotel, on whose I'd consider only input of somebody I know as really each of us has own measurements of those things. You are right about time input, researching trip before departure is half of fun of travelling.

Again agree but on another hand somebody may ask ' what can possibly be wrong with 150/night hotel in a city where good comfortable, centrally located room can be had for 50$ or less '

Not suitable for every case, it's different if you go for few days mid-week with light backpack from your BKK home to Pattaya to arrival past midnight with two suitcases after 24 hour flight from say, Nashville , Tennessee. / most North American flights arrive late at night and depart early in the morning/. Last thing in mind in such a case is to make taxi errands looking for a room although I know quite a few cases when in order to save money travellers were waiting in the Swampy until dawn and then resumed their search, not insensible for younger, cash strapped backpacker types, saw that , been there. By the way in such a case I recommend Nasa Vegas hotel at City Link Ramkhaeng / spelling ? / station, half way from Swampy to the city so taxi cost won't be prohibitive even at night and deal at 15$ / night can be had on agoda at short notice and in the morning CityLinktrain can be used to access city easy. Warning - they want 1500 baht returnable deposit on check-in . As for the rest I'm with you in order location and price as I'm prepared to pay sensible premium to be close to what I consider main attraction of the place, I'm not on vacation in order to commute, have enough of that at home. It's why I never cease to wonder about what draws so many to Khao San. Hence my love for BBBInn and Om Yim. I live on busy street so street noise is not my concern and both mentioned are surprisingly quiet considering locations. In Pattya Cafe Royale fits the bill of being in the middle of action as well, cheaper than Ambiance and Copa.

With ' star' properties I agree ., more money at stake , one wants to make sure money will be well spent. As for members here , yes we are strangers but we know thing or two about fellow posters. Take me, if somebody reads my posts with statements like " I love BBB Inn " , ' Tarntawan for me is ultimate luxury " etc chances are reader will figure correctly that for whatever reason fancy hotels are not my thing. So if at one point I will start singing praises for say Dusit Thani or Conrad you may be tempted to think ' this guy usually sleeps in low market places so may be he is just unduly impressed and this hotel may not be as excellent as he is extolling' and probably rightly so. On another hand if you like better places and fate puts you to sleep in say Niagara Hotel, Silom soi 9 and you start complaining about water not being wet enough. etc I may be tempted to say ' he sleeps in better places so possibly he is just exaggerating , let's see for myself " This is why I think I will put more credence to fellow posters here than complete strangers on some travel forum. / good example, first bar I peek into in PTY was A-bomb because in one of threads you mused that I should not waste time on Vassa as boys will not be type I like /

while you are right problem with this approach is that closed bar is out of loop and it may take time before customers will start flowing in after re-opening. Ultimately it's up to owners to assess what makes better sense as they see the books.

100% agree , most of my trips were 5-7 days and last thing on my mind while in BKK during such a short time was to check difference in drink prices in soi Twilight bars. I understand that those on longer vacations or residents need to be more careful with their budget but also have time to look for bargains. I know feeling of running out of money and having ATM rejecting my card to my horror. While somebody would call you crazy if you spent quite reasonable amount just to have fun day or evening fully dressed ? One of my November boys I offed second night in row was so tired / in the morning went straight from my room to day work / that felled asleep before his head hit the pillow and I was left with sandbag sleeping like the stone. It tuned out to be quite a fun night for me having his silky, warm but lifeless body to cling to and still tipped him his full previous night's rate. / no, I did not abuse situation and left those parts undisturbed until morning / . I don't think it was crazy and still smile at that memories. I think I mentioned this story in my Off to Thailand thread.

Since you mentioned this I have general question to everybody: do you guys really pick up your accommodation or other treats when travelling based on reviews by complete strangers on sites like Tripadvisor etc? I feel antisocial as I completely ignore those, logic behind it being that not knowing persons I can't assess their judgement. I would follow advice of fellow posters here as at least I have some idea what people like and don't like or their spending and travelling habits from reading their posts. At times I entertain myself by reading assessments on agoda or booking.com for hotels I know and must say if I took them for face value I would never use quite a few places I was very happy with, Just curious what others say

as long as boys are great and big boners can be seen I think we can put up with hopefully temporarily inadequate A/C. Good new s that boys and other XboysLand stuff found employment in their sister bar Thank you for an update

as far as I'm concerned nothing wrong in asking any questions as long as it keeps board active.

don't worry , you made up for your perceived loss of face with all your prolific contributions on the boards and now in your blog. I think most of us were at one point of time pissed off by the boy od choice , certainly I was, so you are not alone . As we know availability of boys grows exponentially with thickness of wad of banknotes in our hand but as noted above it's better to go with somebody who kind of likes us instead of hoisting ourselves upon them by money only.

You are right, must be 30 years but I still watch it from my DVD from time to time and still have good laugh. As for unsafe sex - as per my post # 12, never did in my entire life but I repeat, some boys just don't care so chances are if client insists , they may allow it and if we are not careful , we may be next in chain.

according to info on another forum XBoysLand in Patayaland soi 1 is out of business, may be somebody in Pattaya right now can confirm?

I agree , nothing stupid in question and obviously hit some nerve with all those ' stupid ' and 'idiot ' included in answers . From my personal 2013 statistic sample I can say at least 1 boy in 11 will not care if you are wearing condom or not or would try to penetrate you without wearing one. Yes at this day and year it boggles the mind but as OP said lots of people have head in the sand. As Dorothy in "Golden Girls" said , our bedrooms are crowded and when we sleep with somebody we sleep with all people he slept with before

Why do you think question is stupid? a. because you think is too nosy ? or b. because you doubt respondents will give honest answers ? / I have some doubts too / or c. because you think everybody is playing safe so answer is obvious and no need for question? / I wish this was true / Just asking To answer original question - never in my life and I remember times before AIDS appeared.

When in Thailand I would not entertain an option of getting intimate with anybody who is NOT an ASEAN or East Asian national and at times I'm amazed when somebody reports hooking with some Greenlander or Surinamese in soi 4. ( I picked up small countries as to not offend anybody ) When traveling I strongly believe in supporting local industry , boys included.

I don't mind if boys are selective, in fact I feel better if boy have a say to which customer he will go with. This way if he goes with me I know it is on his will, not being forced by mamasan or owner. Likely not much fun with boy dragged by me by force against his better judgement even if only thing he will see in me is tip coming at end of session. Did not have such ' forced ' case but on few occasions boy hired for long time invented some story to cut it to short time , I'd prefer if he was up front rather than lying just to get an order and ' than we will see '. The same goes with tip - it's much better if disagreement is clarified before an off instead of having a scene in the room after the deed with whole floor listening what is going on behind our door. But I wholeheartedly agree with you and abang - know your limits and stick to them. If doesn't work there are other boys. Even after soi Twilight closes ScrewBoys is still open another hour, BBB In has somebody available round clock , not to mention GR etc. Personally my monetary limit is 3000, would not pay more and never did. And this is for long time.Long time for me is when boy is leaving room in the morning with me, he is invited for breakfast and is up to him if he takes an invitation or not. Non-monetary limit is when he asks for more money / usually for taxi / , never gets it from me and never will be offed again even if is handsome like David and honey sweet. This is why I parted my ways with certain boy from Aqua quite a few years ago, only boy I ever abandoned my butterfly mode for. To be fair to boys I need to say it hapend to me only three times over 9 trips so I usually defend boys if somebody accuses them for being greedy but as we said , limit is limit . I don't blame them for trying to be more extractive, after all most of their clients are one time affair so they are trying their luck but also they have to live with consequences Alexx is correct about you not losing a face, you may feel pissed off by Scorpion boys but it is not the same

jump on motocy taxi and in 10-15 minutes you will be in Jomtien

Not a bad idea, thank you koko, I hope to visit next trip

1. Visit Magnolia for massage , by far classiest massage place in PTY 2.Don't think too much about free time since your are coming with partner and he will have something top say too 3. In September your plans will be derailed by the heavy rain from time to time. 4. There's great option for day time side trip - Bangkok is only 2 hrs away