vinapu

Travelling by land has advantage of seeing scenery and meeting local people and in case bumpy road as one Michael just described , added bonus of chance of loosing one's kidney stones.

Great and very informative post about day 4. Hope you feel better tomorrow and will have a chance to do some sightseeing in Phnom Penh, I would not miss Silver pagoda in Royal Place compound. You are right about taking blame for mini-bar miscalculation, how they supposed to know, treat this as non-deductible tuition fee for lesson learned and thank you for sharing this with us so we can have free tutorial on the subject too. It is shocking how hotels are milking their clients, 50 % mark-up for just calling taxi for you is gross. I know that they are milking motorcycle drivers arranged for tourists through reception the same way. Another great lesson for others , this at least not at your expense ! Shortchanging could happen everywhere, I feel sorry for boys as they may feel bad they were taken for a ride by asshole Gatorade peddler . But to be fair it could be honest mistake on his part, I doubt it though. So this is lesson three-ask for piece and count your change. By the way, why the hell somebody needs gold necklace while travelling ? This is always an invitation for crooks. And lesson 4 is that between Phnom and Siem Reap to road condition bus option may be cheaper and more comfortable if there are few travelers and for one flying for 30 $ more is viable option. I know somebody who is going there with his son in 10 days and your post happened to be very timely with is information I could share with them. They were planning to go by car to Reap from Phnom Penh to see scenery , now I can tell them to forget that. And boy is extremely happy he will be able to climb to the top of Angkor Wat as you told us it's possible, he was told by somebody it was closed few years ago. Hope you will wake up without fever to continues your adventure, too bad that seemed over budget on day 4.

I all countries I don't speak at least a little bit of local language I'm leaving driving to locals unless in company of local residents. Things are happening and it something happens you are helpless, been there , done that. No Thailand experience though

Rogie, thank you for the Pagan link above , link in 2nd post there leads to absolutely fabulous pictures and a story

I'm sorry to hear that rain spoiled your adventure but look at bright side - now you have new reason to go back to this one of most unique places in the whole wide world. How much they are charging for balloon flight over ruins ? 200$ I paid for similar experience over Pagan in Burma few years ago I was worth every single penny.

In defence of Christian I need to add that he did not even indicated he has this forum in mind, he just said 'forum ' , not ' this forum ' so no need to get hot under collar about this remark In defence of firecat he clearly said that there are people who are considering Christian's stores fiction which may be a case since forums are frequented by slanderous types who are attacking all stores bar their own. He did not say he doubts anything. In defence of Bob I second that I have no doubt about Christian stories being accurate and truthful. And they made good read too being free of any personal acid toward anybody.

I mentioned before, in ideal word this should be a case. Unfortunately forum like every other social gathering situation tends to draw different kinds of people including baron Muenhausen type of storytellers presenting inventions as truth or just coloring their stories . Point I tried clumsily made is that nobody can prevent this type of stories and sometimes even if truth is stretched three's really no harm done. The same like stories we are trading around the Christmas table or on high school reunion 20 years later. So instead of fighting for elusive truth we should enjoy what is presented and do not take it too seriously if in doubt. We are not debating world peace on this forum but rather equally enjoyable things like silky smooth skin , butt shape and dick sizes.

Glitz looks quite impressive, what was the rate if you remember ?

You are perfectly correct with assessment of contents of link I provided but thought somebody enticed by the original tittle may want to check the subject there.

Subject of access to the bathroom when one travels is may be not tasty but definitely very serious one. So abandon all this sophistry and advise plainly- were bathroom on the train VERY basic but usable or any traveler should forget about using them, this is after all 6 hours trip . After reading 2nd day adventures I'm even much , much greener with envy then yesterday Great idea with asking kid to count to 100 ! Yes , he earned his tip. Can one climb to the top level of Angkor Wat those days ? . I heard that access is no longer permitted . Certainly you did not have weather for such a exercise as steps are very steep, not for rainy day.

Which is mixed blessing, little slope means water is draining very slowly / bad / but also that flow of water is less damaging , also bad but could by much worse with such mass of water flowing at higher speed

If feel misguided just go there http://www.blowingwind.org/forum/index.php?s=c44095ffde80705528172da54d8511d3&showtopic=3131&page=1

Great pictures and great story, I'm green with envy, waiting for more. From lesser visited places I recommend trip to Mt. Phnom Kulen , sacred mountain of Cambodia,40 km from Siem Reap, Kobal Spien / river of 1000 lingas ! / with carved riverbed and miniature but picturesque Ta Som temple. Heed firecat's advice about less popular ruin- Banteay Samre I had to myself for quite a while for example. For carvings Banteai Srei can't be beaten, it will be crowded though but is on way to both Kobal Spien and Mt.Kulen. If you are man of size watch your head in some passages in ruins.

Hey, no idea until he would be naked. I suspect he is hairy everywhere so answer is rather no. I did not know Engels was a gay ! LOL

In ideal world Christian would be right - reviews should be written by people who actually visited the place. In real world this is often unnecessary dream. Dream because there's no way of assessing if review was based on actual visit or just compilation of other's opinions made out of boredom or due to need of expressing oneself in writing. As Michael rightly noticed it still may be of great value for potential information seekers. Never been in Pattaya but being well acquainted with country, go-go system, massages etc. I can easily write very accurate and detailed review of scene there including boys names and numbers based on posters entries in this and other forums. Somebody would follow and comment, o yes vinapu, you were right, this hotel was noisy, drinks at that bar were too diluted , this boy was great kisser and I saw drunk Taiwanese guy throwing baht notes at boys in the same bar you saw him. Would this compilation be less useful for somebody going there than actual visitor's testimony ? Not being pizza eater with clear conscience I can recommend Mama Dolores to everybody based on recent Michael's post about the place, even if I choose to dress it as personal experience -where will be harm? Michael, his BF and Christian dined there last weekend and are posting today , obviously they weren't poisoned, right ?. So nobody would be deceived. Unnecessary part is here: even most accurate review is just this, review with reviewer opinion thrown in. It may be correct , it may be not, our preferences , tastes , wallet capacity and myriad of other factors are influencing what we say. Crappy place may receive good review because of mood of poster or great company he was with. Excellent place may stumble just once- remember Michaels's bad experience in HERO few weeks ago and he isfrequent visitor and great fan of the place. Imagine if the same happened to somebody who was there for first time, review would be full of disgust by eyewitness observation but would it do HERO a justice? So no reason to carp about reviews, read it , digest, take grain of salt, finish your drink and experience place for yourself.

Yes, my guess is you will be surprised how little time you will spent in you room and even if there likely your companion will be far more interesting than room's décor and size of mirror in the bathroom

One hopes you are right about eradication but it is long shot. It seems that nothing works and no nation seems to be brave enough to legalize it in order to be able to control usage and distribution better. Not that I'm advocate of legalizing but it nothing works may be trying new approach will. By the way, if somebody passed through Taipei airport recently, do they still have those big signs " Consumption and distribution of drugs is penalized by death in the Republic of China" ? Saw plenty of those when transiting to BKK few years back

It was very nice of him, Russian subtitle translates ' true man"

It is my impression too that quite a few This are attracted to our body hair the same way we are attracted to their smooth skin. I'm hairy and on quite a few occasion I noticed that this is what boys like even commented as sexy. Try to grow Marx and Engels type of beard and see what happens , you may find yourself in demand far exceeding expectations.

This was Australian' s from Phnom Penh I just mentioned above story minus death. Girlfriend milked him dry out of money and threw him out with her family help. Or at least this is what I was told by him. But he did not make good impression on me so not necessarily was her fault, God only knows

Christian, it looks that even if first impression was not that good you still managed to fall in love with the country, good for you. Airport taxi problems are not unique to Thailand or even Third World countries, I had taxi dispute situation in LaGuardia airport in New York City few years back. My advice to all when travelling is to do research as for public transit options, pre-arrange pick -up or take taxi from outside of airport is possible , if this doesn't work just bite a bullet as is not worth to spoil trip with bitter taxi dispute. Good news is, in expensive countries public transport is usually available, in cheap countries taxi fares are affordable. When overcharged I tend to sweeten experience with thinking how much such a distance would cost me at home and just let it go. 600 baht=20 $, this is what I'd pay where I live and I'm walking distance from the airport. Understand what you saying though, when overcharged one feels like taken advantage of.

and easier for one's liver, ( not than I'm an abstinent ) Great food pictures anyone, made me hungry 1

I'm really happy for your boyfriend and glad he found himself in decent company. One of sights I hate to see in LOS are farangs in animated discussion in company of their Thai boys or girls bored to death and totally ignored bar occasional grope. Sukhumvit farangs seem to be worse offenders than Silom ones for some reason. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong

Great post, great to hear you had a great time. You were departing with great attitude and it worked, always does What about weather rain wise ? . Thank God it looks they cleaned ID issue you just sold me to visit City Boys , my style , just pop and off. Double Shot drinks serving style, again who told them how I like it ? Strong start is what I prefer. Did you visit Magnolia? We exchanged few posts about the place and is firmly on my list for November visit . Possibly you had so much fun because you drink WAY too much, clearly it was not milk !

Wise words at end of article from firecat's link - at least Westernes can be counted and have their embassies they can turn to but what about plight of Thai own homeless. I'm not that surprised, reason is the same you see homeless on the streets of New York, Toronto, London or Paris. Only shock factor is that we are perceived as affluent in Thailand but if in trouble families and friends are too far away to help or even just to check . And if wasted by substance abuse or farangs do not even get to idea that embassy may help. In May of 2009 I saw disheveled farang camping few days in Silom soi 9, one where Niagara hotel is. In 2001 Australian was seen as begging on street in Phnom Penh of all places, brought him some food for reward of verbal abuse. So no, I'm not that surprised.