Gaybutton

I agree. Although I am a moderator on the message board, I have nothing to do with the rest of the web site or its design, and I am not involved with the decision making. I believe people come to this web site for information about gay aspects of Thailand. I have no particular objection to the existence of porn links, but I don't think that should be the first thing people should see when they access the web site. It makes the site appear as if its main focus is porn, rather than information, and I also think it diminishes the credibility of the entire site. In my opinion, if the web site owners wish to include porn links, that's their decision, but I think the placement of those links ought to be reconsidered, as Kenrfc suggests.

The following appears in the PATTAYA CITY NEWS: _____ Immigration Check Niran Grand Condo in Search of Illegal Foreigners Police Colonel Itipon, the Superintendent of Pattaya;s Immigration Bureau along with Police Colonel Sutin, the Superintendent of Pattaya Police accompanied by Immigration Police Volunteers made their way to the Niran Grand Condo Complex in Soi Arunothai in Central Pattaya on Wednesday Afternoon. The purpose of the operation was to conduct an inspection of each of the four main condo blocks in search of foreigners with either expired visas or those who have entered Thailand illegally and do not possess a valid passport. The search led to the arrest of one man from Russia who was not in the possession of a passport. He will be dealt with in accordance with Immigration Laws. The Immigration Police would like to warn viewers that random checks on foreigners will be made over the coming weeks so please ensure that you carry your original passport with you at all times and for those who are residing in Thailand on long stay visas, you must report to the Immigration Office every ninety days confirming your current address and telephone number. Failure to do this can result in a fine not exceeding 5,000 Baht.

The following appears in the PATTAYA CITY NEWS: _____ Beer Bars and Go-Go Bars Told to Cover up or Face Closure Police Colonel Sutin, the Superintendent of Pattaya Police along with Khun Ronagit, Deputy Mayor of Pattaya, chaired this Friday Morning Meeting attended by 360 staff members of Beer Bars and Go-Go Bars operating here in Pattaya. They were told that the Police and Pattaya Administration will no longer tolerate explicit shows and nakedness in the bars of Pattaya and any establishment found to be disregarding these orders will face a minimum of a 60 day closure order and even the revocation of entertainment and liquor licenses. It is thought that a Bar Crackdown will shortly follow to ensure that bars are following these newly enforced regulations.

I doubt that anyone but the boy himself can really give you the reasons for it. There are no standards by which to judge because so many people have gone to meet the families for any number of reasons. He might be serious about you and he might not. He might simply miss his family and you're the one who is going to pay his way to get there. He might elevate his status by having a "farang," just as if you are a commodity. He might simply want you to meet his family because he likes you. In other words, anybody's guess could be the right guess. You have known him for quite some time. What does your gut feeling tell you? Unless he has done things in the past to give you a reason to suspect some sort of sinister reason, then I'd say to give him the benefit of the doubt and have a nice time. Going to a boy's home town and spending time with the family has been the highlight of the trip for many people. I agree with Silom about giving gifts. The way I would do it would be to give the boy whatever amount you wish to spend on gifts, and I wouldn't make it more than one or two-thousand baht, and let him choose what to bring them. One time I made a trip to Laos with my boyfriend and one of his Laotian friends. His friend wanted to bring gifts for his mother. Do you know what he wanted to bring? Laundry detergent and fish sauce. I asked him what kind of gift is that to give to a woman, especially his mother. But that's what he wanted to give her and she was absolutely delighted (or she was one hell of a good actress). In other words, let the boy be the one who decides what gifts to bring. You are going to be expected to foot the bill for everything once you are there. That includes paying for the family if you go out to dinner somewhere. Quite often they want to throw a party "in your honor." Guess who pays for that. Be careful if anyone starts talking about a party. It can get quite expensive. It is common for just about everyone they know to be invited and some of the people who get invited don't have any qualms about bringing some of their own friends along. When the whiskey and food starts running low, you'll be expected to pay for more. The way around those kinds of things is to make it clear to the boy, before you go, what you do and do not want to happen. I would also make it clear that if he wants you to do or pay for anything you didn't know about in advance, then take you aside and speak to you privately. Quite often "farang" are asked right in front of the very people the boy is talking about. That makes it quite difficult to say no. If you don't object to the party, which is very likely to occur, then tell the boy how much you are willing to spend on it and that you won't pay one baht more. Tell him that if you are going to take the family out to dinner, that's the immediate family, and not all the cousins, aunts, uncles, and Lord-knows-who. The trick is to make all these things clear before you go. Otherwise you can really get stuck.

Thank you, Boxer. You probably just saved plenty of people from a lot of grief. This is a relatively new set of goings on. Only a few weeks ago there was a raid in Pattayaland. The police were checking foreigners for their passports, or acceptable copies of their passports. It is my understanding that no one was actually arrested, but those who were not even carrying an acceptable copy were subjected to a very stern warning. Now random checks are being conducted. Thai law does require that foreigners carry their passport with them at all times, just as it is required of Thai citizens to carry their national ID card at all times. Under Thai law, the police have every right to demand to see your passport and place you under arrest if you do not have it with you. In the past, a good copy of both the identification page and the visa page has been acceptable in lieu of carrying the actual passport, but technically the requirement is for the actual passport to be with you. You will have to make your own decisions, of course, whether to carry the actual passport or a copy. But if I were you, I'd at least carry one of them.

I don't know the answer to that one, but I do know that if you do not have the means to be able to keep 800,000 baht in your bank account, you can still use the income statement from your embassy in lieu of the money.

It's been a long time since anyone tried opening a go-go bar on Soi Day-Night, but Siam Boys is giving it a try once again. The location is the former location of the Red Dragon Bar, directly across from the Day-Night Hotel. It's a small, compact bar, featuring about a dozen boys. The bar has been open for less than two weeks. This evening I and some friends decided to have a look. At first we were disappointed, thinking it's a big nothing. All of the boys were on the stage, simply standing there, some shirtless and some wearing jerseys. That went on for about five or ten minutes. Then, the next thing we knew all but three of the boys left the stage. Off came the jerseys and the boys started dancing. Yes, dancing. Really dancing. There was none of the usual one-knee shuffling going on. The boys were all wearing white briefs, Then, when every boy had has his first dancing set, we had a little surprise. They removed their white briefs and underneath they were all wearing tiny string bikinis, buns fully exposed. That's when things began to get much more wild and much more fun. We ended up thoroughly enjoying the evening. I can certainly recommend that you give Siam Boys a try and see for yourselves. I would very much like to see Soi Day-Night take off and be up-and-coming again. Many of you know that for years there were several go-go bars on Soi Day-Night, but there was never enough of a customer base to support them and every one of the go-go bars finally gave up and either closed or converted to karaoke bars. I think Siam Boys has a good chance of becoming the catalyst that just may get Soi Day-Night going again. If it succeeds, then more go-go bars are bound to open up on Soi Day-Night and it will once again become Pattaya's third go-go boy bar mecca. Give Siam Boys a try. I think many of you will enjoy it. It's not for everyone. You won't find muscle boys at Siam Boys, but you will definitely enjoy it if you like the boy-next-door type, sexy underwear, and if your favorite part of hamburgers is the buns . . .

The story I am hearing is that an offer was made to Ralph, Jack, and Oud a few weeks ago and they turned down the offer. Then, several days ago they either reconsidered or whoever made the offer upped the ante. I don't know which. In any case they made the decision to sell. I have not yet heard whether they intend to reopen something else or bow out of the bar business.

If you want to be in the thick of the action, you will be. The location is in the very center of Sunee Plaza. There used to be a bar called the Amigo Pub. The Amigo Pub closed down and reopened as the Diamond Pub. Don Plaza bought out the entire building, had it completely gutted, and built the Don Plaza in its place. It is directly across the street from the Clubber's restaurant.

The PATTAYA MAIL also published an article about this: http://www.pattayamail.com/current/news.shtml#hd5

So am I. My observations are a little different from yours. The Don Plaza seems to be doing quite well so far. The Clubber restaurant is also doing quite well. Only this evening I ate there with friends. There were plenty of people, sitting both inside and outside, and more were entering when we were leaving. You might want to try to convince people that these places aren't any good and you might try to insist that you wish them well, but when I see your statement making sure to mention the "fat" owner, instead of simply saying "owner," then it is quite obvious where you're coming from. The truth is the Don Plaza is beautiful and the Clubber restaurant offers delicious meals at very reasonable prices. The waiters are all very cute boys and they provide excellent service.

For a while, I thought George Bush was going to turn out to be a great president. That opinion also changed over time.

Just go to a different branch, or even talk to someone else at the same branch. You'll probably get an entirely different response. From what I have been told, anyone can open an account at Bangkok Bank, regardless of the type of visa you hold, but you can only get online banking if you have the one-year visa or a work permit.

Personally, I think criticism of this, or any other, gay web site because of links to porn is absurd and is coming from people who seem to spend their time trying to find something to criticize. The way I see it, it's very simple: If you want to click on the links, then click on them. If you don't want to click on the links, then don't click on them. What's the problem? If people have an objection to the fact that the owners of these web sites wish to generate enough money to at least cover the costs of providing the web site and maybe make some money for themselves, too bad. Nobody is twisting the arms of anyone to come to these web sites if they dislike them. And before anyone starts accusing me of lining my own pockets with the porn now available on this web site, I remind you that I do not own this web site and have no financial ties with it of any kind. I have not asked for so much as one baht from money generated from the porn links and none has been offered to me. I can't help but notice that those who criticize the most vehemently are never people who spend a single baht out of their own pockets to provide a web site themselves and never offer any financial support to the web sites they utilize on a daily basis. They get to use these web sites absolutely free and then criticize the owners for trying to make some money. Perhaps they would prefer that the porn links be eliminated and user fees be charged in order to be able to even read the messages, let alone do any posting. They're out there getting a free ride, and then jumping down the throats of those who provide them with the ride. Way to go.

Just like everything else in Thailand, from these posts it seems as if everybody gets a different story and it seems that what is actually required and/or accepted is entirely up to the staff officer you happen to be dealing with that day. It's not limited to just immigration. When I first moved here I wanted a second bank account. I went to one branch office and was told they no longer issue accounts to foreigners at all. I went to another branch of the same bank and was told they do issue bank accounts to foreigners, but you have to hold a work permit. I went to a third branch and was issued a bank account with no problem at all. All of these were branches of the very same bank, all within the same city. figure that one out.

That's 5000 baht, as in five-thousand? I thought it was 500 baht per day. If that's not a typo, then they've dramatically raised their fees.

As far as I know the letter from a Thai bank, at which you have an account, is still required and it has to be a new letter each year. The letter is written in Thai, so I don't have any idea what it actually says, but I do know the gist of it is a verification that the source funds is from abroad. Most of the banks, by the way, charge a fee of 200 baht for that letter.

If anyone out there is trying to make reservations somewhere and can't get an E-mail response, all they have to do is send an E-mail to me at gaybutton@gmail.com . If they give me the information required in order to make a reservation, I'll be glad to call the establishment or go over personally and make the reservation if anyone is having any problems contacting the place he wants to stay.

Where's Ross Perot when you need him?

"Dame Gaybutton" couldn't care less. People seem to think this is my web site. It isn't. I'm only a moderator on the message board. The rest of the web site has nothing to do with me. I don't particularly care for porn, but I also have nothing against it as long as there is no kiddie porn of any kind.

It states as follows: Dear Sir/Madam: This is to affirm that ______, an American Citizen, born on ______, at ______, is the holder of U.S. Passport number ______, issued at ______ on ______ and which expires on ______. He/she affirms that he/she receives in amount of US$______ every month from the United States Government and/or other sources. He/she is applying for an extension of a current Thai visa and any assistance you can provide in this request will be greatly appreciated. ________________________________ You fill in the blanks and the embassy notarizes it. The letter simply states that the person involved is affirming his income. It doesn't say anything about verification. In other words, anyone can get the letter and state any amount they want. The embassy is only notarizing the fact that this is what you stated. The whole thing seems ridiculous to me, but that's what Thailand requires in lieu of producing a Thai bank account that holds a minimum of US $20,000 for three months. It's just one more thing on my "I don't get it" list. The best part is the embassy charges 1200 baht for that letter.

Further details are now available in this week's PATTAYA MAIL. See: http://www.pattayamail.com/current/news.shtml#hd11 for details.

So far I haven't spotted anything about it in the local media. Maybe tomorrow . . .

One of the most "massive" raids ever took place last night at Sunee Plaza. The following is an eyewitness account from someone who was there, but wishes to remain anonymous: _____ About 22:00 on May 9, a huge raid was conducted in Sunee Plaza by uniformed Pattaya Police accompanied by army and navy personnel. Swooping from all three entrances to Sunee Pllaza, police went to each bar and required that all the bars' staff come to a meeting point in the soi in front of the Sunee Plaza bar("plastic chairs"). There must have been about 50 law enforcement officials herding over 100 bar employees. Police collected ID cards at their temporary "office" located at the picnic tables on the terrace of the Don Plaza Hotel. Urine samples were collected in the Corner Bar's bathroom and tested using the bar's pool table as a makeshift lab. Several TV cameras were present. In addition, the head official of the Banglamung licensing office led inspections of bars to check on their licenses. The number of young men that were arrested is unknown at this time. However, there were about six that appeared to have failed their initial pee test. The raid was finished about 23:30. No farang were bothered.

Trongpai is correct. At the US embassy you don't need to supply anything. I'll never forget the first time I went to the embassy. I was armed with a stack of documentation to prove my income. When I started to hand it over to the clerk, she stopped me and wasn't interested at all. She said she doesn't need any of that. They just take your word for it. Ok . . . I have no idea what the requirements are at embassies other than the US embassy, but a phone call to your country's embassy should answer that question. To answer Trongpai's question, the immigration police want both the bank passbook, preferably updated the same day you go to apply for the visa, and the letter from the bank. I have also heard they no longer require a medical certificate, but I'll take one anyway. My boyfriend recently needed a medical certificate. Any of the local clinics can supply one. We went to one near my home to get one for him. All he did was walk in and ask for it. He never even saw the doctor. The cashier simply handed one right over to him. We were in and out of that clinic in about 20 seconds. Apparently all that particular clinic required was that you have to actually be alive. The fee was 50 baht . . . Welcome to Thailand.