forrestreid

I wonder how familiar with Songkhla people commentating are. I once met a guy on Dongtan beach who was retired there – I remember he said that although it was sometimes a bit quiet, it was also a pretty town on the beach, and far enough north to be away from the terrorism problems. According to Wikitravel, it is a bustling university town about 30 minutes by bus from Hat Yai. But I agree that being wanting to visit Malaysia frequently does not necessarily mean that one needs to be close to the border, depending on where in Malaysia the boyfriend wants to visit. If he wants to visit Alor Setar, that is about 3 hours from Songkhla, but if he wants to visit Kuala Lumpur, you are talking about a ten hour bus journey Compared to this, the 1 hour 30 minute flight from Phuket to KL may be handier (although admittedly more expensive).

Well, the obvious answer to that is no. But then you could say that about any of the places mentioned - in Prague or Berlin would you see many Asian guys? And it can affect your rankings. I have stated Bangkok and Pattaya as my top two, but this is despite the fact that I actually prefer European looking guys to Asians, all other things being equal. However, I do like a lot of types of Asian guys, and the other advantages of Thailand make up for this. But I suppose if you were a complete "potato queen" Pattaya wouldnt seem that attractive, no matter how safe or reasonably priced, or the variety of venues. Just like a "rice queen" probably couldn't be completely satisfied with Rio no matter how many varieties of white, black and mixed race guys there. I guess there are just a few places in the World- NY, London, LA - where you will get a truly wide ethnic mix of providers.

Well, I think it is good for discussion, even if it is impossible to agree consensus. As long as people realise it is only a bit of fun...

Sorry to hear of your troubles TotallyOZ. Hare anything dental related myself!

Always like to see people starting a wide-ranging discussion thread Premv3. However, as this board is very Thailand focused, it will be interesting to see how many options you get - I think for many it will be Bangkok, Pattaya, Bangkok, Pattaya.... And to be honest I was a bit intimidated by the range and exoticism of your list, LOL. Nevertheless is my list, based on my comparatively restricted travels 1 - Bangkok - Jupiter and Moonlight for gogo bars, and Arena for massage (I go for more hunky guys). In general the range of body types and venues is so varied, and the feeling of safety in the city so good, for the size of it. 2-Pattaya - Boyztown for a Gogo bars, and Jomtien for picking up a guys in the host bar. (I never made much of an effort with the apps in Thailand, as it is so easy to hire "in the flesh" so to speak). 3. Barcelona, and the Thermas sauna. The guys might be of variable physical qualities, but for getting a big bunch of guys in the one place, and for a very reasonable pricing, it’s hard to beat Thermas. 4 . Athens- For finding people on apps (in particular, Hunqz), the best place I found was the Greek capital. Plenty of guys and very reasonable prices. Athens was I found sort of the opposite of Bangkok, in that I found trying to meet guys in hustler bars was not that great, so I shopped on the apps there. You can see my reviews of Athens for further details. Other places we have hired include Istanbul and London. However, although I was happy enough with the guys I got there, I couldn’t really recommend either city as being particularly good for hiring (although both are great in other ways). In London, guys on the apps are a bit too expensive to consider it a "destination" city for escorts. The Villa Giani is worth checking out, although i never actually hired from there. In Istanbul, I visited the Aquarius Sauna, and hired from apps. The Aquarius was a bit grim, and I found that the guys on the Hunqz app a bit expensive, considering it was Turkey.

Just curious about the twenty hour site outage we just had. Was that scheduled? I don’t remember seeing any announcement about it. When I got the message on Chrome about downtime, and went back to Explorer and got the message about the site being dangerous, I began to get paranoid that the powers the be for the internet were trying to kill it 😪

I think you jinxed the website with that comment Latbear4blk. Your comment looks like it was last post before this site was down for 20 hours. Maybe the system was having a sulk?

I would agree with a lot of that analysis. However, just to clarify, I never suggested that an "authoritarian" government is, in itself, a major restriction on development. Many non-Communist authoritarian governments, such as Chile under Pinochet, or South Korea under Park Chung Hee, achieved very high growth rates. Authoritarian Vietnam has had very high growth rates since it more or less abandoned trying to implement Communism properly in the mid-1980s. Laos, although not so far down this road as Vietnam, has managed quite respectable growth rates since the year 2000 or so. I get the impression that Laos is more corrupt than Vietnam (the main Achilles heel of an authoritarian government), which may slow it down. But, like Vietnam, it is now catching up with the likes of Taiwan and South Korea. By the way, I am not trying to minimise how terrible the experience of American bombing that Laos suffered between 1960 and 1975. However, I just don’t think it had that much impact on growth rates in Laos since peace came in 1975.

In the case of Laos at least, the Pathet Lao campaign between the Fifties and the Seventies would have assured that Laos probably would not have developed much in any event in those years, as it would have been either involved in a Civil War, or ruled by a very ideological Communist dictatorship. Presumably the Pathet Lao would have taken over a lot earlier if the Americans had not been propping up the Royalist Lao government. So that would have brought forth a Pathet Lao dictatorship by the mid Sixties perhaps, which would have brought peace to the country at least. However, the Pathet Lao were believers in strict Communism in those days, and it is not known for agrarian communist regimes to have ever prompted a strong economic development in any country, so far as I am aware. South Korea was in a relatively greater state of devastation in 1953 than Laos was in 1975 (admittedly with far less dangerous ordinance lying about in the forests and the fields), but in the 48 years that followed it grew a lot faster than Laos in the 48 years since 1975. I cannot state it with "certainty", but I think it is quite likely that the way Laos was governed since 1975 is the main factor in where Laos is today, economically, rather then what the agonies it went through before 1975.

I think PeterRS is originally British. In fairness, I dont think that Harold Wilson sent too many bombers on raids over Laos in the Sixties. Unlike Tony Blair, he had the sense to know when to stay out of an American war.

I very much doubt that no matter how cute the masseurs are, that you will find Marshall Arkley (the guy with the goatee in the second pic) amongst them....

Thanks for the report Goldmember. You can see pics of the handsome Knott and the hunky Singh from S'Senses massage, along with the rest of their crew, here https://myalbum.com/album/JZpMRvAipch8/?fbclid=IwAR2MteL9Kwkr2nBpKEBpdOz6BLz-wEnS5ZjAGzPXq57W8B0VHdYPOPy_TVY

It may be helpful if we had clarification if the friend is into mature Asian guys, or more Caucasian-looking mature guys. Because if he is into Caucasian-looking mature guys, he may find that a lot of them are in Thailand specifically in order to chase young guys, and are not interested. But if he likes Asian mature guys, I would say if he went into ant of the saunas and showed a little interest in the older guys there, he would be fighting them off...?

To give an example of one massage parlour with more well-built guys, look at Jey Spa. You can get a massage for an hour with 950 baht to the shop. The minimum tip is 1500. However, different guys there can set their own minimum tip. For the more muscular guys the minimum tip, from asking on their Line account, seems to be 2000 baht (and up). So if you go to Jey Spa you can get an encounter with a muscular guy in a nice environment for about 3000 all told. You are unlikely to get a more muscular guy for less than this on the Hunqz or Rentmen. So I would consider 3000 baht (about 85 dollars, or 80 euro) to be the minimum I would expect to pay in Bangkok. Although Pattaya is cheaper for encounters generally, there seem to be fewer muscular guys there. I suspect the premium for muscles might be proportionately greater there.

I dont know of one in Pattaya, but if you are spending a day or two in Bangkok on the way, you could try Spa Bangkok: https://spabangkok.net/premium-spa-for-men/ They have a speciality in male-to-male tantric massage. Although, unless you buy a "membership", it has a rather special price as well - 3,200 baht.

It seems there is market demand for more of the gogo-style places of entertainment in Jomtien, but the landlords or the BIB are a constant threat. What should ideally happen, I suggest, is for a few of the bar owner in Jomtien Supertown who are interested in providing such a style of establishment, to agree to move at the same time to Sunee Plaza, and open in some of the empty units there. Then they would be more free to provide they sort of entertainment they seem to think their customers want. And if two or three moved at the same time, they could generate enough momentum that customers would follow. I always thought the host bars Jomtien Supertown provided a good option for a night out, and was pleased when it became popular. But i think the bar scene in Pattaya/Jomtien has become a bit lopsided since Covid , with the more "naughty" bars in Sunee and Boyztown shrinking numbers a bit too much, and the number of host bars in Jomtien growing a bit too large. I wonder will the next few years see a bit of a re-balancing?

Nice video clips there aussie. I wish the bar the best of luck with their innovation. However, it was always said that gogo dancing is not allowed in Jomtien, Of course, those guys are not on a stage, just dancing round. Not sure if that will make a difference with the powers that be.

But there are a number of videos on Youtube that could come under the theme of "Straight guy discovers Jomtien Supertown". Here is a funny one showing a guy who goes in thinking it will be similar to Pattaya Walking Street, and you can see the growing horror on his face when he realises what sort of place it is, before he flees. In fairness to him he makes no asshole comments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRWS1u_Qr2U Here is a more positive one, by a guy who goes in at Songkran and declares it to be the best fun in all Pattaya https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ln7lLMDpNA

I am loathe to give him the extra traffic by giving a direct link, but if you go to the Youtube homepage and put "travel viral jomtien" in the search bar, it should be the first or second video that comes up. His channel is called "Travel Viral"

I am getting the same thing. It is only happening for this site, on Edge. It is most annoying. Perhaps management can check if they have all their certs up to date?

Thanks for all the details Frenchfrank

Was this in an individual masseurs place, or in a massage parlour?

If you want a quick getaway from Bangkok but think Pattaya to tacky for you, Ko Samet might be an option. It is a tiny beach island, on the eastern seaboard, up to 3-4 hours ride from Bangkok. There is no gay nightlife from what I am aware, but if, as you say, guys are not the huge attraction, it might suit you well.

There are about 12 guys on Hunqz for Montenegro (educated guess based on distance from Podgorica, the capital). Several have a few reviews. That might be a start.

I visited Villa Giani last week. I was in London for a few days and decided to call in the evening before I was to fly home. I had planned my schedule to visit that evening, but in the event I was actually feeling quite unwell that afternoon (as it turned out within 24 hours I was hit by a very bad dose of cold and sore throat which lasted three or four days). Even though I was feeling out of sorts, as I was close-by, I thought I would call in and look at the lineup anyway. That way at least I could report back a bit more info for this thread. I rang the doorbell and a very pleasant, Hispanic looking guy, answered. I forgot to ask his name. It was a warm afternoon outside, and it was really warm, almost oppressively so, in the basement apartment. The receptionist confirmed that the fee was £160 for one hour. Then I was brought to the mirror window. When the guys realised there was a customer at the other side of the window, they came up to it and pulled up their T-shirts to show off their chests. Four guys were available. Three Hispanic looking guys, and a pale, European-looking guy. The pale guy and two of the other guys were twinks, the other guy was more muscular. I had a gut feeling that the European looking guy might be Irish (I’m Irish myself, and we can tell our own, lol). When I asked receptionist where he was from, he confirmed that my gut feeling was correct. They were all reasonably good-looking in appearance, although perhaps not as quite as glamorous looking as one might expect for £160. I note from reading this thread that the price they charge has gone from £100 just before Covid, to £130 a bit later, and now £160. Well, good luck to them if they can get the money. I was there at 6:20, and receptionist told me that if I wanted to take a guy, there would not be a free room available on the premises until 7 pm. I ask him to explain a bit more about their opening times, as the website says they are open from 1 pm until 7 pm. He explained that they are open later, but that there were only guys available to view until 7 pm. I decided not to take a guy that day, mainly because I wasn’t feeling all that well. I felt a little bit guilty about just being a "looky-loo" but the receptionist was very pleasant about it, and said it was no problem. Generally the whole atmosphere was very calm and relaxing. I don’t think anybody should feel nervous are going for a look, if they’re interested. It is literally a five minute walk from Earls Court tube station.