forrestreid

This is very much the Russian imperialistic view of Ukraine history. I am not really read up enough on it to argue against it, but I must say it is rather strange that somebody claiming to be opposed to the war from what one might call a US leftist-pacifist point of view should trot out these arguments.

When did this invasion happen? Zelensky did not regain an inch of the Donbas for Ukraine prior to February 2022, although there was occasional flare-ups of fighting and shelling at the front line during his Presidency, as there had been several times since 2014. The deaths caused by these flare-ups were much lower that the average casualties at the front between 2014 and when Zelensky was inaugurated. If you mean after February 2022, what you are talking about is Zelensky leading the fightback against the Russian invasion of that month, to call THAT an "invasion of Donbas" is self-evidently ludicrous.

I presume he means Telechapereo and Morbototal and the like By the way, is this new law in operation yet? I dont recall reading that it had passed all stages in the parliament.

Well, the bleublackbar is only 7 minutes walk from Sutthisan MRT station (according to Google maps) so one would not have to be THAT adventurous to hit up that one. Personally would love to hear an account from somebody who ventured outside the Silom ghetto

Ever since the demise of the Politics section on the "Company of Men" board, there seems to have been a big uptick in politics discussion on this board... I’m not sure how I feel about that, but I nevertheless couldn't resist adding my tuppence to this topic. Just in regard to the amount of people in India who identify Russia as an ally, this is probably best understood in historical terms. Traditionally, India had two big enemies, China and Pakistan. In the late 1980's, America was closely allied to Pakistan, with both supporting the mujaheddin in Afghanistan, and at that time also, America infuriated India by refusing to definitively take the Indian side in the border dispute between India and China. India moved closer to Russia partly in response. Traditionally, the Indian army purchased a lot of weaponry from the Soviet Union, and later Russia. Since that time I think many of the more politically engaged Indians saw Russia was a traditional "ally" of India, in a purely hard-headed geopolitical sense. In the last 20 years as Pakistan and America became more estranged, and particularly since about 2010 as America and China became major rivals, America is a lot more supportive of the India side. However, I think the inclination of many in India to regard Russia as an "ally" remains. It is in the same way that many Americans would say that Saudi Arabia is an "ally" if I asked about it, if they are aware of the decades-long "marriage of convenience" alliance between the US and Saudi. However, I doubt that too many of those people would feel much genuine warmth for Saudi Arabia. I think for many in India, the way they view Russia is similar. Therefore asking a question about being an "ally" is a bit loaded. I would be more interested to hear a question about, say, which side the interviewees had more sympathy for in the dispute in question.

Hopefully, we will get a bit of a report from Gaz69. It seems to be an area where there is not a lot of information on gay "pay for play" activities. This, despite the fact that the current "Moon Guide" to Morocco sees fit to warn its readers that "singles should be wary, as the club scene in Agadir is fertile ground for prostitutes, both female and male" It seems that the guy who writes the Moon guide knows all about it…. but nobody who posts on the various gay sex tourist boards does. I suppose that it’s not unusual for a mass-market guidebook to post a warning about prostitutes in nightclubs in various cities, but I was taken with the fact that the guidebook writer took the trouble to specify male prostitutes - makes it sound like Agadir might be quite the place to visit!

I find it still works - you are often suddenly shifted back to your home country after ten minutes or so, but you have time to leave a few taps.

The poster who goes by the name of Macaroni21 on this board has just put up a very handy map of gay places in Seminyak on his blog page: Map of Seminyak, Bali, January 2023 – ShamelessMack2 (travel.blog) Thought I would add it here as I know he would be too modest to publicise it himself!

I would go for Boss or Scott I see that their blurb states that they welcome "customers of all genders" (as per Google translate) However, that might be managements line, what sort of reception you would get from all shirtless dudes on stage is another matter...

Looks interesting. From the postings on the TikTok account, it seems to be mainly straight guys on staff. Going by where is located, out in the far north-western suburbs, I presume it is mainly a Thai for Thai place. However, with a name like "Changsha" maybe it is going for the Chinese market? Although I wouldn't imagine that many Chinese tourists would find their way out there, either. Glad to hear you can take guys off from it. Perhaps the fact that it describes a self as a "host bar" rather than a karaoke place, means it is more focused on that portion of the market? I dunno... Regarding off fees though, there is a possibility that there might be different prices for taking staff off at different times of the night. I believe that’s quite common in straight establishments, where you might have to pay an off fee (they would call it a bar fine) of 2000 baht before midnight, say, but by 2 am the price would have come down to 500. If they quote you a high off fee, you could ask is that all night, or does it come down later? Doesn’t suit if you want to turn up at 11 and quickly take a guy off, of course...

Ok, in fairness some of the later games I played had a more international spread of photos

Enjoyed it. Scored two bullseyes in my first game - educated guesses about a mid-20th Century Russian soldier writing graffitti in a ruined building (1945), and when basketball shorts were at their shortest (1984). The ones where you had to guess mainly based on clothing had an American bias though, but good game nonetheless.

I agree with LatBear4Bblk Like many boards "The Company of Men" has strengths and weaknesses. Since back when Daddy was running it as "Daddy's Reviews", the politics forum on it has always been dominated by Right Wing NutJobs (rather strange for a gay board I always thought, but there you go...). However, you don’t have to check the politics forum to get useful information on other forums on the site. I don’t check it that often because the areas where it has strengths (such as reviews of US and Canadian strip clubs and reviews of meet-ups with the type of escorts you find on Rentmen) are not areas I have a strong interest in. But for those who are based in North America, it can be a very useful board. And the loony politics section doesn’t really bleed into the other sections, in fact despite checking it out out once a month or so, I had completely forgot that the politics was so weird until nynakedtops post reminded me, and i foolishly went and had a look. So if you if you’re interested in those sections, I think it can often provide very useful to you.

If you are looking for a hotel, with a gym and a very nice pool, but it which is cheaper than the Meridian, you might consider the Rose Hotel. It’s just down a lane across Surawong Road from the entrance to Patpong,. The views from the rooms would not be all that great, but it has a gym and what is, in my opinion, probably the most beautifully situated swimming pool in all of Bangkok - located at ground level. There is no issue with joiners. The main disadvantage is that the rooms are quite small, but also the price is very reasonable - the cheaper rooms go for about €40 a night generally. At the moment the largest room available for the next few weeks on Booking.com seems to be the 16 m², but Agoda have 22 m² room, so perhaps consider Agoda if you’re booking.

Thanks for the reviews. I see that Paradise Massage in Silom Soi 6 Bangkok are advertising that they have opened a new place in Pattaya. Going by the picture, it is beside the old Happy Place Bar in the soi next to the main Boystown lane (Soi 13/3 or 13/4?). Wonder if anyone tried that out?

Firstly, I’d like to thank the OP for another great post about his activities in Thailand. I was visiting my family for New Year (I live in Ireland). My sister and sometimes brother usually assemble in my parents house and watch the rather insipid New Year’s Eve show on we have in Irish TV, and drink a glass of Prosecco at midnight. Then head to bed soon after. I woke up that morning was a bit of a sore throat. But didn’t take much notice of it. When my my sister arrived she said I should said take a Covid test. I decided to take one just to reassure her (my mother had some to hand). To my horror it turned out to be a positive test. My first ever positive Covid test after nearly three years of the virus. What an evening to get it! So that was the end of the party, and I had to go home. Ended up ringing in the New Year with a glass of Baileys in my bed…

For 1, I would guess Calcutta, For 2, I would guess Beijing, For 3, I have no idea For 4, I would guess Austro-Hungarian Empire No idea of 5 or 6.

Sexy Video!

When logging in to this website today via Firefox, it didnt like it. Got a message from Firefox saying the security cert was out of date, and I had to agree to proceed to the site at my own risk...

Shocking story. The Tesco side of things was bad enough, but looking at it from the perspective of Thailand, you just know that the only reason that the employer was able to get away with so much is because these workers were presumably all Burmese. The fact that they are not Thai citizens seems to be an excuse by employers across the board to treat them badly, from fishing boats, to maids, to factory workers.

Thank you for the pictures of the guys 12is12. I regret that it is uncommon this message board to see posts with pictures of sex providers people have met. Another board I sometimes look at is PattayaAddicts, which is aimed at, and written by, straight male tourist to Pattaya. On that board there are very many trip reports with pictures of the girls, which can be interesting. (some posters even have pics of ladyboys and men they have hired!) It is a pity that we don’t see more of those pics here, as I would imagine some guys, if asked, wouldn’t have any objection (as with your examples above).

Great pics! Really wetting my appetite for some out of the way sites in Cambodia

Indeed. You never know who you are going to meet if you venture to see them in real life. I remember one time a trip I took to Pattaya coincided with a birthday party in a Sunee Plaza bar organised by Rainwalker, a poster on one of the boards (think he has since passed on, unfortunately). He issued a general invitation to board members to come, and I went along. I didn’t really recognise anybody, and so was going around introducing myself by my screen name, and giving my real name, and asking theirs. It was interesting to see the faces behind some of the handles. But I was a bit taken aback that some refused to divulge their forum name. I though it was a bit weird. Okay if you want to be discreet about your real personal details, but why not say that you are "olddaddy" or "floridarob" or whatever? There was one particularly grumpy-looking middle-aged guy sitting alone and looking a bit fed-up who I went over to chat too, and when I asked him his handle, he answered "I prefer to be discreet about that". Feeling a bit annoyed about what I saw as a rather precious attitude, I impulsively said to him "a guy over at that other table told me he thought you were Bad Boy Billy", just to wind him up. (Bad Boy Billy was an Australian poster at the time who was a bit of a troll, and always starting rather sensational and probably made-up threads about this sexual exploits. Maybe he’s your cousin Olddaddy, lol). Anyway, to my surprise, the guy didn't realise that I was patently pulling his leg and very indignantly demanded that I point out who it had said it with the implication that he was about to go over and confront him! I had to admit I had made it up. Our chat didn't last too long after that...

When I saw it first I thought it was going to be an old folk song with ancient Japanese instruments, but it turned out to be a very pleasant Japanese pop-song. Nice looking singer too... I always hear Japanese pop-music as sounding so much more similar to Western than South-east Asian pop music (if you played me the above without the video and said it was the Moldovan entry to last year's Eurovision song contest, I would have believed you, lol). I think it is because of the tonal aspect to Thai and Chinese that their pop-songs sound a bit "weird" to my ears, where as the above is far less so.

A discussion of “sociability” in the context of a message board brings up some interesting implications. Generally I would see myself as being quite an introverted person. For instance, I would a bit stressed out by the thoughts of sitting beside someone I hardly knew at a staff Christmas party, for example. And I would probably behave in that situation in a way that would be seen as “shy”. But if I have a specific reason to talk, somebody, I can be quite forward. I think that meeting people in real life that you have only interacted with online can be something of scrambling of normal parameters. Although generally I’m quite introverted, I have in the past made an effort to meet some people who I have known from Thai message boards, such as Smiles, or Christian PFC, that I thought would be interesting to talk to, based on their message board persona. I remember about 15 years ago, when I used to post on an Irish gay message board, and there was discussion of a real life meet-up in a pub. I was happy to go, but a friend of mine, who I knew in real life and also posted on the board, and who is generally far more extroverted than me (especially if he was out in a pub, and had a drink on him) was much more uncertain about the idea. He was not quite sure why, he said he thought the other posters might turn out to be weirdos, but I think he was just a bit uneasy with the idea of meeting some people in real life, and perhaps not feeling he knew them really as as they were previously a name on a screen. Whereas I, who would usually see myself as having a more stand-off or cooler manner, was more comfortable with the idea of meeting such people. I think, it is partly due to the fact that I, like a lot of introverted people, have a rather more instrumental attitude to meeting people. I was looking forward to having the chance to tease out some of the topics I had been discussing in message threads with people face-to-face, where is he was more like “will I like these people?” (in a backslapping sort of way). When I say "instrumental attitude" I don't mean I just want to meet people to get what I can out of them, I mean I am thinking "it would be cool to meet x, we are both interested going to Ko Samet, we can share knowledge", rather than my friend, who would be wondering whether prospective companions might be good fun or not (or "any crack?" as we say in Ireland).