PattayaMale

PART 2 of Building a house in Korat After the first two days I realized that I just had to rely on faith (luck) and put the

I think in parts of Thailand there are building codes for large structures. They are just ignored. I don't know if I would call building a small house liberating though. Due to lack of code and inspectors you need to constantly check what is going on.

Here is the picture of the house with the exterior almost finished. You can see the lean-tos in the foreground. This should help some visualize the almost completed exterior. The house was started in late 2003 and finished early 2004.

@Michael Thanks I will pass that on!

Building a house in Korat, part 1 I was asked in a PM about what I did to build a house for my BF's family up by Korat. Since it has been several years ago, prices have changed. But if you and your friend can be the contractor and do supervisory work, you should be able to do it from between 350,000 and 600,000 baht depending on the size and not including upgraded tile or fixtures. There are certain to be people that can advise you better than I can, so remember this is what WE did. My friend’s family had a very small piece of land that was in a low lying area. Any time it rained their dirt floor became wet. The family stood in ankle deep water. The thought of this just kept eating at me. My friend nor his family ever complained and never asked for me to build a house. After my friend and I had been together for a few years, I told him that I did not like to see his mother standing in water every time it rained and I thought he and I should build a small house. I could tell something in our relationship changed; I believe when I said I wanted to help his mother, it meant a great deal to him since I was the one to suggest it. Anyway….. Our first step was to find a piece of land. The current piece was to low and behind 2 other sheds away from the road. If we filled in dirt or put it on stilts they still would have had to wade in mud to get to the street to go to the nearest market. The price for the land is NOT included in my cost for the house. I mention it because if you decide to build for a friend, I suggest you consider if the piece of land is appropriate. After we found a piece of land we decided to raise the land by buying trucks of dirt. This was easy to find since the government was widening the highway that goes over the mountain into Korat. We used I think a little over 50 six wheel trucks full at 150 baht a truck load. The dirt had to be packed done so we paid someone to that had a big truck to load it with barrels full of water and run back and forth over the dirt for 2 days. I heard that some villagers thought I was crazy for having it done that way, but no mater it packed the dirt. I then had an “architect” draw up simple plans. He did a nice job but I learned this was not so necessary. I FORGOT that I had to leave an access road for the people that lived behind us. So I ended up just doing a floor plan by hand. The house would have 2 small bedrooms a small living room a bath with western toilet and shower, a kitchen and a front porch. I also included where the windows and doors would be located and where the electric plugs and switches would be placed. Then my friend was tasked with finding “skilled labor” in his village. I have no idea where he found them, (friend of a friend’s friend). A few weeks later he told me we had to go to Korat because the workers arrived. We drove up to Korat. Sure enough a small encampment of lean-tos was set up. I was surprised and simply asked, “Now what?” He said “let me talk to them.” He showed them the plan that I had hand drawn and the one the ‘architect’ drew. The ‘architect’ plan was quickly discarded! Theere was a lot of talking in Thai which I did not understand. After maybe 30 minutes I asked “what did they say?” The reply I got was “How big.” I questioned this. I wanted to know more. But nope all it was is “How big?” The next step was me thinking, “Holy shit, what have I gotten into!!” He and I stayed 45 minutes away in a hotel for 3 days, running back and forth to the construction site. I knew by the end of the 1st day that this was not going to be what I thought of as house construction. The workers didn’t even have proper tools I thought. Anyway, I wrote down the size of the rooms and one worker said something and the next I knew sticks were in the ground marking the rooms. My friend and I went to the hotel for the night. Next morning we went to the construction site. There had been some holes dug in the ground. I was told the rooms as I told them weren’t the right size. Rooms had to be a little bigger because of the thickness of the walls. I was impressed. Then my friend said we had to go buy material. I said I thought the workers would do that. He said, “No, we need to buy it so it will be the better material and we won’t be over charged.” So the head worker gave a list of materials and off we went to order it. A truck showed up at the work site an hour later with all the material we ordered; sand, cement, stones, wood, and then 9 premade cement pilings. This was the first I knew that the house was also going to be raised by a meter above the ground. The plan was to dig down about a meter, make cement footers and place the 9 big round posts into the ground on the footers. End part one

I guess this post is about prices falling for Bangkok Hotels. I heard that here in Pattaya many people from Bangkok have rented rooms for a period of 2 or 3 months. In the past these apartments would be available for tourists. Now what is available are pricier hotel rooms. Maybe this will change if the floods recede sooner, but it appears it may take longer than a month.

Again, I thank everyone for the continued feedback. It helps me clarify in my mind what people may like to see. The vision I have is still evolving helped by all the comments. One part has been taken off the list of forums all ready is the "Bitching" forum. The reason is not that I mind good debate. But I do not like personal attacks that bitching sometimes revolves into. There is a big untapped (I think) group of people that are almost instantly turned off of the present boards. It is not because there is anything wrong with the present boards at all. But they do tend to cater to those of us that live here in Thailand, are familar with the commercial sex industry, and are older (LIKE ME) My HOPE is to attract the crowd that is younger, gay or who has gay friends that are not really looking at mainly the commercial sex industry. I know of 3 younger friends (21-23) that are planning to visit Thailand soon. I know they are not planning their vacation around the bars, but would not mind at all seeing what the commercial gay scene is like, but not interested in just that. They would like to travel around, go to the mountains and such biking and holidaying but would prefer to meet people their age that are not into the commercial scene. That is my HOPE.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I see you all have put time into your thoughts and appreciate it very much The reason I decide to go it alone (not on the technical end) is that I don;t want others to put time and energy into this project and then I decide you all were right, and I walk away. If I do it on my own, I have not lost anything, and will have learned something. Again thanks

Thanks and let me think about what you said. Maybe you can come up with a better name for me. I can see if it is available. I understand about what you say about posting numbers. My hope is that the free ad to let say GAYTHAILAND forums will help the numbers on this and other sites, There is so much more to Thailand than Bangkok (which I think this Board)and GAYBUTTONTHAI (which seems Pattaya) and SGT (which I find as more of an attack poster site). Even though I have thought about this along time, what made me think of doing it now is the interest in GAY PRIDE that came up. How to attract a more global group? Even many expats do NOT go on the Boards. So what we see on each Board may not really be a true view of people outside of the small number of posters that seem to like a certain board or forum. (I think you made that point about polls) On this post you commented that you rarely looks at other boards. Which is true of most. I am NOT trying to be a competitor with the existing boards. Just like the old GAYPATTAYA and GAYBUTTON were boards that tried to compliment each other. I hope to find a completely different group. I am not trying to promote my own bar as the new owner owner of one forum is interested in. I am not trying to make money off the site by charging for membership or ads. I simply want to see if it is possible to gain a broader audience. I want to see if I have ideas, can get ideas from others and then LEARN the skills to make it useful. Will you help with an idea or two........other than don't try. I have that idea all ready

Please note that this post is NOT about THIS GAYTHAILAND site!! The term Gay Thailand is used to explain the subject. It has no affiliation with this site. BUT the owners are free to put links and advertise FOR FREE New Thailand forum in the works I want to announce that I will be putting up a NEW forum (message board) about gay Thailand in the near future. I have a company working on it now but there are some things I must tell them first so the website can be created. I have talked to GayButton who has given me some really good pointers. The first one was

Yes, I too agree variety is good. Your point about Funny Boys and WWB is a good one. Do you have any idea which does better? I have a friend that does not frequent Funny Boys and preferred WWB. It had nothing to do with the music though. He could find the type of boy he liked at WWB. However last week he told me he did not think he was going to be going back to WWB because the music is too loud. But as you said, for some the loudness of the music maybe a plus.

I agree Michael. I use to sit in a bar opposite YaYa and watch what was going on but hardly went in for a drink. My New Year's resolution (Does that apply to post-Halloween)is to stop in more often. In regards to your comment about power of the internet, where YaYa and Monty use it to promote positive things to get customers in, have you noticed that one bar owner in the Boyztown area uses his board to criticize customers who may go to his bar. The internet is powerful. YaYa uses it the right way! IMHO

So far it seems the vote is overwhelmingly for TOO LOUD. If only the bar owners and the managers read the boards...would it make any difference???

The video was really good. The staff deserves a lot of credit for being so creative. In my opinion this video shows what fun it can be in Sunee Plaza. I wish there were more posts like this from other bars too. Great job YaYa staff!!

People could vote "other" and then explain their view in their post like you, z909, did

Interestingly I did post this post on SGT. Very different kind of response than from this board. Gay Thailand Board seems to discuss issues. Over at SGT, I really got bashed by a couple posters. They turned the thread from discussing the topic of the post, to calling me names because I posted the topic! What a bunch!!!!

Last night I went to one of the gogo bars I enjoy. Good mix of dancers, good wait staff, reasonable drink prices, etc. Last night this bar was full due to a special event. Good for the bar owner and his staff. BUT>>>>> The music was way too loud. Several customers simply got up and left saying they'd never come back. The owner was told this and even sent his manager to "ask" the dj to lower the music level. It might have been lowered but not by much. The owner even apologized before the event started saying that he had a new sound system that cost over 130,000 and his dj was just getting use to it. True I am sure, but the customer sitting next to me yelled out, "Didn't the new system come with a volume switch???" A comment many of us thought was spot on. Several more of my friends even though they stayed for part of the event, vowed never to visit this bar again! I know this is not the norm for this bar. But for many others, I have heard customers say they will not go to a bar because the music is too loud. Why don't owners listen to their customers?? Have you ever heard a friend say, "I won't go to that bar because the music is too soft."?????

When I am planning a vacation I often use TripAdvisor. It has a simple rating system of hotels and space then for users comments. One person may give high ratings another may hate the place. But over time there seems to be a trend. Same would happen for gay bars. Nothing has to be 100% correct. Of course it depends on multiple factors. So what. It may encourage the owners to look at comments and see what people say about the place. Some problems will naturally arise. As on TripAdvisor, I have heard that some hotels pay firms or advertising groups to post favorable comments. The truth is, I doubt that there is a big enough audience to make it worthwhile to have such a site. But as to the idea I like it

Ok here is his email stevekino@hotmail.com

One overlooked spot is Center Condo. Many of the farangs that frequent Jomtien, Sunee and Boys Town live at Center Condo right on Pattaya Tai. It is not thought of as a place that tourist stay but there are people that actually rent rooms on a daily, weekly, and monthly. It has a large swimming pool, has motor bike taxis at the door step and is on the main baht bus route. It also has new elevators being installed and security. I know one man the rents many rooms there. His name is "Condo Steve" You can PM me for his phone or if permitted on this board 0861445160. He gave me permission to post his number.

Kama Sutra??

Do you have time to tells us why?

Now that you have spent a few months in Bangkok, how does it compare, in your opinion, to Pattaya? If you HAD to choose one over the other, where would you stay and why? Hope it is ok with you if I ask this on the forum. I think others would be interested too.

Maggs Restaurant on Thepasit Road will be moving a few blocks east around October 1. The new location will be a double shop house and air conditioned I was told by one of the waiters while I was eating there tonight.

"I'm sorry to keep harping on this,...."quote by Gaybutton. Ok, apology accepted. Just don't do it again!!