Bob

It makes my day when the holier-than-thou-hypocrites get caught with pants down. He's a confessed liar and, apparently, a sexual predator. What a worthless excuse for a leader of any organization. [Michael: What's a Nark? You mean a "narc" as in narcotics agent?]

Christian, your first "joke" was beyond sick and not funny at all. Your second "joke" also isn't funny and is racist to boot.

Similar to Noel Coward's: The young boy sees two dogs going at it on the front lawn and asks his dad what the dogs are doing. The dad responds "they're trying to make a puppy" and that answer seems to fully satisfy the kid (dad's happy the kid didn't ask anything further). The next day, the kid came home from school and his mom and dad are going at it on the living room floor. The kid asks: "Dad, what are you two doing?" Dad answers: "Well, son, we're trying to make a baby." The kid: "Well, turn her over, dad, I'd rather have a puppy." Edit: There's another ending too. After the kid asks his dad what the two dogs are doing, the dad answers: "Well, son, the one dog there is really tired and the other one is helping him out by carrying him on his back." The kid responds: "Geez, dad, that's just like life - you help out a friend and you end up getting fucked."

I'm not sure if there is a "typical" water buffalo but our Thai driver/guide told us the prices on a couple of them - 12,000 and 17,000 baht. A friend's bf told me that a "really good one" (one that's really "beautiful") has a large rounded hump just behind it's head but didn't say how much the "beautiful" ones cost. I saw one Thai guy haggling over a water buffalo and noticed he had a wad of 1000 baht notes (looked like at least 100 of them) in his hand that he was excitingly waving back and forth (he looked like he was haggling in Italian).

There were so many people out there that I made a crack to ceejay that I wondered if there was anybody left in Chiangmai proper. And, after the first couple of hours, never saw another falang (and, like ceejay said, only saw two others the whole time we were out there). I didn't know what to expect from a "water buffalo auction" (well, other than water buffalo!) but I didn't expect acres of booths selling everything one could imagine (and then some). It reminded me to some degree of Chatuchak market in Bangkok (excepting I don't think Chatuchak ever had cows, water buffalo, brahma bulls, cockfights, let alone relatively cool weather). I'd note that Khun Khortose once indicated to me that he liked them with big ears. Well, I found him a date.....

Don't we all (want to be slim and Thai). And I see you've noticed some of the traffic cops. Some of them are a bit dowdy and all but every once in a while one has to check out the backside of one of them and wonder how the hell he fit into those tight pants. Whoever is making those brown uniforms sure is using some strong thread.

Damn, Michael, Mr. Christian, with that smile and body, sure looks like he could charm the pants off of anyone. You were it (lucky) this particular day.

Christian, presuming I even "got" that one (is the guy going to kill the child so he'll have to walk back alone?!?), that's sick, not funny.

Thanks, Scotty, a classy position and reply. Speaking of classy replies, Michael, as usual, you're way too gracious in your reply to willie's comments. The relevancy of his comments to this thread is a bit questionable but what's more mystifying to me is his announcement of no intent to belittle Michael but then proceeding to do it anyway.

A little semi-political humor: Q. Why does Italy have so many glass-bottomed boats? A. To facilitate the viewing of the Italian navy. But my favorite was about 10-15 years ago when the French and the US were having a culture/language war of sorts (redneck cafes were changing the name of french fries to american fries, etc.). But our local midwestern newspaper ran a simple ad in the middle of the front page that read something like this: For Sale: 5,000,000 French Rifles Never been shot Only been dropped once

Too numerous to count. When the palimony lawsuits started, it was an international class action lawsuit!

Egads, a bunch of health nuts. How about a banana split (substituting the banana slices with a couple of Twinkies, of course)? Khun Khortose, as he mentions, is shrinking away to nothing. I told him a few months ago that the day that he weighed less than me, I would have to kill myself. I now must renege on that promise.

Actually, you might be surprised....it's #1, not #2. Here's the Khmer version of a beautiful song originally performed by Bird Thongchai and Sek Loso (and the Khmer singer isn't all that hard to look at either): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLHAjMKrHAc

Bring your uniform up here and we'll get you into the chorus line at Adam's Apple. Regarding the sleepover, the good news is that I'm bringing the beloved for my tent. The other news is that you and Khun Khortose are sharing a sleeping bag.

I'm sure it was illuminating and hope to read all of it some day. I couldn't finish this sitting as my hand developed a scrolling cramp. Once we all get done with the Welcome Wagon bit, how about us all sitting around the campfire with a rousing rendition of Kumbaya? I'll bring the airplane bags....

True internet won't let me access the "other" board mentioned so, other than having glimpsed it briefly through a proxy a month or two ago, I don't have a clue what's going on over there. And, in my view, as the old saying goes, ignorance is bliss. Please help me stay blissfully ignorant by not mentioning, even in passing, whatever it is one knows or thinks he knows might have occurred over there. Thanks.

Now that our Walmart greeter has effectively taken care of the duties of the Welcome Wagon, I've only got one question: Scooby's a girl? (I never looked)

I would be happy to pay for your dinner (McD's?) should the US Supreme Court rule that DOMA violates the constitution; however, you're optimism that you're right and my personal hope that you're also right might not be merited. Citing the ruling of a US District Court Judge gets you nowhere (i.e., don't get too excited when that happens). And the fact that this particular judge is both a female and a Bill Clinton nominee ought to give you further pause (i.e., if you think she views things like the US Supreme Court justices, I've got a bridge to sell you). As discussed before, it is extremely likely that the conservative justices (including Roberts) will vote to uphold DOMA. I understand you want to fantasize Roberts as a moderate or liberal but he's a right-winger. So, there are already 4 votes to uphold DOMA. Presuming the allegedly liberal 4 stick together, that means Mr. Swingman's (Anthony Kennedy's) vote ultimately decides it. He (Kennedy) has surprisingly joined the liberal bloc on a few cases which has earned him the "swingman" moniker; however, let's not forget he's 76 years old and a Reagan appointee. And there's more: (1) Indicating perhaps he might join the liberals, he voted with the liberals to strike down the homosexual anti-sodomy laws in Lawrence v Texas (but some lgically argue his ruling had more to do with rights of privacy versus the so-called "equal rights" of gays). (2) Indicating to the contrary, he joined the conservatives and voted to uphold the Boy Scouts rights to ban somebody as a scoutmaster simply and only because he/she was gay. This particular case bothers me the most because it all turned on only one discriminating factor - the person's sexual orientation - and he voted the wrong way. So, to me, it's Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy. Unless he joins the liberals, DOMA remains the law of the land. And I personally wouldn't bet on it.

Agreed. Learning the Thai provides the best way, in my view, of learning how to correctly pronounce the words. And it's often that knowledge - seeing a Thai word and knowing how it's pronounced and then looking at how they spelled it in English alongside - which makes me shake my head. But also makes me sympathetic at times as to how badly some falang pronounce certain Thai words.

It might help if you actually thought about the notion of why do they even bother to write Thai names in English. I can only think of one reason - to allow somebody who reads English to sound out that word and have it be as close as possible to how it sounds in Thai (if you can think of another reason, please share it with us); as such, it would seem to me that the goal ought to be to achieve that purpose. So, for example (same one above), why spell "glass" in English "kaew" when it sounds in Thai like "gaew?" If you've studied Thai, you'd also know that there are several transliteration systems used, not just one. And often that's why a street name in Chiangmai or Bangkok or wherever is often transliterated differently in English (which, of course, only adds to the English speaker's confusion) depending on the sign or map you happen to be looking at the moment. It'd help (again, presuming the goal is to approximate the Thai sound in English) if they consistently used the same system and/or if the system they used actually allowed English speakers to see the word and actually pronounce it somewhat near to the correct Thai verbalization of the word.

Thanks for the info, Scooby. As they say, it's up to you (on the basis that it's your site and you can do with it what you want and on the additional basis that I'm not complaining about putting the items in the main forums as I can easily skip over what I don't want to read). My suggestion might not be the best way to deal with it but I'd suggest you decide if you want the information to be readily handy to readers, if you want to encourage updated information about the venues, and how best to accomplish that. Periodically posting those on the main forum page is, to me, great for that particular day if somebody wants that particular day to know about those particular venues; however, after a day or two, the information is relegated to the dustbin of back pages and, in my opinion, nobody thereafter can ever make good use of the information (unless they know a name of a particular venue and actually take the time to do a search under the proper name - and I believe that happens rarely). Plus, for those of us who might take the time to update items (e.g., Khun Khortose, I, and others could update Chiangmai venues if we could conveniently find the postings and Khun Fountainhill and Khun Thaiworthy could update Bangkok venues if they could conveniently find the postings), it isn't likely we're going to search for a particular venue and then either add to that post or start a new post. Under the current system, the most that's likely to happen is that we might make a new post announcing, for example, a new bar opening but even that post shortly will go to the backpages of history. Let's suppose a newbe (of sorts) wants to go to Chiangmai and wonders if he can find some information about all the Chiangmai gogo bars, etc. How's he supposed to find it (search under "tell me what I want to know about Chiangmai"?) So, in my view, the way your doing it now is admirable in that you see the value of having some venue information on the website; however, you're essentially (on a long-term basis) somewhat wasting your time in my view for the reasons stated.

I've been frustrated for years trying to learn Thai and doubly frustrated by how Thai words are spelled in English. We even occasionally get confused by the "English" spelling of a given Thai word when it appears on signs spelled in English several different ways. I try to do my own "English" approximation of the Thai word and that often varies with how Thais spell things. For example, the Thai letter "gor gai" (written "ก") is sometimes transliterated into an English "k" and also is also often transliterated as an English "g." In my view, the closer approximation is "g" as most often that's how it's pronounced (although, admittedly, for some Thai words it's sometimes pronounced in a manner that two English speakers could honestly disagree as to what they heard). The last word of our (Chiangmai) mall on the west side is "แก้ว", a word meaning "glass" or "crystal", and in my opinion it's most often pronounced by Thais as "gaew" (falling tone); yet, most of the English signs write it as "kaew". In any event, the Thai alphabet has several consonants with what we English people call the "k" sound yet none of those letters appear in the Thai name for the park. I pronounce the park's name "saalaa gaew guu" (saa-rising tone, laa-mid tone, gaew - falling tone, guu - low tone) or I suppose I could spell it sala gaew guu. I sometimes write, for example, the double vowel (aa) when it's clear the vowel being used is a "long" vowel versus a "short" vowel. To me, pronouncing it correctly (like the Thais say it) is more important than how we or they spell it. But I often believe that how Thais spell their words in English is simply goofy or wrong. The main airport is most often spelled "Suvarnabhumi" in an attempt to translate the Thai word into English. Yet, in the Thai word, there is a symbol over that last syllable (the "mi" one) which tells you that this syllable is not to be pronounced; given that situation - and given English has no such symbol to assist any English speaker anywhere, I think it's simply dumb or wrong to transliterate it any way other than to assist an English speaker to pronounce it correctly. So, in my view, the signs ought to read Suvarnapoom (or better, yet, Suwaanapoom as there really isn't any Thai "v" letter or sound and that "r" in there doesn't exist either!) or something close to that. Likewise, why the heck write the Bangkok road in English as "Suriwongse" when no Thai or aware English speaker would ever pronounce that last syllable "se?"

For a pothead, you're a failure! No munchies at all. Any respectable pothead would have a load of Twinkies and Snicker candy bars laying around! [P.S. For those that don't know, he was a pothead in his youth (which, of course, was many decades ago) and he does not partake of that evil weed anymore (well, unless he's within a jurisdiction where it's legal and then he tokes his friggin' brains out)].

Where? Not telling. Gay friendly? Well, to Thais 18-40 and cute falang under 30, yes. Prices reasonable? Hell, down right cheap (e.g., I give free physicals). Unfortunately, no gogo boys (my own gogo spirit got up and left years ago). Pesky mamasans? Nope and a liberal bounty is offered for them. Loud music? Sorry, can't hear what you said. Smoking allowed? Well, one kind is somewhat encouraged.

Scooby, just as a suggestion, why not create a separate forum for gay establishments in Thailand? It appears your intent - which is perfectly fine with me - is to provide information and/or promote the various gay places in Thailand; however, eventually (not all that long - within a few days) these informational posts get old and essentially relegated to the dustbin of back pages. And it's not likely that many will do a search to find a given place so a lot of the value of the posts is lost. If, however, you put them in a separate forum (maybe titled "Thai Gay Venues" and maybe even put sub-forums of Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiangmai, etc.), you'll at least effectively preserve all the work you're doing and make it relatively easy for anyone to check out the places in a given area. Just tossing out the idea. Thanks.