fedssocr

what a strange little article. It comes across as fairly sympathetic to him until the end when it talks about his lifestyle and special haircuts.

I would avoid United for such a long flight. I paid for economy plus (upgraded at the airport to business) on Thai last year and thought it was OK. This year I booked a flight using United miles in business class on ANA. Before you call to trade in your miles do some research to see the options on all partner airlines and when you do call them ask them to make sure they check the partners and not just United. If the first person can't give you what you want call back and try again. Unfortunately some agents are more diligent than others so you can't always rely on the first person. And inventory changes all the time too.

A minor point but Uzbekistan is not in Eastern Europe. It is in Central Asia. And I think people from that country are called Uzbeks, not Uzbekistanis.

OK, I thought I had been around the block. But what in the world is "chuck wowing"? Otherwise I think your tipping sounds reasonable to me as a tourist. Why wouldn't you invite a boy whose dancing you like to come sit with you though instead of a $0.60 tip for dancing? I suppose I tend to base the value I put on these things on my experience in my home area. For me the idea of paying US$30 for a "short time" still seems like an immense bargain. And while I would likely not pay some one in a western strip club a few dollars just for sitting to talk to me, since it is the custom to do so in LoS I don't mind doing so. For all the money I am spending on the trip a few more bucks isn't going to kill me. And if it helps these guys have a little bit more fun in their lives or whatever they are going to use it for then, why not? It's just a bit of a redistribution of my wealth to Thailand.

According to this thread on FlyerTalk http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=661511 The airlines are supposed to be collecting the tax now as of Feb 1 flights. If you bought a ticket before the airlines started collecting the tax you will have to pay, presumably in cash, at the checkin desk.

I guess I usually tend to stay in midpriced places, but the older I get the more I appreciate a comfortable bed. And I have found that bargain hotels tend to not be very comfy for sleeping in most cases. I stayed at a beautiful hotel in Chiang Mai called the Lanna Mantra. Fantastic bed, nice bathroom, the Ping River right at my doorstep all in a lush garden setting. I was a disappointed in the beds at places like Tarntawan and Ambiance in Pattaya. On my next trip I intend to step up to hotel class quite a bit. I am planning to stay at the Sukhothai for several nights in BKK, the Intercontinental in Phnom Penh, the Victoria Angkor in Siem Reap, and I think also the Triple Two Silom in BKK.

That's good to know about the weather. I will have to keep that in mind if I ever get a chance to venture there. I have to say I am intrigued by the beautiful boy with the wooden penis on his head. Apparently the faux penises are very important in their ceremonies and festivals.

That's one of the places that I am also fascinated by. I started to doing some research a couple of years ago and as you say it is not cheap, but I think the tours charge a daily fee that includes pretty much everything. There are several tour agents out there. Go to www.tourismbhutan.com and you should get a good idea as far as what there is to see. See the photo of the boy with a penis on his head... www.tourismbhutan.com/aaa.htm [attachmentid=180] 5 days seems short to me, but I like to be in a place for a while. There are 5 day tours available though. www.tourisminbhutan.com has tours listed. I think that Druk Air has a limited flight schedule so I am not sure how often their flights to BKK operate. I would also guess that November is probably pretty cold up there in the mountains. I would probably go during summer if it was me. Just Google "Bhutan tour" and you will get lots of info.

Thanks you guys. I was definitely planning on taking the train back and forth to the airport. I'm really not much of a bar person and I don't smoke so you're right that I will probably avoid them. A massage does sound nice though. And these saunas sound intriguing. I read the Tokyo section on the utopia-asia.com website which seems to have some good info. Mainly I just love cities and thought it would be fun to soak up the atmosphere and energy of Tokyo since I have not been there before. I don't know how "flush with cash" I will be after 3 weeks in Thailand and Cambodia. :-) But having the flight basically be free I do feel free to spend a little on nicer hotels and such, but the idea of $180 on a cab ride is not very appetizing. I have a while to plan so I will keep mulling things over. Glenn

I can vouch for Purple Dragon (www.purpledrag.com) but if you are there during a busy time their package holders get priority when it comes to their guides. But I think they have a lot of guides. I spent 3 weeks in Thailand and met several of their guides. All of them were very nice and very professional. I connected better with some than others but that is to be expected. All of them were pleasant though. But it sounds like with your requirements that maybe you are looking for more than just a guide. You will not get that at Purple Dragon. You can search the other threads here for hotel recommendations. I thought Tarntawan was a good place for a first timer. But I found their beds to be somewhat uncomfortable and the breakfast only so-so. The location is great though and the staff are fantastic. I liked my room at Siam Heritage very much. The bed was very comfy for example. But they don't allow unregistered guests which is a big drawback. Again the location was excellent though. There's a relatively new place called 222 Silom (www.tripletwosilom.com) that sounds very interesting but it is a bit farther away from the bar area. It's a short cab ride though if you don't want to walk. The Skytrain station (Chongnansi) seems to be fairly close by. It is a boutique hotel with commensurate rates but it looks pretty nice. ETA: I just found out that Triple Two Silom has a B1000 joiners fee which seems pretty crazy. If you plan on bringing a boy home every night Tarntawan is probably your best bet. Or if you have money to burn I hear the Sikhothai doesn't have any problem with overnight guests and it looks pretty spectacular.

On my way home from my next trip to Thailand I will have an overnight at Tokyo. I assume others of you have experience with this scenario. My Thai flight arrives at NRT around 3:45 PM and my flight home to Washington isn't until 11-ish the next morning. I have never been to Japan. Does it make any sense to go into the city and spend the night there and then head back to the airport in the morning? Or should I just stay in the vicinity of the airport? I know it takes at least an hour or so to get into the city from the airport but it seems like it would be a shame to be that close to Tokyo and not get to see it. It will be late November though so I suppose it will be much cooler than BKK and it will probably be dark before I get into the city. I am guessing I should be able to check my luggage all the way through to my final destination so I should be unencumbered and I imagine I should be able get my boarding pass to IAD when I check in at BKK so I shouldn't have to wait in a check-in line at NRT in the morning, altho since I am in biz class I suppose checkin shouldn't be bad anyway. Any thoughts? Obviously I won't have a ton of time to do much of anything but I would just sort of like to absorb the atmosphere. And if I meet some cute Japanese boy....

I don't know that "snobby" is exactly the word I would use but it's on the right track. I think it's great that these sorts of venues are appearing and from all accounts they are what has been missing from the gay scene. But I am not sure that the occasional tourist is likely to get much of an entree into this scene. The author certainly does have a point of view that looks down on the "traditional" Silom scene which I think is somewhat unfortunate. I think both have their place and you don't need to put one down to promote the other. I also didn't realize Gene from Futon was gay. That's kind of cool. I never paid a whole lot of attention to their music because I have gotten into so many other bands but I will certainly check them out now.

The "business centre" was also very smoky when I was there. Luckily the wireless internet is pretty good. A little slow at times, but at least it's free. I even used Tarntawan's wireless network when I was staying around the corner at Siam Heritage for several nights. Now that is a beautiful hotel. But they enforce their no unregistered guests policy very strictly and they make you pay for an internet connection. Since I had stayed a week at Tarntawan I didn't feel too guilty about using their service.

This is all very sad. AOL has the AP's story on the non-certification of the airport based on safety concerns as its top story today as well. Don Muang here we come.

You can always try Purple Dragon www.purpledrag.com They give priority to people who have booked their packages, but if they have a guide available at the time you can book him. I found their service to be very professional and top-notch. They are based in the lobby of Tarntawan Place hotel.

I tried to upgrade from PE to C on the JFK-BKK leg of my flight but the checkin and gate agents told me that would cost something like $1500. I tried to tell them it was supposed to be less than that but they were not interested. The staff at JFK are not Thai staff, but rather contractors who couldn't care less about customer service. The PE seats were OK and I had plenty of room since the seat next to me was empty, but I can't sleep in a sitting position so even the PE seat was not great for me. On the BKK-JFK return I again inquired at checkin about upgrading from PE to C. I was able to buy the upgrade for Bt 26500 which I think was around $700 at the time. It was well worth it as far as I was concerned. I had to leave the checkin area (at Don Muang) and go to the ticket sales office counter to buy the upgrade and then go back to the checkin desk where she had my C class boarding pass waiting for me.

Well, from what I have been reading this attack does not exactly fit the MO of the southern insurgents. Do they drop grenades on people? Do they set up synchronized explosions? And why would they do this when the gov't has been making overtures to them since the coup? If it is them they have to know that the gov't will have to make a big show of cracking down on them. Who has the most to gain here? Remember how the Spanish gov't immediately blamed ETA for the Madrid train bombings only to discover that it was in fact al Qaida instead? I'm just saying jumping to conclusions isn't very helpful when an investigation hasn't even begun. Likewise the unnamed "intelligence authorities" blaming factions loyal to Thaksin ought to wait until there's an actual answer. One report quotes a professor from Chululangkorn Univ. as saying it is obviously not the southern insurgents but is Thaksin's people.

It is a very sad situation for sure. Having the unexploded bombs will hopefully give the authorities some better insight into who is behind it all. Until we know for sure who did it I don't think it's helpful to blame the terrorists from the south or Thaksin's loyalists.

You may not go to the bars every night but you have that option. Those of us who are just visiting don't. Penalized for living there?!? Dude, you live in f****** Thailand, how awesome is that!? If I lived there I would be hard pressed to feel I was being penalized simply because a boy who I may or may not want to off is being sought after by some one else. Count your blessings. However, I am not advocating some sort of rule that says residents must give way to visitors. I'm just saying you potentially have more options than those of us visiting for a limited time. I guess I just come down on the side of whoever is willing to pay the off fee first gets the boy.

This is an interesting thread. I don't have very much experience in this area, so I am not sure I have much of value to add. But surely if you are living there you will always have another chance to "off" the boy if you are missing out on this night. And I think that applies to both sides of the issue being discussed here. And is this some strange bar we're talking about that has but a single boy working in it? The time I spent in the bars was such that I would have had a nearly impossible time choosing among all of the boys on hand. Certainly there are other boys in the bar who would suffice at any given time, no? What is it that you guys are looking for with these boys anyway? Are you trying to find a boyfriend? If that's the case this seems like an odd way to go about it. I think I see both sides of the issue in question. But how long does it really take to decide if you want to off a guy? I think I have a pretty good idea when I call a guy over that I want to take him off or I wouldn't have called him in the first place. I think the bar in this case did the right thing. They give the customer who is buying the boy a drink a chance to off him first. What is it that you are trying to find out to make you decide that is going to take more than a minute to figure out? If you're not taking him off let the guy go make his money with the person that wants to take him. Obviously this has never happened to me, but I have a hard time imagining that I would be upset if some one "usurped" me as it has been called above. It sounds like an ownership issue that some people seem to have. You don't own this guy or have dominion over him just because you bought him a drink. If you want to off him do it. If not, find some one else to off.

I like the "champagne" airport transfer service. For 12,000 baht you get 2 escorts plus a bottle of champagne for your trip from the airport to the hotel. That sounds like one expensive party! But that big suite for 2500 baht looks very nice.

Mtv debuted in the US in 1981. Yes it has become a tired format here. But the Asian version(s) actually do show some music videos. I read that a new small cable company has an exclusive contract with them and VH1 now.

Wow. I thought I was cynical until I read some of the posts in this thread. Maybe things are a little different for those of you who live there. But maybe not. I agree that 500 baht is too little period. Whether the guy was giving up his virginity or not is immaterial as far as I am concerned. That being said though, to me, I think that what the boys expect and what's "fair" to them is one part of the equation. The other part is how much are there services worth to each of us. If I can afford to pay them 1000 baht and it is worth that much to me then I will pay that much without hesitation or worrying that I am paying too much. If I decide to pay double that for some reason, so what. If being generous is part of what makes me feel good about the transaction then I will do it. Does that make me a "sucker"? Maybe it does, but I really don't care if that's what other people think.As long as the boy thinks he is being treated fairly and I am having a good time I don't know that much else matters. Now on the flip side if taking some boy's virginity, or taking a boy, period, is only worth 500 baht to some one then that's a shame I think for everyone involved. Unfortunately it goes with the territory in this line of work. I suspect word gets around fairly quickly. I would imagine that "what the boys think of us" probably has about as many different answers as what we think of the boys. If I were to garner some sort of reputation as being a money machine I would certainly prefer that to a reputation as being some cheapskate farang who treats boys like crap. But I don't expect I will ever get any sort of reputation at all. I waver back and forth between feeling bad that these guys have to do this and thinking that they could make other choices instead. While I was in Pattaya I met a boy in Funny Boys who I liked very much. We went back to my place for a short time. He spoke English quite well and was very sweet. I don't think he had been in town very long and I asked him if he liked Pattaya and he frowned at me and said no. And the feeling I had was that he didn't think he had any options. I like to think that I have been in enough strip clubs and been with enough working boys to have developed a pretty good ability to read people in this line of work and I really felt for this guy.

I was treated at Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital while I was there on my trip. I had food poisoning. They kept me overnight with an IV stuck in me. I found the care to be excellent and cheap. Communicating with the doctor was no problem but some of the nurses were a little difficult to understand.

I was not impressed when I was in Classic Boys. Very pushy mamasan, boring show. In Chiang Mai your choices seem to be failry limited. New My Way has twinkier guys. Finding smooth, young looking guys in Thailand is not difficult.