Smiles

Yes and yes.

No, just the wood. Duh ...

I've heard from more than one adult Thai that the whole structure will go up in flames. The king's body is still embalmed and in a fridge in a temple in Bangkok. Soon, in October, he'll be hauled out and will become ashes, along with the structure. Also, " ... all that money and talent spent wouldn't go to waste - it's more eco-friendly and in-keeping with the times ... " has absolutely nothing to do with it. We'll see if the New York Times gets it right.

I have never been scammed of anything in Thailand ... and that is a time frame of 7 years on holidays and 10 years of living here. Not once, and that is with putting myself in a situation as a potential easy mark more than a few times. Sometimes I think my old man is scamming me, but I ignore it and carry on.

That's quite an excellent NYT editorial: nail-on-the-head-like. Perhaps, just perhaps, if Trump manages to win the presidency ~ one never knows anything which lasts more than 4 or 5 hours in this sorry excuse for an election ~ the results of his first 4-yr tenure will be so horrendous, so disastrous, so sad, that he will be either, (1) impeached and thrown out on his ear, or (2) defeated so badly in the second 4 years that he will destroy the Republican Party so deeply that a new, much smarter party might well emerge. However. In this, the most intriguing of elections in many decades, it all comes down to ~ right now at least ~ "nobody knows nuttin'"

You might want to revisit your patriotism regarding 'Little Britain' after watching a few of these puppies. Are these the folks who voted 'Leave'? Possibly. Hilarious and unbelievably crude, small town England was never funnier. And bye the bye, after visiting my guy's home in Nang Mut in Surin Province last week I found out that, apparently, we are in fact the only-gays-in-the-village. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LYzEO_xaAA

In general the 'high season' in Thailand is Mid-November ~ Mid March. If you want high + really high, then knock off the November and March head and tail.

Latest toll (at 10 am pacific time) is 50 dead with 57 in hospital. Deaths will rise above 50 I'm sure as the words from the hospitals is "...some in critical condition ..."

Looks like you were unfortunately missing during the god awful 'Neal Interregnum'. (Out on that veranda being coolingly swished by your favourite coolee I suppose?). Man you missed the mayhem! I assure you, you would have had a heyday dealing with that old bugger, although you would have been banned very quickly, along with threats of a lawsuit, your friends being harrassed, or your family murdered. It was an embarrassing hoot to say the least -- in the same fashion as is the the ongoing circus being put upon the poor Americans these days by a sweaty-faced psycho named Donald Trump. ------------------------------------- Just as an aside: the original Sawatdee was called Sawatdee Forum and it was started in 2003 by Mr Smiles. It's platform was called EZboard and did not resemble at all the image you you have attached in the OP. That image is I believe is of the 2nd incarnation of Sawatdee, which was owned by the second owner Elephantspike in around 2005 (if my memory serves me right ... which is often wrong these days). Then came the horrific Neal, then came Surfcrest.

Yes, and as I mentioned above: " ... WHAT!!! No Chinese pears? Well fuck me ... " Your charming 'lack of comfort' knows few bounds. Perhaps you would find yourself much more comfortable sipping Darjeeling tea in season at Simla (circa ~ Raj time, over cigars ~ 1883). Cedric, meet Michael. Michael, say 'tut tut old boy' to Cedric.

How many times does the old cliche of "every one to his own" raise it's noggin when photos are thrown about willy nilly on message boards? The dude in Tatar's post above ~ for myself ~ is just about the epitome of a Baghdad no-go zone. There is a absolutely nothing in that image which would attract me on any possible level. And trust me, I'm no twink aficionado. But ... Tatar please grab onto that hunk and don't let go. That cliche mentioned above has lots of merits, and the fishing's good. _________________________________ Oops ... what happened to Tatar's post and photo? Somewhere between me reading his post and replying to it, it has disappeared. WTF?

WHAT!!! No Chinese pears? Well fuck me. And ... Perhaps he had never, ever, stumbled upon a farang so laughably anal as your aquiline self.

I think you are probably about right. I was thinking he looked 21 or 22-ish in the above photo (i.e. the first shot in the series) which would make him 51 or 52-ish now. I am here in Canada right now and as I look around me the country seems to be filled to over-flowing with 50-ish men and women who 'seem' to have simply given up on maintaining even a semblance of slimness, healthiness, and ~ looking at the sagging faces here as they pass me by ~ even a general happiness. In a way it's why I was quite delighted to trip over this photo series: it's true that the body of the young father above has given way to gravity and softness, but the essence of the series (i.e. the forever love and happiness between father and son no matter the years going by) yields none of the 'giving in' I observe on the streets of this Canadian town. I understand this observation is wildly generalized in the sense that I do not know from Adam any of these passers-bye, but in fact the self-same comment can be made regarding good friends of mine in their 50's. It's depressing, and makes me miss the overall Asian/Thai sense of intuitiveness when it comes to dignified aging. (Back in 3 weeks ... speed on, Time )

It's there ... the first photo. A rather handsome father in my opinion.

So difficult these days ... to search for something on the net only to be hijacked into Annoyance Land with the adds popping up all over the place, invariably complete garbage (I was doing a flight search the last week, found what I wanted to know, got outta dodge, only to be stalked by the online booking site for days with other ideas for flights to Nepal, or Uzbekistan). But this little gem ~ completely unasked for ~ intrigued me to keep on clicking deep into a world of gentle love and charming simplicity. A young Chinese man (Tian Jun) and his new born son (Tian Lin) have had their photo taken together in basically the same simple pose, more the better for black and white, for 30 years. Hard to imagine more tenderness ... yet devoid of any smidgen of mushy sentimentality. http://lifehacklane.com/1211/a-father-son-take-the-same-photo-for-years-the-results-are-stunning/1/

And yes and yes Kokopelli-ousness ... sorry, a tipsy miscue regarding 'sacromonius-ness'. The proper word is of course 'sanctimonious' and this board needs an edit time limit of about 6 hours to take into consideration the drug-addled posts which ~ in the heat of a Thai summer ~ make up 85% of the stuff written. Come on now ... the three Members (often referred to as 'members', wink wink) peering in on this thread at the moment are named Kokopelly (weird enough as-is), Ggobligook, and BangMe1961Times. Surely my miss-spokeism or perhaps miss-writtenism is a small crime.

Well fuck me! (For those too prissy for words, or such words - yes Christian, that means you). I have no idea whether Hero has gone missing or not ... but a Google search using "Is Hero Sauna Bangkok going bust" as key words (which elicited zero on The Actual Question) did give up an intriguing blog named 'Memoirs of a Gay Slut'. Well fuck me again Christian!! How could a professional gay blade ignore that? Not me for sure, being a sociologist ... and of course, the gay sluts here (you know who you are) might enjoy (cherish? drool over?) a trip down Soi Slut: a bespoke trip of vicarious voyeurism (you know whow you are) perhaps, but hardly an assault on Mt Everest to, let's say for instance, a certified sex maniacal dood such as A447 ... or perhaps Latinproxx the maniacal Nutter. http://memoirsofagayslut.blogspot.ca/2014/01/bangkok-sexcapade-pt2-hero-massage.html?zx=f4a59ab5e28d048c And, for the OP specifically, your choice of words is not well-received on this slutty board (but not the only one, for certain): i.e. "...This is my first ever forum report. Sorry for its length ... ". The last four words are, if nothing else, sacromonius.

I'd be OK with that. Fire off your email address by PM.I'm in Canada right now but back to Thailand around June 20 ... then off to Surin a few days later for probably 5 or 6 days.

I'm assuming you are saying you live "near to Surin", i.e. the town, not the province. Another assumption: you mean Koh Chang has no gay bars. If that is correct then your sentence above seems to be implying that Surin does? We go to Surin (both province and town) all the time ~ my old man's home village is there ~ and I have never seen, or heard of, a gay bar in Surin Town (forget the villages ). If you know of any there, could you please post a name, and/or a location. I'd to know. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of gay bars exist in Surin Town, certainly the place is big enough to support a couple of holes-in-the-wall host bars. I've looked around quite often but never have had any luck stumbling over one yet. There is a couple of blocks in Surin town which serve as the main 'Entertainment Zone' (basically around the area dominated by the Thong Tharin Hotel). It's pretty vibrant on most nights with quite a number of discos, karaoke (one being vaguely gay ... I think) as well as a very large Tawan Daeng (morlum) music hall. I would think that any gay bar in town would probably be nestled into that area. But, not necessarily of course.

Oops ... I forgot to warn you (specifically you, that is) about an incoming tongue-in-cheek missile. Damn, I keep forgetting that.

My dearest and moi have been together 16 years now. If he just mentioned ~ of-the-cuff ~ that he's decided to break up with me I'd be mightily inclined to unceremoniously boot his ass straight out the door ... only stopping to ask for my money back.

My old man did his monk-duty last summer, at the unusually late age of 46. If I recall correctly he told me the bottom cost was somewhere between 40 and 50,000 baht. I would make a good guess that that amount would be much more common than the 300,000 baht mentioned in the OP . . . a figure which probably would mean that only the middle class would be able, or willing, to spend. On the other hand, any number of Thai's might easily think of borrowing ~ from whoever ~ large figures for this hugely meaningful ceremony, and go into hock for a long time. I am back in Canada right now for a month or so, but when I talk to him on the phone next I will ask him for a more precise figure and edit it into this post. If interested, I wrote a rather longish post on Sawatdee last summer about the ceremony ~ at which I attended. Might give the OP some idea of what goes on. http://sawatdeenetwork.com/v4/showthread.php?17228-Boyfriend-becoming-a-Monk-(Part-2)

Michael Michael Michael, wrong as usual. That dude cannot be me as I never wear a tie.

. . . well now we know. Kissing z909's ass. But do carry on ...

CEDRIC SAYS: " ... makes a stay in Bangkok unpleasant. Sometimes I just dont feel like the problems and pay way over the odds for a hotel limo if Im going any distance, like to Hua Hin or wherever (hoping to one day catch a glimpse of the legendary Smiles with his boy), or 800 baht for a larger mini bus style taxi for a trip ... " ------------------------------------------ WOW! ... 'Legendary, eh? My noodle doth swell. My only comment would be that you are just not looking hard enough, try NOT "just glimpsing" next time. Yes, we still live in Hua Hin, and thank you very much, but 'His Boy' is now 46 ~ closing fast on 47. Noted that you are still up to your old elitist/White Man's Burden/Breakfast at Tiffany's schtick when it comes to posting on message boards. Still having trouble with Bangkok (I'm sure you say 'Krung Thep') taxi dudes I see. By the way, walking away without paying is a stunt you should not attempt more than once. The second time may well introduce you to the REAL meaning of 'Taxi Mafia'.